The Game Plan

***The Game Plan*** is a 2007 American sports comedy family film directed by Andy Fickman and released by Walt Disney Pictures. This film stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Madison Pettis. It premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on September 23rd, 2007 before debuting in other movie theaters nationwide on September 28th, 2007. This film was later released on Disney DVD (in Widescreen and Full Screen editions) and Disney Blu-ray Disc on January 22nd, 2008 by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, as well as on Disney+ on November 12th, 2019 as one of its launch titles.

## Plot

Boston Rebels quarterback Joe “The King” Kingman (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is strongly determined to win the championship against the New York Dukes. One day, he finds out that he has an 8-year-old daughter named Peyton Kelly (Madison Pettis) from a previous relationship with Sara Kelly, who passed away from a car crash after dropping her off at his apartment. Now he must balance his schedule of preparing for the upcoming football championship with days of looking after his daughter, keeping in mind that he should care about the needs of her the most.

## Why It’s Better Than *Underdog* (2007), *Beverly Hills Chihuahua*, and *Bedtime Stories*

1. Solid voice acting from Dwayne Johnson, Madison Pettis, Rosalyn Sanchez, and Morris Chestnut.
2. The story is well executed and has an original premise of a professional football player learning to appropriately balance his time between helping his team win the next championship and spending time with his daughter.
3. It teaches audiences tons of good life lessons such as looking after their children, selflessness, time management, teamwork, self esteem, honesty, and perseverance.
4. Cameo appearances by ESPN sportscasters Stuart Scott, Marv Albert, Boomer Esiason, and Steve Levy (despite them being unlikable at times).
5. Nice soundtrack, which includes three songs from Elvis Presley: “Rubbernecking”, “Lonesome”, and “Burning Love”.
6. Excellent cinematography.
7. Most of the main and supporting characters share great chemistry with each other, as Joe Kingman socially gets along with Peyton Kelly, Monique Vasquez, and the teammates of the Boston Rebels.
8. Each character is given good development. For example, Joe Kingman went from being a self-centered jerk to a selfless man who cares about his daughter Peyton; as soon as the newscaster asks Joe what he will do after winning the championship, he states that he will take Peyton home instead of accepting the offer to Fanny’s Burgers.
9. Tons of heartwarming, awesome and funny scenes.
10. The championship scene is nothing short of awesome, as the Boston Rebels work together to successfully win against the New York Dukes and win the respect of the newscasters.
11. The film’s tagline, as seen on its theatrical poster, is not blasphemous unlike the one used for *Underdog* (2007).
12. None of the film posters or trailers are misleading.
13. The deleted scenes, post-credits scene, and bloopers are fun to watch. Some people may even consider them as the best parts of the film.
14. The product placement in this film does not go too overboard.
15. **Amazing and heartwarming ending**: After the Boston Rebels win the championship game against the New York Dukes, Joe Kingman rejects the offer to Fanny’s Burgers in favor of taking Peyton Kelly with him, and the closing credits begins with a scene of Joe, Peyton, and Karen Kelly dancing and singing to Elvis Presley’s “Burning Love” superimposed on the left side of the screen.
16. This film includes a ton of memorable and clever lines of dialogue such as “Stupid is a mean word,” “No flea flickers,” “Stay off my quarterback,” and Joe Kingdom’s powerful lines, “She’s not a distraction! She’s my daughter! I want her here with me even if it means I’ll never play another football game with her again! There’s nothing I love more than my daughter! Nothing,” “I have an answer to your question, P. Win or lose today, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” “The Rebels never say no,” “I’m gonna take my daughter home,” and “Aw, Peyton, I won much more than [the championship].”
17. Along with *Cinderella III: A Twist in Time*, *Meet the Robinsons*, *Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End*, *Ratatouille*, *Enchanted*, and *National Treasure: Book of Secrets*, thie film helped Disney temporarily recover from its dark age despite them releasing some mediocre to bad live-action films in 2008 and 2009. Unfortunately, their dark age continued during the 2010s and 2020s since they began releasing unnecessary live-action remakes of their animated features, made a ton of godawful business practices, refused to allow creative freedom for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and most of their recent animated films released under Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar, rushed the entire *Star Wars* Sequel Trilogy, killed off and refused to rerun a lot of their well-executed animated and live-action shows such as *House of Mouse*, *Kim Possible*, *That’s So Raven*, *American Dragon: Jake Long*, both of *The Suite Life* shows (…*of Zack and Cody* and …*on Deck*), *The Emperor’s New School*, *Cory in the House*, *Amphibia*, and *The Owl House* in the attempt to convert Disney Channel itself into a channel more appropriate for children under 10 years old, pandered to political correctness and the politically correct people, and believed in the false stigma that “animation is strictly only for kids”.

## Drawbacks

1. Like most (but not all) live-action films, this film contains product placement and scenes of characters mentioning real life products like iPods, Under Armour, Disney Channel (which makes sense since this film and Disney Channel are owned by Disney), Dunkin’ Donuts, and SportsCenter (which is owned by ESPN, and to a lesser extent, Disney). Thankfully, the product placement in this film is not too severe unlike *Bedtime Stories* and *Beverly Hills Chihuahua* and do not take over the viewers’ attention.
2. Some of the characters, including Joe Kingman and his teammates, may be unlikable at times, especially during the beginning of the movie. However, Joe Kingman and his teammates improve as the film progresses, unlike every other unlikable character.
3. Stella Peck, the news reporters, and the New York Dukes are the worst characters in the movie. Not only do they constantly annoy Joe Kingman for having a daughter (Peyton Kelly) and leaving her behind during a party accidentally and want him to ditch Peyton in favor of a post-game celebration at Fanny’s Burgers, they also beat him up during the first part of the championship and mistreat Peyton Kelly by threatening her, calling her insulting names such as “a pain”, “Mrs. McPain in the Butt” and a “[huge] distraction” to Joe respectively, and arguing with her after she reminds them that “stupid is a mean word”. Not to mention, only the New York Dukes and Stella received any comeuppance for their actions, as the Boston Rebels reasonably tackles a New York Dukes player for severing injuring Joe and win the championship against them, and Joe declines the offer to Fanny’s Burgers to keep spending time with Peyton.
4. It received negative reviews from multiple critics, much like the above mentioned movies that this film is better than. This caused the film to be needlessly hated by a large amount of people, and become a cult favorite for people who like the film.
5. Kyra Sedgwick does a weak job voicing Stella Peck, as she delivers her lines too emotionally. Tatianna’s voice also sounds too phoned in.
6. The post-closing credits scene is removed from Freeform’s airings of the film, creating a plot hole that makes its viewers wonder what happened after Joe and Peyton went back home after he won the championship.

## Reception

Despite being a box office success, *The Game Plan* received mixed-to-negative reviews from both critics and audiences. The film has a Google User rating of “95% of users liked this film.” Rotten Tomatoes slammed the film with a score of 29% and called it “another run-of-the-mill comedy.”

## Fun Facts

* This is the final Disney-branded film to be distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, since it was rebranded as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in mid-2007. Beginning with *Enchanted*, subsequent Disney-branded films are distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
* Dwayne Johnson starred in two episodes of *Cory in the House* and *Hannah Montana* that originally aired on Disney Channel on September 21st, 2007, one week before *The Game Plan* premiered in theaters: “Never the Dwayne Shall Meet” and “Don’t Stop Till You Get the Phone”. Disney’s Movie Surfers also aired a behind the scenes special of the film on September 8th of that year.
* This film premiered in theaters on the same day as the original airing of the first season *Phineas and Ferb* episode “Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror” and the Disney Channel premiere of *Sky High*.
* Dwayne Johnson is a huge fan of Elvis Presley, and that’s why his character’s apartment features posters of Elvis Presley.
* Although *The Game Plan* was primarily filmed in the Boston, Massachusetts area, some scenes were filmed in three football stadiums across the country: Gillette Stadium in Foxboro (also in the Boston, Massachusetts area), Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado, and Sun Devil Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona.
* Elvis Presley’s song “Burning Love” was previously featured in *Lilo & Stitch*, which premiered in theaters five years before this film.
* The American DVD release of this film is the only Disney DVD to contain a trailer for ESPN’s SportsCenter as one of its sneak peeks.
* During the early stages of production of this film, Disney tried to negotiate with the NFL to use their team names (New England Patriots and New York Giants), but both companies could not make an agreement, so Disney came up with their own team names instead (Boston Rebels and New York Dukes).
* During the scene where Joe Kingman and his friends struggle to finish watching a basketball game that Peyton Kelly switched off in favor of a different channel, they come across one of Disney Channel’s Bounce Era bumpers for the premiere of *Hannah Montana*, which were discontinued eight months prior to this film’s release. This is due to the film being completed by late 2006/early 2007.