Five teenage friends, known as The Five Ovations, have their eyes on a music competition. Standing in their way is another, richer girl group called The Wiggies, who cheat their way to the top. The Ovations work to win the competition with the help of friends and family, including a bold girl named Joei, Brittany's grandfather and brother, and tag along little sister Alana.
This film provides examples of:
- The Alleged Car: Gramps' van constantly breaks down, causing the band to be late.
- Alpha Bitch: The Wiggies.
- Angry Guard Dog: A large black one belonging to the first man Brittany and Joei interrogate.
- Attention Whore: Alana. She spends the whole movie attempting to intrude on both groups' performances. She even tried to make her own music video.
- Battle of the Sexes: "Scream" has shades of this.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Wiggies. They even sabotage other performances, such as putting pepper in microphones and toying with the fuse box.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Alana, who constantly tries to force her way into both the Ovations and the Wiggies. She even tries to make her own music career at one point.
- Cool Old Guy: Gramps. Sure, he wastes his money on gambling, but he also guides and encourages his children to the best of his abilities.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: The Wiggies' dad. If he sees a chance to cheat during a competition, he'll take it.
- The Dog Bites Back: Once the group hires Joei, they start to return the cruelty the Wiggies laid on them.
- Disappeared Dad: Brittany's birth father vanished from her family without a trace. It turns out that he runs the company where the national competition is held.
- Foreshadowing: At the very beginning of the movie, Brittany tells Alana she had stolen one of her songs, just changing the lyrics. Just like how Brittany steals one of her brother's songs.
- Forgot to Pay the Bill: Gramps keeps forgetting to pay the electricity bills. It turns out he's been trying to bet the payment money on horse races.
- Hidden Depths: Brittany's older brother, Mark, turns out to be an excellent songwriter.
- Ironic Echo: "Losers, geeks, nerds, fffrrreeeeeeeaaaakkksss!"
- "I Want" Song: "All I wanna do is siiiiiinnnnggg! All I wanna do is daaaannnceee!"
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Joei resorts to using animals such as scorpions and even a (thankfully defanged) cobra to get the information she wants.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: A closer inspection of the microphone headsets the Wiggies and the Five Ovations use at the dance competition in the beginning are actually XBox 360 headsets, with no attempts to even hide the logo.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: During the opening contest, the Wiggies pay the stage manager to slip pepper into the girls' microphones.
- Joei herself does this later on, to sneak a frog into the Wiggies' soup.
- Token Minority: Both The Five Ovations and The Wiggies have a black member. It's more baffling in the latter case, because The Wiggies are stated to be sisters and neither the mother or father are black. Though it's not mentioned, she might be adopted.
