High School Junior Zoey Stevens' life has just been upended. After her mom gets remarried to a guy with three sons, she ends up moving schools and having to deal with the boys' gross antics. While she's able to make a friend in Rachel, a quirky but kindhearted girl who shares her passion for dancing at school, she also has to deal with Tripp, another clueless and rude boy. One day after she's had enough, she buys and downloads a dog-whispering app on her phone that makes the boys' dog Humphrey obey her, but after an accident with it, the app ends up getting magically enchanted to be able to make boys listen to her! Zoey, of course, uses this to solve all her problems with the boys in her life. But she still needs to deal with Taylor, the captain of the varsity dance team, Jackson, a guy she might be a little interested in, and some unintended consequences from those boys...which might make her reevaluate how she thinks of them.
Not to be confused with the 1982 teen comedy of the same name.
TROPED
- Alpha Bitch: Taylor, the captain of the varsity dance team.
- Athletically Challenged: Zoey has to get the junior varsity dance team to improve, or the Alpha Bitch Taylor will continue to exclude them from routines and boss them around. Let's just say.. getting them to learn a routine won't be easy. They don't even know how to stretch.
- Beta Bitch: Jeannie, who follows Taylor around everywhere and constantly gets mistreated by her.
- Be Yourself: A variation where Zoey doesn't learn this for herself, but rather for all the boys in her life - to let them be themselves.
- Cassandra Truth: When Zoey explains how the app works to her family, her mom doesn't believe her.
- Chekhov's Skill: Early on, Zoey says you can never make a dog turn against its own pack. This works to her favor later when Taylor, who has Zoey's phone, tries and fails to command her family against her will.
- Dance-Off: Zoey convinces Principal Mumford to organize one between her JV Squad and Taylor's Varsity squad to determine which officially represents the school. Double subverted when the boys that make up Zoey's squad quit and she decides not to command them otherwise...and then they change their minds when Zoey lets them dance with a routine partially inspired by their interests. Zoey's squad wins.
- Disappeared Dad: It's never shown what happened to Zoey's father, but he's gone by the time her mother gets remarried.
- Gasshole: Tripp has a gross habit of farting on people just to annoy them.
- Genre Savvy: Rachel realizes Zoey's phone might be a case of movie magic going horribly wrong when the boys still listen to Zoey on basketball practice. But it's subverted when she and Zoey blame everything on the boys because they cause all the in-movie problems.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Taylor refuses to let Zoey join her dance team because Zoey is a better dancer than her and she can't stand the thought of being outshined.
- Gone Horribly Right: The app ends up being this when Zoey's dad, Adam, and Tripp are still obeying her during basketball practice. It eventually escalates to involve every guy group Zoey influenced.
- Guys are Slobs: Just about every guy save for Charlie and Jackson prior to Zoey getting the app.
- I Always Wanted To Do That: Principal Mumford mentions she's always wanted to use an applause meter for something. The Dance-Off finally gives her the chance.
- I'm Okay!: Adam's reaction to tumbling down freshly-waxed stairs after Zoey commands him to hurry up.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: When Zoey tries to use the app on Taylor, the chime trails off each time to signify it doesn't work on girls.
- Third-Person Person: Tripp, who introduces himself this way.
- Too Important to Walk: Invoked by Taylor when she steals Zoey's phone; after figuring out how the app works, she makes several boys carry her into the school basketball court on a pom-pom laiden lawn chair.
