YMMV / Camp Rock

• Accidental Innuendo: The song "Too Cool" opens with the lyrics "I'm too cool for my dress."
• Actor Shipping: A lot of fans shipped Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas, who played Official Couple Mitchie and Shane, after the first movie came out. This was helped by the fact that the two ended up dating briefly in 2010. Though they have broken up since, their continued friendship in real life, and them being constantly willing to sing their duets from the films, has helped the ship continue to have a following years later.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Some have speculated that the reason that Tess left Camp Rock in the sequel was because she was in love with Mitchie and didn't want to have to see her with Shane every day.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Our Time Is Here" from the 1st movie's DVD.
  • The duet, "Wouldn't Change a Thing".
  • "Heart and Soul" by The Jonas Brothers. Love or hate the movie, this song was pretty cool.
  • "Play My Music", definitely.
  • When Peggy sings "Here I Am".
  • From the sequel, "Fire" definitely lives up to its name.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The songs "What It Takes" and "Hasta la Vista" in the first film. Both songs are completely irrelevant, are sung by minor characters, and are never mentioned again afterward. They are very obviously just there to pad the movie.

• Crossover Ship:
  • On FanFiction.Net there is about 1100 crossovers between this film and Wizards of Waverly Place. Turns out that it's quite popular to ship either Mitchie or Nate with Alex Russo. This is due to their actors real life relationships with Selena Gomez, as well as feeling each of their personalities would play off well with Alex's own. They also feel that they would fill similar relationships to those of Alex/Justin or Alex/Mason respectively.
  • There is a large number of fanfics that pair Mitchie and Nate with Miley Stewart from Hannah Montana, due to feeling they would have good chemistry with her. Mitchie has also been paired with Mikayla from the same show, due to feeling they would have a similar dynamic to Mitchie and Shane.
• Designated Villain:
  • In the original film, Tess' musical numbers are supposed to come off as shallow, but they are pretty well done and fun to listen to. "2 Stars" is downright meaningful considering it's about her mother.
  • Tess in Camp Rock 2 who gets excited about a famous record label once and is treated like a traitor from that point on despite not leaving for Camp Star until they come back from the welcoming ceremony. There's also the fact that she was treated as Mitchie's shadow (like all the other girls and the movie briefly acknowledges this) but was the only one smart enough to leave.
  • The entirety of Camp Star (except Luke) are villains because their camp director decided to build state of the art dorms and give them the best in performing arts tuition and managed to use marketing. Also, while Camp Star's director wants to take down Camp Rock's director, the sentiment is mutual, yet he's the only one treated as villainous.
• Die for Our Ship: Most fans who prefer Nate with Caitlin hate Dana.
• Fanon: While never stated in the first movie, it was always assumed that Nate and Jason were Shane's brothers. In the sequel this was confirmed.
• Fanon Discontinuity: A lot of people like to pretend the sequel never happened.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Most fans prefer Nate with Caitlyn rather than Dana despite little to no interaction between them. Nate and Caitlyn's personalities seem as if they would go well together, though.
• Franchise Original Sin: Most would argue that the sequel's flaws were in the original. But the original had some redeeming qualities, while the sequel built on the original's flaws while having less of the original's qualities. Not to mention, the irony that a Disney Channel movie is lecturing us about being authentic.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Some of the lyrics in Mitchie's "I Am" Song "This Is Me" take on a whole new meaning after Demi Lovato came out as non-binary in May 2021.
  Now I've found who I am
  There's no way to hold it in
  No more hiding who I want to be
  This is Me
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A movie musical with a powerful "I Am" Song titled "This Is Me"? What are the odds of that happening again? Bonus points for the fact that The Greatest Showman has two actors well-known for being in Disney productions in its cast.
• Jerkass Woobie: Tess was undeniably bitchy in the first movie, but you have to feel bad for her when her Mom bails on her in the middle of her performance, in a song that is ironically about being neglected by said mother.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some people saw the Camp Rock films because they heard Meaghan Jette Martin and Alyson Stoner were in it, the latter being the voice of Isabella on Phineas and Ferb and both of them being the second voices of Naminé and Kairi respectively in Kingdom Hearts.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Mitchie Torres is shipped with almost every other character from the films, including her boyfriend Shane, his brothers Nate and Jason, her friend Caitlyn, and her rivals Tess and Luke. However, she has also been part of multiple crossover ships, including Alex Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place, Joe Lucas from Jonas, Miley Stewart and Mikayla from Hannah Montana, and Carter Mason from Princess Protection Program, just to name a few.
• Les Yay:
  • It's On, in both the movie and the music video Tess and Caitlin are paired together while all the other girls are paired with boys. They look into each other's eyes very intensely and their body language reads as flirty. In the first movie, both girls seem to go out of their way to irritate each other and get each other's attention and their We Used to Be Friends dynamic and mutual cattiness comes across like spurned ex-girlfriends.
  • Caitlin and Mitchie have a lot of subtext. Caitin is immediately very eager to befriend Mitchie and incredibly forgiving of her snubbing her in favour of her nemesis Tess. Both actresses have since come out as pansexual, which might explain the on-screen chemistry.
  • Mitchie is completely mesmerized when she sees Tess for the first time and has the same lovestruck expression as when she sees Shane for the first time (arguably more so, actually). This is even before she learns that Tess is the most popular girl at camp, one of the most talented singers, and has a celebrity for a mother. Even considering those things, Mitchie sure is flustered when talking to her and overly eager to impress her and be her friend.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Caitlyn's performance in the first movie. Her arm movements tread into Narm territory. Mitchie's added "She's really good!" counts too.
  • Camp Rock's march and chant before the It's On number, also for its narm.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Canon pairings Shane/Mitchie and Dana/Nate are called "Smitchie" and "Date" respectively. There are also non-canon ones like "Naitlyn" (Nate/Caitlyn), "Nitchie" (Nate/Mitchie), and "Maitlyn" (Mitchie/Caitlyn). There are also the crossover ones with Wizards of Waverly Place such as "Malex" (Mitchie/Alex Russo) and "Nalex" (Nate/Alex).
  • The pairing of Mitchie and Tess has the very fitting name Mess.
• Quirky Work: Demi Lovato admitted they were coked out the entire time they filmed Camp Rock 2. It might explain some of the film's Narmy moments and her character always being chipper and upbeat.
• Rooting for the Empire: Camp Star in the sequel. It's suppose to come off like this soulless musical corporate that cares more for image then doing music out of passion. But they're never really shown as shallow and make it clear there's a lot of hard work in the profession and shows which makes it hard to see them as the villain as they are right. The only reason they are is because the manager is a former bandmate of Camp Rock's manager and is trying to show him up out of spite and Luke is kind of a jerk.
• Sequelitis: Camp Rock 2. Even those who liked the first one don't care much for the second one.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Introducing Me" sounds suspiciously similar to Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours".
• Strangled by the Red String:
  • Seriously, there's absolutely no chemistry between Mitchie and Shane. Not to mention the fact he instantly forgives her for lying since... she is a good singer? Curiously, actors Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas were an item IRL...and that didn't end well.
  • Nate and Dana from the sequel as well. The Jonas Brothers just aren't good at onscreen romance.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Tess comes across as a lot more sympathetic than was likely intended, considering that her meanness is primarily an Informed Attribute, she does genuinely apologize and make amends for her few actually mean actions by the end of the movie, and her attitude is actually pretty understandable considering she's only 14-15 years old, has been emotionally neglected by her absent mother all her life, and ultimately just wants her mother's approval and love, as evidenced by the way she's over the moon when her mother shows up to watch her sing for once and then breaks down crying when she takes a work call and leaves in the middle of it. It's also well known for that she genuinely wants to follow in her mom's footsteps and be a performer, but when she takes a step to do so by joining Camp Star, she is vilified by her friends.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Pretty much all of Camp Rock in the sequel, as Camp Star really doesn't seem to deserve the vitriol thrown their way for focusing the work and business side of music and not just for it's own sake.

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