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One thing Camp Rock doesn't have going for it is the element of surprise.
That sets it apart from its spiritual godfather, High School Musical, which a couple of years ago became a cultural phenomenon for kids aged 12 and under.
Camp Rock, starring the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, is the latest made-for-TV movie from the Disney stable. Aimed at young teens and especially pre-teens, it debuts tomorrow night on the Family Channel in Canada.
A forceful publicity campaign throughout North America has raised expectations sky-high. But is Camp Rock really the next High School Musical?
Well, it's worth remembering that the original High School Musical wasn't aggressively championed as the next anything when it arrived in 2006. Even the stars of High School Musical were shocked by the wildfire it caused. Many of them had done Disney TV movies before, and they figured this was just another one.
"You do question yourself sometimes, asking, 'Why am I so lucky?' " High School Musical cast member Ashley Tisdale said in a Sun Media interview early last year. "You do wonder, 'Why did this happen to our movie?'
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"Even with big-budget films, they can hope for something being huge, but sometimes that's not the outcome. So it's all luck and karma. And the chemistry with the cast is so important."
Camp Rock's chemistry is centred upon the budding but exceedingly innocent romantic relationship between Shane Gray (played by Joe Jonas) and Mitchie Torres (played by Lovato).
Now, Lovato's mom was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, so ya gotta love the genes. And the truth is, the 15-year-old Lovato has a million-dollar smile, no doubt about it.
Joe Jonas, 18, gets the star treatment because he's the hunkiest of the three Jonas brothers, who, for the uninitiated, are a brunette version of Hanson.
Kevin Jonas, 20, and Nick Jonas, 15, are mere bit players in Camp Rock. We wonder how that sits with Kevin deep down, since the Jonas franchise actually began with his pursuits as a solo artist.
Anyway, Joe Jonas is kind of like Keith Partridge with bushy eyebrows. David Cassidy, who played Keith in The Partridge Family in the 1970s, actually had excellent comic timing. The Jonas Brothers are pleasant enough in Camp Rock, but notably, the one who seems to have the most comedic potential is young Nick.
One of our windows into this world -- a.k.a., the sister of a work colleague -- has declared that the main reason High School Musical and its sequel projects worked is the allure of lead male Zac Efron, case closed. Those shoes might be too big for Joe Jonas to fill.
Ultimately, one's enjoyment of Camp Rock probably is based upon how many times you've seen material like this before.
It's predictably formulaic. The kids go to a music camp and despite the trials and tribulations, they all have the summer of their lives and learn valuable lessons.
Some of the songs are catchy in a pop-rock way, but they all sound as if they're from an Ashlee Simpson CD. And the themes of the songs are all the same: "I'm okay, be yourself, notice me, be proud of who you are."
There's the shy kid, the troubled kid, the loyal kid, and so on. The mean girl (played by Meaghan Jette Martin) gets her comeuppance in the end, but she's not completely redeemed -- there are sequels to think about, after all.
Now, if you're above the age of, say, 15 or 16, this probably all sounds terrifyingly nerdy. But if you're 9 or 10, and you're just starting to dream about the kind of teenager you want to be, Camp Rock is slick and savvy enough to imprint itself on your photographic brain.
Bottom-line question: Will Camp Rock be as big as High School Musical?
Well, Camp Rock isn't quite as charming as High School Musical, but Camp Rock has received a far bigger publicity push. Maybe it's a saw-off: The numbers for Camp Rock likely will be huge, but it may not linger in the hearts of its fans for as long as High School Musical has.
Then again, we aren't exactly in the target audience. The final verdict will be up to 11-year-old girls everywhere.