tek's rating: ¼

Johnny Tsunami, on Disney Channel
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This first aired in 1999, but I didn't see it until 2024. There was a sequel in 2007, Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board, which I saw some time prior to seeing this. Oddly, despite there being eight years between the two movies, Johnny is only four years older in the sequel. It took me awhile to get into this movie, at first I thought it was just okay. But as it progressed, I got to like it a bit more, so now I think it's fairly good. Still not something I find super memorable or anything, but I'm glad I've seen it. And now I want to re-watch the sequel, sometime.

The main character is a 13-year-old surfer named Johnny Kapahala, who lives in Hawaii with his parents, Pete and Melanie. He also idolizes his grandfather, after whom he was named. The elder Johnny (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) is still an avid surfer, and long ago his skill earned him the nickname "Johnny Tsunami". But despite the title, the movie's not about him. (By the end of the movie, there's an offhand suggestion that the younger Johnny will become the next "Johnny Tsunami", but that's not a major part of the plot.) One day, Johnny's parents tell him that they're moving to Vermont for Pete's job. This greatly upsets Johnny, because of course he won't get to surf anymore. He begins attending the prep school where his father now works, and tries to take up skiing to fit in with the other kids at school, but he's not good at it. Then one day he meets a snowboarder named Sam (Lee Thompson Young, who I know from The Famous Jett Jackson), and they become friends. Sam starts teaching Johnny to snowboard, and while it takes awhile for him to get good at it, he prefers it to skiing. The only problem is, the mountain is divided into two slopes: one for skiers from Johnny's new school, and one for snowboarders from the public school Sam attends. The two groups are definitely not supposed to cross over. And there are some jerks from Johnny's school, the main one being a guy named Brett, who torment Johnny. But there's also a girl named Emily (Kirsten Storms, who I mainly know from the Zenon trilogy), who becomes friendly with Johnny, and tries to take up snowboarding, herself.

Well, I don't want to say much more about the plot, but Johnny has a number of problems to deal with, including having a distant relationship with his father. But the problems are all resolved by the end of the movie. And... yeah, I guess it was a fun movie. A bit formulaic, but it worked well enough.


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