Deborah Gregory was a huge bright spot in my childhood. I noticed her email address listed in one of the books and took a chance sending her an email. I mentioned that I was also adopted and although I had not been in foster care, I appreciated her shedding light on her own experiences with not knowing her biological family and how that feels as you grow up. She emailed me back, and we continued to talk regularly. It blew my mind that an author would take the time to regularly communicate with a random reader. I will always appreciate her and how she took the time to listen to me.
omg, i emailed her too, and she did the same with me!! 😭😭 i live near NYC and my mom and i tried to meet her at a flea market she was a vendor at every week, but i think we came on the wrong day or smth, so i never got to meet her, but it’s a really fond memory ☺️
The cheetah girls was the ultimate representation for poc little girls back then and actually felt seen and heard for once instead of the generic 7 blonde boy groups created by Britain's Got Talent or some other talent show that is obviously favoring certain people. They were very much the pinnacle of girl groups who were actually good.
Agreed, I liked that all of the girls were from a different ethnic minority, and it didn't feel forced in any way. Similar to the original Winx cartoon, every little girl could see themselves represented in the characters.
THAT! I thought that immediately once she said all OG characters are all back or mixed black. So the minute its an all black cast its a problem and we need to make sure we are representing everyone. While that conversation never happens when it's all white people. Which is not surprise because Hollywood has been doing this all way especially now, if you notice every movie where the cast is predominately POC there's always has to be a white character for no reason. I remember hearing executives say that white audicen will not go see or can relate to non white characters, so there must always be a white character.
@@EclecticllyOfcourse every body wants to see their Representation on a Big screen. That why you got Black Women like Rashida Talking about Colorism. Cause of lack of Black Female👩🏿👩🏿👩🏿 Representation.
Something that it is worth mentioning is that Sabrina Bryan is of Latino ancestry, and (although I'm not fully sure on this) of Native-American ancestry. I think that it is important that, in a world where many countries and communities associated Latinos with a certain look, having a white Latino girl is important to talk about diversity and open the mind of those ones who think all Latinos look like Sofía Vergara.
a blonde European looking Latino is nothing new nor is it diverse. that’s an image that’s heavily showcased even in Spanish speaking countries. proximity to whiteness is not any kind of diversity.
@@gemstwins95% of the Mexican population is mixed. It's just some of us have more European genes than others. Only 5% of us are pure indigenous so it's almost certain the father is mixed to one extent or another~
This 100%! I grew up in Arizona in a heavily latino area - my elementary school was majority Latino and all my friends were too. Because there is a good demographic of light skinned Hispanics in Mexico and Central America they assumed I was and for a short time I thought I was too - i didn't know any different being so young. If I mention this now as an adult people assume I was a really dumb kid- and I try to explain that there is a lot of variety in the Latino demographic it's not just all one skin color.
I discovered recently that in the book they were a 5 member group and I think Disney should use that if they ever do a reboot or a sequel. TCG were originaly 4, then 3 and if the new group had 5 members there would be an structural and visual difference from the "og" group.
@@starcherry6814 I think they should do a new Cheetah Girls tv series with occasional cameos of the original members. DCOMs don't do that well anymore but there's still place for tween media.
Something I haven't seen others mention was that the local friend they make in the second movie was then Latin America's Pop Princess Belinda (who is Mexican/Spaniard), which would mark it as one of the first times Disney Channel reached out beyond the English-speaking North American regions for their content and might have been, at the very least, a sort of precursor or spiritual ancestor to the massive multinational projects Disney Channel Latinoamérica would produce during the late 2000's and well into the modern day.
As a Mexican kid who grew watching Belinda in kids soap operas in México, watching her in The Cheetah Girls was crazy and so exciting! Her and Raven ended up having an amazing friendship and she even appeared on Belinda’s video “Ni Freud Ni Tu Mamá”.
For a movie all about girl power and female friendship, it's sad that Raven Symone didn't get along with the other girls in real life, to the point that she didn't even appear in the third movie, due to the constant fighting.
The group had 0 chance of longevity, Raven was a bigger name than all the other girls and on top of that became a producer of the movie. These dynamics aren't really ideal to begin with, let alone with a group of teenage girls. Then you have Kiely Williams who is known for her problematic behaviour. Raven came out saying she left because she felt excluded, and I can understand why, she was in a completely different position as the other girls.
@@user-ey9uj6vp9snot to mention she couldn’t legally join the real Cheetah Girls girl group because she had contracts already in place for her solid career, that just makes it impossible for her to truly be part of their unit.
@@user-ey9uj6vp9s also, I just got to the part about how it’s possible That’s So Raven is the reason why the Cheetah Girls show didn’t happen, that’s going to automatically make the other girls resentful, they’re losing out on work because of Raven’s success. Group dynamics are hard, especially with young people, whose frontal lobes aren’t fully formed and they’re hopped up on hormones!!! I don’t blame any of the girls at all!!!
2000’s girl power feminism crashed and burned the same 2010’s girl bosses did. It’s superficial. We don’t have to befriend every girl we see or support _everything_ she does in order to progress as a society. We just have to stop viewing every woman as competition. Then I think we’ll be okay.
@user-ey9uj6vp9s ohh this makes so much sense, especially how the movie script kinda centered around her. i remembered feeling confused at aqua's conflict is just.... having trouble calling for a cab
I loved the Cheetah Girls as a kid. It’s insane hearing how many tour dates they did back in the day - I remember being jealous of my friends in elementary school who got to go when they came near my town. Gotta be honest - I did lose interest whenever Galleria was not in the picture. Raven was just THAT GIRL, so much star power.
Kiely Williams aka Aqua was a major part of the drama and Raven almost beat her ass during the filming of the cheetah girls 2. To this day she’s controversial and talked about Raven for no reason. She ALSO said The cheetah girls one world flopped because Raven wasn’t there. 🤭
Also, Kiely and Adrienne had a falling out around the time the Cheetah Girls broke up (back in early '09). Kiely is only friends with Sabrina today but she's cool with Raven again.
So basically Raven & Kiely never were friend's from the beginning? Maybe Kiely is the one that started the fight and enjoys pissing off raven for attention?
I think another reason besides raven not being apart of the 3rd film is that the target audience was growing up. The target audience were tweens 11-13 by 07 those the oldest of those girls were juniors in high-school. They were watching more teen focused dramas and morphing into a new high-school persona. However I will saw if raven was gonna be in that movie we would have watched lol I remember being a freshman and talking abt it. As soon as someone mentioned raven was not going to be in it we all looked at each other and said well I’m not watching 😂 that’s how much pull raven had!
I was 8 when the first movie came out, so by the time the TCG album came out, I was in middle school. One time a kid asked to used my ipod on a bus ride and gave it back because it had the Cheetah Girls on it lol. I loved that album and felt like I was the only one who still listened to them.
@@MONET8iAM the original target audience was middle school. Back then Disney was targeted to more tweens and teens than kids unlike today. However by the time you entered middle school the cheetah girls popularity was over.
@@luckyxxxxk What I’m getting at is that where I grew up, kids loved the Cheetah Girls, and as we aged a couple of years they gravitated towards more teen and adult things in general though we were only 11-13. I remember everyone loving Lil Wayne’s Carter 3 album front to back. And they loved dancehall music (this is in NYC btw). So even when I got to high school, I was in the minority of loving teen sensations at the time. My peers looked at artists who made music for our demo as “kiddie artists”. They wanted to be “grown” and I wanted to enjoy being a kid and a teen.
When you brought up a reboot, my initial reaction was a strong no. Because the original movies are very much available. But then when you said a more book faithful adaption, I reconsidered. I loved the books just as much as the movies, and would like to see those stories shown on screen.
I had no idea until watching this video that it was a book series first (not surprising). As a big fan I fully support a faithful reboot. I loved both of the movies, the second one is definitely a favorite for me as the music and the tango scene slapped so hard
while I understand they were trying to make sure every race of girl was included for the casting of the first film, it’s very unfortunate and sad that Dorinda’s character who’s whole arc involved her being a “blasian” biracial foster child of teen parents (in the books her dad was an African American high school junior dropout who worked as a busboy and wanted to become a dancer and her mother was a Japanese-American high school student) was scrapped for that of a white girl who’s in foster care. Dorinda really could’ve been positive representation for young black-asian mixed girls (especially considering they never get any representation)…I really hope we get a reboot and new adaption for a mini-series that closely follows the books because I truly believe it would actually do really well with all audiences!
Nah, I actually applauded them for showing poor white person since they hardly actually get visibility. The 2000s showcased chic rich blonde Princesses like Legally Blonde, Clueless, Mean Girls. This was a good down to earth moment, if Galleria had been the rich white one, I don't think it would've been as nice
@@suzygirl1843 if lack of representation is the driving force of your preference- then why not be a stronger proponent of a mixed Black/Asian character? Can any of us name a single representation rich or poor TV fictional character that is mixed Black/Asian? Because there are countless TV shows and movies where the White impoverished protagonist doesn't fit in with all the rich kids.
@@suzygirl1843aahh yes. a poor white girl needs more representation than a blasian girl when theres plenty of movies featuring ONLY white ppl compared to blasian ppl are barely even on screen on any movie. make it make sense lol
Sabrina Bryan will be (to some people, it is an extremely complex topic) mixed race as she is of Latino ancestry and (not that sure about this) Native American. They could give importance to that and it also breaks the stereotype of "looking a certain way" that Latinos experiment, not only in the USA but in many countries.
This may be shocking, but sometimes white girls or boys can come from poor, low-income or abusive families as well. And some even end up it Forster houses, cause the parents are not capable to take care of their child due to financial issues or mental illnesses.
I really miss when tween girls were respected and had media catered specifically to them. We don't get that anymore. And I'm glad I was alive to experience it while it lasted.
As a tween growing up in the 2000s Cheetah Girls was everything to me. I loved the first two movies so much and Strut is my absolute favorite song. I can sing it by heart. However, I was in first year high school when Cheetah Girls 3 came out and it didn’t do justice without Raven not being in it.
I remember being in second grade and looking forward to this movie, and then my mom breaking the news that it got abad review in the paper. When I hesitantly watched it myself I absolutely loved it, I remember thinking that critic didn't know what he was talking about because it was so good lmao. Most of the more serious messages went over my head, I just loved the music. I'm pretty sure I got the soundtrack for my birthday and I listened to it soooo much, and I remember singing songs from it with a friend at lunch. On top of all that, I did a study abroad in Spain in college, and I swear all the girls in the group were there in part because of The Cheetah Girls 2. We got to a place where they filmed part of it and we all got so excited and took a million pictures. So fun.
I loved the books. I remember going to Barnes & Noble as a tween and beelining to the YA section to get the next Cheetah Girls book when I finished the first one
I think everyone remembers the cheetah girls depending on your age group. The fact that Whitney Houston was involved with the production for the first movie was amazing. This was the most amazing time for Disney. Yes I’m showing my age but this was so pivotal for black girls and POC girls! We finally had representation. The drama was extremely unfortunate I think most people remember the sad fall out of the Cheetah Girls with Raven and 3LW! Still an amazing franchise that represented what we needed as little girls for that time!
Ughhh thank you for this video! As a black kid in nyc, this series was everything. In elementary school we used to “play” “Cheetah Girls”, and most people always fought to be Galleria or Chanel. The last movie wasn’t my jam, but I loved the TCG album. I was also a fan of 3LW.
Solange choosing not to do The Cheetah Girls was a missed opportunity for her. Matthew Knowles wasn't thinking. Her first album, Solo Star did not do well. The Cheetah Girls franchise was huge. The first movie came out in 2003. Her album came out one year earlier. She literally could have pushed the album back and released it around the same time of the movie to capitalize on the success. Solange would have been amazing as Aqua especially considering the fact that she is actually from Houston, Texas. I hated how Kiely had an accent in the first movie, but didn't have one in the second and third movie. Her Texas accent just disappear. She spoke like her normal self. Also, Disney could have made Aqua and Anginette fraternal twins if they couldn't find identical twins that could play the roles.
I agree though they had no idea that TCG was gonna blow up. Also, Solange had her son young so idk how that wouldve faired out with TCG squeaky clean image. And yes they should've just had fraternal twins instead of cutting the sister smh.
My biggest gripe was when they went to India and *I THINK* they could’ve done a much better job but I don’t expect authentic cultural nuances in DCOMs. Also, Hindi Cinema has songs that can bring everyone together. Missed opportunity there.
The Cheetah Girls is what put me on to animal print. Watching this video brought back so many memories of being in elementary school and obsessed with The Cheetah Girls.
Honestly I’d be so here for a reboot of cheetah girls like imagine if the plot was raven symone and Adrienne making a new younger group and training them and stuff like that and getting them in the business and I would love to see the line with 5 girls with expanded races we didn’t see in the original like I want to see a Native American race girl a Asian race girl in the mix
@@st3458 ohh yeah dw I was just confused haha. I believe that Sabrina Bryan is actually part Native American, so her character technically brings that representation - but she doesn't talk about it. So I agree it would be cool to see characters from different races in a new reboot as well.
I think a show could've initially been better than a movie series. But I love Chanel and Dorinda! They definitely needed Raven though, has anyone else seen the video of them singing the star spangled banner?? And since producers love to reboot shows/movies from years ago, I think a Cheetah Girls reboot, (with a new cast), would be great! 💕💖
That's exactly what I was thinking of, they probably didn't think the girls were convincing enough to play inner city girls, whatever that supposed to mean 😢
Exactly what i was thinking Tia and Tamara are biracial but i tbimk Disney wanted to not make them look "too black" seeing as Sister Sister was already black enough for them.
it was probably the "Disney thought Tia and Tamera didn't look ghetto enough" take, but they were too old as well. Nothing wrong with that, and they were 25 when Cheetah girls premiered, but the oldest Cheetah girl was 19 and in the film they were like what, 15? 16? (I'm not american so I have no clue how your school years go, but I think they were in early high school). While to this day 25 year olds are casted to play teenagers, i'm glad they actually casted younger girls for the Cheetah girls part
Do I remember the Cheetah Girls? 🐆 Hell yeah!!!! They were a huge part of my childhood. I ALWAYS loved their outfits, especially Chanel's. I also love dance just like Dorinda. I'd do anything to go back to this era, it was so much fun.
I was 9 when the first Cheetah Girl movie came out, (around New Year's if I remember correctly)! Me and a bunch of CG fans in my class would practice the songs at recess and our teacher even let us perform one day to the soundtrack I brought in. The movie was a big deal at the time. The Play “Cinderella” cover they would show before releasing the film. 😂
the fact that my little kid brain understood their lineup was crazy. In the movies they were a foursome and in the real world a trio. And two of them were from another group 3LW that were active at the same time
I wish disney+ would make a TCG series which is more faithful to the books: casting 5 black girls who are actually tweens and following their lives in NYC trying to make it in the music industry nowadays! Maybe they could have the og cheetas to do a cameo (i’d suggest having raven+adrienne in an episode and sabrina+kiely in another one because you know… the drama)
Looking back, it didn't register to tween me that the actors were POC. To me, the Cheetah girls were fashionable girls with good music (who also reminded me of my Bratz dolls) :D
Thanks for giving a brief shout out to Girls Aloud. I lnow they didn't break out in America like Spice Girls but I grew up with them and just like the 90s quintet, the 2000s quintet still put out catchy hits and classy sexiness. It has been speculated that the Cheetah Girls were much inspired by the Pussycat Dolls. The obvious glaring difference is that Cheetah were targeted as a more family friendly act and the Dolls were making more mature music, having a more hyper sexualized image.
Or do what they did for The Parent Trap (the 90s version with Lindsey Lohan) or Liv and Maddie and have one actor play two twins and use special effects, though maybe that would've been too expensive.
i just want to say, the first cheetah girls movie and the soundtrack had a profound impact on me as a kid, especially seeing my life and the lives of my friends represented…this comment section feels like a community. where were y’all when i was 11?? 😂 anyways, love y’all, be safe 💕
I was too old for the cheetah girls train, but I loved 3LW. Looved their first album. I remember when I saw ppl referring to Keiley and Adrian as the cheetah girls I was like huh?? It’s honestly still weird to me that ppl mainly know them from that lol
I know what you mean. It's weird that people don't recognize them as 3lw. But it's a completely different demographic. After the 1st album 3lw wasn't making songs for tweens, they're stuff was too adult too be on the radar of younger people watching Disney Channel
great video! i was already aging out of the disney channel demographic by the time the first cheetah girls movie came out, so even though i’d catch them on TV when my younger sister watched them, i had no idea so much was going on behind the scenes or that the movies were based on a book series.
I loved the Cheetah Girls it was one of the first in screen characters that had a Latinos on Disney Channel that I can remember even though I’m 17 my older cousin would come around and we would watch them together on dvd and have the velour tracksuits those were the days ❤
The one thing that now looking back on this movie is that is that all the girls were black in the books but in the movie none of the girls are unambiguously black. And the girl closest to be the unambiguously black character (Aqua) parents are never shown. In the first movie we see Galleria is mixed race and both her parents, Chanel's mother and brother, and Dorinda's foster mother and sister. Aqua family didn't show up at all.
As an Indian, I was so damn excited for that third movie when I found out it was set in India! I'm still glad they did that, it made the little me so happy 😅
Can we talk about the huge difference between the OG movie and the second and third films? The first movie, even though being a musical film, had the musical moments happen in a “real world moment” if that makes any sense, like they would be either singing at the theater, to a group of people on the street or in a casting… like it made sense. For CG2, this was completely different, the movie’s feel was immediately affected by the High School Musical success and they even got Kenny Ortega (director of HSM) to direct Cheetah Girls 2, now making it more like HSM, with the girls starting to sing out of nowhere every 5 minutes, a trend that was used again for CG3, with another director but nevertheless trying to replicate the second movie.
The Cheetah Girls was truly ahead of its time. My sisters and I use to have the CDs, Movies, Books, etc. We would always have fun pretending to be them. My dad had bought us so much cheetah print clothes, got us the movies, etc. When my sisters came over for xmas, we were literally watching and dancing to the cheetah girls, trying to teach my adopted little sister the dances. Here we all are, in our 20s, most of my sisters are now married with kids, me engaged, still loving The Cheetah Girls. They have such a hold on us. We are just girls from the peojects of New Orleans, now living our best lives and traveling the world. The Cheetah Girls showed us we can do anything we can set our minds to and get out of the the hood but never forget where we come from, bc we always go back home
I'd love to see a reboot, but an adult show with all of the original girls coming back. I hate how Disney has brushed off the fact that they have adult fans who grew up with these properties. I would totally watch a show with the same characters as adults with adult themes! The fact that the Lizzie show never got made is a crime.
If I were to cast for a remake/reboot series of the Cheetah Girls: China Anne McClain as Galleria Chloe & Halle Bailey as the twins Dara Renee (High School Musical series on Disney+) as Dorinda Madison Reyes (from Julie & the Phantoms) as Chanel. All these are young actresses of color that can sing and dance and fit the Disney audience.
Thinking about how in 3rd grade I tried to make my own cheetah girls but got mad the other girls didn't want to practice, like I had no talent I had no business trying to make my own girl group 😭💀
Hey, there 👋🏾 Thank you so so much for posting this video! 🙏🏾💕 I grew up on The Cheetah Girls and I still watch their movies and listen to their music to this very day. I was 4 going on 5 when they first came out and now I am 24 going on 25 in 3 months, man time flies. I hate how things had to end with the group! But I still love them all to this day. They really made a huge impact in my life as a young girl and a woman. New subbie 😘
I think a Cheetah Girls reboot with new girls would be perfect. Symone and Bailon can come back as Galleria's and Chanel's mothers, Bryan can come back as Dorinda's dance coach, and Williams could be Aqua and Angie's mother if she does show up in the books.
When I was a little girl, I remember my female classmates being obsessed with The Cheetah Girls. Me on the other hand, I wasn't really a fan of them and didn't understand why girls liked them so much. I tried watching it but would switch the channel because either it was boring or I just couldn't click with them. My classmates were shocked/surprised I didn't like the cheetah girls and question me on why. Which is ironic because I liked the main character on that's so Raven. Soo idk, still don't like them to this day though. 😅 Plus I didn't know it was a books series.
as much as i love the 2nd cheetah girls movie, i was so disappointed it didn't follow the books. it doesn't have the feelings and relatable conflicts of the 1st movie at all
I wish they'd kept Dorinda as Afro-Asian. You don't get to see many black/Asian characters in media. Disney rarely does any kind of Asian representation but I genuinely cannot name another character with one black part and one Asian one from media outside of Japan. It feels like Disney said, "Yeah, diversity matters... but not *that* kind of diversity."
My friends and i loved the cheetah girls so much when it came out. We were 10 and our friend group was black, mixed, white and latina (me), so it was great to see on screen. We ended up choreographing a dance tp their music and performing it at our school talent show in fabulous matching outfits
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THANK YOU for bringing up how ALL the girls in the books were black/mixed with black.
Yess this is what I was thinking harri and I really want a cheetah girls were they are all black
I firstly discovered the cheetah girls was a book series thanks to you!!
Deborah Gregory was a huge bright spot in my childhood. I noticed her email address listed in one of the books and took a chance sending her an email. I mentioned that I was also adopted and although I had not been in foster care, I appreciated her shedding light on her own experiences with not knowing her biological family and how that feels as you grow up. She emailed me back, and we continued to talk regularly. It blew my mind that an author would take the time to regularly communicate with a random reader. I will always appreciate her and how she took the time to listen to me.
That is so sweet of her I'm glad you were able to have the experience and connection :)
omg, i emailed her too, and she did the same with me!! 😭😭 i live near NYC and my mom and i tried to meet her at a flea market she was a vendor at every week, but i think we came on the wrong day or smth, so i never got to meet her, but it’s a really fond memory ☺️
The cheetah girls was the ultimate representation for poc little girls back then and actually felt seen and heard for once instead of the generic 7 blonde boy groups created by Britain's Got Talent or some other talent show that is obviously favoring certain people. They were very much the pinnacle of girl groups who were actually good.
Agreed, I liked that all of the girls were from a different ethnic minority, and it didn't feel forced in any way. Similar to the original Winx cartoon, every little girl could see themselves represented in the characters.
There should been a tv series
@Maxyisababy I think there was supposed to be one, but plans fell through
The Pilot was filmed for a tv series for the 2004-2005 year, but due to the success of That's So Raven, Raven was not able to be.
I see at 9:43. You already beat me to it. So I rest my case, lol.😂
Whitney Houston and Debra Martin Chase gave us Disney channel gems in the early 2000s like ‘The Princess Diaries’ and ‘The Cheetah Girls’. Thank you!
Whitney is the best singer m!
I love how when the characters are all black all of a sudden they recognize the importance of diversity
real
THAT! I thought that immediately once she said all OG characters are all back or mixed black. So the minute its an all black cast its a problem and we need to make sure we are representing everyone. While that conversation never happens when it's all white people. Which is not surprise because Hollywood has been doing this all way especially now, if you notice every movie where the cast is predominately POC there's always has to be a white character for no reason. I remember hearing executives say that white audicen will not go see or can relate to non white characters, so there must always be a white character.
@@EclecticllyThere no such thing as Mixed Black. Mixed People are not Black, period. You American's love y'all One Drop Rule.
@@EclecticllyOfcourse every body wants to see their Representation on a Big screen. That why you got Black Women like Rashida Talking about Colorism. Cause of lack of Black Female👩🏿👩🏿👩🏿 Representation.
@@Unsweetened8618No, they mean mixed with black. You have to specify what a person is mixed with. Kristen Kreuk is mixed Eurasian, clearly not black
I love the mention of “think of the outfits” happening twice lol! Their fashion was so captivating!!!
their outfits were always on point 😊
Something that it is worth mentioning is that Sabrina Bryan is of Latino ancestry, and (although I'm not fully sure on this) of Native-American ancestry. I think that it is important that, in a world where many countries and communities associated Latinos with a certain look, having a white Latino girl is important to talk about diversity and open the mind of those ones who think all Latinos look like Sofía Vergara.
a blonde European looking Latino is nothing new nor is it diverse. that’s an image that’s heavily showcased even in Spanish speaking countries. proximity to whiteness is not any kind of diversity.
@@gemstwins95% of the Mexican population is mixed. It's just some of us have more European genes than others. Only 5% of us are pure indigenous so it's almost certain the father is mixed to one extent or another~
This 100%! I grew up in Arizona in a heavily latino area - my elementary school was majority Latino and all my friends were too. Because there is a good demographic of light skinned Hispanics in Mexico and Central America they assumed I was and for a short time I thought I was too - i didn't know any different being so young. If I mention this now as an adult people assume I was a really dumb kid- and I try to explain that there is a lot of variety in the Latino demographic it's not just all one skin color.
@@bonniethelass7892 That's really cool, hahaha.
YES! Thank you for mentioning it.
I had completely forgotten how MESMERIZED I was with the outfits in the first movie. The nostalgia slapped me in the face when those clips popped up 😭
I discovered recently that in the book they were a 5 member group and I think Disney should use that if they ever do a reboot or a sequel. TCG were originaly 4, then 3 and if the new group had 5 members there would be an structural and visual difference from the "og" group.
Disney should go back this old formula. That way we can finally have original and iconic movies again!
@@starcherry6814 I think they should do a new Cheetah Girls tv series with occasional cameos of the original members. DCOMs don't do that well anymore but there's still place for tween media.
@@abc_jv_xyz I don't. I think they should write something new and original to connect w/ today's youth. Just like they did back in the day
Something I haven't seen others mention was that the local friend they make in the second movie was then Latin America's Pop Princess Belinda (who is Mexican/Spaniard), which would mark it as one of the first times Disney Channel reached out beyond the English-speaking North American regions for their content and might have been, at the very least, a sort of precursor or spiritual ancestor to the massive multinational projects Disney Channel Latinoamérica would produce during the late 2000's and well into the modern day.
Yees Belinda was one of the main reasons i got to know who the chetaah girls were, i remember watching it with my friends when i was little
I screamed when I saw Belinda in the movie, no one else in my family knew of her but I was beyond excited 😂
As a Mexican kid who grew watching Belinda in kids soap operas in México, watching her in The Cheetah Girls was crazy and so exciting! Her and Raven ended up having an amazing friendship and she even appeared on Belinda’s video “Ni Freud Ni Tu Mamá”.
For a movie all about girl power and female friendship, it's sad that Raven Symone didn't get along with the other girls in real life, to the point that she didn't even appear in the third movie, due to the constant fighting.
The group had 0 chance of longevity, Raven was a bigger name than all the other girls and on top of that became a producer of the movie. These dynamics aren't really ideal to begin with, let alone with a group of teenage girls. Then you have Kiely Williams who is known for her problematic behaviour. Raven came out saying she left because she felt excluded, and I can understand why, she was in a completely different position as the other girls.
@@user-ey9uj6vp9snot to mention she couldn’t legally join the real Cheetah Girls girl group because she had contracts already in place for her solid career, that just makes it impossible for her to truly be part of their unit.
@@user-ey9uj6vp9s also, I just got to the part about how it’s possible That’s So Raven is the reason why the Cheetah Girls show didn’t happen, that’s going to automatically make the other girls resentful, they’re losing out on work because of Raven’s success. Group dynamics are hard, especially with young people, whose frontal lobes aren’t fully formed and they’re hopped up on hormones!!! I don’t blame any of the girls at all!!!
2000’s girl power feminism crashed and burned the same 2010’s girl bosses did.
It’s superficial. We don’t have to befriend every girl we see or support _everything_ she does in order to progress as a society.
We just have to stop viewing every woman as competition. Then I think we’ll be okay.
@user-ey9uj6vp9s ohh this makes so much sense, especially how the movie script kinda centered around her. i remembered feeling confused at aqua's conflict is just.... having trouble calling for a cab
I loved the Cheetah Girls as a kid. It’s insane hearing how many tour dates they did back in the day - I remember being jealous of my friends in elementary school who got to go when they came near my town. Gotta be honest - I did lose interest whenever Galleria was not in the picture. Raven was just THAT GIRL, so much star power.
Omg same!! One of my childhood friends went to the concert with her other friend and I was so sad they didn’t invite me 😔
😂uy
Kiely Williams aka Aqua was a major part of the drama and Raven almost beat her ass during the filming of the cheetah girls 2. To this day she’s controversial and talked about Raven for no reason. She ALSO said The cheetah girls one world flopped because Raven wasn’t there. 🤭
You got to give Kiely points for being honest. I think she's at least grown in the sense that she has been introspective about her career path
@@propogandalf She said it while talking to her but behind her back bashed Raven
Also, Kiely and Adrienne had a falling out around the time the Cheetah Girls broke up (back in early '09). Kiely is only friends with Sabrina today but she's cool with Raven again.
So basically Raven & Kiely never were friend's from the beginning? Maybe Kiely is the one that started the fight and enjoys pissing off raven for attention?
I think another reason besides raven not being apart of the 3rd film is that the target audience was growing up. The target audience were tweens 11-13 by 07 those the oldest of those girls were juniors in high-school. They were watching more teen focused dramas and morphing into a new high-school persona. However I will saw if raven was gonna be in that movie we would have watched lol I remember being a freshman and talking abt it. As soon as someone mentioned raven was not going to be in it we all looked at each other and said well I’m not watching 😂 that’s how much pull raven had!
I was 8 when the first movie came out, so by the time the TCG album came out, I was in middle school. One time a kid asked to used my ipod on a bus ride and gave it back because it had the Cheetah Girls on it lol. I loved that album and felt like I was the only one who still listened to them.
@@MONET8iAM the original target audience was middle school. Back then Disney was targeted to more tweens and teens than kids unlike today. However by the time you entered middle school the cheetah girls popularity was over.
@@luckyxxxxk What I’m getting at is that where I grew up, kids loved the Cheetah Girls, and as we aged a couple of years they gravitated towards more teen and adult things in general though we were only 11-13. I remember everyone loving Lil Wayne’s Carter 3 album front to back. And they loved dancehall music (this is in NYC btw). So even when I got to high school, I was in the minority of loving teen sensations at the time. My peers looked at artists who made music for our demo as “kiddie artists”. They wanted to be “grown” and I wanted to enjoy being a kid and a teen.
When you brought up a reboot, my initial reaction was a strong no. Because the original movies are very much available. But then when you said a more book faithful adaption, I reconsidered. I loved the books just as much as the movies, and would like to see those stories shown on screen.
I really wish there was a way to deliver authentic tween/teen content that doesn’t harm and shame its adult actors for growing up :/
I had no idea until watching this video that it was a book series first (not surprising). As a big fan I fully support a faithful reboot. I loved both of the movies, the second one is definitely a favorite for me as the music and the tango scene slapped so hard
As someone who actually read the books as a kid....I think the movie plots are better 😂
So this is how I learn that The Cheetah Girls was originally a book series...
while I understand they were trying to make sure every race of girl was included for the casting of the first film, it’s very unfortunate and sad that Dorinda’s character who’s whole arc involved her being a “blasian” biracial foster child of teen parents (in the books her dad was an African American high school junior dropout who worked as a busboy and wanted to become a dancer and her mother was a Japanese-American high school student) was scrapped for that of a white girl who’s in foster care. Dorinda really could’ve been positive representation for young black-asian mixed girls (especially considering they never get any representation)…I really hope we get a reboot and new adaption for a mini-series that closely follows the books because I truly believe it would actually do really well with all audiences!
Nah, I actually applauded them for showing poor white person since they hardly actually get visibility. The 2000s showcased chic rich blonde Princesses like Legally Blonde, Clueless, Mean Girls. This was a good down to earth moment, if Galleria had been the rich white one, I don't think it would've been as nice
@@suzygirl1843 if lack of representation is the driving force of your preference- then why not be a stronger proponent of a mixed Black/Asian character? Can any of us name a single representation rich or poor TV fictional character that is mixed Black/Asian? Because there are countless TV shows and movies where the White impoverished protagonist doesn't fit in with all the rich kids.
@@suzygirl1843aahh yes. a poor white girl needs more representation than a blasian girl when theres plenty of movies featuring ONLY white ppl compared to blasian ppl are barely even on screen on any movie. make it make sense lol
Sabrina Bryan will be (to some people, it is an extremely complex topic) mixed race as she is of Latino ancestry and (not that sure about this) Native American. They could give importance to that and it also breaks the stereotype of "looking a certain way" that Latinos experiment, not only in the USA but in many countries.
This may be shocking, but sometimes white girls or boys can come from poor, low-income or abusive families as well. And some even end up it Forster houses, cause the parents are not capable to take care of their child due to financial issues or mental illnesses.
As a latina, I remember as a kid how excited I was to see Belinda in the second movie
I really miss when tween girls were respected and had media catered specifically to them. We don't get that anymore. And I'm glad I was alive to experience it while it lasted.
Raven has such a beautiful voice though. They all do, but personally it was Raven that made me a cheetah girl fan. The second movie was my favorite.
As a tween growing up in the 2000s Cheetah Girls was everything to me. I loved the first two movies so much and Strut is my absolute favorite song. I can sing it by heart. However, I was in first year high school when Cheetah Girls 3 came out and it didn’t do justice without Raven not being in it.
I remember being in second grade and looking forward to this movie, and then my mom breaking the news that it got abad review in the paper. When I hesitantly watched it myself I absolutely loved it, I remember thinking that critic didn't know what he was talking about because it was so good lmao.
Most of the more serious messages went over my head, I just loved the music. I'm pretty sure I got the soundtrack for my birthday and I listened to it soooo much, and I remember singing songs from it with a friend at lunch.
On top of all that, I did a study abroad in Spain in college, and I swear all the girls in the group were there in part because of The Cheetah Girls 2. We got to a place where they filmed part of it and we all got so excited and took a million pictures.
So fun.
The cheetah girls will always be superior never have a downfall
Now THIS is the type of content TH-cam needs ❤
I loved the books. I remember going to Barnes & Noble as a tween and beelining to the YA section to get the next Cheetah Girls book when I finished the first one
I think everyone remembers the cheetah girls depending on your age group. The fact that Whitney Houston was involved with the production for the first movie was amazing. This was the most amazing time for Disney. Yes I’m showing my age but this was so pivotal for black girls and POC girls! We finally had representation. The drama was extremely unfortunate I think most people remember the sad fall out of the Cheetah Girls with Raven and 3LW!
Still an amazing franchise that represented what we needed as little girls for that time!
Solange Knowles is a great actress
No idea why she never further pursued it
She really wasn't all that great TBH with you
She said why in the video
Her music career
Ughhh thank you for this video! As a black kid in nyc, this series was everything. In elementary school we used to “play” “Cheetah Girls”, and most people always fought to be Galleria or Chanel. The last movie wasn’t my jam, but I loved the TCG album. I was also a fan of 3LW.
the cheetah girls 2 still has such a grip on me im so glad you made this video! Everyone in my school loved them when I was growing up too!
Solange choosing not to do The Cheetah Girls was a missed opportunity for her. Matthew Knowles wasn't thinking. Her first album, Solo Star did not do well. The Cheetah Girls franchise was huge. The first movie came out in 2003. Her album came out one year earlier. She literally could have pushed the album back and released it around the same time of the movie to capitalize on the success. Solange would have been amazing as Aqua especially considering the fact that she is actually from Houston, Texas. I hated how Kiely had an accent in the first movie, but didn't have one in the second and third movie. Her Texas accent just disappear. She spoke like her normal self. Also, Disney could have made Aqua and Anginette fraternal twins if they couldn't find identical twins that could play the roles.
I agree though they had no idea that TCG was gonna blow up. Also, Solange had her son young so idk how that wouldve faired out with TCG squeaky clean image. And yes they should've just had fraternal twins instead of cutting the sister smh.
As a born and raised Texan, her accent was horrible. Majority of Texans don’t sound like that.
My biggest gripe was when they went to India and *I THINK* they could’ve done a much better job but I don’t expect authentic cultural nuances in DCOMs. Also, Hindi Cinema has songs that can bring everyone together. Missed opportunity there.
I still regularly listen to the song "It's over" by The Cheetah Girls. Such a good song.
The Cheetah Girls is what put me on to animal print. Watching this video brought back so many memories of being in elementary school and obsessed with The Cheetah Girls.
Honestly I’d be so here for a reboot of cheetah girls like imagine if the plot was raven symone and Adrienne making a new younger group and training them and stuff like that and getting them in the business and I would love to see the line with 5 girls with expanded races we didn’t see in the original like I want to see a Native American race girl a Asian race girl in the mix
You’re hired
Indian as in South Asian IS Asian - do you mean a Native American girl? Or a South Asian girl and an East Asian girl?
@@leeh4669 Native American is what I meant
Correction Native American is what I meant y’all my bad
@@st3458 ohh yeah dw I was just confused haha. I believe that Sabrina Bryan is actually part Native American, so her character technically brings that representation - but she doesn't talk about it. So I agree it would be cool to see characters from different races in a new reboot as well.
I think a show could've initially been better than a movie series. But I love Chanel and Dorinda! They definitely needed Raven though, has anyone else seen the video of them singing the star spangled banner??
And since producers love to reboot shows/movies from years ago, I think a Cheetah Girls reboot, (with a new cast), would be great! 💕💖
I think that by "too sophisticated" they didn't mean "told old" but either not "ghetto" enough or not black enough which is even cringier
That's exactly what I was thinking of, they probably didn't think the girls were convincing enough to play inner city girls, whatever that supposed to mean 😢
Exactly what i was thinking
Tia and Tamara are biracial but i tbimk Disney wanted to not make them look "too black" seeing as Sister Sister was already black enough for them.
I thought the same thing 😒
it was probably the "Disney thought Tia and Tamera didn't look ghetto enough" take, but they were too old as well. Nothing wrong with that, and they were 25 when Cheetah girls premiered, but the oldest Cheetah girl was 19 and in the film they were like what, 15? 16? (I'm not american so I have no clue how your school years go, but I think they were in early high school). While to this day 25 year olds are casted to play teenagers, i'm glad they actually casted younger girls for the Cheetah girls part
Yep
Do I remember the Cheetah Girls? 🐆
Hell yeah!!!! They were a huge part of my childhood. I ALWAYS loved their outfits, especially Chanel's. I also love dance just like Dorinda. I'd do anything to go back to this era, it was so much fun.
Me too, I can't believe that it's been two decades since the first movie was released. Time certainly flies by.
Same! Had their albums! And me and my friends can still be caught singing their songs!
Me too. I had a crush on them.
2000s fashion and nostalgia is HUGE right now. They're really missing a big opportunity!
I was 9 when the first Cheetah Girl movie came out, (around New Year's if I remember correctly)! Me and a bunch of CG fans in my class would practice the songs at recess and our teacher even let us perform one day to the soundtrack I brought in. The movie was a big deal at the time. The Play “Cinderella” cover they would show before releasing the film. 😂
the fact that my little kid brain understood their lineup was crazy. In the movies they were a foursome and in the real world a trio. And two of them were from another group 3LW that were active at the same time
I never considered new cheetahs but I’d be so here for it! And imagine the first cheetahs making a cameo that’d be so cute
I wish disney+ would make a TCG series which is more faithful to the books: casting 5 black girls who are actually tweens and following their lives in NYC trying to make it in the music industry nowadays! Maybe they could have the og cheetas to do a cameo (i’d suggest having raven+adrienne in an episode and sabrina+kiely in another one because you know… the drama)
Looking back, it didn't register to tween me that the actors were POC. To me, the Cheetah girls were fashionable girls with good music (who also reminded me of my Bratz dolls) :D
Thanks for giving a brief shout out to Girls Aloud. I lnow they didn't break out in America like Spice Girls but I grew up with them and just like the 90s quintet, the 2000s quintet still put out catchy hits and classy sexiness.
It has been speculated that the Cheetah Girls were much inspired by the Pussycat Dolls. The obvious glaring difference is that Cheetah were targeted as a more family friendly act and the Dolls were making more mature music, having a more hyper sexualized image.
5:01 wouldn't it be easier to change them from identical to fraternal twins?
that or hiring two girls who are really similar looking like they did for that one basketball movie
Or do what they did for The Parent Trap (the 90s version with Lindsey Lohan) or Liv and Maddie and have one actor play two twins and use special effects, though maybe that would've been too expensive.
@@mynameisreallycool1 in this case, one of the twins wouldn't be part of the band
i just want to say, the first cheetah girls movie and the soundtrack had a profound impact on me as a kid, especially seeing my life and the lives of my friends represented…this comment section feels like a community. where were y’all when i was 11?? 😂 anyways, love y’all, be safe 💕
I’m pretty sure Cheetah Girls 2 is what inspired me to choose Spanish as my high school language requirement. Now I have a degree in the language!
the musician in cheetah girls 2 was BELINDA!!! absolute icon
Raven never misses and even they don’t know how immensely talented they are.
I've never heard anyone else mention the book series when talking about the Cheetah Girls! I was obsessed with the series as a kid!
Cheeta Girls 2 has THE BEST soundtrack of all time!!!
I was too old for the cheetah girls train, but I loved 3LW. Looved their first album. I remember when I saw ppl referring to Keiley and Adrian as the cheetah girls I was like huh?? It’s honestly still weird to me that ppl mainly know them from that lol
I know what you mean. It's weird that people don't recognize them as 3lw. But it's a completely different demographic. After the 1st album 3lw wasn't making songs for tweens, they're stuff was too adult too be on the radar of younger people watching Disney Channel
Crying 😭 I’m so happy I had the cheetah girls when I was young. Tweens need more stories like this!
great video! i was already aging out of the disney channel demographic by the time the first cheetah girls movie came out, so even though i’d catch them on TV when my younger sister watched them, i had no idea so much was going on behind the scenes or that the movies were based on a book series.
I loved the Cheetah Girls it was one of the first in screen characters that had a Latinos on Disney Channel that I can remember even though I’m 17 my older cousin would come around and we would watch them together on dvd and have the velour tracksuits those were the days ❤
Growing up, Galleria was my favorite cheetah girl (partially because of That's so Raven), lol.
The one thing that now looking back on this movie is that is that all the girls were black in the books but in the movie none of the girls are unambiguously black. And the girl closest to be the unambiguously black character (Aqua) parents are never shown. In the first movie we see Galleria is mixed race and both her parents, Chanel's mother and brother, and Dorinda's foster mother and sister. Aqua family didn't show up at all.
As an Indian, I was so damn excited for that third movie when I found out it was set in India! I'm still glad they did that, it made the little me so happy 😅
I was in 5th grade when the first movie came out and one of my friends hosted a Cheetah Girls sleepover the watch the premiere. It was a whole thing
“Friendship, sisterhood, and unity” ❤❤❤THIS IS WHY I LOOOOOOOVED THEM SO MUCH ❤❤❤
Can we talk about the huge difference between the OG movie and the second and third films?
The first movie, even though being a musical film, had the musical moments happen in a “real world moment” if that makes any sense, like they would be either singing at the theater, to a group of people on the street or in a casting… like it made sense.
For CG2, this was completely different, the movie’s feel was immediately affected by the High School Musical success and they even got Kenny Ortega (director of HSM) to direct Cheetah Girls 2, now making it more like HSM, with the girls starting to sing out of nowhere every 5 minutes, a trend that was used again for CG3, with another director but nevertheless trying to replicate the second movie.
The Cheetah Girls was truly ahead of its time.
My sisters and I use to have the CDs, Movies, Books, etc. We would always have fun pretending to be them. My dad had bought us so much cheetah print clothes, got us the movies, etc.
When my sisters came over for xmas, we were literally watching and dancing to the cheetah girls, trying to teach my adopted little sister the dances.
Here we all are, in our 20s, most of my sisters are now married with kids, me engaged, still loving The Cheetah Girls.
They have such a hold on us. We are just girls from the peojects of New Orleans, now living our best lives and traveling the world. The Cheetah Girls showed us we can do anything we can set our minds to and get out of the the hood but never forget where we come from, bc we always go back home
I was a huge fan of The Cheetah Girls! I even saw them in concert in 2006!
Video I didn’t know I needed
I'd love to see a reboot, but an adult show with all of the original girls coming back. I hate how Disney has brushed off the fact that they have adult fans who grew up with these properties. I would totally watch a show with the same characters as adults with adult themes! The fact that the Lizzie show never got made is a crime.
hi! i love your vids sm
2:05 That’s so sweet but also sad that felt alone in her formative years.
If I were to cast for a remake/reboot series of the Cheetah Girls:
China Anne McClain as Galleria
Chloe & Halle Bailey as the twins
Dara Renee (High School Musical series on Disney+) as Dorinda
Madison Reyes (from Julie & the Phantoms) as Chanel.
All these are young actresses of color that can sing and dance and fit the Disney audience.
Thinking about how in 3rd grade I tried to make my own cheetah girls but got mad the other girls didn't want to practice, like I had no talent I had no business trying to make my own girl group 😭💀
I vividly remember the Disney channel original movie but I had zero idea they actually became an acclaimed girl group
The Cheetah Girls weren’t really my thing growing up, but I remember how MUCH Disney Channel pushed the “Cheetahlicious” catchphrase for a while.
That December the cheeta girls came out, HIT DIFFERENT!
Watching this about the cheetah girls unlocked a core memory! Love your videos and looking forward to the next one!
I remember watching the cheetah girls movies and listening to their songs 😊
I was so heartbroken when Raven left! I loved the music in the third but wtf was that plot
This was perfect! Always loved they cheetah girls and could totally see a reboot being done well for todays audience!
I never knew that Raven meme came from a live with Kiely! 😂
Hey, there 👋🏾 Thank you so so much for posting this video! 🙏🏾💕 I grew up on The Cheetah Girls and I still watch their movies and listen to their music to this very day. I was 4 going on 5 when they first came out and now I am 24 going on 25 in 3 months, man time flies. I hate how things had to end with the group! But I still love them all to this day. They really made a huge impact in my life as a young girl and a woman. New subbie 😘
I think a Cheetah Girls reboot with new girls would be perfect. Symone and Bailon can come back as Galleria's and Chanel's mothers, Bryan can come back as Dorinda's dance coach, and Williams could be Aqua and Angie's mother if she does show up in the books.
I wonder if Kiely Williams still has that cute little lisp. "I'm getting a little tired of your broken promitheth, promitheth."
When I was a little girl, I remember my female classmates being obsessed with The Cheetah Girls. Me on the other hand, I wasn't really a fan of them and didn't understand why girls liked them so much. I tried watching it but would switch the channel because either it was boring or I just couldn't click with them. My classmates were shocked/surprised I didn't like the cheetah girls and question me on why. Which is ironic because I liked the main character on that's so Raven. Soo idk, still don't like them to this day though. 😅 Plus I didn't know it was a books series.
OH YES 🔥 i always loved the cheetah girls (the second? The best songs >>>) and never expected a video from you about them. Thanks. I love it
as much as i love the 2nd cheetah girls movie, i was so disappointed it didn't follow the books. it doesn't have the feelings and relatable conflicts of the 1st movie at all
Girls Generation mentioned and my little Sone heart jumped! 😂❤🎉
I'm from Barcelona and as a little girl I was so excited about the movie being filmed here. I loved that movie just because of that
The Cheetah Girls walked so High School Musical could run
Will you talk about Highschool Musical too? Maybe Sharpay’s fashion?
They were the destiny child’s and TLC of Disney they CARRIED
Doing a video on your top favorite Cheetah Girl’s looks would be so fun!
I love your content. Can you please make a video about the fashion in The Nanny?
“Broken promithes, promithes. Playa pleathe” 🤣🤣🤣
i still listen to their songs until now, i wish they were more true to the books like the first movie 😢
I loved them, but they NEEDED Raven. They weren’t the same without her, she was the heart of the group.
I wish they'd kept Dorinda as Afro-Asian. You don't get to see many black/Asian characters in media. Disney rarely does any kind of Asian representation but I genuinely cannot name another character with one black part and one Asian one from media outside of Japan. It feels like Disney said, "Yeah, diversity matters... but not *that* kind of diversity."
17:32 OMG this was one iconic Instagram LIVE.
Wow, the nostalgia is hitting hard. I looooved the Cheetah Girls. Thanks for the video! 😊
My friends and i loved the cheetah girls so much when it came out. We were 10 and our friend group was black, mixed, white and latina (me), so it was great to see on screen. We ended up choreographing a dance tp their music and performing it at our school talent show in fabulous matching outfits
This made my day! I love the cheetah girls. I had the van lol. Good times growing up.