(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from the TV show, Sister, Sister)
Doug (vo): When I hear the names "Tia" and "Tamera", the first thing that comes into my head is the opening of their show, Sister, Sister. It had these annoying drawings of these crying babies and this obnoxious theme song where they shout, "Sister! SISTER!", and it was grouped in with usually some bad gimmicky family shows. (The poster for Full House is shown) So, like a fair amount of people, I always kind of associated them with being gimmicky and annoying. But, honestly, when you watch the show, it's not that bad. The two of them had good comedic timing, and they had a good supportive cast that was funny as well. The only thing that got annoyingly old, outside of the intro, is whenever they would do anything in unison, like say stuff at the same time or gasp at the same time or squee at the same time. But if I have to be honest, as family shows go, especially leaning towards kids' entertainment, it was fine.
(Now we are shown clips of Twitches)
Doug (vo): Twitches is the exact same thing. There is some funny, creative stuff on top of some corny and gimmicky stuff, and at the center of it are these two actresses who have grown their comedic timing over the years, can even do the dramatic stuff pretty well, and can surprisingly carry a film, apart from, again, when they have to do anything in unison, like say, "Go, Twitches! Go, Twitches! It's our birthdays!" (Sighs in annoyance)
Story and review[]
Doug (vo): Like Sister, Sister, the movie focuses on the twins being separated at birth, only to accidentally bump into each other years later...or was it an accident? This bickering couple, who honestly gets more laughs than they probably should, are kind of like their guardian angels. They watch them over the years, make sure they don't get too much in trouble. But they alter their courses so that they'll eventually meet, in a particularly enjoyable joke where they have to keep dropping clues to get one of them in a department store. You see, these guardian angels and the girls themselves, it turns out, are magical. They have to be kept apart, ala Star Wars, ala Harry Potter, to protect them from the Darkness, an especially horrible effect that you sadly have to look at throughout the majority of the film.
(Clips mainly focusing on the two main characters, Alexandra and Camryn, are shown)
Doug (vo): But thankfully, there's a lot of imagination in other scenes. For example, despite the sisters being very similar, they both seem to have their opposite sides, like one enjoys being out during the day, and the other enjoys being up during the night. One is a writer who writes about this magical world that, it turns out, is where they came from, and the other is an artist who thinks she's drawing self-portraits, but somehow, she feels like it's not her. On top of that, their magic only seems to work when they're close to each other, hence why one has a necklace of the sun and the other has a necklace of the moon. Little touches like this, I guess, are obvious, but they're also a lot of fun. They show a connection in both relationship and ability, as well as make for some great visual storytelling.
(Clips focusing on the twins' mother speaking with their uncle Thantos are shown)
Doug (vo): Things get even more complicated, though, when their mother finds out they're alive, and Obvious Not-Bad Guy is gonna help her find them. The funny thing is, for as obvious as some of this dialogue is, these actors really tried their damndest to pull it off. Listen to this incredibly clumsy exposition done almost perfectly by these two actors who are really giving their hardest.
Thantos (Patrick Fabian): Someone has been protecting them.
Miranda (Kristen Wilson): You know they were killed in the battle that night with Aron, my husband, your brother.
Thantos: Heroes, I have no doubt. But like the girls, their bodies never were found, were they?
Doug (vo): That...almost sounded natural. Even the villain, we look at him and we know he's the bad guy, but look at how charming he is and how smooth he is. You actually kind of really want to admire him for how diabolical he can be. But I know. It's a Disney Channel movie. We're not gonna get that deep. I mean, what? These two girls were separated from their parents, and even though they both have step-parents and one even had a step-parent died, replaced with another step-parent, now she's gonna meet her actual mother...? Come on. They're not gonna address any of this...actually, they do. One of the twins' mother died three months ago, and this other mother has to take over, only to discover another mother is thrown into the mix, the real mother. A good chunk of the emotions you think would follow something like this actually are included. She doesn't want to meet the actual mother, because she's lost so many mothers before. And even the stepmother she has now is feeling betrayed, because she's almost dismissing her. And the acting from everyone impressively pulls it off. It's never too heavy that it feels like a soap opera, but it's not really ignored either. It does add a nice sense of drama and make the story feel a lot bigger than, honestly, it probably has any right to be. I mean, sure, it has the lame lines and "roll your eyes" moments, but there's not as many as you would think. In fact, a good chunk of the scenes that are supposed to get laughs do legitimately get laughs.
(One comedic scene is shown as Doug describes it)
Doug (vo): I really love this one scene where the sister is saying she should be more aware of her surroundings, only to look right past her sister and see a sale at a mall. Look at the way that's shot. That's legitimately humorous.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): So, yeah, for an idea about Sister, Sister being witches that battle evil, this is much better than it probably should be. It's nothing great and there's dumb moments, but for the audience it's aimed at, there's just enough comedic timing, dramatic moments and creativity to make it pretty good. If you just ignore the gimmicky scenes where they have to say stuff at the same time, you might actually find yourself having a fair amount of fun.
(A scene showing the sisters walking into a large mansion is shown)