The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie

The film begins with an introduction to the documentary from the boys. Nat and Alex Wolff, aged nine and six, respectively, are members of the fictional band The Silver Boulders, which also consists of Thomas, David, Josh, and their manager Cooper. The band found success after a music executive signed them to his label, Who's the Man Records. The band performs their new song "Motormouth" at a concert in the Hammerstein Ballroom. After the show, the band members describe how their group started and a clip from their music video "Crazy Car" is shown. The bandmates get along well until Thomas composes the song "Boys Rule, Girls Drool", which Nat dislikes. Nat writes a song called "Rosalina" that is about Josh's elder half-sister. Thomas and Josh ridicule Nat because the song shows his feelings for her. Moreover, Josh composes another song that Nat also dislikes, titled "I'm the God of Rock and Roll", set to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". The band has a food fight in a restaurant, prompting Thomas, David, and Josh to leave and form a new group, The Gold Boulders, managed by the scornful Mort Needleman. After watching media reports of the band's split on television, Nat and Alex go into a state of depression. Alex begins to binge on lemon-lime soda and falls asleep, while he lies curled in the midst of aluminum cans. Nat simultaneously writes a song by the piano titled "If There Was a Place to Hide" as the band's fans gather outside his apartment, pleading for them to reunite. Despite the absence of the formers, Alex persuades a reluctant Nat to revive the band, and subsequently, they change the band's title to its original, The Naked Brothers Band. Through a line-up of auditions, Nat, Alex, and Cooper select Rosalina as their cellist and Cole Hawkins—a member of the original Naked Brothers Band—as the guitarist. The newly established band embark on a tour to Chicago, though Nat discovers that The Gold Boulders is their opening act. The Gold Boulders start the show with "Boys Rule, Girls Drool" and are immediately booed off the stage. After their performance, The Naked Brothers Band perform "Hardcore Wrestlers (with Inner Feelings)" and "Rosalina", which are greeted with a loud applause from the audience. After the concert, Nat hosts a party for the band in his apartment. In the midst of the party, David, Thomas, and Josh arrive at his front door, asking to join the reconstructed band. Forgivingly, a surprised Nat welcomes them to join the celebration. The film concludes with the outfit performing "Crazy Car" on the roof of the Wolffs' apartment while fireworks detonate in the background. ==Characters==

Adults over the age of 18 can be nonsensical, and therefore, the children are responsible for undertaking challenging circumstances. Nat is the lead singer-songwriter and keyboardist, while his younger brother Alex is the flamboyant drummer. Alex invented a distinctive outfit: a red, white, and blue do-rag with socks tied around his ankles. He has a crush on the band's nanny and tutor, the 19-year-old Jesse Cook (Jesse Draper). Nat is called "The Girl Magnet" and tends to speak with an English accent in front of 11-year-old Rosalina (Allie DiMeco). The group also features Nat's preschool friends – David (David Levi) as the keyboardist, Thomas (Thomas Batuello) as the cellist, Josh (Joshua Kaye) as the guitarist – and Cooper (Cooper Pillot) is the band's manager. The brothers' father (Michael Wolff) is an inept accordionist. Principal Schmoke (Tim Draper) leads Amigo Elementary School. The Timmerman Brothers is a band consisting of brothers Donnie (Adam Draper), Johnny (Coulter Mulligan), and Billy (Billy Draper). They had a hit single titled "Splishy Splashy Soap Bubble", but their careers ended when their voices changed during puberty. Music critic (Barbara eda-Young) describes The Silver Boulders' music as "nostalgic". The romantic couple (James Badge-Dale and Gretchen Egolf) recall the group performing "Crazy Car" at their wedding ceremony. ==Production==

Development Through their father, Nat and Alex were exposed to music from birth. As a four-year-old, Nat showed musical gifts that astounded his father. He easily taught himself piano chords, which he called my proud chords. At the age of five, he began to compose songs after listening to music by The Beatles, and Alex began playing the saxophone when he was two. Nat and his brother once said, "We're the naked brothers band!" after having a bath that inspired the name of the movie. While in pre-school, Nat and his friends formed a band called The Silver Boulders. Later on, Alex joined as the drummer, which he learned on his own by watching footage of Ringo Starr. Draper did not want her children to be actors; she explained, "Nat kept putting signs on his door: 'I want to be a child actor!' I said, 'No, it's too brutal. However, Nat shot a home-video called ''Don't Eat Off My Plate, which Draper presented in documentary style by interviewing his friends. This served as the basis for The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie, depicting the boys as music icons akin to The Beatles. In a TV Guide interview in early 2007, Draper explained, "What originally happened was that Nat and Alex had a band, and the idea evolved based on that. Spinal Tap meets The Little Rascals was my concept ... I wanted to have that Help! or A Hard Day's Night'' kind of feeling." Filming The film was originally intended as an extended family project, and was shot over five weeks in mid-2004 for less than US$1 million. Keller used a color framing, high-definition video camera. Casting Most of the cast were friends or relatives of the Draper-Wolff clan. Tim Draper is Polly's brother and John B. Williams is the cellist for Michael Wolff's band Impure Thoughts. Barbara eda-Young, James Badge-Dale, Gretchen Egolf, and Cooper Pillot had previously performed with Draper in her play Getting Into Heaven in 2003. Jesse Draper is Tim's daughter and thus Polly's niece, and Nat and Alex's cousin. Draper guest starred in the first season of Shalhoub's hit sitcom Monk. Other guest stars in the movie include Cyndi Lauper, her husband David Thornton, Brent Popolizio, Cindy Blackman, and Ricki Lake. In addition, Draper had also made a cameo alongside her Thirtysomething co-stars Tim Busfield, Mel Harris, Peter Horton, Melanie Mayron, Ken Olin, and Patricia Wettig. Cole Hawkins, an actor who also starred as Leonard in the 2003 musical comedy film School of Rock, had no previous involvement with the band. Michael Wolff contributed the underscore and produced the music with Michael A. Levine. In the film, Wolff performed the songs "Rathskeller Polka", "Rathskeller Waltz", "Naked Party Polka", and "Naked Tango". He played the underscore for "Shakey Shakey" (lyrics by Alex), and "Boys Rule, Girls Drool" and "Splishy Splashy (Timmerman Song)", both written by Draper. The elder Wolff was once the musical director for jazz artist Nancy Wilson; in the movie, Wilson sang a rendition of the song "Crazy Car". ==Releases and debuts==

Television spin-off According to Michael Wolff, the family made the film without expecting a television series spin-off. Their agent believed the film would be lucrative and market research showed a positive reaction with a young audience. Tom Ashiem, the executive vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon explained, "At first, we were intrigued by the idea, but we weren't sure kids would get the vague tongue-and-cheek-of-it. Then a bunch of us took it home to our own children and they loved it." Draper was the creator, head writer, executive producer, and director, Later, made-for-TV movies were created and aired as the series continued—a total of eight have been screened on Nickelodeon. The latter films often consisted of an extended, two-part episode—Nickelodeon usually uses the "movie" definition for these hour-long episodes—and were usually broadcast as part of a holiday event or on weekends. International debuts The film aired worldwide, debuting in Canada on September 10, 2007 on YTV and in Germany on October 20, 2007. The film received a Region 1 DVD release on April 3, 2007 through Nickelodeon and Paramount Home Entertainment. ==Reception==

The film won the audience award for a family feature film at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2005. When it premiered on Nickelodeon in January 2007, it was seen by an average of 2.7 million viewers. The movie was also broadcast four times, producing a total viewership of 14 million; it was placed on the top 10 spot of Nielsen VideoScan children's non-theatrical DVD charts. The song "Crazy Car" was downloaded more than 100,000 times on iTunes; and it peaked at number eighty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week and the track was featured on the ''Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice, Vol 3''. Ronnie Sheib, of Variety, wrote: "Convincingly faithful to kids' rhythms and speech patterns, and featuring several catchy if one-chorus numbers, this bouncy, feel-good kidpic, with targeted release strategy, could rock peers and parents alike." Felicia R. Lee from The New York Times called the film "an ebullient mock documentary". ==References==