Meet Courtney: An American Girl Movie is a Historical Character stop-motion short film focusing on Courtney Moore. The plot is an adaptation of Courtney Changes the Game.
Voice Cast[]
The characters are played by various dolls, with voice actors.
- Courtney Moore - Giselle Fernandez
- Tina D'Amico / Sarah Barrett - Claire M Corlett
- Kip Tomatsu / Jefferson / Justin - Leigh Joel Scott
- Maureen D'Amico / Sandy - Marian Massaro
- Captain Parsec / Newscaster - Alejandro Saab
Crew[]
- Directed by - Cami Kwan
- Written by - Lena Deloache
- Producer - Maximilian Lopez
- Director of Photography - Warren Sheetz
- Composer - Kaz Gamble
- Production Manager - Zoe Moacanin
- Production Designer - Alexis Deprey
- Puppet Lead - Hannz Mulligan
- Art Director - Christian Fritsch
- Animation Supervisor - Sean Malony
- Lead Animator - Christine Brennan
- Animators - Kianu Morales/Natasha Ranganath/Porter Young/Hans Voegeli
- Animation Assistant - Meredith Quinn
- Art Department - Tiffany Liu/Tatiana Kuilanoff/Maria Salehi/Ilyssa Simsek
- Editor - Carlos Borges
- Coordinator - Blair Gorman
- Storyboard Artists - Beck Houser/Chelsey Thomas
- Storyboard Revisionist - Frankie Davis
- Pixel Artists - Antonio Monge/Lee Thompson
- Pixel Composer/After Effects Animator - Shanti Hands
- Grip - Josh Kirkwood
- Trackreaders - Ricardo Munoz/Daniel Rico-Madrazo
- Production Assistants - Sierra Benhoff/Joe McGill
Mattel Team:[]
- Executive Producer - Brett Register
- Supervising Producer - Carrie Legrand
- Producers - Lena Deloache/Iris Ichishita/Anna Skrypka
- Line Producer - Lance Lucas
American Girl Team:[]
- Supervising Producer - Lindsay Feitlinger
- Script Consultant - Teri L Robida
Plot Summary[]
The movie opens with Courtney playing Pac-Man at Smiley's Arcade with her two best friends, Sarah and Kip watching her and attracting a small crowd. She's close to beating the all-time high score before being interrupted by Tina telling her they need to leave. Tina sees Courtney took her scrunchie and demands it back, making Courtney's hair fall in her face and lose the game. Courtney, Sarah and Kip walk off, and Kip says how he can't believe Tina would do that and how close Courtney was to winning the game and beating the all-time highscore. Sarah says to Courtney "Aren't sisters supposed to help each other?" Courtney replies explaining how great her and Tina's friendship was in the past and how well they got along, but now Tina has changed and now only counts Courtney as a step-sister and not a "real sister." The trio start talking about their teacher Mr.Garcia's "Dream Big" assignment and what they plan to do for it. Kip says he plans to make a movie, Sarah shares that she plans to talk about her ultimate trip around the world, and Courtney then shares her idea to make up her own video game. The conversation is cut short by Tina telling Courtney they don't have all day and need to leave the arcade. Courtney waves bye to her friends and follows Tina out.
The next scene starts with Courtney and Kip in class talking about Courtney's assignment. She's showing Kip the space explorer main character she made, Crystal Starshooter. Kip compares her to the crew of the Challenger Space Shuttle, and Courtney says that she was inspired by Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who is set to go on the Challenger. They're interrupted by their classmate, Justin, who starts poking fun at Courtney and calls Crystal Starshooter "Crystal Barf-loser". Courtney imagines Crystal Starshooter fighting an alien named "Justin the Big-Collared Alien" and shrinking his head down, calling him a poser.
In Courtney and Tina's bedroom, Courtney is coming home to her guinea pig, Parsley. She holds him and talks to him about her dad. Tina walks in and complains about Courtney being a slob and the smell coming from Parsley's cage. Courtney defends Parsley from Tina saying he doesn't smell. Tina calls Parsley a rat, and her and Courtney get in an argument. Courtney's mom Maureen comes in to help calm things down and tells Courtney to try changing Parsley's bedding to make his cage stink less. Tina then tells Courtney that just because her mom is running for mayor it doesn't make her the boss of her. She threatens to set Parsley loose which upsets Courtney. Courtney imagines an anthropomorphic guinea pig sidekick for Crystal Starshooter calling him "Captain Parsec". They both fight an evil alien princess named Tina who is inspired by her sister. Captain Parsec takes damage and fades away, and Crystal Starshooter blasts Tina the Alien Princess with a laser which turns her into a rat. In the real world it's shown Courtney is talking to herself. Tina and Courtney are then called for dinner and Tina calls Courtney weird.
Later, Tina is watching TV and Courtney walks into the room and turns it off. She asks Tina if she wants to help her and her mom hand out fliers for recycling. Tina asks Courtney why she cares about the earth if she's so obsessed with space. Courtney tells her that she isn't obsessed and just likes space explorers. Tina tells Courtney she'll come next time which Courtney makes her promise to do. Tina stops Courtney before she leaves the room and asks her to dance with her. Tina turns on the TV and starts dancing and laughing. Courtney joins her and they both have a lot of fun together.
Courtney later that night is on the phone with Sarah who she thanks for helping her earlier that day with the fliers. Sarah tells Courtney how cool it is that her mom is running for mayor. Courtney says her mom and her are trying to clean up the world, and Tina cuts her off to tell her to clean up her room. She gets off the phone and tells Tina it isn't that messy before showing how messy it really is. Tina says she misses having her own space before leaving. Courtney admits it's is bad and decides to clean to see if it'll bring "fun Tina" back. She pretends to be Crystal Starshooter while she cleans and images Crystal and Captain Parsec zapping away piles of dirty clothes. She then starts to dust off some figures on a shelf including a horse that Tina owns, breaking it and upsetting Tina. Courtney offers to fix it, and Tina starts crying and tells Courtney she can't fix it and wants to be left alone. Courtney then leaves the room looking upset.
The next day Courtney is going through the closet trying to find an outfit to wear when her and Maureen go to the TV studio for Maureen's interview. Maureen asks Tina if she's sure she doesn't want to come. Tina confirms she wants to stay home but compliments her power suit. At the studio Courtney asks her mom what a "power suit" is and if it gives her powers. Her mom says it's not literal, but it makes her feel confident which is a power in itself. Jefferson, the TV host, introduces himself and asks who Courtney is. Courtney introduces herself and Jefferson's co-host, Sandy calls Courtney cute and she needs to be in the interview. Courtney agrees to be on TV and gets her makeup done. The cameras start rolling and they start asking Courtney questions about her blended family. Courtney seems uncomfortable but her and her mom answer the question. During this Courtney imagines Crystal Starshooter again and imagines her being attacked by two space monsters who resemble the co-hosts. She then tells Captain Parsec to get her her power suit which helps her takes them down in the fantasy. In reality, she has the confidence to stand-up to the interviewers about how great of a mayor her mom would be.
Courtney goes into school the next day, and everyone is asking her about being about on TV and telling her how great of a job she did. Sarah says she's like a real life hero and Courtney imagine herself as a hero. She then remembers the Challenger launch is today. All the students sit down and watch the shuttle lift off and cheer. Sarah compares it to Crystal Starshooter. Suddenly a big sound is heard; the Challenger has exploded on launch. All the students start talking about what happened and are struggling to process what they saw, and Courtney imagines Crystal Starshooter again, looking upset. Captain Parsec tells her that they have a galaxy to protect which Crystal tells him she can't because the mission failed. He then asks what she means and she says "they're gone." Back in real life Courtney and Sarah start crying and hug each other.
Courtney gets home and cries in her bed while looking at her art of Crystal Starshooter. Tina asks Courtney how she's feeling; she says she's not sure and Tina says she feels the same. Courtney asks Tina if she's okay, and Tina says no. They have a heart-to-heart about the disaster. Tina mentions Crystal Starshooter which surprises Courtney; she even compliments her. Courtney apologizes for breaking Tina's horse and she accepts the apology, saying she shouldn't have freaked out. They start talking about Tina's mom who was the one who gave Tina the horse. Tina talks about how funny her mom was and how she good she was at making people laugh and loved to dance, which Courtney says is just like Tina. Tina laughs and Courtney puts on music and starts dancing, and she and Tina dance together. Courtney imagines Crystal Starshooter getting an extra life by making friends with Tina the Alien Queen.
The next day is the big presentation in class. Tina lets Courtney borrow her favorite scrunchie for good luck and puts it in her hair, commenting about how it's kind of like a power suit. At school everyone is ready to present; Sarah and Kip talk to Courtney and tell her she looks cool. Courtney starts her presentation and talks about Crystal Starshooter getting everyone's attention and Justin rolls his eyes. She talks about how she wants to make the world a better place by exploring the galaxy. She recaps all the enemies she came up with in her mind--then says at the end she learns it's not about defeating the aliens and how everyone has to work together to make the world a better place. To win the game everyone has to help, space heroes and aliens. Everyone including Justin claps for her.
Digital Release[]
The movie was released on YouTube on October 2, 2020.
Items Associated With the Movie[]
Trivia[]
Links[]
- Meet Courtney: An American Girl Movie on American Girl's YouTube channel