Rags

Rags is a Nickelodeon Original Movie. It is a musical gender inversion of the Cinderella story that stars Max Schneider, Keke Palmer, Drake Bell, Zak Santiago, Avan Jogia and Nick Cannon. It premiered May 28, 2012, on Nickelodeon. [1]

Plot
Rags follows the story of character Charlie Prince (Max Schneider), his greedy, unloving stepfather, Arthur, his spoiled stepbrothers, Andrew (Keenan Tracey) and Lloyd (Burkely Duffield ). Also Kadee (Keke Palmer), a superstar with a music mogul father, Reginald Worth (Isaiah Mustafa).

The film begins with Shawn's (Drake Bell) narration that leads into the opening scene, depicting a street performance by Charlie, as the character seeks a living wage. Shawn appears in the scene and observes Charlie perform a song entitled, Someday. Charlie is encouraged by Shawn afterwards, stating that the performer should record an album. Kadee is then shown performing and the audience is informed that Kadee is secretly frustrated with singing songs that other people have chosen for her; Kadee wants the world to hear and see her for who she truly is.

The audience is then shown the karaoke venue that serves as Charlie's home and this setting also reveals the relationship dynamic between Charlie and his stepfather. The audience is then shown Charlie's formal employment role. The character is a janitor for Majesty Records where Charlie has the opportunity to experiment in the recording studio. On this occasion, Charlie is unaware that Shawn is inside the studio, but rather than confrontation, Shawn proceeds to record Charlie's singing. Shawn then decides that he will produce an album for Charlie.

Kadee follows Charlie to the pawn shop where Charlie discovers that Kadee isn't true to her music, knowing this he tries to help her.

Kadee gives Charlie a party invitation to the Majesty Records' Masquerade, after helping her express her true self by having her sing her own music in public. Charlie, late for his curfew, sneaks in through the restroom window, where his stepfather waits for him. After walking away Arthur follows Charlie and snatches the invitation from him. Once seeing it's an invitation to Majesty Records' Masquerade he steals it from Charlie saying that instead of it going to waste, by letting Charlie go, he's going to use it to get "Androyd" into the party to perform, to make Reginald Worth regret rejecting them. Diego and Martha, who works for Charlie's stepfather, decide to help Charlie go to the party by making a suit for him out of stage curtains and make a mask from a blindfold for him so Arthur won't recognize him. At the party, Charlie (disguised) almost gets caught by his stepfather, dances with Kadee, and sings "Not So Different At All." Charlie also kisses Kadee, and, before leaving tells her "Be You." But before leaving he drops his demo ("RAGS"), which Shawn gave him, and it's picked up by Kadee.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.196969985961914px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;">The next day Kadee tries to talk her dad to help her search for Rags, but he says no, so instead she visits Charlie and presents him with music from Rags' demo, unaware that he is Rags. After that, he tries to tell Kadee that he's Rags, but she's listening to Rags' music and doesn't hear him. Later Lloyd confronts Charlie saying that he knows he is Rags, but instead of snitching him out he congratulates him and tries to get him to admit to Kadee that he is Rags. Andrew overhears their conversation and looks through Charlie's suitcase, and finds the lyrics to "Someday" (the song required for Kadee's Rags audition search) and shows it to Arthur.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.196969985961914px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;">Charlie goes to the auditions to "help" Kadee find Rags there, before auditions start he tells her not to worry and tells her "Just Be You." Then his stepbrother, Andrew (who is truly evil) shows up and tells him that his stepfather wants him. Arthur confronts him about Rags and congratulates him. Arthur then walks and locks Charlie in a closet but, when Charlie is banging on the door, Kadee's dog, Trumpet, overheard his banging on the door. He ran toward two of Kadee's friends to help Charlie. However it is too late. Andrew had already gone on and "proven" he is Rags. Charlie, disappointed, is ready to move out and is about to leave when Kadee stops him and asks him to stay, at least until she introduces Rags. Kadee surprises everyone by saying that she knows Rags is really Charlie. Later Lloyd, having being betrayed by Arthur and Andrew, reveals that Charlie's mom had left the place (now a karaoke place) to Charlie not Arthur. Charlie and Kadee are on the stage standing together and the scene fades to another day where they are on the same stage, now boyfriend and girlfriend. Diego and Martha are shown to run Charlie's shop, Lloyd is a backup dancer, and Arthur and Andrew are cleaning toilets. Charlie had gotten his "fairytale ending."

Cast

 * Max Schneider as Charlie Prince. Since it's a gender swap, he's the "Cinderella" of the story.
 * Keke Palmer as Kadee Worth. She's more of the Princess Charming who helps Charlie with his dreams, along with him helping her.
 * Drake Bell as Shawn, the "Fairy Godfather" a studio technician at Majesty Records who helps Charlie produce his demo CD that leads Kadee to Rags.
 * Zak Santiago as Diego, the worker who works at Charlie's stepfather's store, and became Charlie's father.
 * Avan Jogia as Finn Kadee's rockstar boyfriend
 * Nick Cannon as Himself
 * Maggie Ma as the Majesty Records receptionist
 * Burkely Duffield as Lloyd, Charlie's stepbrother. He is not a bad as is other brother, but in the end he is a good guy, and part of the family

Filming
<p style="margin-bottom:0.1em;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;line-height:19.196969985961914px;">Filming took place in Vancouver, Canada<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;line-height:19.196969985961914px;"> from May to July 2011.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;line-height:19.196969985961914px;">Ratings
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;line-height:19.196969985961914px;">The film received 3.5 million viewers during its premiere, receiving a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">[2]

Soundtrack
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;line-height:19.196969985961914px;">The soundtrack was released on May 22, 2012. It includes nine songs featured by Keke Palmer and Max Schneider, with three bonus tracks. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">[3] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:12.727272033691406px;line-height:19.196969985961914px;"> It was released on May 21 on iTunes. The soundtrack has peaked at #1 on the iTunes soundtrack albums chart and #3 on the Top 100 albums on iTunes chart. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">[4]