Pixel Perfect

Pixel Perfect is a Disney Channel Original Movie, released in both the United States and United Kingdom in 2004. It stars Ricky Ullman as Roscoe, Leah Pipes as Sam(antha), Spencer Redford as Loretta Modern, Porsha Coleman as Rachel, and Tania Gunadi as Cindy.

The story starts with Sam, Rachel and Cindy's band, the Zettabytes, auditioning for a gig at the Earsplitter. Halfway through their song, the guy in charge calls out lead vocalist Sam for just standing there while she sings, when she should be dancing to the music. She tries, but it's less than pretty and they all know it. ^[1]

Fully aware of his friends' need for a new member, Roscoe gets a bright idea. Having already created a holographic cat using his father's technology, he says Sure Why Not and sets to work making a holographic human by compositing data from CDs, magazines, and pictures of Sam.

Flash forward to the next day, where the Zettabytes are trying to find their new singer/dancer, with hilarious results. After they've exhausted their list, Loretta waltzes in, asks them to play a song, and proceeds to demonstrate a gymnastics routine while singing. Stunned and amazed, the girls agree that she's perfect for the job. And then Sam trips through her and they learn about the whole hologram thing.

As the story goes on, it explores Roscoe's relationship with his father, Loretta, and Sam, as well as Sam's relationship with Loretta, and the troubles that keep building around those things.

It's less Anvilicious and Narmy than you might expect from a Disney flick, and actually rather enjoyable. Unfortunately, it's hardly ever on the air, and when it is, it's at about 2:00 AM. It is available on DVD, however.

Tropes used in Pixel Perfect include:

• Achilles' Heel: Holograms cannot go into open areas, or they will be completely destroyed; Loretta is no exception.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Loretta.
• Bittersweet Ending
• Break Up Song: The Moist Towelettes' song "Don't Even Try It".
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Subverted. While the record company wants to take away the individual personalities that each hologram created has, they eventually come to terms with their sentience and even give Loretta a choice of whether or not she wants to stay with them.
• Cyberspace: Now available in white, with cascading, opaque sqaures for data, overweight men in hats and flying monster trucks for search engines, and swirling whirlpools for servers!
• Foreshadowing: Loretta wanting to enjoy the rain. Though it turns out to be the way she “dies,” it's also one of her happiest moments in the entire movie.
  • The lyrics to "Nothing's Wrong With Me" also allude to Loretta's fate. Particularly: "I like dancing barefoot in the pouring rain..."
• Goth: A girl who signed-up for the Zettabytes audtions shows her role as this by screaming an angry limerick about her life.

[-MY LIFE IS A LIBRARY BOOK THAT I FORGOT I TOOK. IT FELL IN THE SAND, NOW I OWE A HUNDRED GRAND. MY LIFE IS A LIBRARY BOOK.-]

• Happy Rain: It rains multiple times throughout the show, but when it's happy, you'll notice.
• Heroic Sacrifice Loretta, by entering Sam's brain through an EEG machine, after Sam had fallen from a stage and gone into a coma. According to Roscoe, the differences between a computer and an EEG device would prevent her from exiting. Not that it stops her, obviously.
• Hollywood Science: Loretta entering the EEG machine makes absolutely no sense whatsoever from a technological standpoint.
• Hologram: Loretta, of course.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Loretta. She gets her chance at the end, if only for a minute.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Sam. This is not helped by the fact that Loretta has a Brain With an Internet Connection, can defy gravity, is the perfect singer, dancer, and is Roscoe's everybody's obsession.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Loretta, while temporarily in control of Sam's body, accepts that Roscoe does not love her, and resolves to leave her body after a bit of fun in the rain.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Loretta to Sam, in an attempt to wake the latter from a coma.
• Made for TV Movie
• Missing Mom: Roscoe's mother is only mentioned in one scene, where it's implied she left his father.
• Our Angels Are Different: Yet again, Loretta.
• Robotic Reveal: Not that anybody minds.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Sam does not like Loretta hogging all of Roscoe's attention.
• Victorious Childhood Friend: She doesn't stay unlucky long, that girl.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Roscoe's father is always telling him to keep making everything better than it is, even after he creates a humanoid hologram capable of emulating/having emotions. That becomes famous. And saves his job. He learned.

1. ↑ Cue the Moist Toilets Towelettes taking stage right after, who he seems to have no problem watching dance.