Disney’s ‘Prom Pact’ Uses ‘80s Nostalgia To Tell A Fun, Quirky, Universal Story

In a new Disney movie, it’s all about the ‘80s. Well, not exactly, it’s a lot about high school in 2023 too.

In Prom Pact, it’s the height of prom season, and senior Mandy Yang and her best friend, Ben, are surrounded by over‑the‑top ’80s‑themed promposals. However, prom is the last thing on Mandy’s mind as she’s laser‑focused on her dream of getting into Harvard.

The movie stars Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Mandy, with Milo Manheim as Ben. Blake Draper, portrays basketball star, Graham Lansing while Julie Bowen serves as executive producer of Prom Pact along with Anya Adams, who is also the director of the film.

Those ‘80s inspired promposals include homages to such films as Ghostbusters, Say Anything, and The Breakfast Club.

While they play a large role in the movie, the promposals aren’t an ‘in your face’ part of the movie ,with most happening in the background, which Adams says necessitated that she and her team work hard to discretely integrate them into the narrative.

She explains that, “[We did that] because I feel like those promposals aren’t something where the whole school stops [for them]. I felt like they’d be happening as our movie was happening. So that was why we layered them in this way.”

Manheim jumps in to say, “The promposals were so fun, because they’re little things that happened behind the scenes, but there was definitely a lot of work put into those.”

However, in using ‘80s movies as a backdrop, says Bowen that the team was aware that some of those storylines are not quite so politically correct anymore. “More than anything, I think when we were developing the movie, [there was some] kicking back against a lot of heteronormative stereotypes of those ’80s movies that feel good to remember, and then you look at them and you go, ‘Ooh, problematic.’”

In fact, there is an in-depth discussion about this in the Prom Pact, with Mandy and Ben discussing the controversial plots of many of the movies from that time period.

Manheim says, “We can acknowledge some aspects of those ’80s movies are a little outdated. However, that doesn’t make them, in general, bad movies. And I think something that’s so great about that time period, is just how, for lack of a better word, classic it is. It’s such a nostalgic period.”

Which feeds into exactly what Bowen and the creative team were going for, she says. “We wanted to make a movie for this generation that incorporated all of that, all that nostalgia for the adults, and also for the kids.”

While the film might inspire some reminiscing, Lee says that it’s about much more than that, saying, “One of the things I loved so much about this project from the very beginning is that you have this girl finding love, and you also have her following her ambitions and her dreams academically.”

Bowen adds, “She is very about her goals and her brain and feeding that first before her heart. But the heart does matter too. I feel like sometimes the balance can go too far one way than the other. So, [this shows that] the idea of a young woman being a feminist and falling in love, yes, they can happen.”

Platonic relationships play a large part of the narrative as well, says Manheim. “One of the biggest themes [in the film] is about friendships and maintaining them. I think that it’s really refreshing [to see Mandy and Ben] just have a woman‑man friendship that doesn’t turn into anything and it’s just what it is.”

Lee agrees, adding, “I think there is a common misconception that if a girl and a boy are friends that there must be some sort of romantic undertones, and I think this movie is special because Ben and Mandy do have this strictly platonic best friendship. Getting to see that kind of love on-screen and showing that it is very real was really fun.”

With Prom Pact, Adams says, “Disney’s pushing the envelope a little bit and stepping into a new teen rom‑com world, and that involves [some] different language, and I think we incorporated it really well.”

What she’s referring to is that one version of the movie has more ‘high school’ references, “more advanced making out, more references to what actually happens at teenage parties,” clarifies Bowen.

And to this end, there is a Disney Channel broadcast version of the film and a Disney+ version for streaming.

“We never want for a kid to inappropriately stumble upon [those scenes],” says Bowen, “So the Disney Channel version doesn’t have those things.”

What both versions do portray very well, says Lee, is Mandy’s desire to succeed in both her personal life and in her career, something that she feels is universal for viewers. “There’s something very empowering about seeing someone on TV doing something that you want to do. So, hopefully this movie gives that role model to young people; basically, saying that you can pursue multiple things, you can do it all.”

‘Prom Pact’ premieres Thursday, March 30^th at 8e/p on the Disney Channel and is available for streaming the next day on Disney+ in the U.S., and rolls out internationally after that.