The Cheetah Girls 2 (also known as The Cheetah Girls: When In Spain in the working title) is a 2006 American musicalcomedy film and the sequel to the Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM), The Cheetah Girls. Directed by Kenny Ortega, the sequel is about the talented teen quartet who take a whirlwind tour of Spain to pursue their dreams of pop superstardom. Unlike its predecessor, which incorporated karaoke-like musical numbers, The Cheetah Girls 2 resembled more of a traditional musical.
The film's premiere received the highest ratings of all Disney Channel Movies at its time, a total of over 8.1 million viewers, beating the premiere ratings of High School Musical (7.7 million), and previous record holder, Cadet Kelly (7.8 million). The Cheetah Girls 2 is also the highest-rated film of TheCheetah Girls trilogy.[1]The Cheetah Girls 2 was the highest-rated Disney Channel Original Movie of 2006 and, as of 2024, is the joint-eighth-highest-rated Disney Channel Original Movie of all time. The Cheetah Girls 2 was also the last The Cheetah Girls film to feature Raven-Symoné.
The film begins in Manhattan, two years after the events of the first film, The Cheetah Girls. The girls have just completed their junior year, and are performing at a Graduation Party for the Manhattan Magnet's Class of 2006 ("The Party's Just Begun").
Later, while having a sleep-over at Galleria's (Raven-Symoné) home, Chanel (Adrienne Bailon) tells the girls that her mother, Juanita (Lori Anne Alter), is planning a trip to Barcelona, Spain, where she and Adrienne will be visiting Luc (Abel Folk), Juanita's boyfriend. Aqua (Kiely Williams) sees a shooting star and the girls make a wish together—to go to Spain with Chanel. A gust of wind flips one of the girls’ magazine pages to an ad for a Barcelona music festival. Galleria enters The Cheetah Girls in to perform and, the next day, her mother Dorothea (Lynn Whitfield), Juanita, and the rest of the girls all decide to travel to Spain together.
When the girls arrive in Barcelona, they meet Angel (Peter Vives), a mysterious guitar player who accompanies them around Barcelona as they sing to the entire city ("Strut"). The next day, the girls successfully audition for the festival ("Cheetah Sisters").
The following day, they meet Joaquin (Golan Yosef), Luc's godson and a dancer who becomes interested in the fourth and final The Cheetah Girls member, Dorinda (Sabrina Bryan). Dorinda visits his studio where he teaches her Ballroom Tango ("Dance With Me").
That night, Joaquin takes the Cheetahs to The Dancing Cat, a local Spanish night club where all of the new artists perform their songs ("Why Wait") ("A La Nanita Nana"). They meet and befriend Marisol (Belinda), a beloved Spanish pop star, who will also compete in the Music Festival, and her momager, Lola (Kim Manning). Lola appears nice and wins the Cheetah Girls' affection, but secretly plans a scheme to break up the girls, as they pose a threat to her daughter's chances in the competition. Meanwhile, Aqua and Dorothea have been designing clothes, Juanita is trying to get a proposal out of Luc, Dorinda is teaching hip hop to Joaquin's class, and Galleria is the only one focused on the competition, as she is writing a song called, "Amigas Cheetahs", which they will sing at the competition ("Do Your Own Thing").
Galleria notices that everyone is getting involved in other activities except for her ("It's Over"), and eventually decides to take a train to Paris, where she can meet up with her father and go home. While at a train station, the other three girls find Galleria and convince her to stay after promising to stay focused. Later, Chanel overhears Juanita talking to Dorothea about how she believes that Luc doesn't want to marry her because Chanel doesn't like him. Luc later proposes to Juanita, after Chanel gives him permission, and she gladly accepts. Luc tells Chanel that she can stay in New York with her friends for her upcoming senior year.
After the Cheetah Girls finish performing at The Dancing Cat ("Step Up"), Lola convinces the club manager to pay the Cheetah Girls. The competition will only allow amateur performs to compete, and accepting payment disqualified them. They return the money and Angel, who was present during the entire exchange, investigates.
Lola suggests that since the Cheetah Girls cannot perform as a group, Chanel should perform with Marisol instead. Right before Chanel is going to perform with Marisol, the Festival Director informs that the Cheetah Girls are able to perform after speaking to Angel, who is revealed to be his nephew. He informed the director of Lola’s attempts, and his uncle reinstates the group. Marisol stands up to her mother and drops out of the competition. The Cheetah Girls then perform "Amigas Cheetahs" and bring Marisol onto the stage, along with Joaquin's dancing crew, Angel on the guitar and the Director on the trumpet, and the film ends.
In an alternate ending, Juanita and Luc get married ("Cherish the Moment"). This scene is not shown in TV or sing-along versions.
Kim Manning as Lola Durán, Marisol's mother and manager, and the main antagonist of the film. She plans to break up the Cheetah Girls in order to ensure that her daughter wins the competition and becomes a star. In the end, she also befriends the Cheetah Girls.
The premiere of the movie became Disney Channel's highest-rated Disney Channel Original Movie with a total of 8.1 million viewers, beating the previous record holder Cadet Kelly, which had a total of 7.8 million viewers. This was then beat by Jump In!, which closely beat it with 8.2 million viewers. Currently, the highest-rated DCOM is High School Musical 2 with 17.2 million viewers. A repeat during the weekend gathered a massive 7.82 million viewers, tallying the total number of viewers to 15.9 million viewers.[3]The Cheetah Girls 2 is currently the sixth-highest-viewed DCOM as of September 2010. It was the highest-viewed DCOM of 2006, following the footsteps of the first film, which was the highest-viewed of 2003. Feedback to the movie has been generally positive for the target audience.
Ultimate Disney said "this film lays off on some of the annoyances found in the first film. The Cheetah Girls have grown up and thus grown out of the annoying tweenage girl characterizations that are now seen in the snobby minor characters of Hannah Montana". The review went on to say "the nicest thing about this sequel is that on screen, the Cheetah Girls still seem to exemplify a deep friendship among a group of young women. The chemistry between the central actresses is strong, making them a believable group of friends who appear to be having a lot of fun making this movie".[4]
About.com was also favourable, commenting "The Cheetah Girls 2 contains the expected cheesiness, drama, and unrealistic plot, but I have to admit that I was totally taken in".[5]Common Sense Media wrote that "the characters have aged, and their flair for drama has taken a backseat to introspective decision making and goal setting, making them more realistic (and positive) role models".[6]
The Cheetah Girls 2: Cheetah-Licious Edition was released on November 28, 2006. The Region 1 DVD includes Spanish audio tracks.
The Cheetah Girls 2 – As Feras da Música DVD was released in Brazil on April 11, 2007.
The Cheetah Girls 2: Cheetah-Licious Edition DVD was released in the UK on May 21, 2007.
The Cheetah Girls 2 DVD was released in Italy on May 23, 2007, with audio tracks in Italian, German, English, Spanish and French and with extra features.
The Cheetah Girls 2: Cheetah-Licious Edition DVD was released in Hong Kong on June 26, 2007. The Region 3 DVD includes audio tracks in English, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese, and subtitles in English, Traditional Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
2007 – Nominated; Imagen Awards Imagen Award for Best Director – Film (Kenny Ortega)
2007 – Nominated; Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing in Music for Television – Long Form (Carli Barber; music editor)
