Disney's stamp is all over 'Camp'

Mitchie and Shane will naturally fall in puppy love on their way to self-understanding. (They will do no more than look soulfully into each other's eyes -- and sing, of course.) Shane -- whose negativity was meant only to "keep the poseurs away," like Bob Dylan in "No Direction Home" -- tells Mitchie he is looking for a "new sound," a change from the "stupid cookie-cutter pop-star stuff" he is forced to play by his label. (Although everyone at Camp Rock seems to like it well enough.) To be sure, "cookie-cutter pop-star stuff" is exactly what is on sale here, and that includes Shane's new sound (cookie-cutter pop-star stuff on an acoustic guitar), an irony surely to be lost on the target audience, whether or not it was lost on the producers. I leave off the "stupid," because although this music may be manufactured, it isn't dumb. It is made by people who know just which melodic skip will put a lump in your throat and what chord change will drive you to your feet. It works on me, and I know better.

Aimed at kids who feel themselves unrecognized and invisible, which is to say practically all of them, it exhorts viewers to be themselves. "I've always been the kind of girl that hid my face/So afraid to tell the world what I've got to say," sings Mitchie. "No more hiding who I wanna be/This is me."

"It's not all about your image," Shane tells his class. "None of it means anything unless people see who you really are, and your music has to be who you really are, it has to show how you feel or it doesn't mean anything." Sings the ensemble: "We're not afraid to be/Everything you see/No more hiding/Now we're gonna own it."

Four screenwriters labored to craft this piece, including Julie Brown (of "Earth Girls Are Easy," "Just Say Julie" and elsewhere), who appears as a camp counselor. "Camp Rock" isn't particularly good, but it's good at what it does. The product may be "inauthentic," if such a thing is even possible, but the way it will connect with a lot of little girls and more than a few little boys is real enough. Authenticity is in the heart of the beholder.

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robert.lloyd@latimes.com

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'Camp Rock'

Where: Disney Channel

When: 8 tonight

Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)