Holes: Impact of a Legend

So I was scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook earlier and saw a post that said today is the 22 year anniversary of the Disney hit film Holes. Not one kid who grew up in the early 2000s needs an explanation as to why this is important, even many of young kids from the current generation understand this significance. Holes is one of our favorite Disney movies and one of all of our favorites.

Released on April 18, 2003, Holes tells the story of a young man named Stanley Yelnats (portrayed by Disney star Shia Labeouf) and his journey from bad luck to destiny. Due to a family curse of bad luck, Stanley ends up at Camp Green Lake, a detention center for troubled youth, after he is wrongfully convicted of stealing a pair of shoes from a homeless shelter. While at Camp Green Lake Stanley is subjected to dig a hole everyday as a means of discipline. He also befriends a group of like minded troubled youth who all go by nicknames, especially a young boy named Hector who goes by the nickname name Zero.

Camp Green Lake is ran by a trio of shady counselors including Louise Walker (portrayed by Sigourney Weaver), Mr. Sir (portrayed by Jon Voight) and Steve Pendanski (portrayed by Tim Blake Nelson). They run the camp under the guise of teacher character to troubled, but their true motive is about unearthing a buried secret linked to Stanley’s family history.

The movie also carries a subplot about a female outlaw named Katherine “Kissin’ Kate” Barlow (portrayed by Patricia Arquette), a school teacher from the town of Greenlake, Texas who became an outlaw when her love interest, a black man named Sam the onion man (portrayed by Dulé Hill) was lynched for being in an interracial relationship with Katherine. Their history is also intertwined with Stanley’s family history.

Based on the 1998 novel of the same name by author Louis Sachar, Holes is an amazing film with a great story, rounded out by an even greater cast which also includes Henry Winkler, Sobian Fallon Hogan, Nathan Davis, Scott Plank and basketball legend, Rick Fox. I think best quality the film had was Louis Sachar who wrote the book is also the film’s screenwriter, so he knew how to adjust everything to make it work for the big screen. The film also does a great job at being a well rounded Disney film for kids, but also having a serious degree of maturity and sophistication that adults were also able to appreciate.

Anyone who was a kid back then also remembers that one of the best qualities about Holes was it’s soundtrack. The movie’s theme song “Dig It” which was performed by the film’s younger cast mates known as the D-tent Boys in the film. This catchy rap record was played every single day on Disney channel, with everyone of us kids not only knowing the song by heart, but even coming up with our own renditions of the song that we sang at the playgrounds and lunch tables. The soundtrack also has a great lineup of songs from big name acts like Moby, Shaggy and Eagle Eye Cherry.

Holes was released to large success, receiving high critical acclaim and making over 70 million at the box office on a 17 million dollar budget. To this day Holes is regarded as one of Disney’s best live action adaptations, especially when talking about the 90’s and early 2000’s. Holes became an instant favorite of mines from the moment it came on back in 2003. I actually loved the movie so much that I went back and read the book, which to this day is still one of my favorite books ever. In this new generation there’s been talks of adapting Holes into a series for Disney Plus, that sounds like a great idea considering the classic status of this film that we all still love today.