Ahonaho High: The Movie

Ahonaho High: The Movie is a 2023 adventure musical comedy-drama film based on the CTV teen drama Ahonaho High. A co-production between Arola and the, the film stars an ensemble cast led by Scarlett Gurtchev, Aria Gurtchev, Nicole Gonzales and Albert Koski. Taking place after the eighth season of Ahonaho High, the film follows Cerise and Lani Salmela, who travel to the United States with Elise Chavez to launch Chavez’s music career.

The film was released on on June 30, 2023 and received mixed reviews from critics with praise for its characters and music, but criticism for its derivative climax. A spin-off series taking place after the events of the film, Ahonaho University, is scheduled to premiere on Paramount+ on December 15, 2023.

Plot
Following the events of the series finale of Ahonaho High “Graduation”, aspiring student Elise Chavez decides to use her fame from her YouTube video and funds from the fundraiser to land a career as a Eurodance singer. With the help of her classmate Lani Salmela and her elder sister Cerise, they successfully buy three air tickets to.

A week later, they board their flight in Kelvia and head off to Mattila Records in Los Angeles to make a good impression. After being denied entry into the auditions room as registrations had already closed, Elise resorts to sneaking in with the two. The owner of the record label, business mogul James Mattila, is initially unimpressed with her singing but his son Ryan eventually convinces him by showing the millions of views on her video. Mattila then lets Elise sign a contract and allows her to stay at the nearby luxurious Mattila Palm Hotel for free indefinitely.

On the first day of recording, Elise is inspired to write a song after exploring the hotel, which she names “On a Golden Cloud”. The single is a critical and commercial success, even managing to overtake other singers signed to Mattila Records in sales. This angers James as the profit earned would go to Elise once the contract ends. James ultimately comes up with a plan to take advantage of Elise against Ryan’s wishes, causing Ryan to feel suspicious of his father.

As Elise continues producing more songs and releases her first studio album, the trio travel to San Diego for Elise’s inaugural concert. At the start of the concert, the microphone initially fails to work briefly, but all goes as planned until Elise’s voice appears to have been voice cracked mid-song. She ignores it and continues to sing but her voice on the speakers unexpectedly becomes altered as manly and eventually the voice starts insulting the crowd.

Despite Elise’s attempts, the crowd begins jeering at her and leave the stage. In the backstage, Elise realises that her social media accounts have received countless of negative and hate comments, resulting in her being devastated and goes into an emotional breakdown. While Lani and Cerise tries to console her, Ryan reveals that James is only exploiting Elise for money.

Upon returning to the headquarters of Mattila Records, Ryan notices that the masters of Elise’s songs are nowhere to be found and suspects that James has stolen them. Elise, remembering that her fundraiser video contained an original song that James did not have the rights to, decides to bring it to the stage. In Las Vegas, Elise realises that her potential patrons had cancelled their tickets for her concert, but Lani and Ryan come up with an idea to livestream her singing unedited to the public. Elise then sings “This Is Me”, which manages to regain her popularity and attracting nearby crowds. Just as she finishes her song, James drives a bus into the amphitheater, refusing to accept defeat and tries to take credit for the concert. However, he is unsuccessful and arrested by police on the spot.

With her concert tour coming to a close, Elise decides to stay in the United States to launch her career as a singer with a new independent record label, while Ryan has promised to go on a date with Cerise in Arola. Elise says her last goodbyes with Lani, Cerise and Ryan as the latter two leave for their flight back to Kelvia. As they board the plane, Lani asks Cerise “So what now?”, ending the film on a cliffhanger.

Cast

 * Scarlett Gurtchev as Lani Salmela
 * Nicole Gonzales as Elise Chavez
 * Aria Gurtchev as Cerise Salmela
 * Albert Koski as James Mattila
 * Elina Koponen as Kyra Kokko
 * Alex Kivi as Chandler Siltala
 * Evan Brooke as Ryan Mattila

Production
On August 19, 2022, a feature-length film adaptation of Ahonaho High was announced to be in development for in a Twitter post by the series’ creator Ralf Ikonen. Principal photography began the following month in, California and concluded in December 2022. In January 2023, the film was revealed to be a musical film and had its release date set for June 30 that year.