Disney’s all-new hip-hop musical comedy adventure, World’s Best, starts streaming on June 23rd and you don’t want to miss it. The movie follows 12-year-old mathematics genius Prem Patel. In the midst of navigating the tumultuous hardships of adolescence, he discovers his recently deceased father, Suresh, was a famous rapper and immediately sets out to pursue a career for himself as a rap superstar. While his actions may appear reckless and the quickest way for him to lose everything, Prem, empowered by imaginative hip-hop music-fueled fantasies where he performs with his father, is determined to find out if hip-hop truly is in his DNA. As his father always used to say, “the world’s best never rest.”

We spoke with Utkarsh Ambudkar (Suresh) and Manny Magnus (Prem) about what they hope viewers take away from the film as well as the epic song and dance numbers.

Forming A Father / Son Bond

Utkarsh and Manny are very believable on screen as father and son. You would think that they had a lot of time to form that bond before filming, but surprisingly that was not the case. When we asked them, they revealed they had a day to hangout before filming, at that is it.

Utkarsh Ambudkar: I think we had one or two rehearsals. It was pandemic time, so you weren’t sticking around people that much. But Manny and I got very, very lucky and fortunate of being open and creative and collaborative at the same time. We both wanted the same thing, which is just to do our best and to do well, and I think we both held each other accountable. It was very fun. He’s very fun person to work with.

Manny Magnus adds that he was excited to be a part of this film because he loved the script. Explaining that “the combination of rapping and normal acting was a very unique idea.” He found the combination of math and hip-hop really interesting.

World’s Best Takeaways

There are a lot of great lessons for viewers of all ages, not just kids, in Disney’s World’s Best. When asked what they hope people take away from this film, the cast had a lot of great points.

Utkarsh Ambudkar: I just hope you watch it with your kids and you guys have a nice hug, and they look at you and they go, mom is doing her best. We might want to cut her some slack. Maybe for parents being like, Hey, maybe I should take a little bit more time to listen to what my child loves. And as a parent, I know how hard it can be to to fight the fear. You want to protect your kids. And sometimes we do that at the risk of holding them back. But also like, yo, it’s not easy being a parent. Just cut each other some slack and listen to some good music.

Manny Magnus: Yeah, and you can do more than one thing. Follow your passion.

Utkarsh Ambudkar: We say you need confidence. But when confidence gets confused for arrogance, that’s when we start behaving in ways that we might not be proud of. So it’s that moment where Prem is trying to assert himself, right? And he’s like, I’m not gonna let anybody step on me. But sometimes you go a little too far. And you become the thing that you’re trying to fight against. He’s losing himself a little bit. We got to bring him back with the help of his mom and his dad and his friends and his village. His tribe has to come together to help him find out who he really is.

Epic Song & Dance Numbers

This movie is packed with some pretty epic and incredible hip-hop performances. Not just the rapping, but the choreography is on point as well. When asked which ones were their favorites, Manny jumped right in with a few of his.

Manny Magnus: It’s probably between World’s Best, just because of the huge scale of things, or Halfway Living because it was really cool to have a bunch of fellow dancers. They were really good. They really carried that that scene.

Utkarsh Ambudkar: Our choreographer Bradley Rapier was just amazing and was so patient with everyone. He really brought the best out of Manny who, as you can see, can move so well. He’s such a great dancer. His talent is limitless. Luckily, on this movie, he just he went for it. He shot for the stars. It was great.

“World’s Best” starts streaming on Disney+ on June 23rd 2023.

Tessa Smith

Tessa Smith AKA Mama's Geeky, is a journalist that covers geek and Disney culture on her own website, as well as freelances for other sites such as What's On Disney Plus and Screen Rant. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Marketing and loves all things geeky. She is a Disney Vacation Club member and a Founders Circle Member of Disney+. She is also an approved critic for Rotten Tomatoes and a member of the Critics Choice Association. Tessa lives in Upstate New York with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs named Sansa and Khaleesi.

View all posts