Smash Mouth’s “All Star” is thestuff of internet legend, but it didn’t start out that way. Following the success of their previous hit “Walkin’ on the Sun,” Smash Mouth needed another banger to head up their newest album,Astro Lounge. The band’s manager explicitly told Smash Mouth that the album needed a single, and so songwriter and guitarist Greg Camp set out to make just that. Using the letters of bullied fans as inspiration, Camp wrote “All Star” for the purportedly “85 to 90 percent” of fans that needed the anthemic pick-me-up.
“All Star” was a hit, even earning a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 2000 (it lost to Santana’s “Maria Maria”). The song was everywhere, including in movies and on television. “All Star” is the kind of songtraining montages are made for, an energetic reminder that anything is possible if you set your mind to it. Of course, there are also those times when filmmakers don’t get it quite right, failing to use “All Star” to its full emotional potential. From mediocre to pitch-perfect, here are the top eight uses of “All Star” in TV and movies.
8Inspector Gadget
BeforeShrek, even beforeMystery Men, “All Star” played in a small scene of Disney’sInspector Gadget. Based on the ’80s cartoon of the same name,Inspector Gadgetis basicallyRoboCop, but for kids. The film follows John Brown (Matthew Broderick), a mild-mannered security guard who dreams of becoming a police officer and hero.
After a break-in at the robotics laboratory where he works, John is brought back from the brink of death thanks to the advanced robotics work of Dr. Brenda Bradford (Joely Fisher). With his newfound body, John becomes the heroic Inspector Gadget and must use his new powers to defeat the maniacal Dr. Claw (Rupert Everett).
“All Star” plays a minuscule part inInspector Gadget: while driving in the Gadgetmobile with niece Penny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and dog Brain, the song is playing on the radio. The song doesn’t have much if anything to do with the scene itself and could easily be replaced by any other top-twenty jam. Still, this is the first time “All Star” was in any movie (Mystery Mencame out the following month).
Anyone who grew up in the era of “All Star” is sure to remember at least one rally or other school event punctuated by the anthemic tune. It’s no surprise, then, that the song would appear in the 2008 documentaryFlunked. The film, narrated by Joe Mantegna, is an exploration of the American public school system and what the filmmakers think can be done to improve it.
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In one scene, the documentary focuses on a group of“all-star” teachers. The Smash Mouth hit plays over a montage of teachers lecturing, grading, etc. It’s a brief moment in a short documentary — the film is only 49 minutes long — but the use of “All Star” inFlunkedis a well-placed reminder of school assemblies gone by.
6Mystery Men
BeforeShrek,Mystery Menwas the movie most closely tied to “All Star.” It is, after all, the aesthetic basis for the accompanying Smash Mouth music video. In the video, clips fromMystery Menare paired with scenes of the band performing on similar sets.
The movie itself is a comedic sendup of superhero tropes about a trio of low-power heroes — Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), The Shoveler (William H. Macy), and Blue Raja (Hank Azaria) — as they team up to stop the reality-bending power super villain Cassanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush).Mystery Menwas a box-office bomb but has since gained cult status and is beloved by fans.
Despite the song’s obvious connection to the movie, “All Star” doesn’t have a huge presence inMystery Men. In fact, it’s almost muted. This song that seems almost designed for training montages does indeed play in a training montage — for all of about five seconds. “All Star” does play once more, this time as the film fades to credits. It’s a strange choice to use the film so illiberally and definitely is disappointing for viewers eager to actually hear “All Star” in the movie.
5Digimon: The Movie
It’s no secret that localization of anime—especially for kids—wasn’t great in the 90s and early 2000s. Case in point:Digimon: The Movie. The2000 animated film is notorious among fanstoday for its misuse of source material.Digimon: The Movietakes footage from three Japanese movies—Digimon Adventure,Digimon Adventure: Our War Game, andDigimon Adventure 02: Hurricane Landing!!— and edits them together with a loose, overarching plot about a virus infecting the digital monsters.
The placement of “All Star” in the English dub ofDigimon: The Movieis downright strange. The movie ends on a bittersweet note as Kokomon/Endigomon dies to destroy the computer virus. As his companion, Willis, remembers his friend, “All Star” plays. It’s a tonally confusing move that fits with the rest of the editing choices inDigimon: The Movie.
4Sabrina the Teenage Witch - “Super Hero”
Long before Sabrina Spellman’s dark turn as an occultic witch fighting Satan, she was just a girl trying to balance her dual lives as human and witch. Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) lives with her magical aunts Hilda and Zelda and their witch-turned-cat Salem.Sabrina the Teenage Witchbegan life on ABC and was the highest-rated series onthe network’s popular TGIF lineup. After four seasons, the show moved over to The WB for three more before the series ended in 2003.
Related:Shrek: Best Songs in the Franchise, Ranked
The episode with “All Star” comes in the Season 4 episode “Super Hero.” Much of the plot follows Sabrina’s principal, Willard Kraft, as he goes through a sort of midlife crisis. Tired of his life as an educator, Kraft tries out a number of different career options at Zelda’s behest. In a montage featuring “All Star,” Kraft attempts and fails at being a basketball player, children’s entertainer, a painter, and a tattoo artist.
Directed by Jerry Zucker ofAirplane!fame and inspired by the 1963 filmIt’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,Rat Raceis a comedy about a group of average people competing in a race across states for a multimillion-dollar prize. Featuring an all-star cast that includes John Cleese, Cuba Gooding Jr., Seth Green, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz, and Rowan Atkinson,Rat Racewasn’t critically acclaimed but still doubled its budget at the box office.
Rat Raceends with the competitors finding the coveted $2 million duffel bag, only to realize that they’re at a benefit concert featuring none other than Smash Mouth. Despite some objections, the group ultimately decided to donate all their winnings to charity. Smash Mouth plays “All Star,” and the characters all dance together to the uplifting anthem.
29-1-1 - “Buck Begins”
Police procedural9-1-1is the brainchild ofAmerican Horror StoryandGleecreators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck. The show follows Los Angeles first responders, namely police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and dispatchers. Among them is Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark), a confident and brash firefighter whose heart is always in the right place.
The Season 4 episode “Buck Begins” gives the backstory to the firefighter’s personality and relationship with his sister, Maddie. As a young boy, Buck found that the most effective way of getting his parents’ attention was to be as reckless as possible, so that’s exactly what he did. During a montage of Buck crashing his bike, falling of his skateboard, and tumbling from a tree, “All Star” plays, highlighting Buck’s delight when his recklessness proves fruitful.
After years of play in movies, TV shows, memes, and more, “All Star” is still inexorably linked to one movie:Shrek. This fantasy sendup of the Disney movies that inspired it is a modern classic, made more so by itsoverabundant presence in meme culture. That aside, thefilm’s soundtrackuses the song surprisingly well, setting the jovial, not-so-serious tone of this absurd children’s movie.
Surprisingly enough, “All Star” wasn’t supposed to be used inShrek’s opening credits. Producers liked the feeling Smash Mouth’s chart-topper evoked, but it had already been featured in then-recent moviesInspector Gadget,Mystery Men, andRat Race, and so set their music division on creating a song that was similar to “All Star.”
According to ahistory of the song from The Ringer, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg watched the opening sequence with the new song before asking “Why don’t you just use ‘All Star’?” Though the musician who came up with the replacement song was rightfully disappointed, there’s no questioning that “All Star” is the perfect way to openShrek.
