Maya & Miguel

To help Tito overcome his stage fright, Maya convinces him to audition for a community theater performance called “The Doubtful Prince.” Maya promises Tito that she’ll get the female lead and be right with him onstage the whole time. But when the director casts Tito in the lead and Maya in a bit part, Tito is bound for stardom – but only if Maya can find a way to keep him from freezing up in front of the audience on opening night.

A hulking new kid named Jimmy McCorkle moves in across the street and – at least it seems to Miguel and his friends – begins to bully everyone around. He kicks Miguel’s soccer ball over the building, rips apart Maya’s favorite video game, and commands Theo to remember his name... or else. Maya, however, is not so sure; she thinks maybe Jimmy’s not so bad. When Jimmy buys Maya and Miguel’s favorite bunny rabbit from the pet store, Maya decides they have to find out once and for all whether Jimmy really is a bully, or just misunderstood.

Noticing that everyone in her family is overworked, overtired, and overstressed, Maya concludes that they all have been missing family time – quality time spent alone as a family. Maya and Miguel plan a camping trip to a state park – and do all the planning and packing themselves to make things easier on their very busy parents and grandmother. But when they arrive at their campsite, the kids have forgotten some essentials, and rain, wildlife, and a capsized boat threaten to make their escape a disaster. In the end, however, la familia Santos discovers the only thing they really need is time together.

Chrissy is down in the dumps because the pop star Enrique has not answered the hundreds of fan letters she has sent. So Maya decides to cheer her up with a surprise birthday party. When all the party preparations — from the cake to the décor to the entertainment — go awry, Maya reasons there’s only one way to salvage things: get Enrique himself to show up! With Miguel and Abuelita at her side, Maya braves hordes of Enrique-maniacs in an effort to convince the megastar to make an appearance at her friend’s birthday.

When Maya realizes that their neighbors Greg and Isoka Okri don't have any children of their own, she concludes that their life must be horribly empty – after all, her parents are always saying how Maya and Miguel are the light of their life. So Maya engineers things so she and Miguel spend the better part of a weekend with the Okris. However, between roller coaster rides, kid-friendly restaurants, homemade facial treatments, and breakfast in bed, the Okris get a lot more than they bargained for.

Maya's friend Chrissy discovers that her father has been transferred and is moving the whole family to Hong Kong. Chrissy is so distraught that she doesn't want to go. Eager to help her friend adjust to a very different culture, Maya enlists Miguel and the gang to introduce Chrissy to Hong Kong. They stage an imaginative (and homemade) voyage to show her a variety of interesting places: a restaurant that serves dim sum, a pink dolphin-watching cruise, and the dragon boat races. By the end, Chrissy is so enchanted that she can't wait to move to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the transfer falls through... and Chrissy doesn't move. But at least las tres amigas” get to stay together!

It’s Career Day in Maya and Miguel’s class, and each kid gets to spend a whole day with a classmate’s parent or grandparent as a “mentor.” While Miguel lucks into spending the day with an astronaut, Maya ends up with Mort, an insurance salesman who has lost his belief in himself. Maya takes it upon herself to find Mort a new career, but ultimately discovers that what he really needs is simply some help restoring his confidence.

Tito really admires his big cousin Miguel. So much so, in fact, that he begins to feel bad about himself – after all, Miguel does everything so well, it’s sometimes hard to measure up. But at Maya’s inadvertent suggestion, Tito realizes there is one way to be just as cool as Miguel: to imitate everything Miguel says, does, and wears, from his sneakers to his haircut. Miguel is flattered by this new “mini-Miguel,” but Maya gradually finds the whole thing annoying, and even more so because the flattery is clearly going to Miguel’s head. It’s only when Tito — in helping Maya and Miguel in an emergency — discovers some of his own talents that he goes back to being just plain Tito. Everyone is thrilled to have him back.

When Maya and Miguel’s soccer coach leaves to become a professional player, the gang is left without a coach. A frantic search for a new coach is unsuccessful. Finally, Maya notices that her mom is a fairly adept player... perhaps she should be the new coach! Rosa is talked into the idea. Rosa turns out to be an excellent coach, and all the kids love her... except Maya and Miguel don’t like the two parts of their lives crossing over like this. Rosa keeps telling stories about them and calling them cute names that are embarrassing! They ask Rosa to step down as coach, which she agrees to do. But when they realize that they don’t play as well without her, Maya and Miguel beg her to come back and help them before a big game. Rosa declines. During the game, Maya and Miguel’s team is losing badly... so the new coach turns to Rosa for a little inspiration. Rosa gives the team a pep talk and some coaching from the sidelines... and the gang wins! In the end, Maya and Miguel learn to be proud of their mom... and to occasionally let her embarrass them.

Miguel enters a comic book contest. Before he can finish his original comic book loosely based on Aztec mythology entitled, “The Adventures of Rabbit-Bird Man,” Miguel comes down with a bad cold. Miguel has left the hero in grave jeopardy, and he implores Maya to finish the comic book and save him. Maya rounds up the gang to help her think of a way to save the hero from the bad guy. In a series of vignettes, we see each kid’s proposed ending: Tito imagines a heroic soccer player (who looks just like him) saving the day, Theo pitches a robot boy (who looks just like him) saving the day, and Maggie and Chrissy imagine a fantastic singing duo (who look just like them) saving the day. With the clock ticking and no clear ending, Maya decides that they should combine all of their endings together, and make one grand finale. In the end, Maya’s cooperative ending nets Miguel a prize for “Most Creative.”

Maya and Miguel seem to have an aptitude for their favorite TV game show. But when they decide to audition, they discover that they have very different approaches to training. As they move from one stage to the next —- preparing for the audition, passing the trial, training for the show —- their own rivalry grows more intense, and they lose the knack of working together. Only when they are on live TV, confronted by an unscrupulous contestant who will do anything to win, are they able to put aside their little differences and work together as sister and brother.