The Disney Channel’s Rainbow Coalition

According to their credo, Cheetah Girls are created equal, but they are not alike. They come in different sizes, shapes and colors, and they don’t pass judgment on others by the color of their spots. They refuse to spend more time on their hair than their homework. They don’t run with wolves or hang with hyenas. They follow their own dreams and admit when they are wrong. And even though they know grown-ups aren’t always right, they give them respect and, in turn, receive respect from adults.

“The Cheetah Girls,” for anybody older than 20 who may not be familiar with them, are popular young girls’ books by Deborah Gregory. The book series was launched in 1999. Over the last four years, Gregory has penned 13 “Cheetah Girls” books, which follow the adventures of five multicultural girlfriends in New York City who pursue their dream of becoming musical superstars.

And now “The Cheetah Girls” is the Disney Channel’s first musical movie. Premiering Friday, “Cheetah Girls” stars Raven as Galleria Garibaldi, Adri- enne Bailon as Chanel, Kiely Williams as Aqua, Sabrina Bryan as Dorinda Thomas and Cappuccino, Gregory’s own bichon frise dog, as the group’s mascot, Toto.

Debra Martin Chase, executive producer with pop star Whitney Houston, was introduced to the novels in 1999 by her friend and co-producer Cheryl Hill.

“I just fell in love with them and sold them to the Disney Channel,” Chase says. “We originally developed this as a TV series and then, kind of along the way in talking with the network, decided, let’s do a movie first. Let’s flesh out the world and flesh out the characters and really get a sense of what we have and go for it and see what happens.” Depending on how well the film is received, what may happen is a more regular Cheetah Girls series.

Instead of five Cheetah Girls, Friday’s film has four. “That made it easier to manage,” says Chase. “There was not really a white girl [in the novels]. Dorinda, who is a foster child, was of color and uncertain of her exact origins.” For the movie, Dorinda became white. “I thought it was really important that visually all girls saw that they were included in the Cheetah Girls. It’s a state of mind. It’s an attitude. Everybody, no matter the color of your spots, can be a Cheetah Girl.”

In the book and in the movie, Galleria has an African American mother and a white Italian father. Chanel is a Latina. “It’s about what kids are like in the millennium,” says Chase. “It’s about New York. It’s about diversity. It’s looking at people for who they are and what they are, as opposed to what they look like. There haven’t been a lot of biracial kids [in movies and television]. Barriers have come down, but a lot of times the media has been slow to address that. We are one big world. We wanted to reflect that.”

“We are trying to bring everybody together,” says 17-year-old Raven, who headlines a Disney Channel sitcom, “That’s So Raven.”

Youngsters today, she says, don’t discriminate. “We are taught to do that, but by nature, we are open to everything because, why discriminate? So we are trying to bring that out in the movie and show people what our world is really like.”

“The Cheetah Girls” is very much based on Gregory’s own life. Like Dorinda, she grew up in the New York City foster care system. “I knew right off the top when I was creating this, one girl was going to be a foster girl. I knew one was going to be Latin because I grew up in New York and the demographics are very clear to me. This was my fantasy life. I would have liked to have been in a group like that. My fantasy was to be a singer.”

Raven enjoyed playing group leader Galleria, not only because of her character’s headstrong spirit but also because she goes through so many changes during the film. “To see Galleria go through this stage of ‘I’m so famous, don’t talk to me,’ it was cool to play that. I have this scene where I am talking to one of my mentors and I just go straight diva.

“It was so much fun to play because I am not like that in real life. My mom and dad would kick my butt even if I tried to come up a little bit to a grown-up like that. You see her levels and how she progresses from nice girl who has this dream and wants to reach this dream to this girl who is about to reach this dream, but she’s turning into somebody who nobody likes -- which you see a lot of in this business.”

“The Cheetah Girls” can be seen at 8 p.m. Friday on the Disney Channel. The network has rated it TVG (suitable for all ages).

Cover photograph of Raven, left, and Adrienne Bailon by Karen Steyr.