As I sat down to watch Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, I was not sure what I was getting myself into. The movie could have easily turned out to be a disastrous and cliche trainwreck, but instead it was a film that pulled at my heart and left me wanting to sing and dance alongside the lively cast.

The movie is an outstanding sequel to the original 2008, Mamma Mia. The musical involves flashbacks to the 1979 lifestyle of young Donna Sheridan (Lily James) and follows her through her journey to Kalokairi, a beautiful, compact Greek island. Throughout her adventures, Donna meets Harry, Bill, and Sam; they teach her what it feels like to be in love, and they also inflict the true feeling of heartbreak into her life. In the present day, Donna’s daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) plans the grand reopening of the Hotel Bella Donna dedicated to her recently deceased mother. Sophie reunites with her mother’s best friends and boyfriends to throw the best reopening party to honor her mother’s spirit. Along the way, Sophie feels a strong connection to her mother’s past life, and she learns the valued importance of family and friends.

The 2018 jukebox musical features the classic songs from the band Abba. Many of the hit songs were perfectly tied into the movie; the producers, Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman, stray far from the obnoxious, in-your-face musical that is often as dreadful as watching a movie where a dog dies. Instead, the songs were performed at the appropriate times, and they truly related to the plot of the movie.

Although the plot may have been a bit stretched from reality at times, the acting was outstanding and made me feel a strong connection to the characters. They all caught my attention and seemed to pull me into their own worlds. I could feel the pain, joy, and excitement that flew through the characters’ lives. Not only did every actor play their role with grand emotion, they also fit the part and truly looked like the free-spirited, attractive young men and women you would find on a small island.

Even with the bits and pieces of gushy moments, the movie was still an amazingly shot film. The gorgeous and charming Greek island made me want to plan my next tropical vacation. The beautiful, bright, blue waters and the sunny skies came through the screen flawlessly. Each scene was so picturesque that I wanted to pause the movie just to look at the amazing scenery surrounding the film.

As far as special scenes go, the connection and chemistry between the characters is inevitable. The mushy love scenes are anything but cliche and cheesy. They can be predictable at times, but they truly left me jaw-dropped and wanting more. Throughout the movie, I fell in love with all of the characters and found myself fantasizing over a life like Sophie’s. Living on an island with the love of your life, family, and friends is a dream almost anybody would wish to make reality.

As I watched the movie, I found it strikingly similar to 1978’s Grease. Both musicals were filled with love stories, heartbreak, and plenty of preppy singing and dancing. Just like Grease, the sequel to Mamma Mia left me in a good mood and is now a movie I can add to my list of movies to watch hundreds of times again.

Although the movie may seem simply like a light-hearted, feel-good film, buried underneath it all is an important life lesson that can be taken away by the audience: the true importance of love and family. In the film, the characters are able to realize how the love of family can change your life forever. She learns throughout her adventures that the only thing that is able to mend her broken heart is surrounding herself with the ones she loves. Lessons like these are what make movies stick with people forever, and this sequel does exactly that.