Wizards of Waverly Place

Plot
Wizards of Waverly Place chronicles the adventures of the Russo Family. The Russos live on Waverly Place in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, above a sandwich shop which they own and run. The family consists of siblings Alex (Selena Gomez), Justin (David Henrie), and Max (Jake T. Austin). The three teenagers are wizards and live with their Italian father, Jerry (David DeLuise), a former family wizard, and their mortal Mexican mother, Theresa (María Canals Barrera). When the Russo siblings complete their wizard training, they are to participate in a competition to decide who will become the Family Wizard (the one to keep his/her magical powers forever) of their generation, while the others lose their powers and become mortals. Because of this, Jerry tries to teach his children to not become dependent on magic. Since one of them gets to keep their powers, though, Jerry also gives his children wizard lessons (the lessons end mid Season four). The storage room of the Russo family's sub station is a wizard's lair. In the lair is a Portal which allows them to visit the wizard world, and other creatures to visit them. The headmaster of the wizard council, Professor Crumbs (Ian Abercrombie), regularly pays visits to the Russo home.

The Russo siblings attend Tribeca Preparatory School and constantly encounter their Old West style principal, Mr. Laritate (Bill Chott). Because they live in the mortal world, the Russos are required to keep the existence of wizardry a secret. Even so, Alex's best friend, Harper Finkle (Jennifer Stone), discovers the secret in Season 2's episode "Harper Knows". Justin's best friend, Zeke Beakerman (Dan Benson), also finds out in Season 4's episode "Zeke Finds Out", along with Alex's boyfriend, Mason Greyback (Gregg Sulkin), who is a werewolf.

Movie
Airdate: August 28, 2009

The entire Russo family—Alex (Selena Gomez), Justin (David Henrie), Max (Jake T. Austin), and their parents Jerry (David DeLuise) and Theresa (María Canals Barrera)—are preparing for a vacation to the Caribbean. An unenthusiastic Alex reluctantly agrees to tag along after a death-threatening situation in which Harper (Jennifer Stone) and Alex were almost hit by a coming subway. Justin saves the two for a chance to be praised at using magic to save Alex once again after Alex does something wrong. Once in the Caribbean, the family meets a boy working at the hotel that Alex instantly develops a crush on. The family then visits a street fair, where they meet a street magician and former wizard (Steve Valentine) (who lost the full-wizard contest to his older brother) named Archie who wants to turn his girlfriend, Giselle, from a parrot back into a human by finding the Stone of Dreams, which has the power to grant any wish or reverse any spell. Jerry considers it crazy since many wizards have gone on the quest and never returned.

Later, after Alex was about to use a spell on her mother to convince her to let Alex hang out with the boy from the hotel, she gets caught, grounded and forbidden to use magic for two months. After a heated argument with Theresa, Alex, in a fit of rage, wishes that her parents had never met. The smuggled full-wizard wand and spell book, which Alex was holding at the time, grants her wish. As a result, Jerry and Theresa do not remember Justin, Alex, Max, and they don't know each other.

Alex, Max and Justin attempt to get a spell-book from Jerry by levitating it out of his pocket, but he catches it. Jerry is shown to still have his powers, since he never gave them up to marry Theresa. Jerry has a more carefree attitude with magic due to this change. Justin asks him "hypothetically" what would happen if a wizard wished that her parents never met. Jerry explains how they would gradually forget their past, and then disappear forever. He says it would take a miracle to fix it, whereupon Justin mentions the Stone of Dreams (La Piedra de los Sueños), which Jerry says would work too.

Justin and Alex set off to find the Stone of Dreams, guided by Archie. Along the way, Justin and Alex face many obstacles such as getting across a wide canyon, escaping death from quicksand, and getting across a narrow ledge. Meanwhile, Max stays at the resort to keep his parents from meeting other people. Over the course of the day, Max begins losing his memory. Realizing that something is wrong, Max asks Jerry to help him find Alex and Justin, and Jerry agrees after some persuasion. They are joined by Theresa, who believes them to simply be treasure hunting, but nonetheless proves useful, as she is the only one of them who can speak Spanish.

Eventually, Alex and Justin succeed in finding the Stone of Dreams, but Giselle steals the stone. The kids tell Theresa and Jerry their story. Theresa doesn't believe them because she thinks she would never forget her own children. While trying to figure out how to reverse the spell without the stone of dreams, Jerry mentions that if one of the kids was a full wizard, they might be able to cast a spell to reverse it. While preparing to begin the full-wizard contest, Max finally loses all memory of who he is and gets sucked into the vortex of non-existence. Theresa remembers him slightly, and realizes that they were telling the truth. Realizing they must work quickly, Alex and Justin are transported to an ancient battlefield, where the contest will be held. Jerry explains that they will only be allowed to use spells involving the four elements (water, earth, fire and air). The winner will become a full wizard, and the loser gets nothing while losing their powers forever. Alex and Justin engage in what turns out to be an intense battle, and Alex narrowly wins.

In trying to come up with a spell to fix everything, she turns to Justin for help. However, Justin has lost all his memory (despite the fact that he is older than Alex). Alex tells him that even though they pick on each other, she looks up to him and begs Justin not leave her here alone. Justin tells her that he'd never leave her and that even though he doesn't know her, he believes her, and wants to help, but he cannot and is sucked into the same vortex that Max was.

Meanwhile Theresa is back at the resort and sees that Giselle has returned to human form with the Stone of Dreams hanging by her neck. She wanted to leave Archie now that she was in human form. Archie manages to get the stone from Giselle, turns her back into a parrot, and gives the stone to Theresa. Theresa then wishes to be where Alex, Justin and Jerry are, at which point she is transported to the same battlefield and gives Alex the stone. Jerry tells Alex she can wish for her brothers to reappear and still keep her full wizard powers. However, Alex wishes that everything go back to the way it was before, and time rewinds back to the beginning of the argument between Alex and Theresa that started all the trouble, which is quickly stopped when Alex apologizes and accepts her punishments with grace. While Theresa and Jerry remember nothing about the ordeal, Alex, Justin, and Max do. Their parents are astonished by the change in the kids' attitude.

One Hour Special: The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex
Airdate: March 15, 2013

The Russo family, Harper, and Alex's boyfriend, Mason, arrange "another" congratulations party for Justin for taking over WizTech. A student named Dominic visits the family to inform them that Justin is too busy to get away from work, and flirts with Alex, which makes Mason jealous. Jerry announces a family reunion in Tuscany, Italy. Alex creates a portal between Italy and New York to ease the travel, but gets scolded by Jerry for being immaturely selfish instead.

After a talk with Dominic, Alex tries to prove that she is not the irresponsible wizard she used to be by casting a spell to expel the negative parts of her personality, but accidentally creates an evil reflection of herself in the mirror. The evil Alex escapes the mirror and runs to Italy. Meanwhile, Max gets the attention of an Italian girl and tries to find her, and Jerry and Theresa follow to get him back. They accidentally meet with their cousins and the reunion begins early.

Evil Alex captures Max, Jerry and Theresa with another anonymous evil wizard, who is later revealed to be Dominic, who is nephew to Gorog, leader of the Angels of Darkness, who was destroyed by Alex, Justin and Max. Harper and Alex follow them to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where Harper is also captured. Dominic wants to take over the world by using Alex's magic to capture all mortals in tiny beads through a spell replicator installed at the top of the tower. When she refuses, Evil Alex goes to capture Mason.

To save her family, Alex goes through with Dominic's plan, and, when she gets the bracelet her family is trapped in, is about to reverse the spell. She is instantly transported away and found guilty of attempting to destroy the mortal world, with Dominic's twisted testimony. She is later saved by Mason who manages to escape captivity. The two race back to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, where evil Alex and good Alex end up in a battle by magic and combat at the Russo house and the Jumbotron, while Mason fights Dominic. Alex manages to rescue her family from Evil Alex's hands.

When Dominic knocks out Mason, Alex is about to defeat him. Evil Alex and Dominic join forces against her, but she manages to destroy one of them and free her family. After that, Mason pushes Dominic off the tower. Evil Alex reforms and Alex gives up all of her powers to destroy her evil twin. In the end Alex is given her magic back. The Russo family, Harper and Mason enjoy the rest of their family reunion before heading back to the Sub Station.

The movie ends with Alex telling Harper that they should have to stay in Italy for a while because Jerry and Theresa got upset about their living room being destroyed from the battle between both Alexes.