High School Musical
Year: 2006
Director: Kenny Ortega
Starring: Zac Efron, Lucas Gabreel, Vanessa Hudgens & Ashley Tisdale
Runtime: 98 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 22/01/21
Director: Kenny Ortega
Starring: Zac Efron, Lucas Gabreel, Vanessa Hudgens & Ashley Tisdale
Runtime: 98 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 22/01/21
I was not a Disney kid growing up. Whilst I certainly enjoyed the Disney animated films, I never watched the Disney Channel, and was never a fan of the live action series they made. However, there was one craze I got swept up in around the time of its release and that was the Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical.
Upon its release in 2006 if you were of schooling age then it’s almost guaranteed you at least knew what HSM was, and most probably had friends that were obsessed with it. But it’s been fifteen years since the film released, and around half a decade since I last saw it. So, it’s probably about time I revisited my youth and worked out what all the fuss was about with High School Musical.
Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) meets Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) whilst on holiday at a ski resort over the Christmas break from school. When Troy returns to East High School, he is keen to tell all his friends that he had a great time snowboarding, but notably omits meeting Gabriella and singing with her at the resorts New Year’s Eve party.
It just so happens that Gabriella has moved to New Mexico and will also be attending East High, as well as being in many of the same classes as Troy. The two reacquaint themselves and want to relive the magic of the party by singing together again, however it seems the only way they can think of to do this is by joining the upcoming school musical.
They face stiff competition from the theatre twins Ryan and Sharpay Evans (Lucas Gabreel & Ashley Tisdale) who do whatever they can to sabotage Troy & Gabriella from landing roles in the musical; but they also face disapproval from a more unlikely place, their friends.
I can’t really believe I didn’t notice this when I was younger, but High School Musical is basically Grease but with added context for the singing. Two sweethearts meet on holiday, the girl joins the boy’s school and the two become close, but their friends constantly disapprove of the others presence because they are afraid that being around each other will change them. Whilst the subtleties of the story change (like Grease’s somewhat problematic ending), the core concept is exactly the same.
Upon its release in 2006 if you were of schooling age then it’s almost guaranteed you at least knew what HSM was, and most probably had friends that were obsessed with it. But it’s been fifteen years since the film released, and around half a decade since I last saw it. So, it’s probably about time I revisited my youth and worked out what all the fuss was about with High School Musical.
Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) meets Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) whilst on holiday at a ski resort over the Christmas break from school. When Troy returns to East High School, he is keen to tell all his friends that he had a great time snowboarding, but notably omits meeting Gabriella and singing with her at the resorts New Year’s Eve party.
It just so happens that Gabriella has moved to New Mexico and will also be attending East High, as well as being in many of the same classes as Troy. The two reacquaint themselves and want to relive the magic of the party by singing together again, however it seems the only way they can think of to do this is by joining the upcoming school musical.
They face stiff competition from the theatre twins Ryan and Sharpay Evans (Lucas Gabreel & Ashley Tisdale) who do whatever they can to sabotage Troy & Gabriella from landing roles in the musical; but they also face disapproval from a more unlikely place, their friends.
I can’t really believe I didn’t notice this when I was younger, but High School Musical is basically Grease but with added context for the singing. Two sweethearts meet on holiday, the girl joins the boy’s school and the two become close, but their friends constantly disapprove of the others presence because they are afraid that being around each other will change them. Whilst the subtleties of the story change (like Grease’s somewhat problematic ending), the core concept is exactly the same.
Whilst the characters are little more than archetypes, especially secondary characters, they serve the purpose of the story well. It’s not intended to be complex, or even particularly innovative, it’s just meant to be a pre-teen musical. Performances from the likes of Efron and Hudgens are solid enough considering this is a low budget affair, but it’s clear how inexperienced the two of them are at times with some occasionally stilted dialogue delivery.
It also bugs me just how awful Troy and Gabriella’s friends are. Like I know that it’s kind of the whole point of the film to make the two of them re-evaluate what friendship is, but it’s crazy how narrow minded these kids are to the point of it being unrealistic. Troy’s Basketball teammates won’t let him sing in his spare time because he plays basketball and those two aren’t supposed to mix…like what? It also becomes even more confusing when those same basketball players are given TWO musical numbers about how singing isn’t cool and basketball is.
There were two things that stood out the most to me after having not seen the film in such a long time though. The first is just how low budget the film is. I mean I know this was a made for TV film, but it’s astonishing how low the production budget appears to be at times. The script is not particularly well written. There’s editing inconsistencies all over the place. All of the singing was dubbed over in post-production and it’s not been lip synced very well. And the extras and minor characters are almost all really awful with many of them fudging up the choreography, looking at the camera, or just generally not being a very good actor.
But all that being said, the second thing that stood out to me was just how great the musical numbers are. In fact, some of them are so good that it seems incredible that they were able to be so refined in how they were choreographed and shot. Anyone who has heard the soundtrack knows that the songs are generally ok, a few of them are even good, but once you pair them with the visuals of the dance numbers it makes them great.
High School Musical is most definitely not a ‘great’ film by conventional means. But It is a fun time, and especially for pre-teens it’s going to be fantastic. I can understand why the film took off as well as it did because even though most of the film can feel a little bit undercooked at times, as a whole is still very enjoyable because those musical numbers are so good.
Seeing as Disney is in the remake trend at the moment, I’d love to see them remake HSM but with a much larger budget and produce a film that is much more refined. Will it have the same magical charm that this film does? Probably not for my generation, but I do think it would be a hit all over again with kids that were my age when the film first released.
It also bugs me just how awful Troy and Gabriella’s friends are. Like I know that it’s kind of the whole point of the film to make the two of them re-evaluate what friendship is, but it’s crazy how narrow minded these kids are to the point of it being unrealistic. Troy’s Basketball teammates won’t let him sing in his spare time because he plays basketball and those two aren’t supposed to mix…like what? It also becomes even more confusing when those same basketball players are given TWO musical numbers about how singing isn’t cool and basketball is.
There were two things that stood out the most to me after having not seen the film in such a long time though. The first is just how low budget the film is. I mean I know this was a made for TV film, but it’s astonishing how low the production budget appears to be at times. The script is not particularly well written. There’s editing inconsistencies all over the place. All of the singing was dubbed over in post-production and it’s not been lip synced very well. And the extras and minor characters are almost all really awful with many of them fudging up the choreography, looking at the camera, or just generally not being a very good actor.
But all that being said, the second thing that stood out to me was just how great the musical numbers are. In fact, some of them are so good that it seems incredible that they were able to be so refined in how they were choreographed and shot. Anyone who has heard the soundtrack knows that the songs are generally ok, a few of them are even good, but once you pair them with the visuals of the dance numbers it makes them great.
High School Musical is most definitely not a ‘great’ film by conventional means. But It is a fun time, and especially for pre-teens it’s going to be fantastic. I can understand why the film took off as well as it did because even though most of the film can feel a little bit undercooked at times, as a whole is still very enjoyable because those musical numbers are so good.
Seeing as Disney is in the remake trend at the moment, I’d love to see them remake HSM but with a much larger budget and produce a film that is much more refined. Will it have the same magical charm that this film does? Probably not for my generation, but I do think it would be a hit all over again with kids that were my age when the film first released.