High School Musical

The other night, having nothing else to do, I popped in the DVD of High School Musical just to see what the "fuss" is all about (My younger sister owns the HSM dolls, clothes, towels, movies, CDs, video games, sheet music, etc). Though not usually drawn to the musical genre or Disney Channel dramatic fare, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this film held my interest and entertained me for its duration.

Plot-wise, HSM doesn't deviate too far from standard Disney programming. When new girl to school Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) begins to form a relationship with school beau Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), it draws the ire of popular girl Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) and facilitates an overhaul of East High's social cliques.

What sets the storyline apart from, say, a typical episode of Hannah Montana, though, is the way the school stereotypes are portrayed. Instead of getting too preachy, Disney instead wildly accentuates those stereotypes and lets the simple messages of diversity and acceptance speak for themselves. Troy is the All-American boy every girl has a crush on, Gabriella is the stunningly beautiful girl next door, and Sharpay is the over-the-top princess who rules the school with her status.

Of course, HSM needs to (as a musical) ultimately be judged on the quality of its musical numbers...the category in which it succeeds fantastically. From the very beginning, when a karaoke DJ hands microphones to Troy and Gabriella and tells them "you might thank me for this someday", viewers will realize the quality of the musical numbers about to come. Though Efron does not provide his own vocals, he IS able to adroitly portray the conflicted Troy (basketball vs. singing) through acting and dance. Hudgens' tunes are usually softer, but very poignant ("When There Was Me And You", in which Hudgens flies solo, is my favorite piece in the film), while Tisdale is probably the most talented actor/singer/dancer of the bunch in her fantastically choreographed and special effects-laden numbers.

So, if you are a parent/older sibling who wants to know what make your child/younger sibling go crazy over HSM, I would encourage you to sit down and watch this film (preferably with them). Even the most jaded critics will be humming (or outright belting) the catchy melodies long after the end credits roll.

Honestly, I just randomly gave it a vote. You really can't vote on how good this movie is. Yes I mean it was a very typical Disney channel movie, but I was in elementary school when this movie came out, and everybody my age including myself was obsessed with it; I couldn't even count the amount of times that I watched this movie.

If you've never seen this movie and you're over the age of lets say 12, you're probably not going to like it. This was my childhood though and everybody loved the music and I owned the movie and CD and would always listen to the music. Everyone would watch it and would watch the sing alongs on Disney channel, because I was probably 8 when this movie came out and I am now 15 and Disney channel was everyones life and childhood, so I could never give this movie a bad review, but I really don't know what to give it out of 10 so I just gave it a 7.

High school musical is a Disney movie where you can really only like it if you were young like me when it came out. I haven't seen this movie in forever, and I watched it the other day and still pretty much remember all of the words to every song!

Re-watching this as an adult made me realize that I had no idea what good writing was back then, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

Maybe because of the songs or the nostalgia factor, but I honestly feel like I can watch this over and over again and not get bored.

Even though I'm aware that High School Musical is not at all a "good movie", I can't deny that it's a fun movie. and nostalgia doesn't allow me to express anything other than love for it.

I'm not sure what it is and maybe I'm blinded by childhood nostalgia, but this movie has something different. Compared to other TV movies this one has surprisingly decent acting, musical numbers pertinent to the plot and not just bursting into song whenever (although there are a couple of songs like that); and lastly a very subtle sort of foreshadowing in the content of the songs they are singing. I never really paid much attention to all the lyrics of the songs but they describe exactly how the characters are without having to tell us. They surprisingly respect the "show don't tell" rule in that aspect.

The message is loud and clear, there's no misinterpretation and that's great for kids. It has uplifiting and feel-good beats to it as well as breaking with the norm and the cliques in high school teaching the younger audiences to be themselves and to not simply choose between black and white. It's a good message enhanced by decent performances with surprisingly decent dialogue and good pacing. I know with what I said it sounds like the movie has nothing wrong to it but maybe I'm sort of biased due to the nostalgia trip it carries everytime I watch it.

For new viewers I say this: don't take it too seriously, I mean, it's not oscar worthy at all and wasn't meant to be released in theaters and therefore had a tight budget. It delivers in what it's selling: an endearing story of a couple who want to be together doing what they love and being who they want to be, struggling to make the rest of the people in their lives see that too. Only enhanced by upbeat and well choreographed music and funny side characters like teachers and other students. A fun watch

This was a overall good movie by the Disney Channel's standards! I, being 18 years of age and sitting at home on a Friday night to watch it, am happy to say I sat through the entire thing happily! This movie is for adults and kids and also brought me back to high school even though it was only a year ago! The music brings meaning to the story and without it the movie wouldn't be complete which is why it is called High School Musical! I hope everyone who sees it enjoyed it as much as I did!! If Disney keeps up at this rate all the new actors and actress, singers and everyone will be the new product of them! Look at Hillary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Raven, and many others! This movie has a few soon to be rising stars in it! Good job Disney!!