We Can Work This Out!
Welcome back! This week I'll be moving on to the second movie in my mini-series, High School Musical 2! If you missed the blog post about High School Musical 1, I recommend checking that one out first, as this movie is a continuation with the same characters.
Although the characters are the same, the plot moves in a different direction for High School Musical 2 (HSM2)! This movie takes us to summer vacation, where the students' "perfect summer" is bombarded with lots of different obstacles. It's a great addition to the first movie. Don't just take my word for it, though! Start reading to learn more!
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| High School Musical 2 |
History
HSM2 was released in 2007, following the success of HSM.
Who's in the Cast?
Zac Efron starred as Troy Bolton, a popular student and captain of the basketball team. Vanessa Hudgens starred opposite of Efron as Gabriella Montez, a transfer student with a mind for science. Ashely Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel performed as twins Sharpay and Ryan Evans, respectively. Corbin Bleu portrayed Chad Danforth, Troy's best friend, and Monique Coleman played Taylor McKessie, Gabriella's friend. Other characters of interest include Bart Johnson as Jack Bolton, Mark L. Taylor as Mr. Fulton, and Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielson.
Overview
The second film in the High School Musical series begins on the last day of school, where all the students are looking forward to summer vacation. Troy wants to spend more time with his girlfriend, Gabriella (What Time Is It). Troy and his friends are looking for summer jobs to help raise money for college. Sharpay, who has a crush on Troy, has Mr. Fulton, the manager at her family's country club, Lava Springs, hire Troy as an employee. She plans to have a perfect summer (Fabulous). However, her plans are disrupted when she finds out all of Troy's friends have also been hired, including Gabriella as the new lifeguard at the club. Sharpay orders Mr. Fulton to make the students want to quit, except for Troy, as her parents refuse to allow them to be fired. He enforces harsh rules on the students, who begin to doubt their employment. Troy tries to encourage them to make the most of their summer working together (Work This Out).
One morning at work, Troy and Gabriella overhear Kelsi practicing piano. She is working on writing songs for the club's talent show, and she wrote one specifically for Troy and Gabriella to duet together, as the employee's are allowed to perform at the talent show (You Are the Music in Me). Troy agrees to perform in the talent show, as long as the rest of the student employees perform with him and Gabriella.
Mr. Fulton arranges to have Troy and Chad caddy for a game of golf. The golfers are none other than Mr. and Mrs. Evans, the owners of Lava Springs and parents to Sharpay and Ryan. While golfing, Sharpay brags to her father about Troy's basketball skills and concerns about affording college. Mr. Evans invites Troy to dinner with his family and the basketball coach from the University of Albuquerque in an attempt to sway him to their college. Sharpay brags about Troy's singing abilities, in addition to his athletic skills, and her parents insisit that Troy sing with Sharpay for the talent show. Troy leaves dinner and races to meet up with Gabriella, but Mr. Fulton drags him off to another engagement. Sharpay and Ryan perform a song for Troy, and Sharpy attempts to convince him to sing with her at the club's talent show (Humuhumunukunukuapua'a).
Mr. Fulton promotes Troy from working as a waiter to teaching golf to children. Sharpay attends one of the golf lessons, and Taylor witnesses Troy with his arms around Sharpay. She tells Gabriella and Chad, who try to reason that Troy is just considering the possibilities of being close with Sharpay's family, in terms of earning a college scholarship. Troy begins to spend more and more time with the Evans and less with his friends.
Meanwhile, Sharpay demands that Kelsi give her the song she wrote for Troy and Gabriella, telling her that she and Troy will be singing it instead. Ryan is majorly insulted that Sharpay doesn't want him as her performing partner. Taylor and Gabriella invite Ryan to the employee baseball game, and he convinces the rest of the Wildcats to perform in the talent show, even though Troy has seemingly bailed on them (I Don't Dance). Troy witnesses Gabriella and Ryan hanging out, which creates tension in their relationship.
Sharpay hosts a rehearsal for the talent show with Troy, singing the song Kelsi originally wrote for Troy and Gabriella, but this version is much more "jazzed up" (You Are the Music in Me (Sharpay Version)). After rehearsal, Sharpay finds Ryan rehearsing with Gabriella, Chad, and the rest of the Wildcats for the talent show. She is furious that Ryan has joined the student employees, and orders Mr. Fulton to cancel employee participation at the talent show. Gabriella confronts Sharpay about the employee participation cancellation. Gabriella tells her to think about the damage she is causing between her classmates, and announces that she's quitting her job at Lava Springs. Troy tries to convice Gabriella to stay, and that he can make up for his mistakes, but she is determined to leave and breaks up with him (Gotta Go My Own Way).
With Gabriella gone and his friends mad at him, Troy struggles with figuring out how to move forward and who he even is anymore. He resolves to make it up to his friends and figure out how to fix things (Bet On It). Troy tells Sharpay he's not doing the show, reasoning that he's still an employee and employees are no longer allowed to do the show. Kelsi overhears and is thrilled. Sharpay is incredibly upset. She tells Ryan that their original number, Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, is back on, but Ryan tells her he won't perform. Meanwhile, Troy apologizes to Chad and his friends about the way he's been treating them. He also apologizes to Ryan for his hard work on the show and then not being able to perform. Ryan tells Troy that although he's mad at Sharpay, he wants her to do well in the talent show, and asks Troy to sing with her again. Troy agrees, but says that only will if all of the Wildcats can perform as well.
Kelsi quickly teaches Troy the song that Ryan has been working with the employees on, despite Troy insisting her can't learn a new song minutes before a performance. Ryan has tricked Sharpay, who doesn't know the new song. Troy goes on stage and begins to perform. Suddenly, Gabriella's voice joins his, and he looks around in shock until he spots her. She and the Wildcats join Troy onstage, along with Ryan and a surprised Sharpay. They are all able to perform together (Everyday). It is announced that Ryan is the winner of the talent show, for his work on the choreography and bringing everyone together. The employees have a private celebration after the show, and Troy and Gabriella share a romantic moment together.
At the end of summer, the student employees are able to have a staff pool party and celebrate their time at the country club together (All For One).
Thoughts
I love how feel-good these movies are. Grace told me that when she watched these movies when she was younger, it seemed like these teens were living the dream. I will admit, the lifestyles they're living do seem fun, even to a cat.
Some of the acting or behaviors seem quite random and a little cringe from time to time, I will admit. Troy doing a belly slide in the opening number felt weird, and don't even get me STARTED on the whole "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" song and dance. I can't really describe it, watch it for yourself and you'll understand.
One scene/song that will ALWAYS bring down the house is "Fabulous," sung by Sharpay upon her arrival to Lava Springs. Iconic, legendary, show-stopping, spectacular, paw-some. I could go on and on. Sure, there's an element of hilarity to her demand to have everything she could ever desire, but the song is KILLER and the overall vibe of the scene is brilliant. I wish I was Sharpay. Not like, her as a person, but to live her life of relaxation and prosperity? A cat can dream.
One thing I really liked about the movie was how they were able to bring everything together. Sure, it was predictable that Troy and the Wildcats would make up with each other. However, Gabriella coming back to sing with Troy isn't as expected, and Troy's genuine confusion and shock when he hears her voice replicates the viewer's emotions at that time. And the icing on the cake was Troy inviting Sharpay onstage to sing with the Wildcats. When Ryan didn't tell her they changed the song, she was isolated from the others who knew the song, and left off stage. Although she was the antagonist for most of the film, it still felt bad to watch her be cut out of the production, when all she really wanted to do was perform. So it was nice to see the Wildcats include her with them as a group, even after all she had put them through.
I'd really like to dedicate a paragraph Corbin Bleu, the actor for Chad. In the first movie, Chad was just seen as "Troy's best friend," and not much else. In this movie, however, Chad kinda takes control of the Wildcats when Troy is off doing his own thing. When Ryan convinces Chad to do the talent show, the rest of the Wildcats follow him. Chad also stands up to Troy and forces him to reevaluate his priorities. It was nice to see him develop as a character, and I think Bleu did a great job adding more life and spunk to Chad. Even when he was mad and upset with Troy, I still enjoyed every second that he was on screen. I hope he keeps up this energy in the next movie because I am loving it!
I'm sad to say, the cat rating on the second HSM movie is being reduced to 1 star. The Wildcat team name was only mentioned a few times, we never got to see their mascot, and Sharpay actually had a PUPPY. What's with that? She couldn't have had a cat? Cats are more posh anyway, it would have fit the vibe better. Oh well. Hopefully the 3rd movie is able to boost the cat rating.
Ratings
Find the rating scale here.
Soundtrack ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Acting ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lighting ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Set ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cat rating ⭐
Best song: Fabulous
Best actor: Corbin Bleu
Best set: Lava Springs pool
Fun Facts!
- Miley Cyrus makes a cameo appearance at the pool party, during the song All For One.
- "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" is Hawaii's state fish.
- Monique Coleman, the actress for Taylor, didn't know how to swim before filming and the script was rewritten so that Corbin Bleu would jump in with her. However, this clip did not make the final cut for the movie.
- Zac Efron did all of his own singing in HSM2, as opposed to in HSM1.
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