High School Musical

         

We're All in This Together!

    Hellooooo everybody! Welcome back! I'm super exited for what I've got planned for the next few weeks. I decided to do a mini-series focusing on the High School Musical franchise! So for the next few weeks, I'll be reviewing High School Musical, High School Musical 2, and High School Musical 3. I thought it would be fun to do a series of related shows, and I pounced on the High School Musical franchise immediately. 

    With that said, I'm thrilled to start with High School Musical (HSM), which, in modern pop culture, is regarded as legendary. HSM tells a story about various cliques in high school, a drama program, and a relationship between lovers and friends. Let's get right into the review!

Disney+

High School Musical

History

    HSM began as a movie-musical, although some stage adaptations have since been performed by high schools across the US. There is yet to be a Broadway adaptation or large scale production. A tour of the show began in late 2006, featuring all of the original cast members except for Zac Efron. Since it's release, HSM has been turned into a novel book series and a hit television series, as well as video and board games. At the time of its release, HSM was the most successful Disney Channel Original Movie ever produced. This prompted the release of High School Musical 2 and 3 in the following years. 

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, Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus, and Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielson. 

Overview

    The movie begins showing Troy Bolton and his parents on vacation at a ski lodge for New Years Eve. At a party, Troy is pushed onto a mini-stage next to a stranger, Gabriella Montez, and the two sing karaoke together (Start of Something New). They exchange numbers before Gabriella blends back into the crowd.

    Troy returns to his school, East High School, in Albuquerque, NM, after winter break. He is shocked to see the girl from karaoke, Gabriella, in his homeroom. He calls her phone to determine if it's really her. Their teacher, the strict drama instructor Ms. Darbus, confiscates their phones and assigns them detention. Troy starts to show her around East High, where they run into Sharpay, a proud, attention-loving drama student who is determined to star in the school's musical. Troy is somewhat interested in auditioning for the show, inspired by singing with Gabriella, but his teammates urge him to focus on his basketball career, as captain of the East High Wildcats (Get'cha Head In the Game). Inclass, Gabriella's smarts catch the attention of Taylor McKessie, head of the scholastic decathlon team, while intriguing Sharpay. Sharpay researches Gabriella on the web with her twin brother, Ryan, and discover articles from her previous schools about her intelligence. She places the articles in Taylor's locker, who proceeds to recruit Gabriella to the scholastic decathlon team and away from the musical. Meanwhile, Troy's dad, Mr. Bolton, who is the head coach of the basketball, is drilling into the team the importance of their upcoming championship game. Troy asks his dad for advice about the musical, but his dad tries to steer him towards focusing on the big game, emphasizing that college scouts will be at the game and Troy needs to perform at his best.

    The next day at school, Troy sneaks off to watch auditions for the musical. Sharpay and Ryan perform a choreographed audition together (What I've Been Looking For). Gabriella asks Ms. Darbus if she can audition, and Troy volunteers to sing with her as a couples audition. Ms. Darbus refuses to let them audition, as they didn't volunteer until after the sign-up period was ended. On the now-empty stage, Kelsi Neilson, the composer, drops her music, and Troy and Gabriella assist her with cleaning up. She plays them the duet that Ryan and Sharpay auditioned with, and they two sing together (What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)). Ms. Darbus overhears their singing and tells them they have a callback. When the callback list goes up, listing Sharpay and Ryan along with Gabriella and Troy, many people are upset for the rhythm of the school being thrown off. Some students are inspired by Troy breaking out from his "jock" stereotype and want to break free themselves, but their classmates pressure them to continue living how they are, in their prospective cliques (Stick to the Status Quo). During lunch, Gabriella accidentally spills her lunch on Sharpay, who tells Ms. Darbus that Gabriella and Troy are trying to sabotage the musical by making her look bad. Chad blames Troy for all the chaos ensuing throughout the student body, with students trying to break out of their cliques. 

    Troy and Gabriella agree to do the callbacks, despite people telling them not to. They spend their free time practicing, much to the dismay of Ryan and Sharpay. Mr. Bolton and Chad once again try to convince Troy to abandon the callbacks for the musical. Chad decides to team up with Taylor in an attempt to pull Troy and Gabriella away from each other. The basketball boys want Troy to focus on the game, and Taylor wants Gabriella to focus on the scholastic decathlon. Chad and the basketball team set up an "intervention" for Troy, where they try to convince him to commit to the championship game. They set up a webcam that Taylor shows to Gabriella, where they record Troy saying that the musical and Gabriella means nothing to him compared to the game. Gabriella is heartbroken (When There Was Me and You). Gabriella tells Troy that they shouldn't do the callbacks if he doesn't want to; he's confused at her sudden change of heart.  

    Troy and Gabriella draw distant from each other and from their friends, and Chad and Taylor realize they messed up. Chad and the basketball team tell Troy they'll support his singing, and confess to what they did with the webcam. Taylor apologizes to Gabriella, but she's determined to move on with the decathlon and forget about Troy. Troy visits Gabriella's house that evening to apologize, and climbs up to her balcony to do so. He convinces her to sing at the callbacks with him. 

    Troy and Gabriella are now both "back on their game," with Troy's basketball performances improving and Gabriella working with the scholastic decathlon team, while they both make time for callback rehearsals. Sharpay and Ryan overhear them rehearsing. Sharpay convinces Ms. Darbus to move the callbacks from the coming Thursday to Friday, the same day as the championship basketball game and the scholastic decathlon. Enraged, the jocks and nerds team up to find a way for Gabriella and Troy to somehow attend all of their events. 

    The day of, the basketball game and the scholastic decathlon begin. Sharpay and Ryan commence their callback with a choreographed and costumed performance (Bop to the Top). Ms. Darbus calls for Troy and Gabriella to audition, but they're not there. Meanwhile, Gabriella wins her portion of the scholastic decathlon. Taylor hacks into the school's power system and cuts the power to the gym. The spectators are escorted to the auditorium while school employees attempt to regain power to the gym. At the decathlon, a mysterious, smelly concoction forces everyone to abandon the room and reside in the auditorium as well. Troy and Gabriella rush to the auditorium, and a reluctant Ms. Darbus allows them to sing. In front of the crowd, Troy and Gabriella audition with the song they've been rehearsing. The school loves it (Breaking Free). 

    The power is restored in the gym, and the mysterious mixture in the lab is cleared away. Troy leads the Wildcats to a victory in the championship game. Gabriella and her team win the scholastic decathlon. The school celebrates the victories (We're All In This Together). 

    

Thoughts

    WILDCATS. Usually I save my cat review for the end of my "thoughts" section, but I just can't wait that long. The East High School mascot is a wildcat! Woo! Consistently, the characters mention their mascot, there are posters around the school, and we even get to see the mascot during the championship game! I only gave the cat rating 4 stars, simply because I would have liked to have seen more of the mascot, but I'll take what I can get. WILDCATS!!!

    Alright, time to get a little more serious. Can I just say, this movie is iconic. Legendary. A cinematic masterpiece. While I was watching it, I was nervous about writing the overview, because I felt as though I was missing out on so much information that I feel everyone should know, and yet the overview was already pretty long. 

    Zac Efron did an incredible job as Troy Bolton. It is clear to see why he is such a respected actor today. From a young age, he was able to portray a complex character extremely well. Especially for a Disney Channel movie, I was really impressed with the professionalism and the believability of his performance of struggling high schooler (as a cat, I cannot attest to the accuracy of their high school portrayal!). I'd like to also give props to Vanessa Hudgens for her performance as Gabriella. Her vocals were amazing! And her acting was just as stellar.

    Although Troy and Gabriella were the main characters, I actually think Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel stole the show as Sharpay and Ryan. Every time they were on screen, I wanted to laugh, yet I was also in awe of their "I own this place" attitude. Although they were supposed to be seen as the antagonists of the film, I really think they were just "inconveniences" to the Troy/Gabriella love plot (please do NOT tell Sharpay I called her an inconvenience!). I don't know what else to say except they ROCKED. 

    The soundtrack is just iconic. Watching this movie for the first time in awhile, I realized that maybe the songs aren't as fantastic as I remembered them to be, but they're so iconic and engrained in my tiny head that I can't help but jam out. Bop to the Top? It is a bop. Breaking Free? ICONIC. Ask any millennial, and they'll know the song. Guaranteed. Don't even get me started on Get'cha Head In the Game. It makes me want to pick up a basketball in my tiny paws and try to focus on my basketball career instead of a girl I met on vacation. Whew.

    I am literally begging you to watch the movie. Not only will it help you understand my blog posts for the next couple of weeks, but you will have a paw-some time! It's a pretty wholesome film with a good plot. And it's definitely a kitten-friendly film. Adults can certainly watch it as well, however, I think this movie will always have a special place in the hearts of millennials and the older side of Gen Z. May its legacy never die.

Ratings

Find the rating scale here.

Soundtrack          ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Acting                  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lighting               ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Set                        ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall                 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cat rating             ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Best song: Get'cha Head In the Game

Best actor: Zac Efron

Best set: The auditorium

Fun Facts!

• Zac Efron was unable to go on tour with the original cast members because he was filming Hairspray at the time!
• Troy's singing parts were actually recorded by Drew Seeley, not Efron. Seeley portrayed Troy on the tour that Efron was unable to attend. (However, Troy's vocals were written in Efron's range for HSM2 and HSM3, so Efron was able to record his own vocals for those movies.)
• The slogans on Chad's shirts were created by Corbin Bleu, the actor for Chad.