by popular demand its High School
Musical 3 I know a lot of you are
probably upset I'm not doing the first
two high school musicals but on the
other hand I said I'd only do the
theatrical ones and the third ones only
when they got the ethical release so
suck it I guess it is really important
to talk about at least one of these
movies as High School Musical was a huge
thing for a while the specials were big
hits everybody got the soundtrack and
yes it eventually got turned into a
theatrical film it made a lot of money
for Disney and a lot of younger
audiences loved looking back and
remembering it and I bet you're all
waiting for me to really tear it apart
and talk about how cringe-worthy it is
and truth be told you might actually
hear a positive review out of this okay
okay let me talk about first after two
TV specials about the popular kids now
being forced to do a musical and find
out they actually enjoy it we find our
main group of phenomenally good-looking
misfits are now in their senior year
they're comprised of all the high-school
stereotypes you've seen before the jock
the best friend the nice girl the weird
kind of nerdy kid and the self-obsessed
girl only this time the focus is not as
much the play they're gonna perform but
rather what they're gonna do after they
graduate yeah actual future plans about
what they're gonna do after high school
ends you can't forget kids and high
school movies are actually allowed to
think of that didn't you
particularly in a Disney flick that's
not to say the actual performance and
the musical isn't done as well in fact
they tie in rather nicely the teacher
says that she wants the musical to be
about senior year about what the future
may hold all the possibilities what it
meant to go through high school all that
fun sappy stuff the kids coming up with
the material actually seems kind of easy
because they're going through all the
pains and dilemmas they have a lot of
kids going out of high school going
through which college are they gonna go
to are they gonna go to college are they
still gonna be best friends are they
gonna be separated
well careers do they want to do what
jobs are they're looking into what does
this mean for their future all that fun
stuff and that's kind of it yeah I was
kind of waiting for some evil teacher or
some
nudee student to come in and try to ruin
everything and yeah there are
quote-unquote shenanigans that go on but
the situations that are only important
to one character and not really anyone
else the important stuff is actually
focused on the most and for something
that's as mainstream and over bloated as
High School Musical I don't think it
does it that bad the song sequences
effectively show what it means to break
apart from your friends or to find out
where you're gonna go in the future and
the visuals help to represent it too
there's an especially great scene where
I main character is trying to figure out
what to do with his life as represented
by him being in this basketball court
and all these basketballs falling and
flying in the room spinning and it's
actually pretty creative and it ties in
with the story and what the characters
are feeling that's not to say there
aren't songs that don't tie in and are
clearly just there for fluff but they're
actually kind of creative too and still
tie in to what kind of characters are
being represented but okay so it doesn't
succumb to some of the typical Disney in
high school cliches but you know they
work in a lot of other ones like I said
the student stereotypes the fact that
everything is so bright and colorful the
fact that it's unbelievably cheesy as
hell and yeah it really is this is
unbelievably cheesy the music is pure
pop walk the characters all stereotypes
all [ __ ] beautiful all wearing the
most fashionable clothes
yeah it's obviously one big product but
it's hard for me to hate on it because
how do I put this it's kind of like
hating Saved by the Bell
yes that's cheesy and corny and
over-the-top too but it's also kind of a
strange time capsule it captures how a
lot of the youth at the time kind of saw
the world or the world they thought they
were going to enter or it's kind of like
Greece Greece is not a proper
representation of the 50s but it's so
over-the-top and so overblown and so
cheesy and so upbeat you kind of can't
help but smile at his naive innocence
and that is how I see High School
Musical it's naive but innocent it's not
devoid of creativity or really character
for that matter
like I said they do really go into the
dilemmas of them wrapping up school and
what it means for them and everything is
pushing so hard to cement the exact era
that they're in the fashions the music
the makeup the styles all that stuff
it's something to look back on and kind
of harmlessly laugh at but at the same
time it's not something to totally be
written off as there is a lot of effort
put into it the sets the dancing the
music they're trying and a lot of times
it is effective but now you might be
saying how can I like something so
cheesy and over-the-top as High School
Musical 3 and not something so cheesy
and over-the-top like Newsies
well that's because with Newsies it was
still trying to keep it in a realistic
environment the city's look like real
cities it was a period piece I don't
think anyone will tell you this film is
a proper representation of high school
everything is over-the-top the
environment is totally goofy totally
insane and I think the film is aware of
it everything is over-glorified
and romanticized and it works there's no
point where I could see the director
coming in saying hey let's make this
look more realistic hey let's make this
look a little bit more dirty hey let's
make this look like a more realistic
high school no it's all from the point
of view of little kids imagining what
high school is gonna be like when they
get there so they can have something to
look back on and say wasn't that funny
when we thought it was gonna be this but
wasn't it kind of charming and silly too
I appreciate how this film gets totally
wrapped up in its environment and
doesn't apologize for it at all it is a
giant sellout it is total corporate
Disney pandering but through that
pandering they do allow a lot of clever
songs and clever scenery and clever
dilemmas many of which high schoolers
will relate to just not on a super
darker serious level so does that mean
this is a film I really enjoy I want to
see several times again oh [ __ ] no one
was enough for me like I said it is
corny ed is dumb but it's also harmless
it's also creative and it also has a lot
of effort put into it and it shows if
you're looking for a serious film that's
gonna push the limits of what a musical
can do and really dive into a character
psyche then
this probably is not the flick but if
you want something like how I usually
refer to it say by the Bell the musical
just a time capsule of corny late 90s
and early 2000s that clearly put a lot
of effort into it then I can't believe
I'm saying this it's actually worth
checking out if you're in a goofy
nostalgic mood and you're of a certain
age where you grew up with this stuff
then yes High School Musical 3 is a very
enjoyable movie to check out