Loooooook at the moooooney we're maaaaaaking

[dangermousie]

I have just finished watching High School Musical and I confess: it's adorable. Brainless, but adorable.

The plot is beyond simple: our hero Troy is a basketball jock and our heroine Gabriella is a super-science genius. They end up drawn to each other when they (accidentally) end up singing together and later decide to defy the cliche expectations by auditioning for a high school musical together.

My love for fluff candy aside, this is why I liked it (as I am much too old to find Zac Effron appealing :P)

* Catchy songs

* The main characters are both genuinely nice. It's rather neat to see protagonists who are good kids. They are concerned for others, good children to their parents, do well in school etc.

* Yay for girl power! Gabriella is neither a wilting violet nor a bimbo whose only goal in life is a boyfriend. She is intelligent and confident young woman. If I had a small daughter, I would have no objection to her watching this at all.

* Cliche-busting. The science club is not a bunch of abused geeks who are not as cool as the 'cool' kids, the basketball players are not insensitive bullying jerks. Yay.

* Matter-of-fact school diversity. It's not the usual whitebread TV school, and Gabriella herself if Hispanic but nothing much of the 'look aren't we special' nature is made of it.

* Random secondary characters, from the scheming diva Sharpay to the basketball player who bakes :P



Gabriella and Troy are picked to sing at a party:





And do a lovely job, making Troy feel a desire to strip...





I kinda want to adopt them. Boy, do I feel old!







And then it was New Year's fireworks and no smoochies. The wholesomeness, it buuuuurns!



Did I mention that Gabriella is a good daughter? Seemingly of a successful single mother?



Troy shows newly-transferred Gabriella around the color-coordinated school:



Dance number on the basketballcourt by players who are averse to singing and dancing. Heh.



The 'evil' twins Ryan and Sharpay, who have starred in every school production so far. This being HSM, by 'evil' I mean 'teeny less wholesome than the rest.'



If this was a Japanese drama, they would be secretly in love with each other.



Or not, seeing that Ryan is the only character more likely to be gay than Troy (I so agree with filmi_girl that Troy's desire to sing is in a subtextual way about coming out).



The musical teacher is impressed.



ROFL



Gabriella wants to try out, but the only spot left is for pairs audition for the lead, so Troy volunteers to help her out. But it's too late anyhow.



Or not. Their niceness saves the day with the show's composer!





Who is so cute! There are no unadorable kids at that school.





So they sing some and now are supposed to compete in the runoff.



The Twins are not pleased. Ryan is still v.v. gay.



The basketball player who loves to bake. Heeee!



Science-oriented girl who loves hip-hop.



This is as close to sex as a Disney movie is going to get.



They practice singing and I want to tell Gabriella about getting involved with boys who do musical theater.





Or not. They are kinda adorable.



Caught by Troy's overbearing, pushy, athletic-glory-reliving Dad. Dad is not pleased at Gabriella but seriously, with his kid's new-found hobby, he should be thanking the stars (seeing that he is clearly the conservative sort) that Troy is so crazy about a girl :P



Put a turtleneck on, Effron. And maybe an overcoat. That outfit it disturbing.



Your Dad thinks so too.





There is a big (I use the word loosely) misunderstanding orchestrated by their friends who want the basketball player and the nerd back, and there is a lot of teen emo. And then, being that rarity in my recent watching experience: a sane lead, Troy finds out and comes to apologize.





Theeeeee happy end!







Their friends and parents rejoice in wholesomeness!











Shocking! Skin contact!



And even more! Next this will turn into a Roman Orgy!





Other people hook up too!



Even Sharpay and Ryan turn nice. Pass the kool-aid!



Sharpay also hooks up with the basketball player who bakes. I love this movie.



Next, on to HSM2, which promises me angst and jazz hands on a golf course:





And the sluttiness and horror of a real lip-to-lip kiss.







What is this world coming to!

Comments

[stardreemer.livejournal.com]

The actor who plays Ryan is from the town where I went to college. The town pretty much exploded when High School Musical first came out. It was...amusing....

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL. I've lived in small towns before and I think if someone famous came from it, people would have gone berserk :)

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha I love this post.

If this was a Japanese drama, they would be secretly in love with each other.
Ahahahah so wrong!!

The whole plot about "wanting to do more than one thing" (science AND singing, basketball AND singing) is sort of really funny to me. SHOCKING! You like TWO things that are different! I hope the tweens who watch this understand high school is not really this fluffily awesome. :P

If I liked the films enough I'd write Troy/Gabriella smutfic because two teens THAT into each other who don't even do petting? C'mon now. ;D

Also I love Sharpay simply because her ridiculously over-the-top songs are always fun to watch.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I hope the tweens who watch this understand high school is not really this fluffily awesome

I think part of the reason I like HSM is because I went to a high school in a very small, very conservative town and the thing is, while not this wholesome (I don't think anything can be), it was a very very wholesome environment and everybody really was nice. I only discovered about cliques and meanness watching high school movies later. So oddly, HSM is the closest to my high school experience than any hs movie I've seen :P

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Heee! I am so glad you watched this so I don't have to. :D Looks scary, but in a wholesome way. ;D I can safely support Sasha's obsession with this (although I prefer her getting mad about "Bleach" :D).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But Bleach doesn't have singing and dancing :)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

hee! Bleach has plenty of singing :D. I mean title songs. :D I have a little jpop fan forming here. Now, this is scary too!

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

I've never been in love with HSM but my favorite characters will ALWAYS be Ryan and Sharpay. I never realized that they were supposed to be twins, though. D:

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

They are the same age and are siblings, so I am assuming twins :)

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

I love your review - typical dangermousie awesomeness!

Ryan really does comes across as questionable - but I love his character, he's so rediculous. Did you catch his dancing in the final #? ROFL

Be prepared as the 2nd wasn't nearly as good as the first. But the 3rd - the movie?! I was blown away & want to go see it again (which I rarely do, I can usually wait for DVD for a 2nd watch)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the second yet, but the third was all fluffy awesomeness. I am a bit in love.

[moth5dream.livejournal.com]

Ok...now I'm more intrigued about watching these movies. What have you done to me? XD Though...I did sit thru the Camp Rock movie. I fell asleep at some point. XD

Did you watch online or rent?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Online for the first one, and went to the movies for the third one. Haven't seen the second one yet.

[kitsune714.livejournal.com]

I TOLD YOU.

It's so weirdly hypnotic! It's so...G rated. High School Musical is like the one thing I can talk about with a 7-year-old that makes them actually think I'm COOL.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew 7 year olds. It would be nice to be super cool to somebody :)

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

i think thats what made HSM such a hit, because it was different from the usual teeny booper movies that have been made. that for once, its cool to be the nice kids!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup, I really like that they were nice.