dangermousie | Loooooook at the moooooney we're maaaaaaking

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.