High School Musical 3 - Senior Year Review
HIGH School Musical 3? When did they make the first two, I
wondered, feeling very out of touch. It turns out they were made for
Disney TV in 2006 and 2007. Such was their success with young audiences -
and I imagine they're aimed at 10 to 15-year-old girls, primarily -
that the third movie was made for theatrical release, with a bigger
budget, although $US13 million ($20 million) is still petty cash for the
mouse house.
I was thus unprepared for how much fun was in store. HSM3 turns out to be a real, honest-to-goodness teen musical throwback, as if Andy Hardy had never died and James Dean had never lived.
Talk about wholesome: the movie is set in a Salt Lake City high school where the students are all beautiful, the corridors are clean and no one has even heard of Columbine. Forty years ago it would have been a movie full of white teens recruited from the Mouseketeers; now it's a sort of Benetton high school, where the races are all best friends and skin colour is slightly indeterminate.
The common denominators are white teeth, wide smiles and utter, utter freshness. This is probably the first teen movie I've seen in two years that doesn't have a fart joke. That's because these people don't fart. Ever.
They sing and dance instead, all the time and with complete nonchalance. The surprise for me was how naturally the movie weaves this into its thoroughly modern teen-movie storyline, which involves all the usual dramas: prom night, basketball immortality, boy and girl about to go to different colleges, best friends feeling betrayed, et cetera.
Indeed, if these youngsters did not sing, the movie would be pretty turgid. Adding snappy choreography, funky pop songs and a sense of humour transforms it into something unexpected - wholesome entertainment that's actually entertaining, not just wholesome.
In the opening scene, the East High Wildcats are losing the state basketball championship to their West High rivals. The coach tells his boys to forget about the scoreboard and concentrate on a number that matters - 16.
"There's 16 minutes left, only 16 minutes more in the Wildcat uniform ... make 'em count."
The crowd begins to chant "16 minutes" as a beat forms. The handsome young captain, Troy (Zac Efron), leads his red-uniformed warriors back to court, where they move in unison, like the Jets from West Side Story. Troy begins to sing: "This is the last chance to make it count ... it's now or never," as he lays up the baskets. The crowd claps and sings in chorus, then it all goes dark as the virginal Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) rises in the grandstand, one white dress in a sea of red, and sings to the boy she loves: "You can do it, just know that I believe."
I was thus unprepared for how much fun was in store. HSM3 turns out to be a real, honest-to-goodness teen musical throwback, as if Andy Hardy had never died and James Dean had never lived.
Talk about wholesome: the movie is set in a Salt Lake City high school where the students are all beautiful, the corridors are clean and no one has even heard of Columbine. Forty years ago it would have been a movie full of white teens recruited from the Mouseketeers; now it's a sort of Benetton high school, where the races are all best friends and skin colour is slightly indeterminate.
The common denominators are white teeth, wide smiles and utter, utter freshness. This is probably the first teen movie I've seen in two years that doesn't have a fart joke. That's because these people don't fart. Ever.
They sing and dance instead, all the time and with complete nonchalance. The surprise for me was how naturally the movie weaves this into its thoroughly modern teen-movie storyline, which involves all the usual dramas: prom night, basketball immortality, boy and girl about to go to different colleges, best friends feeling betrayed, et cetera.
Indeed, if these youngsters did not sing, the movie would be pretty turgid. Adding snappy choreography, funky pop songs and a sense of humour transforms it into something unexpected - wholesome entertainment that's actually entertaining, not just wholesome.
In the opening scene, the East High Wildcats are losing the state basketball championship to their West High rivals. The coach tells his boys to forget about the scoreboard and concentrate on a number that matters - 16.
"There's 16 minutes left, only 16 minutes more in the Wildcat uniform ... make 'em count."
The crowd begins to chant "16 minutes" as a beat forms. The handsome young captain, Troy (Zac Efron), leads his red-uniformed warriors back to court, where they move in unison, like the Jets from West Side Story. Troy begins to sing: "This is the last chance to make it count ... it's now or never," as he lays up the baskets. The crowd claps and sings in chorus, then it all goes dark as the virginal Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) rises in the grandstand, one white dress in a sea of red, and sings to the boy she loves: "You can do it, just know that I believe."
