High School Musical Acid Trip

On Friday night, Steve and Jonah and I curled up on the sofa to watch High School Musical 2. I never saw the first one; my boys never cared about it. But I knew that the first one was supercool from my nieces and the girls on our block. I was very curious to see what all the hoopla was about.

I can see why this movie was so popular. It appeals to girls as they move from the horse and unicorn stage to the young gay boy stage.  Evidence A - the Hat and the Belt.

Evidence B - The Baseball Dance

This movie was jaw droppingly bad. Steve and I kept trying to stifle laughing, because Jonah was loving it. In addition to the homo-erotic subtext in the movie and horrendous wardrobe, The hokey editing transitions from the cheerful dialog to the over produced, studio songs cracked me up. As a bonus, we were treated to candid (wink, wink) conversation among the actors about how swell it was to film this movie. I feel quite certain that some enterprising college students were dropping acid while watching it.

Comments

[WendyW]

The first one was kind of charming, but I thought this one was mediocre. I do enjoy some of the songs, though. I have this irrational hatred of Zac Efron/Troy.

What bothered me the most about the second HSM was the message--that it's better to hang out with your friends and do what they want you to do than to take advantage of your talent/connections to succeed. Real friends would have understood that Troy had some great opportunities. His opportunities didn't take anything away from his friends. That he was eating dinner with the Evanses and their basketball star friends didn't mean that his friends were going hungry. In fact, he'd used his power to get them all summer jobs.

That bugged me.

[curious monolith]

I have 2 daughters who are obsessed with these movies and have been compelled to watch both. More than once.

I thought the music was better in the first one; the choreography better in the second.

I predict that all the kids who love these movies now will mock them cruelly in a few years. Nevertheless, I really have to appreciate the way these movies (and Jump In, too--the Corbin Bleu boxing, no--make that jumproping--movie) challenge traditional masculinity for young viewers.