Review: High School Musical 3 - Senior Year
All Right, All White and Out of Sight
Movie poster
Not exactly true, as there are indeed a few token African Americans attending Northeast High, Disney`s fairytale high school in Albuquerque, where the senior year`s biggest problem would appear to be deciding which illustrious college to attend. Inundated with scholarship offers from Harvard to Berkley, from Yale to Stanford - with Julliard thrown in for good measure - teen life in New Mexico seems fraught with hardship. Not to mention the relationship problems for our two leads, Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and Gabrielle Montez (Vanessa Hudges), who seem destined to go their separate ways; after one last spring musical to round off the year and provide a lasting souvenir of their carefree schooldays to accompany them on the hazardous road to adulthood.
And that is the storyline, my friends, interspersed with some standard intrigues and gut-wrenching moments of indecision: will Troy choose to be a basketball star at a top Arizona University, or train to be an artist at Julliard? Will Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) take over the leading role in the last musical and manage to win Troy`s affections once Gabriella is out of the way? No doubt burning issues all, if you`re a teen, but still pretty weak, even by teen-drama standards.
Well, I`m too old and cynical to go for that kind of naive, antiseptic hogwash - especially when the US is in the midst of financial meltdown and the middle class is getting throttled, with many even forced to sell their homes. But there`s nothing like a bit of light relief and escapism is always popular in times of war and economic crisis - the US currently having to contend with both - and, let`s face it, this is a kids` film and Disney is master of the genre.
Disney`s genius for crossover marketing was shown by the amazing success of the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS 3-D concert release earlier this year, grossing over $65 million in the domestic market alone, although it never played in more than 687 theaters. HSM 3 has far outdone is predecessor, raking in more than $185 million thus far, remaining in pole position at the US box office for weeks. The third of the series, as its name implies, was a foregone conclusion for the big screen. Its two forerunners were enjoyed by more than a quarter of a million TV viewers in more than one hundred countries throughout the world. DVDs and soundtrack CDs sold by the millions, (the CD sold more than 15 million) supported by live shows in Disney`s theme parks of Anaheim, Orlando, and Paris.
I have it on good authority that the main difference between No. 3 and its two TV predecessors (which I never saw) is the budget. Every penny of the estimated $33 million is visible on the screen (as opposed to PINEAPPLE EXPRESS which didn`t cost that much less). Chief choreographer and series director Kenny Ortega`s musical sequences are more than spectacular, as are both set and costume design. From the Wildcats` opening number on the basketball court GET`CHA HEAD IN THE GAME to Sharpay and twin brother Ryan`s (Lucas Grabeel) glossy Broadway dream sequence I WANT IT ALL, to the movie`s mandatory big ballad JUST WANNA BE WITH YOU performed by Troy and Gabriella, to the extraordinary choreography of Troy and Chad`s (Corbin Bleu) junkyard-set duet THE BOYS ARE BACK, reminiscent of mid-80s Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson video clips, and set to be the major hit from the soundtrack. A single version performed by the cult boy band US5 is currently on release.
All music accolades appear to have gone to composer David Lawrence and music supervisor Steven Vincent, the winning team from High School Musical 1 and 2. But the songs themselves, without which there would be no high school musical at all, are, without exception, catchy, melodic, well performed, finely-arranged and well produced. Although the songwriters have hardly received the recognition they deserve - they are not mentioned on any PR material of any kind. In fact, I had to do some extensive internet research just to find out their names - both rumor and common sense have it that songwriters Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil (responsible for most of the tracks), Jamie Houston, Andy Dodd and Adam Watts are crying all the way to the bank. According to director/choreographer Ortega, “The songwriters have turned out a soundtrack that I think is the best of all. It serves the story. It serves the characters. It`s dynamic, rhythmic, romantic, funny, orchestral, symphonic and choral. It gets as big as it can and as intimate as it can and everything in between.”
So, all that being said, what did I think of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3? Storyline, PG-13 humor and extreme political correctness aside, I was knocked out and thought the songs and dance numbers were terrific. I left the movie theater thinking: say what you will about the US of A, nowhere else in the world will you find such astonishing all-round talent, energy, and optimism. And if it does all seem like a clone of parts 1 and 2, so what? I`ll probably be buying the CD.
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 - SENIOR YEAR, (USA 2008), Genre: Youth musical: Running time: 190 minutes: Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; US Release date: October 24, 2008; Director/choreographer: Kenny Ortega; Writer: Peter Barsocchini; Composer: David Lawrence; Main cast: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Corbin Bleu, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Monique Coleman, Olesya Rulin, Chris Warren Jr.; Cinematographer: Daniel Aranyo; Production designer: Mark Hofeling; Editor: Don Brochu
Plot summary: High school seniors Troy and Gabriella are facing the prospect of separation as they head off to different colleges. Along with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical reflecting their hopes, dreams and fears of the future.
One Response to “Review: High School Musical 3 - Senior Year”
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High School musical 1 is much better than High School musical 2 but both of them are good. Vanessa Hudgens is so pretty and cute wayback then.