FILM
High School Musical: a review
/ Kevin Killian
03.28.06
High School Musical, A Modern Disney Channel Phenomenon
“We’re All In This Together”
As I write this the Billboard Top 100 groans under the weight of the soundtrack LP to an obscure movie of the week that debuted back in January on the Disney Channel called High School Musical. It’s like they couldn’t even think of a real title, instead resorting to the generic. Like a can of beans labeled “Beans.” This is the little LP that could; in contrast to the debuts of new releases by oh, Kanye or Usher, which leap into the top position first week out, then drop from there, the High School Musical soundtrack crept humbly up the charts, debuting at something like #250 first week out and then rising like a helium balloon. This, my friends, is true word of mouth, backed by a sort of marketing muscle Disney hasn’t exercised in a while. I was curious about how wretched a movie it might be, but never thought I’d have the actual balls to watch it! However the other night I managed to catch the darn show. How did this unsung little production manage to captivate most of what’s left of the record buying public? (It’s the #1 best seller on Amazon.)
My short answer—I don’t know! But, it’s great and here’s why! Troy Bolton, the captain of the East High Wildcats (in a suburb of Albuquerque), is the son of the basketball coach, himself once the team captain way back in 1981. To the adoring crowd at school, Troy’s “that basketball guy.” His opposite number is new in town, Gabriella Montez. Before she moved here she was known at her old school as a math geek, an identity she hated, and for good reason since in looks and personality she’s like Jennifer Lopez as a sixteen-year-old girl. Va-va-voom! You remember how Lindsay in Freaks and Geeks had that love-hate relationship with the Math Decathlon? Gabriella’s got the same thing going on here in spades. At a karaoke party Troy and Gabriella discover a common passion for singing, and through the power of movie coincidence they find themselves in the same East High home room, and strangely are drawn to a mawkish poster in the school hallways, urging them to sign up for auditions for “Twinkletown,” the winter musical. The movie starts getting interesting right about here, since Troy’s teammates laugh at him for wanting to audition for the show, but they don’t say why. They can’t, I suppose, for the movie has to stay G-rated because it was made by Disney. It’s been so long since I saw a G rated anything that its conventions simply astound me; it’s like wandering into a new funhouse of art—definitely a new drug, like Ecstasy, that just makes you giggle with the sheer power of the inane. The Wildcats aren’t scorning the drama club for being gay; instead they object to show music as not being hip-hop enough. That said, the entire Wildcats squad, plus extra guys whose jobs involve clipboards and buckets of Gatorade, break into a strenuous dance right on the court, extradiagetically revealing, they’re all in a musical anyhow whether or not they realize it. A basketball dance no less, with thumping sneakers and the high-pitched theremin-like sound a basketball makes while whipping round the rim of the hoop. This number, “Get Cha Head in the Game,” has some rap influence I suppose, as does Shostakovich if listened to with open ears. It’s so ludicrous I nearly turned off the TV right then and there. Indeed, I nearly sold the TV for spare change.
“We’re All In This Together”
As I write this the Billboard Top 100 groans under the weight of the soundtrack LP to an obscure movie of the week that debuted back in January on the Disney Channel called High School Musical. It’s like they couldn’t even think of a real title, instead resorting to the generic. Like a can of beans labeled “Beans.” This is the little LP that could; in contrast to the debuts of new releases by oh, Kanye or Usher, which leap into the top position first week out, then drop from there, the High School Musical soundtrack crept humbly up the charts, debuting at something like #250 first week out and then rising like a helium balloon. This, my friends, is true word of mouth, backed by a sort of marketing muscle Disney hasn’t exercised in a while. I was curious about how wretched a movie it might be, but never thought I’d have the actual balls to watch it! However the other night I managed to catch the darn show. How did this unsung little production manage to captivate most of what’s left of the record buying public? (It’s the #1 best seller on Amazon.)
My short answer—I don’t know! But, it’s great and here’s why! Troy Bolton, the captain of the East High Wildcats (in a suburb of Albuquerque), is the son of the basketball coach, himself once the team captain way back in 1981. To the adoring crowd at school, Troy’s “that basketball guy.” His opposite number is new in town, Gabriella Montez. Before she moved here she was known at her old school as a math geek, an identity she hated, and for good reason since in looks and personality she’s like Jennifer Lopez as a sixteen-year-old girl. Va-va-voom! You remember how Lindsay in Freaks and Geeks had that love-hate relationship with the Math Decathlon? Gabriella’s got the same thing going on here in spades. At a karaoke party Troy and Gabriella discover a common passion for singing, and through the power of movie coincidence they find themselves in the same East High home room, and strangely are drawn to a mawkish poster in the school hallways, urging them to sign up for auditions for “Twinkletown,” the winter musical. The movie starts getting interesting right about here, since Troy’s teammates laugh at him for wanting to audition for the show, but they don’t say why. They can’t, I suppose, for the movie has to stay G-rated because it was made by Disney. It’s been so long since I saw a G rated anything that its conventions simply astound me; it’s like wandering into a new funhouse of art—definitely a new drug, like Ecstasy, that just makes you giggle with the sheer power of the inane. The Wildcats aren’t scorning the drama club for being gay; instead they object to show music as not being hip-hop enough. That said, the entire Wildcats squad, plus extra guys whose jobs involve clipboards and buckets of Gatorade, break into a strenuous dance right on the court, extradiagetically revealing, they’re all in a musical anyhow whether or not they realize it. A basketball dance no less, with thumping sneakers and the high-pitched theremin-like sound a basketball makes while whipping round the rim of the hoop. This number, “Get Cha Head in the Game,” has some rap influence I suppose, as does Shostakovich if listened to with open ears. It’s so ludicrous I nearly turned off the TV right then and there. Indeed, I nearly sold the TV for spare change.