High School Musical Contains No High School Musicals
Kenny Ortega, 2006
Live action Disney channel productions in which fresh-faced teenagers look like they just got back from swimming in Lip Gloss Quarry typically do not appeal to me. There was something about the runaway popularity of High School Musical, however, that always piqued my interest, mostly because I wanted to understand what such an innocuous-seeming TV movie had going for it (besides a fantastic title). And when my nieces (seven and four) suggested (by shouting) that we watch High School Musical (“HISKULMOOSKUL!”), I was only too happy to take hold of that idea and run with it, especially since our other alternatives are usually nightmarishly-digitized Barbie movies that can make you actually fear that toys will take over the world.*
OMG WE CAN SING!
When we rented the DVD from Blockbuster, it was as if we had made their wildest dreams come true. Their teeny little bodies were literally wriggling, and they fought over clutching the DVD case at the store. They sang the entire way home, in perfect unison, songs that I would be singing myself a few hours later, and songs that I am singing as I type this and will be singing as I birth my future children and will continue to sing to the elderly dudes that will hit on me in the nursing home. In sum, HSM is dippy, predictable, and perfect for kids/people who secretly like dippy, predictable musicals.
OMG WHAT??
But that’s not all that’s good about High School Musical. It’s no secret that Disney is one of the most progressive corporate giants in terms of social equality and civil rights, and sometimes you can see this attitude trickle down into even their shiniest, most G-rated products.
Sometimes HSM appears to look like other movies, but that's just a coincidence.
This throws everyone for a loop. Jocks aren’t supposed to be into the theater and scholastic decathletes aren’t supposed to be into jocks. Other kids at the school begin to bring out their secret passions as well that don’t fit perfectly with their clique’s stereotypes. The emergence of athletic bakers, brainy hip hop dancers, and stoner cellists (stoner cellists!!) throw everyone off, and the rest of the student body attempts to squash this threat to their happy homogeneity.
WE ARE BASKETBALL PLAYERS WHO SING AND DANCE ABOUT HOW MUCH WE HATE SINGING AND DANCING. BOOYA!
It seems like a pretty standard message, but it’s one that, I think, is a little more accessible than the Ugly Duckling Named Cinderella theme that kids always get spoonfed.
Don't worry, you're supposed to think they're ridiculous.
So if you’re babysitting or something and you need a wildly entertaining kids’ flick…wait what am I saying?? I’m bending to the status quo machine! Rent this for you and you alone! But if you want to roll your eyes a little bit at the happy tears in your niece’s eyes, just remember…High School Musical is the Newsies of the 21st Century, and I don’t even want to know how fast you guys would get up and get into formation if I started singing “Seize the Day.”
Yeah, I went there.
*Also, the look of pure excitement in Kelly’s eyes when I mentioned to her that that’s what the kids wanted to watch really melted the ol’ heart.
3 comments:
My only problem with musicals, especially with something like High School Musical(a film on my Definitely Will Not Watch list), is the severe lack of zombies. Hell, make it interesting. Guys tend to only watch films that have either a) nude women...not an ideal subject matter for a first date or b) re-animated corpses that Must Be Stopped*.
* Sure, some guys enjoy intellectual films with, you know, plot, but they are in the minority.
Hey, I'm with you. HSM is clearly not for everyone and does not feature Johnny Depp, and thusly earns only three out of five stars.
Because we watched it with kids makes me less embarrassed that I liked it. Though I did have it in my queue.
I love that people love musicals, and that Disney (although I don't always care or support their releases) makes cracking musicals. Open the gates, Susan. Seize the day.
Post a Comment