A Review of Disney’s High School Musical 3

Yes, I’m a twenty five year old guy who went to see High School Musical 3. I of course went with my beautiful fiancée. I’ll state in advance that the first two High School Musicals were guilty pleasures for me. They’re not the greatest movies in the world, they’re cheesy, awkward, and beyond ridiculous but a lot of fun.

You can’t start comparing these to classic Musicals like Sound Of Music or Fiddler on the Roof. For what they are they succeed on almost all counts.

Story
It’s a simple cheesy high school grad story. No Giant Snakes and no mayors blowing up but it was cute. This story was the best written in my opinion, the plots were well interwoven and I didn’t cringe in anticipation for something truly stupid to happen.

I love how they seamlessly slipped in the new characters and how they kept true to the High School angst of the first two movies.

One thing that’s always amazed me about these movies is how open to differences and encouraging of the arts they are. As an aspiring teacher I think that’s awesome.

Pacing
There were few times that I got bored, it was well cut and well paced.

Acting
Surprisingly not bad, the whole cast grew as actors over the past few movies. The main actors were still extremely cheesy but it was less awkward and wooden then the second movie.

Lucas Grabeel Really improved his acting and outshone most of the cast.

As usual my eye and ear were always pulled towards Olesya Rulin’s Kelsey. She’s always stolen the show, from the first movie on. I’m not just saying that because she’s outrageously beautiful, she’s also an amazing actress and her ballet training finally shows in this movie. I still find she’s underused but she has few good story moments.

On a side note I’d love to see her in a role that’s stronger. I’d love to see her try something in the Summer Glau repertoire of action.

Production Value
I expected this to be a High School Musical transferred to film and put in theatres, and it turned out to be a High School Musical made for theatres.

Everything was cleaner and better done, writing, acting, filming, and the song writing really improved. Even the sets were better without losing the same feel as the originals.

Potential
It took me till near the end of the movie to realise they had built in, unobtrusively, a “Next Generation” of High School Musical. The British actress, the basketball guys, the cute guitarist girl, and a few others were all introduced. They even left place open for the actress who plays Sharpey to come back and maybe even the actor who played Chad.

I’m not sure how well it’ll do, if they do it, but I’m impressed they managed so easily to build a second cast without interfering with the movie.

Overall
It’s a popcorn, high school movie, it won’t change humanity and no ones high school experience is that awesome. It gives me the urge to go out and finish that theatre minor.
It made me laugh and smile sometimes from cheesiness and sometimes on purpose but it was fun. I’m happy to see that even in a simple movie, the writing was still decent and it’s something I hope to share with my kids someday.

For that reason, and keep in mind I rate in its genre and not compared to the classics, I give it a 8 out of 10.

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