High School Musical
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 We're All in This Together
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High School Musical is a 2006 American musical television film produced by and aired on Disney Channel as part of the network's Disney Channel Original Movie brand. The first installment of the High School Musical series, the film was directed by choreographer and filmmaker Kenny Ortega from a screenplay by Peter Barsocchini. It stars Zac Efron (as Troy Bolton), Vanessa Hudgens (as Gabriella Montez), Ashley Tisdale (as Sharpay Evans), Lucas Grabeel (as Ryan Evans), Alyson Reed (as Ms. Darbus), Corbin Bleu (as Chad Danforth), and Monique Coleman (as Taylor McKessie). High School Musical follows student Troy Bolton, the captain of his school basketball team, and Gabriella Montez, an academically gifted transfer student, who together audition for the lead roles in their school musical, causing division among the school's cliques.
Plot
On New Year's Eve, high school juniors Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez are both vacationing at a ski lodge in Utah and meet when they are called up to sing a karaoke duet together with the first musical number, "Start of Something New" during a party. Troy returns home to East High School in New Mexico, where he is captain of the basketball team which his father coaches. By coincidence, Gabriella has just transferred to East High, and as Troy shows Gabriella around the school, drama club president Sharpay Evans assumes that Gabriella is interested in auditioning for the school musical. The jealous Sharpay discovers Gabriella's past academic achievements, and anonymously informs scholastic decathlon captain Taylor McKessie so she will recruit Gabriella for the team. During basketball practice, Troy is distracted by thoughts of Gabriella and the idea that he might enjoy singing, while trying not to get distracted with the song "Get'cha Head in the Game".
From the back of the auditorium, Gabriella and Troy watch Sharpay and her twin brother Ryan audition for the musical with an uptempo version of "What I've Been Looking For". Troy and Gabriella step forward at the last minute, but drama teacher Ms. Darbus tells them they are too late. While helping Kelsi Nielsen, the musical's composer, pick up sheet music, they give an impromptu performance of the same song at its original ballad tempo of the reprise version of "What I've Been Looking For". Overhearing their performance, Ms. Darbus gives them a callback audition.
When the callback list is posted, Sharpay is furious that she has competition for the lead role, while the Wildcats basketball team is shocked that Troy has auditioned. After discovering that Troy is eager to step outside of the social norms, other students confess their secret passions and talents in the song, "Stick to the Status Quo". This alarms Taylor and Troy's best friend Chad Danforth, who work together to trick Gabriella into believing Troy does not care about her. Upset by what she perceives as Troy's betrayal and callous disregard for her ("When There Was Me and You"), Gabriella decides to not audition for the musical and distances herself from Troy. Realizing their mistake, Chad and Taylor admit their role in sabotaging Troy and Gabriella's relationship. Troy goes to Gabriella's house and they reconcile, determined to audition for the musical.
Overhearing Gabriella and Troy rehearse, Sharpay convinces Ms. Darbus to reschedule the callback auditions so they begin at the same time as both Troy's championship game and Gabriella's scholastic decathlon competition. The basketball and decathlon teams work together to allow Troy and Gabriella to leave by hacking the power in the gym and causing a chemical reaction that forces an evacuation during the decathlon. Troy and Gabriella rush to the auditorium as Sharpay and Ryan finish their callback song singing "Bop to the Top". After Gabriella and Troy successfully perform their song "Breaking Free", Ms. Darbus gives them the lead roles, making Sharpay and Ryan understudies. Both teams win their respective competitions, Chad asks Taylor out, Sharpay makes a truce with Gabriella, and the entire school gathers in the gym to celebrate in a song, "We're All in This Together".
In a post-credits scene, Sharpay praises Zeke for a bag of cookies he made for her, and he says he will make her a crème brûlée.
Why They All in This Together
- The idea of high school students singing during their lifetime is somewhat original.
- The film has a theme: being true to yourself, supporting friends, and pursuing your dreams, no matter what other people think.
- Decent (albeit cringe-y) acting.
- Likeable and relatable characters.
- The choreography is eye-catching and very well structured.
- Catchy and iconic songs.
- "Start of Something New" (which is a good opening number to start the movie)
- "Get'cha Head in the Game"
- "What I've Been Looking For" and the reprise
- "Stick to the Status Quo"
- "When There Was Me and You"
- "Bop to the Top"
- "Breaking Free"
- "We're All in This Together" (considered to be the most popular DCOM song of all time)
Bad Qualities
- Zac Efron did little to no singing due to the role of Troy was written for a tenor, and Efron, who himself is a baritone, could not properly sing most of the parts. Singer-songwriter and actor Drew Seeley, who also auditioned for the role, provided majority of the character's singing voice, with Efron himself singing the first and last few lines in "Start of Something New" and the beginning of "Breaking Free".
- The acting is considered cringe nowadays.
Reception
Upon its premiere, the film attracted 7.7 million viewers. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "High School Musical is brazenly saccharine, but it makes up for it with its memorable show tunes, eye-popping choreography, and appealing cast."
Common Sense Media rated the film four out of five stars. Kevin Carr gave the film a score of three out of five, saying, "The filmmakers were just trying to tell a story. Sex, drugs and violence just didn't factor into that equation." On the other hand, David Nusair gave the film a negative review with a score of 1.5/4 saying, "...it's difficult to imagine even the most die-hard fan of musicals finding anything here worth embracing." Scott Weinberg also gave the film a negative review saying, "A schmaltzy little piece of obvious fluff that's directed in truly horrendous fashion and populated by cardboard characters who spit out simplistic platitudes and breathy pop tunes."
While High School Musical was filmed on a budget of US$4.2 million, the film's success allowed Disney Channel to increase the budgets on their future television films. The network subsequently developed more "tentpole" films driven by music or based on popular franchises.
Due to High School Musical's massive popularity during the 2000s, the franchise grew into 2 more films, a spin-off film, stage adaptations, a spin-off series, a book series, and multiple international adaptations.
Trivia
- Corbin Bleu wears T-shirts that says funny things like: "I come with my own background music" with a picture of a cassette tape, "easily distracted", and "laughing on the inside".
- Despite the movie taking place in New Mexico, none of the main actors are actually from New Mexico.
- Zac Efron only sings 10% with his vocals in this film. The majority of his character's singing voice were filled in by Drew Seeley.
- This is because the role of Troy in this film was written for a tenor before casting.
- Zac is a baritone. This was discovered after he was cast, and the producers brought back Seeley for the singing voice. Both men auditioned for the role wherein Zac won due to his youthful look.
- Although Zac is of baritone range, he used to sing tenor but during the filming, he was going through puberty, which might be one possible reason why he went to the aforementioned range.
- Despite this scenario, Zac manages to sing lead in the first lines of "Start of Something New", the first line of "Breaking Free", and the rooftop scene. In the soundtrack, he sang mostly backing vocals.
- After filming the first movie, Zac signed to play Link Larkin in the 2007 New Line Cinema adoption of the 1987 Broadway musical, Hairspray, where he did his own vocal work. The production of this film clashed or conflicted with the High School Musical concert tour, and Seeley filled in for him.
- Chad references Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase from the Toy Story franchise when he says, "In two weeks, we're going to the championships with you leading us to infinity and beyond."
- High School Musical posters are visible in the Guild Wars mode and in one of the backgrounds in Normal Campaign in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode. East Wildcats badge is also available as an avatar on the game's forum.