"Never thought I'd hear my dad say that."
It is finally senior year for the East Side Wildcats. As they make plans for the future, it becomes clear to Troy (Efron) and Gabriella (Hudgens) that their time together is getting shorter and they wish for time to slow down. At school, it is time to get the spring musical ready. To keep Sharpay (Tisdale) from turning the musical into a one woman show, the senior class agrees to participate, leading drama teacher Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) to change the show to showcase the senior year and the seniors.
The stakes are raised when 4 of the seniors: Sharpay, her brother Ryan (Grabeel), composer Kelsi (Rulin), and Troy, are being considered for a single scholarship to Julliard. Sharpay convinces her brother to do whatever it takes to make sure they get good songs, instead of Troy and Gabriella, so they have a better shot at the scholarship. Troy is more concerned with finding the place for him, even if that means disappointing his father (Bart Johnson) and Chad (Bleu) who expect Troy to play basketball at University of Albuquerque... but all the pressure makes Troy want to scream, especially when he learns Gabriella has the opportunity to start college early.
I spent most of a Saturday evening watching the 3 High School Musical films back to back (at times it was painful)... and after seeing them in succession, I was a little disappointed in this film. Yes, the franchise survived the trip to the big screen (the first two were shown on the Disney channel, while this was released in theatres and is feature length), but I have a few issues with what they did with it... My main problem is the supporting characters. In the second film the supporting characters: Zeke (Warren), Jason (Sanborn), Martha (Stroh), and Kelsi, got to interact with the main characters and even get solos in the group numbers. They added a nice dynamic to the cast. However, they are barely involved in this film, except for Kelsi, who gets to be pretty involved, and I was disappointed.
In place of these characters, 3 new characters were introduced... The new characters are sophomores to keep the franchise alive now that the main characters have graduated. I can understand the rationale (people love these films... they are clean, the songs are catchy, and the choreography is excellent!), but I wasn't impressed by any of them. There is Jimmy "Rocket Man" (Matt Prokop) who makes the winning basket in the big game, Tiara (Jemma McKenzie-Brown) the Brit who becomes Sharpay's assistant, and Donny (Justin Martin) who is on the basketball team and involved in the backstage for the musical. Jimmy and Tiara get to understudy the leads for the show... and each get to perform with Ashley Tisdale, but I'm not sure if they can carry this franchise.
The majority of the film is devoted to the typical events of a senior: prom, picking a college, remembering the past, and graduation. The cast goes through the motions on stage, but in some cases, we never see the actual event (i.e. prom). It works on some levels, allowing all of the characters to participate in all of the songs, instead of just appearing in a few. I didn't love all the songs, but several were show stoppers. If you already like the High School Musical films, you will like this one... but it probably won't bring in new fans (it helps to already know the relationships and history of the characters). Good, but not great.
Click here to see my review of "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2"
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) 112 minutes
Director: Kenny Ortega
Starring: Zac Efron as Troy Bolton
Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez
Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans
Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans
Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth
Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie
Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen
Chris Warren Jr. as Zeke Baylor
Ryne Sanborn as Jason Cross
KayCee Stroh as Martha Cox
The stakes are raised when 4 of the seniors: Sharpay, her brother Ryan (Grabeel), composer Kelsi (Rulin), and Troy, are being considered for a single scholarship to Julliard. Sharpay convinces her brother to do whatever it takes to make sure they get good songs, instead of Troy and Gabriella, so they have a better shot at the scholarship. Troy is more concerned with finding the place for him, even if that means disappointing his father (Bart Johnson) and Chad (Bleu) who expect Troy to play basketball at University of Albuquerque... but all the pressure makes Troy want to scream, especially when he learns Gabriella has the opportunity to start college early.
I spent most of a Saturday evening watching the 3 High School Musical films back to back (at times it was painful)... and after seeing them in succession, I was a little disappointed in this film. Yes, the franchise survived the trip to the big screen (the first two were shown on the Disney channel, while this was released in theatres and is feature length), but I have a few issues with what they did with it... My main problem is the supporting characters. In the second film the supporting characters: Zeke (Warren), Jason (Sanborn), Martha (Stroh), and Kelsi, got to interact with the main characters and even get solos in the group numbers. They added a nice dynamic to the cast. However, they are barely involved in this film, except for Kelsi, who gets to be pretty involved, and I was disappointed.
In place of these characters, 3 new characters were introduced... The new characters are sophomores to keep the franchise alive now that the main characters have graduated. I can understand the rationale (people love these films... they are clean, the songs are catchy, and the choreography is excellent!), but I wasn't impressed by any of them. There is Jimmy "Rocket Man" (Matt Prokop) who makes the winning basket in the big game, Tiara (Jemma McKenzie-Brown) the Brit who becomes Sharpay's assistant, and Donny (Justin Martin) who is on the basketball team and involved in the backstage for the musical. Jimmy and Tiara get to understudy the leads for the show... and each get to perform with Ashley Tisdale, but I'm not sure if they can carry this franchise.
The majority of the film is devoted to the typical events of a senior: prom, picking a college, remembering the past, and graduation. The cast goes through the motions on stage, but in some cases, we never see the actual event (i.e. prom). It works on some levels, allowing all of the characters to participate in all of the songs, instead of just appearing in a few. I didn't love all the songs, but several were show stoppers. If you already like the High School Musical films, you will like this one... but it probably won't bring in new fans (it helps to already know the relationships and history of the characters). Good, but not great.
Click here to see my review of "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2"
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) 112 minutes
Director: Kenny Ortega
Starring: Zac Efron as Troy Bolton
Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez
Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans
Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans
Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth
Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie
Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen
Chris Warren Jr. as Zeke Baylor
Ryne Sanborn as Jason Cross
KayCee Stroh as Martha Cox
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