Catching the HSM fever two years later

Due to circumstances largely beyond my control (which I won’t get into because no one would believe me anyway), I ended up watching High School Musical tonight… by myself. And I have to say, it’s fantastically wholesome fun. Positive messages, multiculti faces and age-appropriate (albeit unrealistic) clothing abound. It’s very encouraging that kids today—the age of Grand Theft Auto and Paris Hilton—are obsessed with this movie.

It’s basically an extended episode of MTV’s Made—extended and enhanced with sparkles, song and dance, and exaggerated facial expressions. It seems everyone in this high school has some closeted ambition that’s contradictory to “what they know,” the clique they belong to, etc. But guess what—by the end of the movie, you realize you can be whatever you want! We’re all different in our own special ways! And we’re in this together!

Unfortunately, this kind of optimism will only lead to disappointment later in life because you can’t, in fact, be anything you want—unless, perhaps, your parents happen to be very rich—although if that’s the case you probably only want to be “normal,” or at least that’s what you’ll tell Us Weekly after rehab. But nevertheless, HSM did deliver the warm and fuzzies, and if it helps one football star embrace his homosexuality rather than give wedgies to the drama club president, then I’m all for it.

Plus, it really doesn’t get much better than this basketball dance number. In “Get’cha Head in the Game,” heartthrob Zac Efron tries to shake his secret desire to try out for the musical—while his teammates dance in a synchronized circle around him. If I hadn’t been so distracted by his dreaminess, I would have maybe wondered why Zac was so worried about what his friends would think of “the real” him—they’re about as intimidating as the prancing, snapping gangsters of West Side Story—and just as entertaining. Enjoy!