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 Disney has jettisoned its musical integrity with High School Musical 2.
In the opening scene of the original High School Musical, the first song snuck under the radar via a karaoke scene. It was as if the producers wanted to gently ease the teenage audience into an unfamilar genre. Now the show is a big fat hit, we’re presented with the much more confident High School Musical 2.
I’ll admit I hated the original. The sequel, lacking any novelty value, I like even less.
This bland Disney drivel, populated by cardboard cut-out kids juiced up on optimism, sanitises the musical genre like a jumbo-size pack of Rinso.
Even the teenage musicals of yesteryear, Fame, Grease, Saturday Night Fever and West Side Story explored themes of racism, sexual expression and peer group pressure. Here the biggest issue is who will win the talent night. It’s like an episode of The Partridge Family.
Twink heartthrob Zac Effron, a new-age David Cassidy, once more sings, pouts and basketballs his way through a string of boyband-style songs, knee-deep in shallow verbage: “I wanna make it right, that is the way/To turn my life around, today is the day/Am I the type of guy who means what I say?/Bet on it.”
He is again joined by the pert Vanessa Anne Hudgens (she who posed for nude photos) and a cast of cheesy, if talented, supports. Lucaas Grabeel and Ashley Tisdale return as a Fag and Fag Hag, clones of the Hiltons, Perez and Paris. Grabeel’s lily-white ‘Ryan’ is cloaked in an ambivalent, pansy sexuality. He resumes his sidekick villainy, though there is a belated redemption of sorts.
Shot once more in Mormon-laden Utah, HSM2 boasts more color than Disney’s Fantasyland. The choreography by Kenny Ortega, also the film’s director, is again its strongest asset.
The real tragedy of this phenomenon lies in lost opportunity. Kids the world over have sucked up HSM while smaller successes like Camp go begging. Hollywood is raising a generation that will only understand true musicals if they take a wrong turn to Broadway.
You can sit back and let HSM2 wash over you with its pretty kids and pep that I suppose passes as modern camp. Or, like me, you can get angry that Disney, with its rich history in musical masterpieces, has blanded out. Meet me in the karaoke bar and we can nut it out.
High School Musical 2 airs 6:30pm Saturday on Seven.
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