Jump to content

High School Musical

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Tishii (talk | contribs) at 19:50, 3 September 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

High School Musical
File:Highschoolmusicalposter123.jpg
The main cast of high school musical
Directed byKenny Ortega
Written byPeter Barsocchini
Produced byDon Schain
StarringZac Efron
Vanessa Anne Hudgens
Ashley Tisdale
Lucas Grabeel
Corbin Bleu
Monique Coleman
CinematographyGordon Lonsdale
Edited bySeth Flaum
Music byGreg Cham
Roy Cham
Andy Dodd
Faye Greenberg
Jamie Houston
David Lawrence
Adam Watts
Distributed byDisney Channel
Release dates
January 20, 2006
Running time
93 min.
CountryUnited States of America
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million (est.)

High School Musical is an Emmy Award-Winning Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) with choreography by Kenny Ortega, Charles Klapow, and Bonnie Story. The film tells the story of two students, Troy, who is the captain of his school's basketball team, and Gabriella, a shy new student. Together, they try out for the lead parts in their school musical. Despite some students' attempts to thwart their dreams, Troy and Gabriella persist and inspire others along the way.

Plot

Template:Spoiler

The Party

Troy and Gabriella, without knowing each other, both go to a 'young adults' New Year's Eve Party while on vacation. They both get chosen for a karaoke contest and "rock the house" with their song, "Start of Something New". Afterwards, Troy and Gabriella introduce themselves to each other, and then part company, but not before promising to call each other later (each having the other's number and picture on their cell phone).

The Transfer Student

Later, due to her mother's job being transferred to Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gabriella starts school at East High, not knowing that Troy also attends that same school. Troy is also the captain of the East High Wildcats basketball team, which is coached by Mr. Bolton, Troy's father.

Welcoming the students back from their holiday vacation, Ms. Darbus, their homeroom teacher and the drama teacher, encourages the students to sign up for the Winter Musical auditions, announcing that there would be singles auditions for the supporting roles and pairs auditions for the two leads. After class, Troy finds Gabriella after seeing her in class. It soon becomes evident that the two (and particularly Troy) both wish to sign up or, at least, hope that the other will do so first.

The Audition

However, Troy sneaks out of doing basketball practice during free period, evading both his friend Chad and his father, to go watch the auditions. Gabriella shows up for the audition as well. Though late for the auditions, the two sing a song from the musical for the composer Kelsi and both get callbacks for the show.

Gabriella and Troy begin to feel the pressure that their stubborn associates place on them. As Gabriella is a super-braniac and Troy is the star basketball player, neither is considered a singer. Although moving to a new school has given Gabriella a chance to start over before anyone can label her a math geek, Troy struggles to get his dad to accept him singing in the musical.

Troy gets in trouble with his dad and his friends when he directs his attention towards the musical instead of basketball, especially since the Wildcats are gearing up for their big championship game in two weeks against their rival (West High).

In addition, the dynamic duo Ryan and Sharpay Evans, who have always starred in the school musicals, are furious. Sharpay and Ryan refuse to have any competition, and will do what they can to stop Troy and Gabriella from stealing 'their' parts in 'their' show.

Troy's best friend on the basketball team (Chad) and Gabriella's best friend on the decatholon team (Taylor) decide to find a way of getting Troy and Gabriella to not try out for the musical. Chad and the rest of the basketball team confront Troy and relentlessly nag him until he says that he doesn't care about "the singing thing". Troy only says this so that they can leave him alone, however the basketball team recorded what he said and sends it to the decatholon team so that they can show it to Gabriella. When they do, Gabriella decides to quite the musical.

Feeling guilty, the basketball team and the decatholon team tell Troy and Gabriella what they did. At first, Gabriella is not convinced that Troy didn't mean what he said, but he goes to her house that night and makes things right between them. They decide to audition for the musical.

The Callbacks

Sharpay and Ryan have just finished performing their song, "Bop To the Top" with only a few people in the audience. Ms. Darbus calls for Troy and Gabriella, but unfortunately, as they are returning from the basketball game and the scholastic decathlon, they are not there yet. Less than 20 seconds later, they arrive, but Ms. Darbus coldly informs them that they are too late. The basketball and decathlon teams follow not far behind Troy and Gabriella. Everyone who was watching the basketball game and the decathlon competition fill the auditorium to watch Troy and Gabriella. Ms. Darbus is forced to let them sing, having seen such an excellent display of 'showbiz' and determination from Troy, Kelsi, and Gabriella.

At first, Gabriella gets stage fright, but Troy reminds her to be who she wants to be. They perform the song "Breaking Free", leaving the crowd, including Ms. Darbus, cheering uncontrollably. Even Troy's dad and Gabriella's mom watch the song and are visibly proud. Everyone realizes that Troy and Gabriella are meant to sing together as Troy kisses her lightly on the cheek.

The End

The Wildcats return to the gym, where the lights are working again, and they win the championship with a game-winning shot from Troy, giving a final game score of 68-67. While the Wildcats are celebrating, Gabriella comes in and tells Troy that her team won the decathlon. Filled with joy, Gabriella and Troy are just about to share a romantic kiss when they are interrupted by Chad, coming to give Troy the game ball. They try again but are interrupted by Taylor who was asked out by Chad.

Sharpay then comes up to Gabriella to congratulate her, telling her to "break a leg," which scares Gabriella until Sharpay tells her that that means "good luck" in theatre lingo. Everyone realizes that people should be able to do what they're truly passionate about, and not just stay in the stereotypes given to them by others. With this new philosophy, the whole school decides that they should support each other, singing and dancing in the final song, "We're All in This Together."

After the credits roll, Sharpay is seen in the gym, complimenting Zeke's cookies, and they both move off camera as Zeke says the final movie line: "I might even bake you a crème brûlée!" Template:Endspoiler

Release Dates

  • The movie premiered on the Disney Channel in the U.S.A. and on the Family Channel in Canada on Friday January 20, 2006.
  • The movie premiered on Disney Channel Asia on Sunday, June 25, 2006 (with record ratings in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore) after its success in other countries.
  • It was dubbed into Spanish and Portuguese and premiered in Brazil on Sunday, July 30, 2006 and in Latin America on Sunday, August 6, 2006. The songs remained in their original English versions.
  • The movie will premiere on Disney Channel Germany on Saturday, September 2, 2006 at 6.30 pm.
  • The movie will premiere on Disney Channel Sweden on Friday, September 8, 2006 at 7pm.
  • The movie will premiere on Disney Channel UK on Friday, September 22, 2006 at 6pm.
  • The movie will premiere on Disney Channel Portugal on saturday, September 30, 2006.
  • The movie will premiere on Terrestrial TV on BBC 1(UK)towards the end of the year.
  • The movie will premiere on Disney Channel Taiwan in October 2006.

Cast

Main Characters

Troy Bolton

Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) is the captain of the Wildcats basketball team and his father is the coach. Troy has a magnificent voice but doesn't know about his talent until he sings in front of a crowd at a New Years Eve party with Gabriella. Later on, when Gabriella attends his school, Troy decides to try out for the school musical with her. They prepare the song Breaking Free with the composer Kelsei Nielsen, and win the roles of Minnie and Arnold.

Gabriella Montez

Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) is the shy and brainy new student at East High. She originally meets Troy Bolton at a Ski Lodge on New Years. It is there she realizes her love for singing, previously only being 'The Freaky Math Girl'. She had previously been in church choir, but when soloing, "looked at all the people staring at me and next thing I knew I was looking at the ceiling. End of solo career." Sharpay and Ryan find out that she has won numerous Scholastic Decathalons and get her to join the scholastic decatholon by showing an article about Gabriella to Taylor (the leader of the scholastic decatholon) so that they can get her to focus on that rather than the musical. She and Troy, against all odds, audition for the Winter musical and win the roles that they auditioned for.

Sharpay Evans

Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) is an egotistic girl hooked on doing anything to get what she wants (she successfully gets Mrs. Darbus to change the date of the callbacks so that it conflicts with both Troy's basketball game and Gabriella's scholastic decatholon). In the movie she is the most known in the school, with the nickname "Ice Princess" and is rumored to spend her holidays shopping for mirrors, which given her inflated ego is very likely to be true. Sharpay is head of the drama club and seems somewhat envious of Gabriella. At the beginning of the movie it appears that she likes Troy (quite literally a hopeless crush); however, Zeke has a crush on her, much to Sharpay's obvious displeasure. She ends up being the understudy for Gabriella for the Winter Musical. Sharpay proudly flaunts the fact that she and her brother have starred in seventeen of the school's productions, a position that no one has been threatened by except Gabriella. At the end we find out that maybe Sharpay is a decent girl after all... until she acts rudely again. Then we find out that some things never change.

Ryan Evans

Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel) is mostly pushed to the side to let Sharpay into the picture. Ryan is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed (he couldn't read "GO DRAMA CLUB"). He can often be very ditzy at times and is the nicer of the two. In the movie, not many details about this character are revealed, but one can conclude he is extremely flamboyant. He also goes along with Sharpay's plans, because he doesn't really know what to do without her. It can be concluded also that, aside from Sharpay, he has no other friends and is visibly intimidated by the jock crowd. (Sharpay cuts through the group, but Ryan goes around, he avoids eye-contact with Chad, and is more upset that the 'Jocks rule most of the student body, but if Troy makes it to the auditions, then they've conquered the entire student body' than Sharpay is about them making it to the callbacks)

Chad Danforth

Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu) is Troy's best friend and member of the Wildcats basketball team. From the start he's a little selfish and isn't very supportive of the 'singing thing' because he wants to win the upcoming big game more then wanting to help his friend. But then he comes to see that singing is something that Troy truly enjoys and so Chad throws his support to his best friend's audition endeavour.

Taylor McKessie

Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman) is the leader of the school scholary/science club. She befriended Gabriella when she came to the school and, by means both foul and fair, convinced her to join the scholastic club. While she at first tried to stop Gabriella from singing, she eventually ended up supporting Gabriella.

Minor Characters

Ms. Darbus

Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) is the harsh drama teacher at East High. Her nemesis is Coach Bolton, and she will only ease up on talented singers. Her lack of knowledge for sports is prominent (she doesn't seem to understand the difference between a basket and a touchdown). She likes to pronounce 'musical' with a flourish, particularly emphasising the last syllable.

Coach Bolton

Coach Bolton (Bart Johnson) is the Wildcats' coach and Troy's dad. He is a former champion basketball player, and, like everyone else, expects the same thing of his son. His nemesis is Ms. Darbus.

Kelsi Nielsen

Kelsi "Playmaker" Nielsen (Olesya Rulin) who receives her nickname from Troy, is the pianist for the Twinkle Town musical, and is the composer of the songs "What I've Been Lookin' For" and "Breaking Free." Kelsi is not the most confident person as noted by her reaction to Sharpay's comment that Kelsi's knowledge about musicals is not very large. Kelsi is different from most of her classmates in that she cares very little for the traditional high-school hierarchy (i.e., she does what she does - playing the piano and composing musicals - simply for the love of doing it, rather than to "fit in.") It is this character trait that makes her a natural ally to Troy and Gabriella - initially their only one, in fact - as they attempt to audition for the musical, defying the stereotypes of their respective peer groups, not to mention the vehement objections of Ms. Darbus and the Evans twins. Kelsi is of great assistance to Troy and Gabriella by playing the piano for them while they practice for the auditions. Near the end of the movie, during the Wildcats' victory celebration in the gym, Kelsi has a stereotype-defying "Cinderella moment" of her own when - having traded her top hat and black tie for a bright red halter top, thus revealing herself to be one of the most beautiful girls in school - she triumphantly sinks a basket with the game ball, given to her by Troy as a "thank-you" for her help and support.

Zeke Baylor

Zeke (Chris Warren Jr) is a member of the Wildcats Basketball team. He is interested in baking (revealed during Stick to the Status Quo), and at the end of the movie Sharpay starts to like him for his excellent skills - and cookies .We're not sure if it will last though.

Martha Cox

Martha has a solo in "Stick To The Status Quo" and appears in the finale. If you look closely, you can also see her in a few scenes with the scholastic decathalon team.

DVDs

High School Musical was released on DVD on May 23 2006. Entitled High School Musical: Encore Edition, the DVD includes both original and sing-along versions. The DVD broke sales records when 1.2 million copies were sold in its first six days making it the fastest-selling television movie of all time.[1] It is, however, the second DCOM on DVD to be certified Platinum in DVD sales. The first is The Cheetah Girls. A 2-Disc Special Edition, entitled High School Musical: Remix, will be released to DVD on December 5, 2006.[2]

The High School Musical DVD was also released in Australia on July 12 2006 through Walt Disney.

Bonus features

  • Learning the Moves featurette led by director/choreographer Kenny Ortega ("Bop to the Top")
  • Never-before-seen music video "I Can't Take My Eyes off of You"
  • "We're All in This Together" music video
  • The Making of High School Musical

DVD chapters

  1. Opening Titles
  2. Back to School
  3. "Get your Head in the Game"
  4. Auditions
  5. "What I've Been Looking For" (Reprise)
  6. "Stick to the Status Quo"
  7. A Private Conversation
  8. Interventions
  9. The Truth Is Revealed
  10. Working Together
  11. "We're Breakin' Free"
  12. "We're All In This Together"

Charting

Billboard also has Top DVD Sales which High School Musical has charted on.

U.S. Billboard Top DVD Sales
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Position
1
2
6
8
8
13
10
5
6
10

Soundtrack

Main article: High School Musical Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on January 10 2006 and debuted at number 143 on the Billboard 200, selling 6,469 copies in its first week. In the album's third week, for the chart dated February 11 2006, it climbed to number ten, and has since risen to number one on the Billboard 200 twice (on March 1 and March 22) and had shipped 3.5 million copies. Out of those copies, more than 2.8 million copies have been sold by August 2006; it was certified triple platinum by the RIAA.

The soundtrack was released in Australia on May 27 2006 by EMI. In the album's seventh week it reached the number one position on Australia's ARIA Album Charts for the week dated July 31 2006 and has been certified gold, selling 35,000 units in total.

Awards

  • High School Musical director Kenny Ortega was nominated for the 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or Television Movie.
  • The songs "Breaking Free" and "Get'cha Head In The Game" were both nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Music and Lyrics.
  • On August 20, 2006, High School Musical won three Teen Choice awards for Choice Comedy/Musical, Best TV Chemistry (Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens), and Choice Breakthrough Star (Zac Efron).

Trivia

  • High School Musical is the second highest rated DCOM to date with 7.7 million viewers. On August 25th, 2006 it was beat out by The Cheetah Girls 2 which drew in 7.8 million viewers.
  • The basketball team's name is the Wildcats like in Lizzie McGuire, 7th Heaven, and Life is Ruff. The opposing school, West High, were the Knights.
  • When people bought the 2-disc soundtrack, some people were disappointed that "Get'cha Head in the Game" (the B5 version), "Stick to the Status Quo", and "What I've Been Lookin' For (Reprise)" were not on the Karaoke disc.

Errors

  • In the opening scene, when Troy and Gabriella were singing "Start of Something New", as the song progressed, they did not look at the lyrics on the screen a lot. It may be because they were familiar with the song in the movie. (However, some may argue that they looked when the camera was not on them.)
  • During the sequence when Troy is heading to the first audition, his shoes switch between black shoes with white accents and white shoes with black accents.
  • During the intervention scene, the screen says "Recieving Wi-Fi Signal".
  • When Troy and Gabriella are singing "What I've Been Looking For" they are not looking at the lyrics. However they were in the room while Ryan and Sharpay were singing it.
  • During "Stick to the Status Quo", Sharpay turns to begin to walk down the stairs, but in the next wide shot of the cafeteria, she is at her post at the middle of the balcony. When it goes back to her she is halfway down the stairs.
  • During the scene in Ms. Darbus's classroom, while Chad is talking to Troy, Chad is wearing a watch, but when he goes and see Troy at his locker in the next scene he has no watch on.
  • In the scene where Troy and Gabriella meet in the lunch room, Taylor calls Gabriella over and puts her lunch tray down. Troy then walks away, but when the shot switches back to Gabriella, the lunch tray had moved to the person on her left.
  • When Troy and Gabriella are singing "Start of Something New" in a close-up Troy takes his microphone off his stand but in the wide shot the microphone is still on the stand. During the course of the songs, it keeps on switching.
  • When Troy and Gabriella are singing "Breaking Free" no matter how far away or close up they put their microphones to their mouths, everything stays at the same volume.
  • When the Wildcats have won their game, Gabriella comes in and has changed into a red dress. If they had just finished the science competition she wouldn't have time to change.
  • You can tell that the soundtrack and the music that they used in the movie are different editions because in "What I've Been Lookin' For", Ashley Tisdale sings a harmony with Lucas Grabeel differently than on the soundtrack
  • When Troy has to give up his phone in Mrs.Darbus's class, he has one hand ready to close the phone and nearly does. In the next shot, its wide open.
  • When the principal announced that everyone must make an orderly exit from the gym, the basketball players immediately ran out. However, on the right bottom corner of the screen, there was a camera man filming the movie at a different angle. This is considered one of the most obvious mistakes.
  • When Sharpay asks Troy "When's the big game?" he says it is in two weeks. But whenever anybody else is talking about it, or even when he is talking about it, it is only in one week.
  • When Gabriella is painting the moon in detention, you can clearly see that it is already painted.
  • Sharpay's locker is pink with a star on it, when all the other lockers are very different. She would not be allowed to paint her locker if it was a real school.
  • In Stick to the Status Quo, it is supposed to take place during lunch, but pretty much everybody actually eat during lunch, and there is no food on the table. There are also no teachers in the cafeteria, or in the hallway during When There Was Me and You.

Stage Musical

It was announced in Playbill on August 1, 2006 that Stagedoor Manor — the summer theatre camp made famous by the movie Camp — will be home to the first stage production of Disney's original movie High School Musical.

Disney Theatrical Productions and Music Theater International granted the first license of the amateur stage production to the Loch Sheldrake, New York program, which is slated to perform in August. [3] The part of Troy is played by Zac Efron and the part of Gabriella is played by Vanessa Anne Hudgens. Read more here [[4]]

Novels

A junior novel based on the movie hit number one on the New York Times best-seller list for children's paperbacks.

Disney Publishing is planning on an original book series that will come on market in April and continue with a new book every 60 days until June 2008.[5]

Reaction

Some HSM fan sites:




Preceded by Disney Channel Original Movies Succeeded by
Preceded by Highest Rated Disney Channel Original Movie Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=High_School_Musical&oldid=73622912"