A nasty review of High School Musical III

[Dusty Ayres]

You may agree, or you might disagree... From IMDB:

The stuff anorexia and high school massacres are made of., 9 November 2008

Author: Lau Pedersen from Denmark
I haven't seen the first nor the second film, but with films like Dirty Dancing, Footloose, even Grease in the back of my mind, it makes High School Musical 3 look like a propaganda film made by reactionary parents and the U.S. Department of Education. The film has been clinically cleansed of losers or people who are a bit unusual; and it's a great example of a pedagogical motivation-form based on fear. Fear of defeat; fear of inadequacy; fear of humiliation. There is no room for mediocrity or small ambitions; so straighten up while you are young and go to school, and "allow yourself to be great" as it says in the film This is the stuff anorexia and high-school massacres are made of. High School Musical makes me think of what one of the creators of South Park, Matt Stone, said about the American school system: "They scare you into conforming. If you're a loser now, you're gonna be a loser forever." High School Musical preaches that every moment is crucial for the rest of your life. And this is a 'wonderful' achievement pressure to put on children and adolescents. Let's take a few quotes to understand the rhetoric. In the changing room the coach says: "Make this moment last". Prom night is "A night to live forever", so one must hope one has a date that night. "This is our last chance to get it right", "This is our last chance to make our mark", "History will know who we are," etc.. This is the pupil's last chance to write themselves into history; and they are just 17 years old.

Children and adolescents may be what they want to be, as long as the result of their efforts is, in one form or another, of absolute greatness; so the film tells us.

The stuff anorexia and high school massacres are made of.

[billcosby]

I'm sure one could suspend disbelief long enough to endure.
After all, think about the title. High School Musical. Three. It's the third in a series of melodramatic musicals based around themes of archetypes in high schools.
After the first one, I'm pretty sure I'd rather french kiss a live blender than sit in front of any more "films" named High School Musical.
If kids are smart enough, they'll see through the tapestry of thinly woven shit.

[Servo]

billcosby wrote:

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If kids are smart enough, they'll see through the tapestry of thinly woven shit.

That's a pretty big "if".

[TGTheodore]

Someone takes light DISNEY musicals a WEE bit too seriously.

Sounds like a second-year critic, out to deliberately like fewer films than s/he likes so as to try really hard to appear "credible".

Or one of those bloglodytes. (Yes, you read the term here first. At least on TrekBBS)

--Ted

[Ethros]

Speaking of High School Musical, I've only just realised that lead actor Zac Efron played the young Simon Tam in the Firefly episode "Safe"
Cool

[FordSVT]

Servo wrote:

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That's a pretty big "if".

5-12 year olds are not known for their ability to easily discern media propaganda. It's not that this movie is going to wreck anyone's life, it's that this movie and a thousand other things the media tells you from day one of your life just might. Media/peer/social pressure is enormous; there seem to be a lot of people who brush it off with "suck it up" and "only idiots fall for it" but they probably don't live their own lives to that standard. I'd be damned if my (theoretical) 8 year old went to see this pile of crap, however I can see why a parent wouldn't want to be the only parent on the block who won't let their kid go see it. There's that pesky social pressure again.

[Dusty Ayres]

Here's a counterpoint to the review that I posted:

It’s time to shed our snobbishness and own up to the fact that the most important musical of the last 10 years is not Rent, Avenue Q or Spring Awakening. It’s High School Musical.

Please stop throwing tomatoes at me. The truth is High School Musical not only ended the reign of those bloated Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber turds, but it also packaged and sold old-style musical theatre to a whole new generation of youngsters, all of whom now want to become triple threats.

The importance of High School Musical has been acknowledged by two very different men of the theatre, directors Evan Tsatsias and Howard Kane. Tsatsias is shepherding a song cycle about growing up called Edges. Kane is directing the mega-spectacle that is the Northbound Leather Fashion Show, called X-posé.

Homo School Musicals

Here's my take on the nasty review of High School Musical III.

While I don't like the movies that much myself (the song 'I Don't Dance' has grown on me though) this review is the biggest pile of bullshit that I've ever read in my life.

Basically, this moron can't stand the thought that most kids are high achievers in life, and that celebrating the idea that high achievement is a lofty goal is somehow bad for society....which apparently is the coin of the realm for little Danish kids.

What he said is enough to make me, as a person who likes and wishes that North American society was like Danish society in terms of their social safety net, to repudiate that kind of system if all that it can produce is a world view like that. And I don't want to, believe me. But this 'review' came close to bringing out the rabid neocon in me.

[RoJoHen]

Ethros wrote:

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Speaking of High School Musical, I've only just realised that lead actor Zac Efron played the young Simon Tam in the Firefly episode "Safe"
Cool

Holy shit, you're right! Awesome.

I haven't seen HSM3, but I thought the first 2 were silly fun. There is no reason to take them seriously.

[Super Grover]

I like Dale Gribble's review.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRgcKK7LUlI

[OmahaStar]

Ethros wrote:

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Speaking of High School Musical, I've only just realised that lead actor Zac Efron played the young Simon Tam in the Firefly episode "Safe"
Cool

And another lead, Corbin Bleu played young Tommy in Galaxy Quest.

[JAG]

OmahaStar wrote:

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And another lead, Corbin Bleu played young Tommy in Galaxy Quest.

Thank you! I was trying to figure out where I had seen him before.

I took my daughter to see the movie and she had a ball.