High School Musical – it is All About the Moral

There is something to be said about teen flicks and something else altogether to be said about Musical, teen flicks. I am not much of a musical type person and the movies I tend to like lean more towards serious and heartfelt, but I have to admit this is the type of movie that manages to squeeze in jingle-type songs, famous young actors and a gazillion morals all into less than 2 hours. It is quite impressive.

I believe one of the reasons teen movies are suitable for…well, teens, is because there is always some hot young thing to drool over in order to snag their attention, and just in case you did not read the blurb before you watched it, the movie recaps everything under the sun that you could possibly want your kids to know – always be yourself, stand up for what you believe in, support your friends etc.

High School Musical is all about Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), the young basketball captain and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens), the child Einstein. On New Year's Eve the two are forced to sing together but manage to exchange phone numbers afterwards. When the school year starts Troy is surprised to discover that Gabriella is a new student at his school in Albequerque, New Mexico.

The drama teacher, Ms. Darbus announces auditions for the upcoming Musical and Gabriella and Troy decide not to audition. Gabriella thinks she needs to focus on her studies and Troy thinks while Gabriella thinks his singing is good, his showerhead is the only thing that is very impressed with it.

As school life goes on, Troy tries to focus on his basketball and Gabriella on her science club but I guess it is not that easy because they both decide to admit their interest in singing and start to consider auditioning for the Musical. Troy's friend Chad is not too impressed with Troy admitting to such a feminine tendency such as singing and uses the basketball team to bully him into forgetting the whole thing. Meanwhile others around the school take Troy's example and admitting to inner-most desires such as cooking, or dancing, instrument playing and more.

Troy and Gabriella, after a few embarrassing moments, audition for the musical. They quickly find out that they are being called back for a second audition. The basketball team needs Troy to win and the Decathlon team (Science club) needs Gabriella to win. The two teams devise a plan to separate Troy and Gabriella and ensure they do not go for the callback audition and everything goes down hill from there. Gabriella gets angry with Troy, Troy gets angry with the team and his dad, the Decathlon and the Basketball team feel bad about what they have done and no one is happy.

So while this movie is still young and undeveloped in terms of acting abilities (and that is only my opinion of course), it still manages to pass on a few messages. Be yourself no matter what. Stand up for yourself and for what you want. Be confident and true to yourself. Support your friends in what they want instead of trying to fit them into your own molds of what they should be like. Accept the fact that people are different. Be honest, lying will catch up and bite you on the ass. There is no end to the things you can learn from a movie.