January 20, 2021 is an enormously important day in American history. Not because of the inauguration of President Joe Biden, but rather because it marks 15 years since we first saw the East High Wildcats take over our TV screens. The beloved trilogy took the children’s television world by storm in 2006, receiving huge ratings for the Disney Channel, and even having a theatrical release for the finale. The movies were so popular that even 15 years later, they were able to spawn off a mockumentary on Disney Plus. That being said, there’s no better time to rank the three movies, in my professional opinion.
3. High School Musical (2006)
The first High School Musical film may be at the bottom of this list, but that does not stop it from being a great film in general. Without this movie, you don’t have either of the other two that sent the trilogy to a legendary level rivaled by very few other movie series. This is the classic story of a nerdy girl that meets a jock boy who is too cool to sing but learns that maybe he loves lip-syncing to Drew Seeley. The tale of young Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens finding a new love of singing and performing is not the most original, but it is still great. This is by far the cheesiest of the three movies which does help to give it a certain charm, but in the end, it does lack in some areas that the other two absolutely shine in. For example, Zac Efron sings for a total of maybe 30 seconds in this movie. The rest of his songs are lip-synced by another singer, Drew Seeley, which detracts from the immersion of the movie. The next two movies fix this by giving Efron songs within his range to sing. In addition to that, while this song did introduce classics such as, “Getcha Head in the Game”, “Breaking Free”, and “All in This Together”, some of the songs aren’t great and don’t have a lot of emotional value, such as possibly the worst and most boring song in the series, “When There Was Me and You”. With all that in mind, this movie was great in the fact that it kicked off the series, but compared to the other two films it does not have that extra IT factor that they had, which is why it sits on the bottom of our list.
2. High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)
At our next spot, we have the finale of all finales, the end of an era, High School Musical 3. This movie dealt with the moral dilemma of what Troy wanted to choose for his future; singing or dancing. Should he go to The University of Albuquerque and become a Redhawk like he and Chad always dreamed, or should he try to go for the scholarship to Juilliard and pursue singing? This was the first and only movie in the trilogy to get a theatrical release, which also meant this movie had a much higher budget and thus the set pieces and choreography numbers went up in quality a tremendous amount. We go from having fun little dance scenes in the cafeteria and on the basketball court in the first film, to now having Sharpay change the cafeteria into a pink carpet premiere and various cities filled with cars and huge neon lights. All of this comes together to create quite possibly the greatest scene in the whole trilogy. Troy goes to the school and unleashes all of his inner turmoil about not knowing what to do and we get “Scream”. This scene is an absolute emotional rollercoaster featuring CGI Basketballs falling from the sky, Troy walking up walls with spinning hallways, all accompanied by the best song in the entire movie. However, while this movie is amazing and a huge step up from the first one, there are still a few things that hold it back from being number one on our list. While the high production value scenes are fun and add a lot to the movie, it does cause the film to lose some of the charm that the originals had being on the Disney Channel, and makes it seem like it’s taking things too seriously. Along with that, some of the songs do fall flat such as, “Right Here, Right Now”, “Walk Away”, and “High School Musical”, but songs like “Scream” and “Now or Never” make up for that. They also try to set up characters like Rocketman to pass the torch on to, but nothing ever happens with it making it kind of pointless. Overall though, this movie is a great and satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, sending all of our characters in ways that seem right for them, wrapping everything up in a nice little bow.
1. High School Musical 2 (2007)
Here it is. Quite possibly the greatest movie of all time, High School Musical 2 exceeds at pretty much everything it sets out to do. From the plot to the emotional character moments to the soundtrack, this movie does it all. This movie has so many vibrant colors which add to the overall good feeling that this movie gives the viewer. While 3 has the higher production value, this one’s colors and visuals just pop off the screen giving it a one of a kind feel. Troy undergoes huge character development throughout this movie, as he becomes a bit of a jerk that stops caring about his fans and becomes too focused on his job at the country club, his Italian golf shoes, and playing with the Redhawks. This causes Gabriella to leave him in one of the most emotional moments in all of cinema. “Gotta Go My Own Way” brings a tear to everyone’s eye whenever they see it. This isn’t the only emotional scene in the movie though. From the emotional tension between Chad and Ryan in “I Don’t Dance” to Troy letting out his angst on a golf course in “Bet On It” there are so many songs that leave an emotional impact on the viewer. Unlike the other movies, High School Musical 2 simply does not have a bad song and is packed to the brim with bangers. The movie is filled with amazing songs like “What Time is It”, Sharpay’s best solo “Fabulous”, the great teamwork song “Work This Out”, Troy and Gabriella’s best duet “You Are the Music in Me”, the absolute bop of a jazz number “I Don’t Dance”, the heartbreaking “Gotta Go My Own Way”, Troy’s powerhouse anthem “Bet On It”, the song of the heavens “Everyday”, and the party song of the summer, “All For One”. You might be thinking, wow that’s a lot of good songs in the movie. Well, that’s because that is literally every song featured in the movie. Literally every single movie is an amazing piece of art that makes your ears fall in love. There are also a bunch of weird little funny things in the movie that add to a lot of the charm such as Troy’s underwear changing color in between shots, cameramen walking into the frame during the baseball game, Ryan’s trophy breaking and then fixing itself within seconds, and Chad dropping his microphone at the end of the movie. Quite possibly the best of these little things is after the baseball game when Chad and Ryan are suddenly wearing each other’s outfits. This really leaves you thinking about what happened. What did they do? Why are they all of a sudden in each other’s complete outfits? All of these amazing things come together to form a timeless movie. One that can and has stood the test of time and given people of all ages the greatest thing a movie could give. Happiness.