To this day, High School Musical remains one of my favorite movies. Yes, I am almost 20 years old, but this 2006 classic still stays close to my heart. All I ever wanted growing up was to be an East High Wildcat and live out my most fabulous Sharpay-inspired life.
High School Musical has become a pop culture phenomenon. This movie was one of if not the most successful DCOM to date (Disney Channel Original Movie). This series was even able to move beyond TV movies and make it to the big screen with their third and final film. HSM holds so much nostalgia and is something that people from my generation growing up in the early 2000s grew up with. It seems still very relevant in our lives or something that when we think of this movie we think back to that time.
The nostalgia for HSM continues as High School Musical the Series (hsmtmts) was released on Disney Plus in the fall of 2019. This show takes place at East High and is focused on their current students putting on a drama production of High School Musical at the school where it was filmed. It features new characters but definitely holds many nods to the original having special guests featured from the 2006 film. Even if you had watched this movie ten years ago and kind of forgotten about it, this show has most likely resurfaced it in your mind.
Disney prides itself as a company that provides entertainment for anyone of any age. This movie was really for anyone at the time of its release. It was clean enough that a seven-year-old would have watched it, but also those in high school, or just lovers of musicals in general. The catchy songs still play in my head and to this day at karaoke events I always find someone singing “Breaking Free”. The music, the cast, and everything in between have made this movie so popular, but I am not mad about it!