What's wrong with High School Musical?

[0HP]

High School Musical is a musical, watched predominantly by high-school age people, about high school musical things. Problem Number 1 right there: It's perspective isn't ironic. We're supposed to take this happy-chappy, chirpy pop completely at face value.

Culturally, this series is a mirror that, when held up to the face of American high school, blatantly ignores all the awkward, pimple-filled bits, and instead opts for, "I make this look good." This effectively makes it a cultural delusion, convincing some part of our psyche that high school was really great; that youth is more important than experience, that good looks and a smooth voice will out-perform witty intelligence and emotional depth.

Hmph! I say, Hmph!

 

[AMMO Kid]

I know this is hard to believe, but an alien was transported from the TV through brainwaves into your stomach, and it may lie dormant now, but when it awakes you will inevitably become gay.

I watched the movied with my eleven-year-old cousin last year, and they were perfectly okay to me. By no means cinematic masterpieces, but nevertheless acceptable entertainment. Why are they so disliked by people?

I know this is hard to believe, but an alien was transported from the TV through brainwaves into your stomach, and it may lie dormant now, but when it awakes you will inevitably become gay.

 

[Nazulu]

I know a lot of people that hate it because it's nowhere as good as their older movies.

I also know a lot of people that hate things that get over-rated. Like the OP said, it's nothing special but it is getting the special treatment, like every other average piece of media these days.

I mean c'mon! Twilight gets lined up with the greatest horrer movies ever?!

 

[Doctor What]

Well, as somebody who has been in a local stage production of it...everything is wrong with it. It is rotten to the core. It is mindless dribble, the script is just tripe. There is no character development:

"hey dude! I want to sing, but I'm a jock! What do I do?! Wait, that nerdy chick is singing, she's breaking the rules! I'm going to sing too!"

And that has spawned two sequels and a planed reboot. It's target audience is too stupid to realize that it's nothing but a money maker, and the one's who do realize that are us: grumpy, jaded and full of rage.

Sorry, I thought I was over those feelings!

 

[tzimize]

Obvious troll is obvious?

 

[lapan]

The music was okay, but the story was extremly unoriginal and clice.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

High School Musical

I hate Musicals, and I hate plays. I just do.

 

[Kragg]

Yeah, What's so bad about twilight too?

Actually, this. I see nothing wrong with HSM, and I like those films. I also like Twilight. I also happen to enjoy German art film The White Ribbon, Citizen Kane, Alfred Hitchcock films and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. So anyone dares tell me I have bad film taste, screw them.

Basically, people are elitist and decide that because they don't like something, anyone who does like it is automatically retarded. Which is the stupidest justification I've ever heard anyone have for anything, save for religion (and yes, I am Christian myself, thank you very much). I have the same 'justification' used on me constantly because I like the TV show 'Glee' and my brother doesn't.

My advice? If you have an opinion, then have that opinion, and if anyone ever tells you that opinion isn't worth having? That person isn't worth listening to. Anyone tries to tell you that High School Musical is crap? Ignore them and carry on watching it. If you like it, that's all that matters.

[wanders off singing Wicked's 'Defying Gravity'...]

what a boring world that would be, id rather discuss the and why not of the liking and possibly "convert" the other party, that said i don't understand how you could like twilight, for its genre it could be OK and frankly i watched it to know what these girls around me were so excited about. But i'd never call it a good movie, it just wasnt. Story buildup is awkward and forced, reserval of charactertraits that made no sence at all. And the message it sends to little girls, well im not even going into that yet

on topic: I've never seen the movie, but anything based in the weird paralell universe where everyone in highschool is pretty and the ugly ones just need to wear contact lenses and let their hair down is too cringeworthy for me,but that is just a guess

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Because a lot of people are pretentious, and can't stand "mindless dribble" making millions. Everything must have layers upon layers of subtext and reflect 'reality'.

This sums it up.

I'll even go a step further and say: People are jealous that the people in the "mindless dribble" have more money, fame, and success than they likely will ever come near.

As for HSM? It's harmless. It's got catchy enough music, and one of the cast members actually had a small role in an extremely good film - Milk.

And thanks to this role, that young actor/actress will probably never be taken seriously ever again.

I don't think "pretentious" is fair. I've not seen more than 10 minutes of it, so my disgust doesn't come from a need to analyse things, or search for depth...the thing just tests my gag reflex.

I don't like the acting, or the music, or the setting...you can't get me to watch supposedly good films that are set in high schools, I just don't care about teenage life.

I reserve the right to mock it. I extend the same right to people who don't like the things I do.

 

[Hafnium]

And that has spawned two sequels and a planed reboot. It's target audience is too stupid to realize that it's nothing but a money maker, and the one's who do realize that are us: grumpy, jaded and full of rage.

Haha, very true..

It's quite interesting how the lifespan of these media darlings follows the same trend. In very few years it's loved by simpletons, hated by almost everyone else, it dies, but is then brought back to life immediately. It's terrifying how much money they make on this tripe.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

I'm not completely sure, after a few minutes of watching I'm vomiting so hard it's a tough time to tell what's going on.

 

[CJ1145]

I watched the movied with my eleven-year-old cousin last year, and they were perfectly okay to me. By no means cinematic masterpieces, but nevertheless acceptable entertainment. Why are they so disliked by people?

The songs are cheesy, a lot of the acting is lackluster, and these movies accurately portray high school like Barbie dolls accurately portray the female anatomy.

 

[Elburzito]

Gives children a false reality of High School and encourages consumerism alot in my opinion. I also hate the songs and the characters are WAY to cliched.

 

[DudeMan1031]

The music sucks and the story is stupid.
The South Park parody was pretty good though.

 

[Mr. Socky]

I doubt anyone dies in it. Not manly enough for my tastes.

My soul shriveled up and died for about the two seconds I saw of it, is that good enough?

 

[axle 19]

Poor acting, annoying songs, and a dramatized setting. Honestly I have never been a fan of musicals but having been basically forced to watch it (It was the only movie they played at my job so it was either that or be bored) it just failed to have any reedeming value or give anything to the viewer.

 

[Outright Villainy]

I'm not going to say other people can't enjoy it, because entertainment is entirely subjective. Personally however, I found it both hilarious and depressing at the same time, and subjecting my ears to that is something I'll never do again. My brother played guitar for his school's adaption of it, so I had to hear him practice those evil songs over. And over. And over...

 

[olicon]

I rather like the first one. The third wasn't too bad. The second one was absolutely horrid.
I don't mind the cliche too much. I mean, it's a kid movie about high school. What did you expect? I rather like the innocence and simplicity (cardboard characters can be refreshing if you want to turn off your brain for an hour) of the story. And while I can't say much about the lead characters, I do like the antagonists a lot--they were really good singers, and their songs were so much better than the protagonists' songs.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Well its an online forum, so I'm allowed to have opinions about something I know nearly nothing about.

As far as I can tell, it's a damn musical, for a start, and my own experience of musicals has been:

Guy walks into a park - 'Oh look, a leaf'
Girl looks up - ' A leaf? ohh he has found a leaf!'
Twenty backing singers pop up from behind a hedge ' oh a leaf, a leaf he has found A LEEEAAAF!'

Cue moronic songs about anything for 2 hours.

(I fully understand this comes from the same school of criticism as 'techno is just beeping' and 'all metal is just some fat bloke grunting')

Secondly, its aimed at annoying preteen girls, when the only thing that should be aimed at them is a rocket launcher. It wouldn't matter if that Zak guy was the next Laurence Olivier, because 'oh he's so hot'

Thirdly, it seems to be yet another teen drama show where 'oh look we're all so pretty, therefore we get everything handed to us'.

Give Zack acne and another 100 lbs, and let's see just how successful the acting, script and songwriting is.

I should state that I hated musicals until a couple of years ago, when Andrew Lloyd Webber somehow got hours of free advertising on BBC1 to plug his new musicals, every year. Now I hate them even more. Musicals at least used to be able to claim to be 'pretentious theatre' until that toadfaced limerick peddler showed up to turn his singalong versions of other people's work into the new Britain's Got Talent.

Oops, seems I diverted from my original point somewhat.

Anyway, I guess my main point is, if you can't replace the main stars with people less attractive, and still have people enjoying the show/music/movie, then it's without merit in my opinion. (except porn where the whole point is looks )

 

[Tartarga]

I hate anything produced by disney these days.