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A year ago when I blogged about the hit TV-movie High School Musical 2, I questioned if its follow-up would successfully be able to make the jump to the big screen – what a silly thing for me to do.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year has now hit the multiplexes and not only is it horrifically entertaining, but it beats you over the head with its innocent charm so much so that you become delirious. The musical numbers are bigger, the songs are better, the sets are more elaborate, but the cheese-factor remains the same – and these are the reasons that fans will show up in droves. Hell, that’s why I went.

I’m obviously not the High School Musical demographic, yet I live for this sort of ridiculousness on a level that I will never fully understand.

Plot is not even a thought here, which once again revolves around sweet Troy (Zac Efron, with some newly acquired biceps) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens), and expects us to care with its “will-they-or-won’t-they hug/kiss/go to prom/perform in the year end show” storyline – a storyline that quickly falls apart with holes galore, but who cares? What remains is delicious awkwardness, surprisingly good dance numbers, and pure chutzpah. This is mostly thanks to its star, Efron, who floats from scene-to-scene with such “been there done that” ease, that the audience comfortably goes along for the ride. But most surprising of all, amidst all of the colour and pizzazz and harmless gyrating, there actually lie a few tender and nuanced moments showing that these lead actors (namely Efron, Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale & Lucas Grabeel), along with their characters, have become much more relaxed and have now grown-up – and, after this one last hurrah, they are all ready to move on with their lives.

But more importantly, are you?

Photograph Courtesy Getty Images

Posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 6:41 pm by Soja and is filed under Just For Fun.

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