Character Studies - The Troublemaker

It's been a long time since I posted about something really embarrassing I enjoy. A guilty pleasure, if you will. I have seen, and willingly sought out, all three High School Musical movies. I can pause for laughter here.

I'm a big fan of modern musicals, so it wasn't that big a stretch. Plus the idea that the biggest thing in tween entertainment would be a musical was too bizarre to not investigate. I can't say I'm a fan of the series though. I find most of the music to be too similar and sanitized. And while I respect the alternate universe, clean and safe, that the movie was set in, having the main problem being that the leads are too good at too many things! just doesn't engender my sympathies. I can easily recall the names Troy and Gabrielle, but that's mostly because of the relentless marketing Disney does. As lead characters, they are fairly thin. But into the scene walks a fully formed, head turning dynamo: Sharpay Evans.

Rich, beautiful, spoiled, talented, this pink clad shark cuts through the school leaving everyone in her wake. What I love is that she plays it as if it never occurred to her that she's not the lead of the movie. Every scene, your eye is drawn to her. She commands attention. And while I applaud Ashley Tisdale and wish her all the best, it's not just her acting, it's the whole package. And all this without a single great song in the first movie. It's not until the sequel she gets her show stopping number "Fabulous". The creators also knew what a find they had here, as she became the de facto villain in HSM2, and all under the guise of doing what she thought was best for everyone, but mostly her. Every villain is the hero of his (her) own story, as the saying goes.

In most musicals, according to Ashman and Menken of the great '90s Disney animated movies, the heroine gets to sing an 'I Want...' song. In Little Mermaid, you get "I want to be where the people are." In Beauty and the Beast, "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere." And in HSM 3, Sharpay gets her own 'I Want' song. And what does she want? "I WANT IT ALL!" It's a show stopper.

Am I saying that you should all watch HSM now and you'll love it? Sadly, no. The movies are fun and sweet, but ultimately shallow. The music gets better as the series goes on, but it most likely won't win over anyone who is not predisposed to the type of material. What I'm saying is that character is something that can show up regardless of the material that surrounds them. You never know when one is going to catch fire.