Go Wildcats!

Curious as to what the hype was all about, I watched "High School Musical" yesterday.
I'd obviously assumed that since it was for children, it was going to be yet another of those prefabricated, easy to digest, instantly forgettable pieces of junk entertainment they're served every day.
It wasn't. For one, it felt refreshing even if it was released two years ago (which in tween entertainment years is like B.C), the music is fun, the characters are appealing (Ahsley Tisdale steals every scene and proves, the blonde, villainous girls always have more fun), but the best part of it all is how it dares to do what very few films do nowadays: unashamedly proclaim they're musicals!
The style is even in the title! (Give me a contemporary musical that showed its style in its trailer...even "Moulin Rouge!" was made to look like camp drama) And still people flock to it! Which makes all those cries of "people hate musicals" completely obsolete.
In fact one of the best things about the script is that it uses this for comedic, meta effect. The plot sometimes revolves around the fact that nobody in school can believe that the jock (Zac Efron) and the geek (Vanessa Hudgens) are auditioning for their high school musical.
And what is the best way to complain about this? A song of course!
Therefore we have basketball teams performing unselfconscious choreographies, entire cafeterias twirling and singing about status quo and an altogether sense of joy that infects anyone watching it. I, for one, can't wait to see the other two now.