Review of High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) by Stephanie G — 05 Jun 2010

Ok, I'm ready for my castration now. But seriously, this is just a very well made "family film", and for fans of the series, the perfect way to say goodbye to the characters. The wide cinema release (the first two films were made for the Disney Channel) and the increased budget has obviously spurred on Kenny Ortega and the writers to make something a bit more ambitious; the songs are more memorable, the choreography is even more assured and some of the sets look terrific.

In addition, the performances go up yet another notch as the cast matures, though there's sadly less here for Lucas Grabeel's Ryan (who I am now convinced the writers are giving as many 'gay' moments to as possible without actually outing him) to do; the concentration is (understandably) on Troy and Gabriella's relationship.

The universal themes of growing up and growing apart are well handled amidst the campery and angst, and the 'graduation' is genuinely quite moving. Though the first two films could hardly be called classic of their genre, this is actually a very good film and had it not been for the recommendation of a friend whose opinion I value I *never* would have seen it (I had already made my mind up that it was cack based on the trailer) - I would actually watch this over pretty much any Disney animated film (not Pixar) any day of the week.