High School Musical 3: Senior Year

Disney has found a great formula, bottled it up and churned out the probable last installment of its franchise in High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

Starring the tween / young adult favorites Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Corbin Bleu, Lucas Grabeel, the ensemble of cast members pull off one of the biggest productions put up by Disney in recent years.

Last night, I had the chance to catch the premiere of the phenomenon known as High School Musical, with four kids in tow… and the movie blew us away. Perhaps we enjoyed the flick for different reasons, but this just showed the universal appeal of the movie.

The set design and whole production was grand — with my personal fave, a song number by Ryan and Sharpay entitled “I Want it All”. And in true Evans fashion, the number was done in luxurious and ostentatious fashion, with several changes in sets that could rival even (a juvenile) Baz Lhurmann (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge) production.

Of course, the music was great, too. After all, this has become the signature of the whole series. It is just a little bit sad that the franchise has reached its end. But who knows. As Anshel, one of the kids I was with pointed out “Next year, College Musical na.”