Considering the fact that it is questionable that the entire cast was even in high school at the time, the all-around Disney Channel classic movie series, High School Musical, was in most ways a fantasy.
Maybe it’s just my skewed perspective, looking at this from small-school, small-town goggles covering my eyes and tinting my vision with rose hues. However, I don’t find that the filmmakers were trying to convey a realistic message. The characters were very stereotyped; the “jock-group” of basketball players, the “nerd-group” of socially awkward outsiders, a “new-girl” trying to find her place and ends up catching the attention of the biggest jock at the school.
I do believe that the overall message of the movie series, “follow your passion,” seems pretty realistic. It’s difficult to do nowadays. However, these movies, like any other Hollywoodized film looking to buy a couple more bucks while in the box office, take the idea and the message they’re trying to convey to a completely overdramatic and over-fantasized level. It seems almost as if at points in the films, the world stops spinning so the top basketball player can sing his heart out without the fear of judgement.
Despite the brutal truth of high school, fitting in does not come easy. The movies do a good job displaying the main character’s growth as he slowly learns to embrace himself even when his teammates don’t. He learns to do what he loves and doesn’t fear “standing out” from everyone else. In the end everyone seems to have a hidden passion locked away, whether it be dancing, cooking, playing an instrument, etc., which proves slightly unrealistic because there is very low probability that high schoolers would immediately just begin to feel completely comfortable with themselves and with sharing their secrets with their peers.
There are some true aspects to these films, as there are to all films if you delve deep enough into analysis, but the unrealistic aspects seem to outweigh the truth found. These movies entertained me as a younger girl (and I haven’t watched them recently but I’m sure I would still be entertained) and had me so excited to go to high school. I couldn’t wait to be a part of such a massive conception. Overall, based on my experience and experiences I have heard about, I do not believe this movie was realistic. Amusing, yes. Practical, no.
I really enjoyed your gifs and images used throughout your blog. I also liked your use of strong words. However, I have a feeling this is 6AM Olivia???
ReplyDeleteyour analysis was A1 and you explained all of the stereotypes and went into great depth. I've seen better though ;)
ReplyDeleteHahaha thnx jack fabian love u too
DeleteI enjoyed your tone throughout this blog post. You were able to keep it serious while still letting some humor be exposed in your own voice. There are a few things that I would recommend in order to improve this post. First, I would explain stereotypes that were true and the cliques that can actually be related to by most high schoolers. For example, there are always the basketball players, theatre kids, etc. You touched on some of the true aspects, but I would dive in deeper. Give examples. I also liked how you touched on some personal aspects, but it would have been better if you related that to the movie throughout the entire post. Why is our school so much different than high school musical? Why did the filmmakers portray such an emphasized effect on the "greatness" of high school?
ReplyDeleteI firstly think that you did a good job on describing how the screenwriters want the audience to get out of watching this movie. I also liked your analysis of how realistic some aspects of the movie are in respect to your own reality. One thing that I would do would be to go more in depth about each character, you only scratch the surface of each's character's personalities and motivations. I also destroyed Cameron in the AICE Marine Kahoot.
ReplyDeleteLivvy, I really enjoyed this blog, but like Jack said, I have seen you write better ones. I wish that you would have maybe went more in depth on the stock characters, like saying their names along with the description that you put. An example would be from when you said, "The characters were very stereotyped; the “jock-group” of basketball players, the “nerd-group” of socially awkward outsiders, a “new-girl” trying to find her place and ends up catching the attention of the biggest jock at the school." but maybe adding that the people in the "jock-group" are Troy, Chad, and Zeke or something similar to that. Overall, you did a great job and have well placed gifs :)
ReplyDeleteYou had a really good idea and I like the examples you used about the stereotypes. I also think that the filmmakers didn't make it realistic but has an overall message. You could add a little more detail about the movie I think. But I always enjoy reading it and I love the pics!
ReplyDeleteThis was written very nicely, I think you did a great job analyzing and explaining stereotypes that were present in this movie and whether these stereotypes resemble those of Marco Island Academy. I'm not sure that you analyzed what this film says about the filmmaker and your gifs/pictures were a tad distracting.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this because of all the pictures and that I agreed about how it is difficult to tell if the stereotypes and cliques are prevalent because our school is so small. Although the blog would have been better if you would have gone into more detail about what that says about the filmmakers. Overall it was a really good blog!
ReplyDeleteOlivia, I think you did a good job overall. Your analysis was good but I do feel like you should have mentioned and gone into more detail on some of the other characters because there are a lot that people can relate to in reality. Also you should talk more about the filmmakers and the intentions they had when creating the characters. I did like your perspective on this because as a small high school we really don't get to see much of this.
ReplyDeleteOlivia, I believe you did a good job breaking the movie down into its main components of stereotyped generalities and cliches but I feel that you could have been a lot tougher on the movie than you were in your analysis.
ReplyDeleteYour blog was perfect, so screw the rips.
ReplyDeleteIt was a perfect balance between analysis, personal experience, and movie explanations, all of which other blogs wrote too much or too little about. I did not find myself bored or uninterested reading this (which happened in other blogs), so your sense of voice was definitely there. Honestly this blog reflected you as a person haha, completely balanced in every area. I am jealous of both you and your blog.
Well done.
Olivia, I always enjoy reading your blogs because you always put 100% effort in even when you don't have the time to do it. Your analysis was written very well and I enjoyed all the details you put in about the movie (which I enjoy very much). The only thing I would say is to work on the format of your blog, it's very distracting with the white highlighter and color scheme of your blog; but other than that, great job!
ReplyDelete