The Boys are Back
I took a half day on Friday and had lunch with a friend from work and then went to meet fissijo at the station (via a mooch round the shops in town). Joei and I then proceeded to watch High School Musical 1 and 2 (or selected highlights anyway) and still managed to find things we hadn't noticed before. We just had time for yummy chinese and a singalongaHSM2 before heading to the cinema to see HSM3. It was a lateish showing and on halloween so it was really quiet - there were only 8 of us in the cinema but two of those were the most annoying kids ever who changed seats every 2 minutes until the film started. There was also a creepy guy who wandered in and out of the second half of the film.
I *loved* HSM3! It was bigger and better than the other two and pulled out all the stops. Sometimes it hurt my brain because the line between ‘reality’ (high school) and fantasy (fantasy sequences and the musicale) gets so blurred but mostly I was in hysterics. Admittedly some bits only Joei and I would find funny but it is so good - I kept wanting to applaud! It’s quite emotional at times too. I want to go again. And again. I may have forgotten some stuff, but my highlights were (in no particular order):
Darbus - They made Ms. Darbus awesome this time! She knows her students so well and had just the right balance between pushy and supportive. From the expression on her face when she saw Troy flicking through the Julliard brochure it was obvious she was the one who had submitted the application. Bless her messing with his head! ;o)
Ryan - That summer at Lava Springs (HSM2) was SO good for him. He’s all snarky and independent and has the ability to stand up to Sharpay much more consistently than before. He’s not her poodle anymore. He’s also much more in with the Wildcats and team-spirited - Wildcat mascot Ryan is AWESOME and made Joei and I die laughing. He totally deserved to win the Julliard scholarship over Sharpay and I think he’ll grow a lot being separated from her. The scooter is cute too!
Kelsi - Hanging out with the Wildcats has had a great effect on her too. She’s also more confident and much more part of the gang this year - she’s not just on the edge of the group through her involvement in the musicals. Another totally deserved Julliard scholarship.
I Want It All - A proper musical number! All drama and fantasy, outlandish costumes and everyone playing a part. Kelsi makes the hottest taxi driver ever and Troy fangirling Sharpay cracked me up. I wasn’t sure about the clips of the song I’d seen on Ashley’s youtube but the ‘reality’ is so much better than I ever could have imagined.
The Boys Are Back - This is all about Troy and Chad and their friendship and growing up. Baby Troy and Chad are adorable and the whole superhero fighting car monsters thing works so well and is just fab and so much fun! They really get a chance to show what they can do too.
The Soundtrack - Best one yet. Apart from the songs I’ve already mentioned I particularly love Scream despite it being all about Troy. I love the angst and the power of the song. The songs capture the moment so well. I think it helped that I had the soundtrack before I saw the film so although I didn’t know all the words the songs weren’t completely new to me.
Kelsi and Ryan - I was saying to Joei before we saw the film that I thought these two could be such good friends given the chance - and they’re given that chance in this one! Their interaction is sweet. Slightly flirty, but in the sense of two friends having fun rather than Ryan being de-gayed. I think they should do a HSM: The College Years just so we get to see Ryan and Kelsi being awesome at Julliard. And Chad visiting Ryan, clearly.
Lack of blonde cheerleader - There’s a particular blonde cheerleader who wound me up in the first two films but we see a lot less of her in this one, possibly because where cheerleader stuff focussed on her before the focus has moved to Martha in her new role as cheerleader.
While Friday was very much High School Musical themed, today was Dancing on Ice themed. We managed to watch last year's tour DVD, then all the Kelly Corcoran Smith bits of Holiday on Ice - Under the Desert Sky. We finished just in time to watch the highlights of this year's tour on ITV. The show never includes as much as the DVD will (out on the 10th) but it far surpassed our expectations this time - they cut out the scoring so packed in as many routines as possible - and we got the group opener and closing, the 60s routine and Dream On and CANDYMAN!!! We never thought they'd give us both of those last two on the TV show. Yay! Spoiling us with the awesome pro skater routines. We squealed a lot and there were texts flying around the country! Can't wait for the DVD now - it's on preorder already.
Joei had to leave after that, because she has more fun stuff planned for tomorrow, but I had such a good weekend - we laughed so much at the most random stuff that probably would just confuse other people. The fact that the DoI TV show fell on the same weekend as we planned to see HSM3 just made the weekend really!