Freakonomics and High School Musical have a lot in common. Both were surprise hits that had no reason to be commercial successes, but managed to do well by not taking themselves too seriously.
My kids and my wife love the original High School Musical. I kind of like it myself. It is played an average of three times a day in my house. So we have been eagerly awaiting the sequel, High School Musical 2, which premiered on Friday. The verdict: my six- and seven-year-olds liked it okay, but I could not believe how bad it was. It was shockingly awful.
I’ve been trying to figure out what made the movie so incredibly terrible. I think the only possible answer is that they started taking themselves seriously. Do others who saw it agree?
Anyway, to answer the question posed in the title of this blog post … Let’s hope the answer is “nothing.”
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I would agree. Didn’t watch that much of HSM II last night, but the little I did watch was pretty weak. The person in the house who would most likely have liked it preferred to watch a repeat episode of Smallville instead.
The reason that the original HSM seemed to work was that it was an improbable love story with easily identifiable bad guys. You had the geeky girl and the star athlete getting together through their singing and their opposition to the arrogant blond couple.
I would agree. Didn’t watch that much of HSM II last night, but the little I did watch was pretty weak. The person in the house who would most likely have liked it preferred to watch a repeat episode of Smallville instead.
The reason that the original HSM seemed to work was that it was an improbable love story with easily identifiable bad guys. You had the geeky girl and the star athlete getting together through their singing and their opposition to the arrogant blond couple.
A data point that supports you: Our 6-year-old was watching HSM2 last night, and mid way through she quit watching it to go next door to play with a friend. She has never done that with the original.
One thing missing from HSM2 is romance. In the first not only were the two leads starting a relationship, but so were several other couples. In HSM2 I don’t think anyone believed for a second that Troy and Gabriella would not still be together at the end.
A data point that supports you: Our 6-year-old was watching HSM2 last night, and mid way through she quit watching it to go next door to play with a friend. She has never done that with the original.
One thing missing from HSM2 is romance. In the first not only were the two leads starting a relationship, but so were several other couples. In HSM2 I don’t think anyone believed for a second that Troy and Gabriella would not still be together at the end.
Don’t be so hard on yourself – I feel fairly certain there’s no way you could fall to their level.
Don’t be so hard on yourself – I feel fairly certain there’s no way you could fall to their level.
Imagine the dissapontment in our household dominated by children aged 5 and 8 when all of the promotion failed to deliver in Dubai last night and at 20:00 we were watching Chicken LIttle instead of HSM2. We listened to Corbin Bleu’s freshly pruchased cd instead and will weigh in when HSM2 starts to play in heavy rotation.
Imagine the dissapontment in our household dominated by children aged 5 and 8 when all of the promotion failed to deliver in Dubai last night and at 20:00 we were watching Chicken LIttle instead of HSM2. We listened to Corbin Bleu’s freshly pruchased cd instead and will weigh in when HSM2 starts to play in heavy rotation.