High School Musical

I have been a little slow on the uptake, but on Friday afternoon I sat down with the children to watch High School Musical. Having recently watched 17 Again, I was interested in seeing more of Zac Efron (what's not to like?) and my daughter had received a High School Musical related gift for her birthday and I was at a loss to explain to her who the people on the stickers were so I ordered the film from our DVD service. I had little idea what to expect and my sons both told me that they would rather do maths. We agreed that they would watch the first half hour and then they could go if they weren't enjoying it. They stayed to the end and, although they both rated it less than 5 out of 10, when I watched it with my little girl again yesterday, they were both there on the sofa!
The plot was straightforward, if a little predictable and cheesy, and the music excellent - of course, this is all obvious from the style and success of the film. My daughter was enchanted, although high school, basketball, scholastic decathlons and auditions took some explaining. My sons laughed at plenty and were keen to inform daddy of the upcoming funny bits during Sunday's reprise. I have had the tunes in my head all night and have just printed off the lyrics on "We're all in this together' for my daughter's weekly copywriting.
What I loved most of all was the message of the film: who you are is more that what other people see, or how you may have been labelled. As I chatted with my boys about this, expanding on the idea by my suggestions that it was possible to be a artist footballer or a race-car driving ballet dancer, they seemed to think this was obvious. And I was happy that they know that they can be who they want to be!