The High School Musical Phenomenon

Of course, there’s also the synergy. Mike mentioned the episode of “The
Suite Life of Zach and Cody” on the Disney Channel from last Sunday where
their high school was doing their own version of “High School Musical”
where Maddy (Ashley Tisdale) claimed that everybody said that she looked like
Sharpay (played by Tisdale in the TV movie), and she did horribly in the audition.

Mark noted the absurdity of a Disney Channel show promoting the stage version
of the show, which promotes the TV movie, but the underlying reason is to
promote the sequel to the original TV movie.

Mike saw the stage version at the Children’s Theater of Minnesota and really
liked it. He even thought that it works better on stage than on TV.

When Mark first saw High School Musical, he thought that it was a cute, fun
little nothing movie with catchy songs and a nice upbeat, reinforcing message.
It was one of the more fun Disney Channel shows that he’s watched with his
son and wife. He really had no idea that it was going to hit as bit as it
did, though.

Mike enjoyed it when he first saw it, as well. He thought is was one of the
better Disney Channel original movies, but he didn’t realize that it was going
to rule the world.

The High School Musical Pep Rally was originally a set-location stage performance
at Walt Disney World, but was then turned into a caravan-type show, winding
its way through the Disney-MGM Studios (soon to be Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
and Disney’s California Adventure. Both editions of the caravan show will
soon be replaced by a new caravan show called “High School Musical 2:
School’s Out!”

Mike thinks that all of this promotion will kill the brand. Mark agrees that
they’ve been milking it, but ios not sure that they are killing it yet. If
there’s a quality fall-off with the sequel, or if it’s perceived as inferior
to the first one, then Mark thinks that there could be serious brand erosion.
They’re certainly not killing it the way that they did to Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire, where they ran the game show four nights a week every
week until it lost its specialness and nobody cared about watching it any
more.

Mark figures that they’re going to be careful not to burn it out. It disappeared
off of Radio Disney for a while to keep it from burning out, but then they’re
starting to play it again over the last few weeks, in addition to solo numbers
from the movie’s stars and the early tracks from the High School Musical 2
soundtrack to help to build anticipation for the premiere on Friday.

Mark things that they’re trying to cash in on it for as much as it’s worth
because they’re not sure if it’s going to turn in to an evergreen brand like
the classic animated features. If it does turn out to have evergreen appeal,
then they’ll adapt their strategy not to burn through all of the good will
up front. For now, though, they’re going to get as much as possible out of
it before it burns out.

Mike wondered if Ryan was too effeminate for a Disney movie. Mark didn’t
think that it was too over the top for Disney. He also remarked that, based
on his community theater experience, the guys that you find in theater –
especially musical theater – are not typically the burly, macho type,
with few exceptions. He doesn’t think that Ryan will raise eyebrows.

Mike wasn’t overly impressed by the preview videos for the songs from the
soundtrack, and he thinks that the viewers are in for a letdown. He thinks
that the original was a fluke, and that by trying to recreate the lightning
in a bottle, Disney is trying too hard and won’t be successful this time.
While the fanboys and fangirls will love it, it’s the rest of the population
that will eventually determine the success of the movie.

Mark thought that the songs that he’s heard on the radio when listening to
Radio Disney with his son were not overly impressive or different. But he’s
not a great judge because he’s 43, not 12.

From watching the High School Musical concert on the Disney Channel, Mike
didn’t think that it was too great.

For premiere weekend, the movie will be seen three nights in a row (all times
EDT, check local listings for schedule in your time zone):

Mike predicts that the following weekend will feature a Dance-Along version
the following weekend.

Mike talked Mark into taking the “Make Your Predictions” quiz on
the High School Musical 2 web site. For humor purposes only, here are their
answers/predictions:

Mike told Mark that he needed to watch it three times this weekend. Mark
argued that he only had to watch it once, explaining that he got a discount
because he’s 43.

So what do you think of High School Musical? What are your expectations going
in, and what do you think after you see it? Let us know by sending an email
or calling our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278) and let us know what
you think!

Wrapping up

Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email
form or via voicemail on our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278).
You can also make suggestions by replying to this post.

If you want to contribute a story for our Magical Moment segment (and possible
inclusion in the Cast Place column here on MousePlanet), you can either use
our email form or the toll-free feedback
line. (We like when you use the voice mail system, because then we can play
it on the show.)

Please take a few minutes to complete our listener
survey. It helps us learn more about you and what you like most about
this podcast.

Don’t forget to go to the iTunes podcast directory and give us a good rating!

You can get your MousePlanet (or MouseStation) swag from the MousePlanet
CafePress store and the brand-new MouseStation
CafePress store.

Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.

Thank you for listening!

Subscribe to the podcast

You can now choose from three ways to subscribe to the podcasts.

Combined (Main) Feed: The main feed will still continue to host both
the MouseStation and MousePlanetWatch shows, and you can subscribe to that
with the following links:

RSS

MouseStation Only Feed: You can also subscribe to just the MouseStation
shows by using the following set of links:

RSS

MousePlanetWatch Only Feed: You can also subscribe to just the MouseStation
shows by using the following set of links:

RSS