USA Today
"What grabs and keeps our attention are the pretty faces, infectious songs and eye-popping dance moves....HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 really does emerge like a breath of fresh air." 10/24/2008New York Times
"Mr. Efron's athletic grace is Astaire-like in its casual authority. Ms. Hudgens's blissful smiles melt the screen." 10/24/2008 Entertainment Weekly
"HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR gives you an honest jolt of feel-good fizz....Brought to life by the high-energy cast and the musical numbers, which Ortega shoots with electrifying pizzazz." -- Grade: B 10/31/2008 p.41 Variety
"[I]nfectiously upbeat....[The] pic's bouncy playlist and bigger musical numbers will see theaters packed with the faithful..." 10/17/2008 Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "The dancing is stunning....Busby Berkeley and Bob Fosse are the references for two set-pieces..." 12/01/2008 p.85 Entertainment Weekly
"[A] cheery-kids-put-on-a-show spectacular....Why not kick back and let the G-rated student body at Albuquerque's East High belt out a few Disney song confections..." -- Grade: B 02/20/2009 Reel.com 8 of 10
Something sinister is going on over at the House of Mouse. Scientists should study Disney to see how they manage to make huge pop culture phenomena out of the slightest of entertainment material. Recently, they manufactured marketing gold out of a country one-hit-wonder's questionably talented daughter. Now, they're poised to add to their parent-plumped and tween-topped coffers by bringing their unfathomably successful High School Musical franchise to the big screen--for the third time. Oddly enough, it's actually not that bad, as wholesome, wholly unoriginal spectacle goes...High School Musical 3: Senior Year is nothing more than cinematic spun sugar, a warm and snuggly cinnamon bun accented with tried and true pixie stick production numbers. It's Andy Hardy collapsed into a G-rated version of the Ambercrombie and Fitch clothing catalog; it's all bright, empty, and oh so post-modern Tiger Beat. It's about as deep as an adolescent's grasp of the real world and twice as scary. And yet when you see effervescent stars like Efron and Hudgens make like Rooney and Garland, you can't help but get swept up in their earnest saccharine energy. Only the crankiest of curmudgeons would argue against its effectiveness...Of course, this doesn't mean it's perfect filmmaking, or capable of being compared to the classic toe-tappers of Hollywood's golden era. But when juxtaposed against the jury-rigged jukebox efforts which pass for contemporary Big Apple attractions, it's light and fluffy fun...High School Musical 3: Senior Year may seem like yet another example of milking an already flush franchise, but when it goes down as easily as this, who really cares? - Bill Gibron
San Francisco Chronicle 6 of 10
"High School Musical" is responsible for its share of ills in the world: teenagers with perfectly good faces wanting to get nose jobs. The idea that the word "Sharpay" is an appropriate name for a human child...But most of the harshest critics of the 2006 Disney Channel movie were people who didn't see it. I've watched the original movie, the stage show and something called "High School Musical: The Ice Tour," and observed just as many smiling faces on the chaperones as the kids. Admit it or not, parents were having a good time, too...The series premieres as a feature film with "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," and the songwriting and choreography are as exciting as ever. Unfortunately, the writing has become so bad that it becomes impossible to keep your head in the game - even as your toes continue to tap to the beat...True, "High School Musical" was never about the plot. The makers of the 'tween phenomenon - including director Kenny Ortega, the Bay Area native who choreographed "Dirty Dancing" - proved that it didn't matter if you borrowed almost every story line and character from "Grease" and "American Pie," as long as the tunes were catchy and the dance numbers were energetic...As for the G-rated content, parents who might have been worried about the relationship between Troy and Gabriella escalating can breathe a sigh of relief. With hand-holding in "High School Musical" and a kiss in "High School Musical 2," it would make sense that "HSM3" would feature a trip to second base. (And "High School Musical 5" would basically be a remake of "9 1/2 Weeks.") But no worries. If anything, Troy gets even less action in this movie. - Peter Hartlaub
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