The sequel to High School Musical 2 (2007) and the third installment of the High School Musical film series, the film follows Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens), Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale), her twin brother Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel), Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu), and Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman), who are in their final year of high school and face the daunting prospect of being separated as they go off to college.
Joined by the rest of their East High classmates, they stage their last spring musical, reflecting their experiences, hopes, and fears about the future.
Production returned to Utah for which Disney received a $2 million tax-break incentive, the largest the state has ever given to a film.
[4] Principal photography began in May 2008, and Walt Disney Pictures diverted a larger production and marketing budget to accommodate a theatrical release.
During the team's celebration, Troy and Gabriella discuss their unknown future and the short time they have left at East High.
The next day, at school, Ms. Darbus notices the lack of students signing up for the musical, and Sharpay suggests a one-woman show.
However, everyone begins to suspect Tiara might be using Sharpay for her own gain, with Ryan, Taylor, Chad, and the others attempting to warn her.
Meanwhile, Sharpay prepares for the musical at East High, and Troy texts his teammate Jimmie "Rocket Man" Zara to be his understudy because he is going to be late to the show.
Additionally, Leslie Wing Pomeroy and Socorro Herrera reprise their roles from previous films as Troy and Gabriella's respective mothers.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, "...to help lure the production back to where it all began – at Salt Lake City's East High School – the GOED board Friday approved a maximum $2 million incentive for the production, the largest ever given to entice a filmmaker to Utah.
[5] Stan Carrizosa, the winner of ABC's summer reality show, High School Musical: Get in the Picture appears in "Just Getting Started", a song that is played over the end credits of the theatrical release of the film.
According to Rachel Abramowitz, as reported online by the Chicago Tribune, "an eclectic cross-section of Hollywood insiders think Efron should get a cool $5 million for High School Musical 3, the theatrical version of the franchise, which Disney hoped to make before the Writers Guild strike and Screen Actors Guild strike shut down Hollywood for several months.
"[8] The film was originally titled Haunted High School Musical with plans of a Halloween theme that were later scrapped.
The site's critical consensus reads, "It won't win many converts, but High School Musical 3 is bright, energetic, and well-crafted."
The opening basketball game alone is dizzying as the camera swoops high and wide before a winning point makes the crowd erupt".
[22] Stephen Farber, writing for Reuters, says the film "will please fan base but won't win converts", as the story "never really does kick in" and that "the picture quickly grows tedious",[23] while MSNBC's Alonso Duralde describes it as "a stitched-together Frankenstein monster of an entertainment, featuring major components that were already trotted out the first two times.
"[24] Peter Johnson of The Guardian describes the film as so bland that it "makes cellophane taste like chicken jalfrezi", and says that "the sheer squeaky-cleanness of everything is creepy, and when the characters are called upon to dance, they do so with robotic efficiency, and sing in that decaffeinated high vibrato, like 21st-century Hollywood castrati.
"[25] Entertainment Weekly was very positive towards the film, praising the stars' energy: "the beauty of Efron's performance is that he's a vibrant athletic hoofer who leaps and clowns with the heartthrob vigor of a young Erika Casanova, yet he's also achingly sincere.
His fast-break alertness makes him the most empathetic of teen idols; he's like a David Cassidy who knows how to act, and who can swoon without getting too moist about it.
Apart from Efron, the breakout star is Ashley Tisdale, whose Sharpay makes narcissism a goofy, bedazzled pleasure.
"[26] MovieGuide has also favorably reviewed the film, strongly recommending it for the family as "fun, clean and full of energy" and describing it as "thin on plot" yet nevertheless "a phenomenon".
They go on to say that "the kids finally look like true performers rather than Disney Channel mainstays desperately trying to remain relevant, and they deserve the lucrative careers that lie ahead" and gave the film a rating of four out of five stars.