High School Musical 2

Okay, I now officially have a crush on Zac Efron, the rising star of High School Musical 2, its original and the hilarious Hairspray remake. This is my confession. So help me, but Zac uncannily reminds me of David Cassidy. For the millions of little girls and teen girls who haven't a clue who that is, please check out an episode or two of The Partridge Family from the 70s and you'll see the resemblance in how he smiles, acts, walks. Honestly, I haven't even watched that show for decades and it leaped out at me, but this doesn't mean Zac sings quite like David. Oh, I like his voice all right and he hits high notes like a pro as well, but David sings like he's making love with his music and Zac like he's inviting you to a great party.

To be fair, Zac sings much more danceable songs than "Cherish."

So you're probably wondering if I can be an honest critic of this goofy sequel, right? I must have visions of David running through my nostalgia-addled brain, ha ha ha. Not so fast there. I'm always honest and who says you need a critic for this summertime party? Critics aren't even allowed. The kids from High School Musical are back and school's out for the summer. We get some tributes to Frankie and Annette's beach movies and the swimming queen Esther Williams, even a loopy one to dumb blondes like Paris Hilton, and it's all a lot of escapism fun, but aspirations of an award-winning movie?

Not hardly! And it's a little less compelling plot-wise for me than the original.

It isn't all cheesy fun, however. The vain, dumb blonde Sharpay, played by Ashley Tisdale, has plans for Zac's character, Troy, and she's not going to let his girlfriend Gabriella, played by real-life girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens, stand in the way. She knows he's looking for a job and is worried about getting a college scholarship and uses her rich parents' influence to dangle the carrot before him.

But her plan goes awry when the country club manager also gives jobs to Troy's friends, her brother rebels and joins the competition for the annual show, and Troy finds out he needs to make it with the help of his true friends (it's not the spoiled, little princess).

So lesson one, we learn, is to not act like a self-absorbed, manipulative princess who only cares about herself and tricking a young man into being with her. Lesson two is to play nicely with others because we're all in it together. Lesson three? I suppose that would be to sing and dance your heart out. Not only is it fun, but it helps to dramatize the romance between Troy and Gabriella, to make baseball more exciting, to reveal the frustration of characters and to highlight the wrongness of Troy and Sharpay. In other words, kidstuff. Sometimes it was too corny for words, but kids may laugh their heads off.

I must confess that, besides looking at Zac, my favorite part of High School Musical 2 is watching their awesomely-choreographed dances and listening to most of the groovy pop tunes. Indeed, I watched it twice. Director, co-producer/choreographer Kenny Ortega is shown rehearsing with them in one of the DVD's many Special Features and he worked them hard all day for weeks. I think the dances are even more interesting to watch than in the original movie and not simply pretty. They fit very well with the music as well. There are some similarities to the songs in the first movie, it's true, but enough differences to be enjoyable to fans. I especially enjoyed "Bet On It" by an upset Troy and the one where he and Gabriella are saying good-bye and recalls "When There Was Me And You" from the original, but with his anguished vocals.

Not to worry, there's a happy ending for all. This is a campy, under-two hour Disney Channel movie with no bad language or drugs and just a couple of sweet kisses. You don't have to watch the original to understand or enjoy the sequel, but you may enjoy it more because you already love the characters. I've heard there may be another sequel and I'm ready for it. Hey, maybe it's crazy, I'm hardly a little girl anymore, but if a movie can help me feel like one again, what's so bad about that?