Amateur Nerds Review: Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure

Interactive Transcript

Speaker A Foreign. What up, East High alumni?

Speaker B Hello, podcast listeners.

Speaker A It's Wildcat Minute or the Amateur Nerds Review.

Speaker B We're here to talk about a movie that is related to High School Musical, but not High School Musical. And we're not going to do it one minute at a time.

Speaker A No. God, no.

Speaker B We're just going to talk today about Sharpay's fabulous adventure from 2011. Director Michael Len Beck, starring Ashley Tisdale and Austin Butler. And Austin Butler. This is a spin off movie of the High school musical franchise. 2011, you said, right?

Speaker A 2011. The first DCOM to have its release on home video before airing on the Disney Channel.

Speaker B Yeah. This is interesting. It got a DVD release before it played on Disney Channel, presumably just as a marketing tactic to get people to spend their money.

Speaker A Yeah, it was just about a month difference, so it. Yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Speaker B So High School Musical 3 came out in 2009. Yes.

Speaker A Yes.

Speaker B And two years later, we get Sharpe's Fabulous Adventure. Sharpe's Fabulous Adventure, or closer to, like, 20 months later, but yes.

Speaker A Which canonically takes place about 12 months later. 11 months, to be exact.

Speaker B There's a conversation about how it's been a year since I graduated.

Speaker A Well, 11 months since she graduated.

Speaker B Yes. Sharpe is 19 years old, although she's starting to look a little older.

Speaker A Yes.

Speaker B And.

Speaker A But Ashley Tisdale is always beautiful.

Speaker B Yes. It's just one of those things of, like, when. When you have high schoolers, you know, adults playing high schoolers, it's like, oh, when do they. Like, when do they cross that threshold?

Speaker A And.

Speaker B And I would say the High School Musical trilogy got away with it. Even with Taylor, who was older.

Speaker A Older, Yep.

Speaker B But not anymore.

Speaker A No, unfortunately.

Speaker B But it's fair, because she's 19, so she's not supposed to look like she's in high school.

Speaker A Yeah, sure. All right, all right, so we're going to be up front.

Speaker B This is not a good movie.

Speaker A This movie was bad.

Speaker B It's not even.

Speaker A It's not even fun bad.

Speaker B Here's the thing. It's not even like High School Musical Campy. Like, it's bad, but I still like it. This is, in the parlance of the Flophouse podcast, a bad, bad movie.

Speaker A Yes. I texted you 20 minutes in and said I would like this to be done now.

Speaker B So. Yes.

Speaker A So we're gonna try to be positive, try to be funny.

Speaker B Well, we'll be funny. That just comes naturally.

Speaker A But just know we're trying real hard today for y'. All.

Speaker B So I don't know. So you had Never seen this before.

Speaker A No. No.

Speaker B So when you, when you pictured in your mind's eye Sharpay's fabulous adventure, could you use some of the adjectives or sort of visual images that you might have had in your head that would have described what you thought this movie would be?

Speaker A Sharpay walking through Times Square. Sharpay walking down 5th Avenue. Montage of bright lights and Sharpay doing auditions. I thought it was colors. Yeah. Not muddy looking. I literally, the first thing out of the movie started and the first. So it's a dance, it's a musical sequence. Sharpay is doing like a one woman show kind of thing on this Runway. And I'm like, this song is called Shine. It is ironic in the actual definition of ironic because this movie is so dark you cannot see her face. Right now I'm watching Batman with Robert Pattinson. It was terrible lighting and the song was called Shine. And I was just like, here we are.

Speaker B I'm glad you noticed that there's no decorum to the star. There wasn't even, I guess because it's a TV movie, there wasn't even like a logo that like played at the beginning of the movie to be like, hey, this movie's about to start. It's just like, boom. Sharpay's face pops up and she starts singing a song.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B There's no decorum. And that was very worrying to me at the start of the movie to be like, what's going on? What's happening?

Speaker A Yeah. Because even like if we think all the way back to High School Musical, you get those little credits like Walt Disney Pictures Presents, and then it starts scrolling in. And then you get the, the nice, gentle High School Musical while we're at the ski resort.

Speaker B Yeah. You want a little bit of that glitz and glamour. You want the, like the Barbie logo to pop up and be like, okay, we're about to do something fun. And then you pan down in a Star wars esque shot to Sharpe doing.

Speaker A Something crazy or like a pan over to her doing her mas or something like that. Like, that would have been iconic. And then it snaps into the song, like.

Speaker B Yeah. So it's right into this random song which is called Just Shine or is there.

Speaker A It's just called Shine, which is this.

Speaker B Just this interminable song. It just keeps going. And she's doing this Runway act and it's cutting back and forth to her parents being impressed and all these other male dancers.

Speaker A It's called Gonna Shine. I'm sorry, who cares? I have the artist. I. I have. It's Written by Randy Peterson and Kevin Quinn and produced by Toby. All right, none of those names sound familiar. We do have a David Lawrence song. Fun fact, there is a David Lawrence song in this film.

Speaker B Nothing in this opening number is fun. Even the dancing doesn't look fun. She's getting lifted and it's boring.

Speaker A Yeah, we've not seen her get lifted. But, like, also, it's nothing fun. Like her boy background dancers in three for the Fosse one.

Speaker B I Want it all.

Speaker A I want it all, yeah. Is delightful. Like a good dance sequence. This is just. She's on a Runway, too, which I don't think is helping. There's no space and her. And her costume is just normal. Sharpe. It's not over the top performance. Sharpay, that we're used to. This is just like. Oh, Sharpay would wear this to school. It was just like a silver dress.

Speaker B It also makes it, like, tonally and structurally confusing for there to be, like, no clear reason for her performance until after.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B And as you said, the lighting is just terrible. Like, it's washed out, it's dark. Like you. We have a cinematic language for the High School Musical trilogy, which is, like, very well lit TV lighting, vivid colors. Yeah, vivid is a great word to describe it. Like a. Like a crystal clear filter. And this is just none of that. And what the. The most disturbing thing is the song ends and you're like, oh, maybe like, it was just because they were going for, like, a nightclub vibe and they wanted to make that opening number, like, stylish. And then it just cuts to a conversation, like, between her and her parents and you're like, no, no, this is just what it looks like. Oh, no. Oh, no. What's happening?

Speaker A Yeah, this film is just muddy. Cool. Love that.

Speaker B The other thing I was thinking going into this first number is like, it seems like this is maybe something from my expectations of what the movie could have been, which you can't hold against a movie, per se. It seems like this first song should have been like a fourth wall break song.

Speaker A Ooh, yeah. Sharpe has that ability. Yeah.

Speaker B The first song in the movie, if you wanted to set a different tone from the High School Musical movies, should have just been like a Sharpay song where she was just singing to camera, talking about how it's going to be her movie. And it's like, finally, I'm the star.

Speaker A Like, yeah, that's a good idea.

Speaker B Like that.

Speaker A Also, I'm reading on the Wikipedia article that this is apparently at the Lava Springs Country Club. Well, the song, we get a little.

Speaker B We get a little like placard that says like, hey, this is a fundraiser for something. It's like an event that he's headlining.

Speaker A Okay, I missed that.

Speaker B If it's at her parents country club, that is not entirely clear, but yeah.

Speaker A And then we get our plot device of the film. We have a casting director approach Sharpay and introduce himself. She's all, oh, I'm so great, like hahaha, me, I'm gonna see my friends, I don't want to talk to you. And then he's like, oh, I'm a casting director from Broadway. And then she's like, friends can wait. And I'm like.

Speaker B It's very strange though, because in a certain way Sharpe is kind of not in the Sharpay character from the get go. She's kind of embarrassing herself in front of this casting agent. Instead of being like the self assured, you know, Miss Piggy cocky, esque.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Version of Sharpe, she's kind of making a fool of herself here, which isn't in character for her.

Speaker A No, that was most of this film for me was it didn't feel like Sharpay. Which is great because our complaint at the end of one and two was wow, Sharpay has no arc and she is still she. She grows but then regresses, but her growth seemed like it came out of nowhere. And we're like, who is this? Like, who is this Sharpay here? Like, this doesn't feel like the Sharpay I've known from the last three films. This feels like a generic rich girl who has ambition. Like she's not got any of her spunk or spark or her wit. Like Sharpay has some great lines in the originals and this all feels so bland.

Speaker B Yeah, you can tell they were trying with the dialogue of this movie too. And so much of it falls flat. I'm not going to spoil it, but I think, I think I laughed once during the movie and I will tell you when it comes up.

Speaker A All right, so she meets this casting director. The casting director is like, if you're ever in New York, I'd love to chat with you. I'd love for you to audition. And she's like, amazing. I bet I can be there. And.

Speaker B And already there's just this false premise of like, okay, Sharpay is going to go to New York and audition for this casting agent. Spoilers. The whole plot of the movie is that it's like a mistaken communication thing.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B And they want her dog to audition for a dog based musical.

Speaker A Boy is the star. But my qualm with that premise like, and whatever. If that's the gimmick we're going for. Boy wasn't in the performance we just saw. Gonna Shine did not feature boy. So why does this guy like, oh, yes, I want to see Boy, wasn't.

Speaker B The opening shot like, her face and boy, and then it transitions to her doing the Runway stuff?

Speaker A I don't think so. And even still, Boyd shows nothing other than I can be held by my owner. It's not like he's doing the tricks or things he has to do later. Yeah, that was just, like, absurd to me.

Speaker B It's very misleading, obviously. It's just one of those, like, miscommunication gags that bad comedy does.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Where it's like, okay, so we. You're telling me that this is what the movie's about? Just this, like, two people crossed wires and that's the drama that we have to work with here. Okay. Yeah, we do get a Sharpet appearance.

Speaker A Yes. But is it any of the sharp hats we've seen? Because I don't think we have any returning Sharpettes.

Speaker B I don't know. I mean, it does have the, like, hey, if you get three women with different hair color, slash skin colors, then those. That's diversity. And so there's like a blonde haired white one, a red haired white one, and a brown haired black one.

Speaker A Yeah. Who are roughly fitting the previous sharpettes.

Speaker B But, yeah, I have no way of knowing.

Speaker A I don't think they're any of the same. Yeah. Yeah. So Sharpay instantly gets it in her head that she has to go to New York, but her dad is saying no because she had a year to figure it out, and clearly that year is almost up and she needs to settle down and work, which she can't say. And that's one of the running gags of the film, which was so annoying that I was like, you've said work before.

Speaker B You know, she graduated high school.

Speaker A Yeah, it was. There was just so many things that I was like, please just stop.

Speaker B One thing that I wrote in my notes is just that they nerfed Sharpe.

Speaker A Like, oh, my God, 100%.

Speaker B Like, even in the little montage of the Sharpettes helping her get to New York and find an apartment. What about Sharpe's character from the previous movies made you think that she couldn't, A, talk her dad into just buying that for her herself, and B, just make those calls and set that up herself?

Speaker A Yeah. Especially when the Sharpet is booking the flights and is, like, laughing about coach. And I'm like, Sharpay would love the Chance to ream out an airline ticket seller. Like, that is her lifeblood. Like, why? Why is she not doing this? And also, the plan automatically does not succeed when she gets to New York because she forgets about Boy and to consider that all places wouldn't take a dog. And I feel like, yes, she would. Because she'd be like, oh, I needed a special treatment for my dog. Kind of like the way Boy has been elevated in the past films.

Speaker B It just, I feel like if you're in the, like, tax bracket that the Evanses are, like, if you're going to get that nice of an apartment in New York, something silly like a dog would not be like, enough to kick you out of an apartment. I don't know. Like, I know apartment renters are weird and people are finicky, especially in New York apartments, but I feel like if you're paying that much for a penthouse for one month.

Speaker A For one month.

Speaker B This is part of it too. So the dad tells her that she has one month to make her Broadway dreams happen, to, like, figure out what she's going to do and become a star. Otherwise she has to come back to the country club and work. One month is no time. Why pay for a penthouse for one month? That's not how leases work. Just pay. If you're worried about paying all that money, pay for a smaller apartment for. For more. A larger amount of time.

Speaker A Also, that's not how auditions work. Yeah, like, decisions are not made quickly. Even in 2011. That's not how that works.

Speaker B There's other stuff to consider too. Which is one. Sharpay, according to the High School Musical 3 canon, spent the last year helping out Ms. Darbis with the drama program.

Speaker A Why was there no Darbus in this film? I was outraged. I mean, I'm mad that Lucas Gray be apparent. So one of my fun facts for later is that Lucas Gray Beal does make a performance, does make an appearance, but only in the Disney Channel screening. So never was it on physical release. But Darbus should have been at the beginning, like, or even what's his face from the country club?

Speaker B Fulton.

Speaker A Fulton. Either of them should have been at the beginning. That would have been great.

Speaker B Yeah, there's a clear lack of like, character contrast for the Sharpay character. I mean, Ryan being the most glaring one. Ryan does not appear at all in this movie. Lucas Graybiel does make an appearance in this movie singing a cover of Justin Bieber's Baby during a month. A love during a love montage between dogs.

Speaker A Wait, okay, so that sequence, like, got me Just because I was like, I think I know this song, but I can't place it. And then I was like, oh, my God, it's Justin Bieber's baby. I haven't thought about this song in many years.

Speaker B But we're not there yet.

Speaker A But we're not there yet, so.

Speaker B But the Sharpie character.

Speaker A The Sharpie character is nerfed. She also make. She's made poster boards. I'm sorry, her lackeys made those. In what unit? Or like the. The current drama club folk? Like, she goes to the school and is like, lack. These little people make this poster for me.

Speaker B Oh. So, yeah, the gag is that she, like, has made a presentation to her parents for why she should be able to go to New York, but it's post. Like, it's three different posters, not a slideshow or anything. And that just felt weird.

Speaker A Weird.

Speaker B But no, what I was getting at was like, Sharpay's only existed as a secondary character before, particularly as a foil for Gabriella, as sort of a faux love interest for Troy, as someone for the sort of morals and personalities of the lead characters in High School Musical to be tested against, to, like, push against and bounce off of. And now we're setting her off, her off on her own movie, and you don't get any of that.

Speaker A No, you lose all of her energy because there's no one for her to play off of. There's no opportunities for her to be mean. Even when you would expect her to be mean in this film. She's not. She's very, like, chilled. And I'm like, girl, where's your, like, fight? This is not what you want. Like, come on.

Speaker B This is not what she planned.

Speaker A This is not what I planned.

Speaker B And I just have to say, I do not understand.

Speaker A So Sharpay manages to convince her father, but with the condition that it's one month. So she zips to New York, but there's no fun transition of. There's no flight across the screen, there's.

Speaker B No travel by map. But there is a brief little montage of her driving through the landmarks of New York, being Times Square and one.

Speaker A One other road driving. She's in the back of a cabin. It is so poorly green screened, you just are closed up on her face. And it's so bad talking about the exterior shots, but yes, okay, well, yeah. And her and Boy are taking in the sights together. And then they go to the apartment, find out that they can't stay there because of Boy. And she's got all this luggage and she's pouting. On the street and who should find her but a weird camera. And then we get pov. Camera.

Speaker B Yes. It's blonde Austin Butler.

Speaker A Okay, So I never made the connection in my brain, which is probably a me thing, because I have issues. But when I first saw him, I was like, oh, that's the guy from Hannah Montana. And I wasn't sure on that. I was like, I'm pretty sure he was in Hannah Montana, but I'm not sure. So I, like, looked it up, and I was like, oh, my God, I'm. But I, like, waited a while before I looked it up, because I was like, maybe I'll figure it out in five minutes or so. And I didn't. And as the. As the film was going, I was like, okay, I gotta figure out if this is the Hannah Montana guy. He's got to be someone from Disney. Like, and sure enough, he's in Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Hannah Montana. Like, he's. He makes appearances in all of them. But then I'm like, oh, my God, I'm an idiot. It's Austin Butler. I had never put two and two together.

Speaker B Elvis.

Speaker A I had never put two and two together before that. They were the same person. Like, that. The. The dcom love. He's like a love interest in multiple dcom thing or, like, Disney Channel things. So. So I was like, what are you doing here? Like, it never clicked.

Speaker B It's Feyd Rautha, heir of the Harkonnens.

Speaker A Yeah, it's also Ashley Tisdale's cousin, irl.

Speaker B Wait, what?

Speaker A They're in real life cousins?

Speaker B Stop. No, no, no. Like. Like, like first cousins?

Speaker A I don't know. It just says they're cousins on IMDb.

Speaker B They do kiss in the movie.

Speaker A They do what I'm saying, yes, he.

Speaker B Is kind of a manic pixie dream boy.

Speaker A Yes. He. He could be in Rent.

Speaker B He's like a film student at NYU who walks around with his camera, like, trying to capture the real New York.

Speaker A Boring.

Speaker B I mean, it's. It's maybe a good character choice in terms of, like, straightforwardness for this movie. Like, of all the things they depict about New York, a pretentious film student.

Speaker A Heck, yeah.

Speaker B Is. Is not the most far off that they were.

Speaker A No. But the weird thing is. So Sharpay's mother had a friend from college that lives in. Has a son that lives in New York. So she was going to call him to check up on her, and who would it be but Austin Butler, whose character name I think was Peyton.

Speaker B Yeah, he was on his way to see her at her new apartment when he runs into her on the street, but doesn't know what she looks like yet.

Speaker A Yeah. And is like, why are you sitting on your. Your luggage? But like the one. Nice. This is something that I, again, I don't buy because that doesn't seem like a Sharpay move. But I know Sharpay cares for Boy. But like, her apartment I feel like would be more important to her than Boy. Like, than the dignity of Boy. Like she doesn't give stuff up because of Boy. Previously.

Speaker B Well, it's definitely like a flawed logic because she could find a dog kennel to put Boy in.

Speaker A Like a fancy one too. It's not like it has to be just anyone.

Speaker B And you could get a separate apartment for Boy somewhere else just for Boy.

Speaker A Because what she ends up with is this studio apartment in the same building that Peyton lives. Because Peyton's friends with the building manager and she's like, this apartment isn't big enough for even all my lipstick and I've got another truck coming with more stuff. And I'm like, girl, it's a month.

Speaker B The funny thing is the studio apartment is huge.

Speaker A It's massive.

Speaker B It's got one of those fold down beds, which has a name and I don't remember.

Speaker A I got nothing.

Speaker B And we do get the gag where the bed folds down and she lays in it and then it close like the springs close and closes her up in the bed. A thing which has never happened in the history of forever. No, no, that's not how gravity works.

Speaker A No, that's not how those beds work. So Peyton is very curious about her. So he's going to make her the subject of his film for school. And so he's walking around their first. They're like, there's a montage of their first day in New York walking around the streets, which again, I don't believe Sharpay would just walk around the streets of New York. She would hire a cab at bare minimum. But like she gets a hot dog and doesn't like the way it tastes. And Boy is interested in a cockroach and she screams.

Speaker B And that was the one interesting New York thing that actually made sense. Yeah, it's a Murphy bed, by the way.

Speaker A Murphy bed.

Speaker B Like there is a name for it. Except I've just never seen one of those in real life. Anyway, I agree that the New York montage is disappointing. I don't necessarily agree that she wouldn't go any. Like, yes, she would go places. She would go to upscale places. Like you would go shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue or whatever.

Speaker A Yeah. That's what I was saying at the beginning, like, with my expectations was like, oh, she would go down Fifth Avenue. She would be in Times Square in front of a marquee. Like, more that then.

Speaker B Yeah, they. They kind of walk around these very, like, neutral looking landmarks. I'd. I'd be very curious to see, like, from a production standpoint, how much of this movie was shot in New York. I would imagine almost none of it.

Speaker A Yeah. I don't think very much.

Speaker B The theater that a majority of the rest of the movie takes place at is called the, like, the Rivoli Theater. And as far as I can tell, that's not a real Broadway or off Broadway theater in New York City.

Speaker A Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't know where we don't even.

Speaker B Really get the sense that, like, Austin Butler is taking her to see, like, the real New York.

Speaker A Yeah. No, it's just very generic and very bland and Sharpe is sticking out in this bright pink coat thing. But, like, still, there's like, nothing. There's nothing to it. It's so. It could be any city. It does. It's not New York.

Speaker B We. We did miss something important. The Seeing stuff around New York montage. Condra. What song is it set to?

Speaker A I couldn't tell you right now. I don't. It did not stick.

Speaker B What's the most generic commercial slash montage song of all time?

Speaker A I also just looked it up. Oh, that's cool. It's Walking on Sunshine.

Speaker B Yes.

Speaker A And it's performed by Ally and aj.

Speaker B Oh, nice. Okay. Well, still very clear.

Speaker A There's our dcom bit.

Speaker B At this point in my notes I wrote down, this adventure is turning out to not be so fabulous.

Speaker A That's generous of you to take notes too. I did.

Speaker B Notes is how I come up with funny things to say.

Speaker A Ah.

Speaker B I also wrote down that blonde Austin Butler kind of looks like Lucas Graybiel.

Speaker A Like, he does a little bit. Yeah.

Speaker B Like the blonde hair with the sort of.

Speaker A It's sticking up. Yeah, it's sticking up too.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A Similarly styled.

Speaker B So they eventually get to the point where they go to the audition.

Speaker A Yes. And they're like, come back tomorrow.

Speaker B There's a lot going wrong here. Because they show up to the theater, and the theater, it, like, has the marquee all decked out with, like, a girl's best friend or whatever the play is called.

Speaker A Yes.

Speaker B And, like, coming soon. So they've already set up in the theater. Everything about this play being rehearsed takes place in the Theater.

Speaker A Which is not how that works.

Speaker B Which is not how it works. The auditions are there. The marquee's already set up. There's not another play currently showing while this play is in pre production. They're not even done casting it yet. They have the whole theater booked out with signs up for it. Like, this is not how anything on Broadway works. But okay, let's, let's go with this conceit. They have a theater, they go in, they find out that it's the dog auditioning, not Sharpay.

Speaker A Yeah. And that comes about because he's like, can you come back tomorrow? Learn this line, like practice this part and make sure he's groomed. And she's like, groomed. And the casting agent guy is like, yeah, it's Boy, we're interested, not you. But she finds out that her idol. Amber Lee Adams. Yes, Amberly Adams. It is Amberly Adams, Holy smokes. Is going to be the star of the show. So she's like, well, of course if I can meet her, like, I'll bring Boy back also, if this is my inn, so then I can make a famous friend and then I can become famous. Like it's a trickle down.

Speaker B And then it gets to the point where we see the audition the next day where she's singing and doing a whole routine of a number from the musical with Boy.

Speaker A So Boy can do a little jump.

Speaker B And turn and it's like, oh, I, I get it. So, like is, maybe she's a character in the show with the dog, but she's not. They, they just assume that the audition will require someone to perform who's not someone from the musical, not a casting director or someone. And they, and they made up their own choreography because we see the next person audition with totally different choreography and staging, but with the same song.

Speaker A Yeah. Which is wild to me because he did say like, learn this routine. So like, why is it different?

Speaker B It's very strange. It also sets up this like, opposition between Sharpe and a 12 year old. This 12 year old boy who's got a very cute dog named Countess.

Speaker A That is, that's a.

Speaker B She's like a lady. Lady and the tramp dog.

Speaker A Yeah, yeah, she's a lady in the tramp dog.

Speaker B But the lady one, not the tramp. Yeah, I mean, whatever, whatever.

Speaker A That's annual Cocker spaniel.

Speaker B Okay. And the, the, the Countess dog is very cute. I would argue that Boy is a little cuter.

Speaker A I am more partial. The thing is, Boy is only cute because his haircut's the right way. If his haircut was not the right way. He'd look like a rat. He's a rat.

Speaker B This is true, I think, for the purposes of what they're going for, which is like a cute little dog that a diva would have. Boy is like the right one.

Speaker A Boy. Boy is definitely more of a diva dog, but I think the cocker spaniel and countess is more the fam. Like the premise of the play is that this small town girl is going to New York to make her dreams big on Broadway and her dog is too sad to leave her. So the dog suggests that it comes along. And so it's like a family dog kind of thing. Like the dog isn't inherently special or anything.

Speaker B There's a subtext to this movie that's very similar to the recent M. Night Shyamalan film Trap, which. Which goes as follows. The Shar Pei movie is about Sharpay, but a weirdly large percentage of the movie is about a relative slash pet of the D of the director. Although I guess it's not the director because Kenny Ortega is not still dog, though.

Speaker A Let me look that up while you're. Well, while you're talking, I will look.

Speaker B That up because the whole idea in M. Night Chamon's Trap is that his daughter plays the pop star and like a weirdly large percentage of the movie is about the pop star and like seeing her perform pop songs because his actual daughter is a musician. And like, good for you. You send you self fund your own movies, M. Night Shyamalan, and you can make them however you want and you put your daughter in front and center and that's great. It's a fine movie. I'm not gonna blame you. But it was just funny that this movie had a little bit of that juice going for it. Except Kenny Ortega didn't direct it.

Speaker A It is still manly Ortega, which is boy. Yeah, so.

Speaker B And I don't even know if Kenny Ortega, like got a producing credit on this movie.

Speaker A I don't think so.

Speaker B They just had his dog.

Speaker A I do know Ashley Tisdale is an EP though.

Speaker B Yes. That is very interesting and good for her.

Speaker A Yes.

Speaker B The. The only heat that this movie brings comes just after this where we get a sort of close up shot of Boy with the love harp and then we realize, oh, this is one of those, like dreamy love moments where someone sees someone they love for the first time. Except with dogs.

Speaker A It's Dreamweaver, but with dogs.

Speaker B Yeah. So we. It's like the harp is what I was what? Then there is harp in it. Like love harp. Close up on boy and then reverse shot to a close up of Countess. Right?

Speaker A Yes. And Countess looks. I mean, I don't, I. They look like dogs. They're not people. You can't prescribe human emotion on them like that. Like, that's not how that works. So I have a bit of a qualm with that premise of like, oh, look at this funny lovey dog moment. And I'm like, that's not.

Speaker B I mean, the music communicates it. It's. Yeah, I guess it's.

Speaker A But the music has to do a lot of work.

Speaker B It's supposed to be kind of campy and fun. It doesn't work, obviously, because it's so out of the blue and just like outright childish, I guess. Like.

Speaker A Well, I mean, no, the childish part is her arguing with a 12 year old. Like, that's insufferable.

Speaker B I'm going for like the, you know, air bud becomes air buddies, where it's like all of a sudden this isn't about what we like about it anymore. It's just about looking at puppies. But yes, I distinctly wrote in my notes, dueling with a 12 year old isn't fun.

Speaker A No, and it is. It's supposed to make us think that a lot of her. Because like, he makes the point of. He's like, oh, I throw a tantrum and I usually get what I want. Also when Roger and Countess. Oh, I'm sorry, it's a Charles spaniel, not a cocker spaniel. I just saw that on the Wikipedia article. Are being like, are entering the stage. The guy I thought was with them is not his father, but like a stage manager that's making sure the dogs follow their union breaks. Which is ridiculous for another reason. But hold on.

Speaker B I kind of like the stage manager.

Speaker A Oh, no, don't get me wrong. I think those are some of the best jokes in the movie. But that's not setting the bar very high. Like, I thought he was the father and was like, ah, yes, here is my son to do this performance. And then I was like, oh, no, that's just like a guy. Like later in the film I was like, wait, that's not a father. That's like a guy working to give.

Speaker B A very generous read of what they're going for for the stage manager. They're going for schlubby.

Speaker A Yep.

Speaker B Which, fine, whatever. But I don't know how you read that as being his father.

Speaker A Just like the way it was introduced because it was like him talking and then was like, oh, here's. And here's I. I don't know. I was part. I. I was struggling. Tyler, it was 20 minutes in where we're. 20 minutes. This is where I texted you.

Speaker B All right. Yeah, the. I mean, the good thing is not much else happens in the movie, but.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B I. We haven't talked about the. The writer and director characters who are a little comedic duo and pointless.

Speaker A They reminded me. So they were a less effective version of the Phantom of the Opera owners.

Speaker B Yes.

Speaker A Like, that was what they were striving for, but it did not land in any way, shape, or form.

Speaker B Correct. I just liked that the actors were doing something.

Speaker A No. I mean, yes. But also, I just was like, I don't. This movie does not need more people. We barely know the people that I.

Speaker B Like, that they were always with each other and, like, saying the same things over again. Like, it was just a choice. Like, I guess by the. But the. The movie still has lulled you into, like, this. This dreariness, and you're like, oh, they made something happen with these characters. Like, they did something to be interesting. It's a very, like, formulaic Disney adults actor in a kid's property.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Style of performance. But it's something. It's like Jerry Trainor and Drake and Josh, where you're like, I appreciate that you're going for something, even though you're not taking up very much space.

Speaker A Yeah. Okay. All right. I'll give them more credit than I wanted to. I. I do like their interactions with Amber Lee. I think it was weird because I was like, this is very suspicious that Amber Lee was like, I don't get it. And I was like, oh, my God, she's one of these people. I can't wait.

Speaker B Not that I laugh, but it is a good gag to be like, she doesn't get that there's jokes in the script.

Speaker A Yeah. Yeah. But that was the thing. I liked their reactions about it. Not that she was confused. I was like, yes, they're laughing at her. And I would be, too.

Speaker B The whole thing is very interesting because there's a little bit of a Misana Beam setup where it's like, the play that they're rehearsing is about, like, a girl with simple desires to go to the big city and, like, learn her lesson about becoming herself.

Speaker A She wants to be a star.

Speaker B Yeah. So there is a little bit of, like, comparison there for, like, oh, that's Sharpe's thing. Obviously, none of it plays out.

Speaker A No.

Speaker B In an interesting way. There's no interesting juxtapositions, but you could tell that they were Going for something.

Speaker A Yeah, there was. This was in the first draft. And they're like, what if the play was about what Sharpe is doing right now, where she brings her dog?

Speaker B Which they just did in High School Musical 3. But whatever. The, the real like record scratch that grinds this whole movie to a halt is that they would like. There's. They create this competition so that they're going to rehearse the play with both dogs and then decide which one they want. They wouldn't do that. They would just have two dogs on standby at least for this musical. If not three or four or however many dogs are like kids, you got to have plenty of extras because they need time off and they have weird requirements.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B This is a Broadway musical we're talking about.

Speaker A Yeah. This is seven days a week, like eight shows.

Speaker B Eight shows, yeah. So the whole premise is flawed.

Speaker A It's. It's rough. Literally, pun intended because they did make that joke in the song. Also, this movie only has five songs, which is absurd. I was expecting. According to Wikipedia, it's five if they're.

Speaker B Counting both versions of like My Dog and Me.

Speaker A I think they are. Yeah.

Speaker B Okay. Because there's the opening number that Sharpe sings and then there's like the audition song that she sings, which is My Boy and Me or whatever.

Speaker A Yeah, My Boy and Me. And then My Girl and me.

Speaker B Yeah. And then there's the sort of Dark night of the soul song that she sings towards the end. And then the opening number that she sings at the very, very end.

Speaker A Yeah. New York's Best Kept Secret and the Rest of My Life.

Speaker B Yes. Neither of which is very interesting. No, but we're not there yet.

Speaker A We're not there yet.

Speaker B So we get a little bit of the plot playing out where it's competition between the two dogs and both Roger and Sharpay try to sabotage each other, which doesn't make sense because it would be very obvious that the dog was being distracted by a cat off stage or something.

Speaker A Yeah. Or the licking of the shoes probably is not. Why did he have raw meat in a container?

Speaker B Well, because he wanted to set up this prank. But the funny thing is why would boy get distracted by the shoes smelling like meat but not the Countess?

Speaker A Yeah, that was. Well, she. She was wearing different shoes when Countess went on.

Speaker B Oh, interesting. I referred to as the Countess as if those part of her name.

Speaker A Yeah, I heard.

Speaker B Another big problem with the movie is that the Amber Lee character is mind bogglingly confusing.

Speaker A She's supposed to. She. She portrays herself as dim witted, but she's actually conniving and hates dogs.

Speaker B She's supposed to be, like, a version of Sharpay that has, like, become corrupt, soured, like, so power hungry and narcissistic that she cannot possibly care about another human. We see her firing her assistant and then hiring Sharpe to be her assistant as sort of a power move.

Speaker A Well, necessarily. She's like, hey, wouldn't it be cool if we did these things together? And it was like, you were my assistant. Instant. Like, there was no talk of money.

Speaker B Yes. I assume that that was just a plot convenience, but sure. The problem is we get this whole thing of, like, we had the Sharpay and Tiara Gold plot in the last movie.

Speaker A We literally saw her do this.

Speaker B Sharpay's gone head to head with, like, another powerful diva. Well, she did it with Miss Piggy in that commercial.

Speaker A Yeah. So this is our third time. Really?

Speaker B Then she did it with Tiara Gold, and then now she's doing it with Amber Lee and she's literally falling for the exact same stunt that she pulled with Sierra Gold on her. Like, oh, I'll be your assistant just to take advantage of you.

Speaker A Like, yeah.

Speaker B Except she's not as smart as Tiara Gold, who is, like, using Emily.

Speaker A Like, yeah, it's a mess. And it's really the montage of Sharpay doing chores for Amber Lee. So, like, we start seeing Sharpay staying up late, highlighting the notes and signing autographs for Amberly and cleaning Amberly's toilet.

Speaker B With the wrong end of the brush because she's that stupid.

Speaker A Oh, my God. And, like, messing up the washing machine, which was whatever. But, like, yeah, no, that. The toilet one. I was like, really? Why are we lingering here? It's not funny.

Speaker B And then there's a very dull subplot with the Austin Butler character who wants to, like, make his little documentary about Sharpe. And then as she gets deeper and deeper in, like, being Amber Lee's assistant, she becomes more distant. It's the classic, like, who are you? You're not the person that I thought you were. Like, this isn't you type.

Speaker A Yeah, thing. I thought you were going to help me and you ended up, like, avoiding.

Speaker B Being just like everyone else.

Speaker A Like, yeah.

Speaker B And, yes.

Speaker A And, like, also, what is your goal for this movie, Austin Butler? You have not clearly communicated the expectations to Sharpay. Like, are you just following her around? Are it. Are there scripted scenes that you need to do? Like, because if you're just following her around, you could just follow her around.

Speaker B The assignment seems to be for a class. He needs to capture a real New York story or like a, like a unique New York story or some. Some adjective.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B And it makes it seem like it's supposed to be a documentary, but the idea of like an actor coming to New York and trying to make it big certainly passes that test. And so, like, I guess it's just that we. We need. Or Austin Butler needs to see enough of it to like, have a conclusion. Like, if she just stops making herself available to him, there's just like, no. No natural trajectory for the movie to go.

Speaker A Yeah, it still seems weird.

Speaker B Oh, it just doesn't make sense because he's an underdeveloped character that doesn't have any wants. I mean, it's. It's giving like, man written by a woman stereotype in the sense that like, oh, the love interest is underdeveloped in this female led centric movie, which is like, yeah, nothing to. Obviously it would have been groundbreaking if the. The love interest would. Was an interesting character, but it's not exactly crazy that he isn't.

Speaker A Yeah, apparently too. So Hot Goss on the street in 2011 was Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Hudgens were very, very close. So in addition to Ashley Tisdale and Austin Butler being cousins of some variety, Vanessa Hudgens was also dating Austin Butler at the time. And Vanessa Hudgens did want to be in a cameo in this film, but she was doing a press circuit for something else, so she just couldn't.

Speaker B The biggest problem, again, is that there's no Lucas Gray Beal. There's no. What's her name as Kelsey Nielsen. Yeah, they are, according to the canon of the High School Musical trilogy in New York, going to Juilliard.

Speaker A Yeah, they'd be there.

Speaker B There's a connection for you.

Speaker A Yeah. Apparently the ending scene with Lucas Gray Beal. And here's as good a time as any to spoil it is at the end of the film, Lucas Gray Beal takes a break from his musical tour around the country and visits her as she is becoming a star. Because spoilers, of course, the movie ends up happy for Sharpay.

Speaker B Would have been great if it didn't.

Speaker A Oh, my God. But we are hitting this point in the movie where everything is going bad for Sharpay, but she's not acknowledging any of it. She's like, yes, I'm still Amberly's friend and I can do this thing. And. And Austin Butler makes the point of like, you're actually working right now. Like you're saying you don't want to work, but look at what you're doing right now, you are technically working for someone, so nothing is going quite right. Although the dog auditions, whatever, seem to be going fine, other than Amberly keeps throwing secret temper tantrums.

Speaker B Yeah. Well, she secretly wants to get rid of the dogs from the musical, which doesn't make sense because it's clearly like, cash grab musical.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B To just have a dog in it. Like, it's clearly a cheap show that has no artistic ambitions where they're just going to try to put butts in seats. By being a family musical with a dog.

Speaker A Yep.

Speaker B And she wants to get rid of the dog because she's such a star. She wants to be the center of attention.

Speaker A Yeah. A dog would take away from her shine.

Speaker B Every scene they show from this supposed musical is bad.

Speaker A Yes.

Speaker B One of my bullet points in my notes is this show sucks. Like, there's nothing interesting going on.

Speaker A No. All the scenes are so generic. We're seeing, like, Amberly say goodbye to her mother. And the dog coming along. She apparently meets a boy and is like, I never thought I'd fall in love. And it's. Yeah. And. And there's the generic, like, Big Girl in the City kind of song at the beginning.

Speaker B And at one point, the dogs disappear from the theater.

Speaker A Yeah. They're so sick of the competition that they run away and go on a cute New York park date.

Speaker B Yeah, well, specifically, like, they. They vibe out in Central park and they go on a. Like a horse trolley.

Speaker A Yeah, the horse drawn carriage.

Speaker B Yeah. Which is very funny. That. Like, how did the dogs pull that one off? Who put them up there? How did that work? It's one of the things that, like, it's so silly that you can't complain about it.

Speaker A Yeah, No, I was like, I like this. No one is speaking. Although I don't, like, like, Baby was pl. This is the part where Baby is playing and I'm like, well, the music's distracting, but this is innocuous on screen. This whole, like, puppy love bit of the film seemed just to add something else because the romance of Sharpay and Peyton is so underdeveloped and underutilized that they're like, well, someone has to be in a romance in this movie because. Because Peyton gets mad at her and then she's stressed about that too. And.

Speaker B And it's almost like the rivalry between her and Roger, the other dog owner, is gonna neutralize after the dogs get lost and then they get reunited. But no, they're still kind of in competition after that.

Speaker A It's only until Sharpay starts to realize, like, how nasty Amber Lee is. Because she overhears her talking to the director. Screenwriter. Someone about taking the dog out of Girl's Best Friend.

Speaker B Not a screenwriter. It's just a writer. There's no screen.

Speaker A Oh.

Speaker B It's okay. Thought it was funny.

Speaker A What I was. I was thinking there is a funny joke that Sharpay misunderstands the title of the musical, thinking Girl's Best friend would be her. A human, not a dog. I thought that was a pretty, like, sharp.

Speaker B That was very early on, wasn't it?

Speaker A It was. Yeah. It was. When she's surprised, that boy is the one that's being summoned, not her.

Speaker B Yeah. Like, it's called A Girl's Best Friend. Amberly's the girl, and I'll be her best friend. And that's, like, what she wants in real life, too.

Speaker A Yeah. And then the other thing is, like, Roger doesn't want to admit that he's also a fan of Amber Lee, so he's trying to seem like the cool, experienced person on Broadway. And, like, oh, how silly is Sharpay for being so naive? But he's 12, so it's not coming through very well. Yeah, it's. There's just so much clunkiness. Like, they keep just throwing in plot points in the hope that something will stick and bring some life to this film, and nothing is.

Speaker B I mean, they want some chemistry with Sharpe and Austin Butler. There's not. Not chemistry.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B But there's no character for them to work with, and the plot is just so inane.

Speaker A Do we want to talk about hot mics? That was the other thing that we skipped.

Speaker B Weird, weird joke where she walks up to an audio guy and he says, you're hot. And she goes like, what? You can't say that. Except it's flattering. Except. No, it's like, of all the ways to sell that joke. That was not it.

Speaker A No.

Speaker B And it's actually about the mic being hot, which is just a forced thing.

Speaker A Yeah. And. But it teaches Sharpay something very important about how mics work, because she hasn't been doing theater her entire life and knows how mics work.

Speaker B Yeah. It's a plant payoff, but it's not a very good one.

Speaker A No.

Speaker B At one point, outside the theater, we see a couple background posters for two other musicals.

Speaker A Oh.

Speaker B That are supposedly playing. One is Ohio, which is, I guess, Oklahoma. That's a very, like.

Speaker A That feels like a cartoon. Saturday afternoon cartoon.

Speaker B Well, it's like, the joke, and it's like all the stuff in the Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode with the floss. And stuff.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B And then another one is called Song of the Steeple Jack, which doesn't sound like anything that I'm aware of. I don't even know what a steeple jack is.

Speaker A What Steeple Jack is.

Speaker B I think it's a thing.

Speaker A I mean, it sounds like a word I've heard of, but, like, it's something.

Speaker B The movie is trying to build. Trying to build to, like, a clueless crescendo where Sharpay realizes that she's been a jerk all along, that she was trying to do things for herself and ignoring other people. And she even has, like, a bit of this sort of dark night of the soul, like just walking through the city in the dark, except she obviously isn't going to get mugged or something, which is what happens in Clueless.

Speaker A Sorry, what was the name of that musical again?

Speaker B Song of the Steeplejack.

Speaker A So a Steeple Jack is a cra. According to Wikipedia, Steeplejack is a craftsman who scales tall buildings and structures to carry out repairs or maintenance. So is it like a Hunchback of Notre Dame thing?

Speaker B No, I mean, it's. It's almost like a Fiddler on the Roof thing, except not. Not even close. Yeah, maybe it's just the most generic thing that they could think of.

Speaker A Okay, so you were saying about how we're getting our sad moment, and it is her in the state on stage after everyone else has gone home, and she's practicing with Boy, and she's singing the song New York's Best Kept Secret.

Speaker B Well, okay, well, this is the weird thing where the. The actual dark night of the soul moment, which is like. It's supposed to be like the cabaret number, right?

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Where it's like. Oh, it's just like this one woman on stage singing her heart out, but it doesn't happen in the continuity of the movie. No, her actual. Like. Like, in terms of the plot, the dark night of the soul, sort of like walking around all listless, just sort of ends with her talking it out with Austin Butler and them sort of realizing that she was a jerk and him giving her another chance. Whatever. Super boring. A little bit of dialogue that sort of puts things into perspective, but not brain titillating at all.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B And then we go back to the theater. Well, okay, so she pulls this whole thing where she. She tricks Amberly into having a hot mic because she knows that she can get Amber Lee to say a bunch of nasty stuff, and her fan club is in the audience, and if she says a bunch of nasty stuff, the audience will turn on her. And that will upstage Amber Lee and.

Speaker A It'Ll embarrass her and encourage a producer or something to make her quit or.

Speaker B Which I. Yeah, it's not a very well thought through plan because Amberly does end up quitting and then they don't have a show. I guess she was just trying to make sure that the dogs didn't get fired.

Speaker A Yeah, yeah. That she didn't want the dogs to lose their spots. And also she wanted Amber Lee to feel small.

Speaker B Yes, I guess. Yeah. Just a sort of simple revenge. Of all the revenges that Sharpay has done and all the schemes that she's had. This is not a very. This is not a very skilled one, but this is where we get the big laugh that I had in the movie. Amberly is, like, metaphorically cussing out everyone backstage, and then she turns around to see that the curtains open and we get an audience cutaway shot and everyone's, like, looking, like, aghast. And then there's just one lady just shaking her head like, you messed up.

Speaker A I missed that. Dang it.

Speaker B It's just a perfect cutaway gag where most of the people's heads are still, but the one lady shaking your head slowly be like, no, no, no, we don't like you anymore.

Speaker A Oh, man.

Speaker B That was a good one for me.

Speaker A Yeah, that's good. So she then apologizes to Peyton, and then we get the song the New York's Best Kept Secret, because he's trying to show them that she could actually be Amber Lee because she knows all the part.

Speaker B Like, knows all the writers are about to send everyone home being like, there's no show if we don't have Amber Lee. Because there was no understudy or coverage.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B For that role.

Speaker A Yep. Well, they hadn't finished casting yet. Tyler.

Speaker B Austin Butler shows a video of Sharpay doing one of the numbers with Boy Late Night at a rehearsal to show how much he cares and how good she actually is. And theoretically, Ashley Tisdale Sharpay performs the song well, but it's so utterly boring of a song.

Speaker A Yeah. I don't even think it registered when it was like, oh, she's singing now. Oh, it's over now. Like, it didn't even register that there was a song happening at that point.

Speaker B And that's the other thing, is that all the songs in this movie are diegetic, which doesn't make sense.

Speaker A No. Sharpay is known for non diegetic. Like, that is her deal.

Speaker B Yes. She defies diagesis at every step.

Speaker A We hear Fabulous multiple times in this movie, like, we hear the instrumental of it, and I'm like, why not just play Fabulous then? Like, if you're gonna keep teasing me, let's go.

Speaker B You know, she's in New York. She doesn't even need to import turkey from Maine. It's just three states away.

Speaker A And she could go to Tiffany's.

Speaker B Then she can go for a flow. Whoa. Whoa.

Speaker A Exactly.

Speaker B Anyway, yeah, the. The musical stings that transition. Like, they sound like Fabulous, but they're not.

Speaker A Yeah. Except I think sometimes, or at least some one of them is. Like when they're making her apartment pink, which she totally would not be allowed to do.

Speaker B Oh, yeah. Well, it's like a random studio. A lot of times it's like, hey, as long as you put it back the way you found it.

Speaker A She won't.

Speaker B But yes. So they end up casting Sharpay and putting the musical on.

Speaker A But Sharpay's condition.

Speaker B Oh. Is that both dogs get to be in it equally, which is just stupid because that's how it would have been in the first place.

Speaker A Yep.

Speaker B And we see her parents show up for the big opening night. Oh. She kisses Austin Butler.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B After he shows the video.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B And then, like, the. The director pops up to interrupt the kiss, and it's like, okay, classic Disney joke.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B And then we see the big opening number.

Speaker A She's wearing a red dress.

Speaker B It's weird because the opening number of the musical is played like the closing number where she's like, hey, I made it to the big city and now I'm. Now I'm all set. Whereas we know in the story of the musical that she has to. She has, like. There's a scene where she's like, I gotta fly to New York now. So the. The start of the musical isn't her in New York. Unless they have, like, a time flashback thing where they go three months earlier.

Speaker A Yeah. They. They all do the rewind noise and start walking backwards. The. The other thing. Oh. Speaking of her red dress, which is very reminiscent of Gabriella, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, it's got the same kind of rosette on the shoulder. It's a sink. It's like a one. It's an off the shoulder, like, one shoulder kind of thing. She also makes a dig at Amberly. I forgot to mention this because just feels like something of continuity. She makes a comment about Amber Lee about wearing orange and yellow in the same week and. Yeah.

Speaker B Very strange.

Speaker A Yeah. She also makes a comment about Tiara Gold wearing orange. So I'm just like, girl, what's it with you in orange.

Speaker B Hard to say because she wears.

Speaker A Yeah, but yeah, it's like. Seems to be that, like, everything's all big and grand and. And happy. Like, we don't actually. Like, it just ends at the end of this musical sequence. Very anti. Climactic. It's not like. It's not like any of the other. Like, High School Musical 2 arguably has the weakest of the finale songs, but, like, at least it's memorable.

Speaker B Yes.

Speaker A This is just such a bland, unmemorable series of events.

Speaker B A series of unfortunate events. I mean, yes, we get into these situations where it's like, oh, how come nobody ever talks about Sharpe's fabulous adventure? This is why. This is why.

Speaker A This is why.

Speaker B Because it's. Because it's bad.

Speaker A We did the hard work for you.

Speaker B It's not fun to, like, talk about. It's not campy. Well, I mean, it is kind of fun to talk about if you're us, but don't throw it on at your party. Don't make it the. The coda of your High School Musical party. Rewatch.

Speaker A No. If you're gonna watch anything, from what I understand, watch High School Musical, the Musical. The series. Like, yes, don't bother with this.

Speaker B Which we do not have any plans to cover as of now.

Speaker A No. Percy Jackson Season 2 comes out in December.

Speaker B But I'm glad I watched it. I'm not so weird to me that there was no non diegetical musical numbers, that there was no, like, Fabulous Part two spin off.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B The idea that Fabulous and I Want it all are like, more distinct renditions of Sharpe's character than the Sharpay movie. Like, you watch I Want it all and you're like, oh, this is like what Sharpay's life would be like. This is what her dreams and aspirations are. And I could see how based on her privilege and her acknowledgeable talent level, she could make that happen. Even if it was like a partnership with Ryan or something.

Speaker A Yeah. The opening. So for Shine or Gonna Shine, I thought this was just an Ashley Tisdale song. Like, the way it was produced, it was so overly pop produced that I was like, oh, I wonder if they just took this off of like, an Ashley Tisdale album from this time period and just plunked it in here as like, a music video homage kind of thing. That was not the case. But it didn't feel. Yeah, it just didn't feel like Sharpay at any point. And while it is nice to actually have some character growth after four movies, it just. Not like this. Yeah, no, not like this. And also like, the character did not start with where we ended with, like, there was no. The continuity is not there.

Speaker B It's weird because it truly felt like a movie from 1996.

Speaker A Yeah. A children's movie from 1996 to like.

Speaker B Like a ripoff of the Parent Trap.

Speaker A Yeah, I think Confessions.

Speaker B Whatever.

Speaker A Yeah. I think Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen had more to say about the frailty of stardom than this.

Speaker B And like the. The contradictions of like the self obsessed teenage girl.

Speaker A Yeah. I feel like we should talk about Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen at some point. It feels kind of in our wheelhouse.

Speaker B Should we talk about Freakier Friday?

Speaker A No, that's not about high school. I don't. I actually don't know. I know nothing about the film.

Speaker B It does have teenagers in it, but.

Speaker A No, I know that, but like. Yeah, I don't. I don't think it quite aligns in the same way. Confession of a Teenage Drama Queen has original music, though. I guess so does Freaky Friday, but.

Speaker B In the sense that sometimes we are entitled to talk about new releases that are tangentially related to the era of Disney that we sort of have a brand of talking about.

Speaker A Yeah. Until we go and change it up again.

Speaker B Okay. Do we. Do we give this a rating?

Speaker A I did not put pencils in my eye. Is that.

Speaker B Yeah.

Speaker A Is that a rating?

Speaker B I mean, obviously I don't think number ratings are worth something. I would say. I do not recommend you watch this movie. Not even to be like, oh, form your own opinion about it. No, it's just not worth your time.

Speaker A It. It is frustrating knowing how talented Ashley Tisdale is as a performer in all of her capacities. Like, we've seen High School Musical, the concert, so we know she can live perform. We watched her as children in Suite Life of Zack and Cody. And this just. I've seen her more recent stuff with the re emergence of Phineas and Ferb. And this just feels like the secret musical you do in high school that you. Or middle school even, that you never show anyone the tape of because you're too horrified that it ever existed.

Speaker B Well, it's not even a musical. It's got four musical numbers in it.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is as much of a musical as this.

Speaker A Yeah.

Speaker B So.

Speaker A So, yeah, don't watch it. We did the hard work for you. Don't waste your time. Oh, I don't know if you saw this. Not too long ago, Ashley Tisdale on social media was saying how her children are starting to. Or her child is Starting to get into High School Musical, but has like kind of put together that she is Sharpay, but also like, not. And also that she doesn't want her friends to know. Like, it's a. It's a. She's had an exciting time in her life of like, do I expose my child to my past projects or not? And I imagine Ashley Tisdale would not expose her children to Sharpay's fabulous adventure.

Speaker B That would be. That is very interesting. Yeah, I would not.

Speaker A I don't dislike anyone that much to force them to watch this.

Speaker B Like when the kid is like 14 or 19 and just was like, I gotta know. There's no way I could go this long. Is it really that bad? Like, but when the kid has agency to do it, I guess, yeah, they.

Speaker A Can go on Disney and pick it out for themselves.

Speaker B Yep, yep, yep. All right, so we hope you enjoyed this summary of the movie.

Speaker A Now you don't have to see it even. I was reading people's IMDb reviews and they were like, well, Austin Butler's in it. Austin Butler's not in this movie.

Speaker B No, it's not even worth seeing Austin Butler's attractive face.

Speaker A Go watch Hannah Montana. Go watch Sweet Life of Zack and Cody.

Speaker B Go watch Dune Part 2.

Speaker A Go watch Dune Part 2.

Speaker B Okay, anything else we want to announce or we. Are we going to keep it under the lid still?

Speaker A We'll keep it under the lid still because we might do one more of these before we go live. I don't know. I have no idea.

Speaker B All right, we still got Lady Bird on the docket.

Speaker A Oh, gosh. That's not a horror film though. That's all I've been watching lately.

Speaker B You'd be surprised.

Speaker A And to include Sharpe's fabulous adventure in my horror lineup.

Speaker B Okay.

Speaker A All right, well, until next time, you can find us on social media. We're not super active right now, but we're on Instagram at Amateur Nerds.

Speaker B Yeah, email us amateur nerds present gmail.com if you want to suggest a movie.

Speaker A Or send us ideas for future games or fan art. I don't know.

Speaker B We don't know either.

Speaker A I've been Tyler, I've been Condra, and.

Speaker B We'Re going to see you next time to find out what the next thing that we're going to talk about is. That was kind of a self perpetuating cycle of phrases of things that talk.

Speaker A About what we're going to talk about.

Speaker B Yes. But we will see you in your ear holes. You can bet on it.

Amateur Nerds Review: Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure

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