Movie Review: Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Acting, just plain fun

Cons: Completely predictable story

The Bottom Line: 

Not original

But it still entertains those

Willing to watch it

Not Fabulous, But Fun

Among my guilty pleasures are the movies in the High School Musical franchise.  So when I learned that one of the characters was getting a spin off movie, I knew I'd be seeing Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure at some point.  An airing on The Disney Channel made that possible, and I sat down not knowing what to expect.  It snuck up on me, and I wound up liking it despite itself.

When Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) is complimented by a Broadway casting agent after a performance in a local fundraiser, she thinks her ship has finally come in.  She convinces her dad to pay for her to go to New York and audition; sure she will get the leading part in a new musical.  She only knows one person in the city, Payton (Austin Butler), the son of her mother's college friend.

However, when Sharpay arrives in New York, she learns the casting agent was actually interested in her dog, Boi.  Desperate to have any excuse to stay in New York (the alternative is to go home and go to wo-wo-wo-work), Sharpay agrees to let her dog addition for the part.  Unfortunately, there's one other dog still in the running.  Will Sharpay get to stay in New York?

Now I'm going to be completely honest here.  The plot is so formulaic you can see the "twists" coming a mile away.  So one or two developments took me by surprise, but they were mid-point complications.  The ending didn't surprise me at all.

Also working against the movie is Sharpay.  She's long been my least favorite character in the franchise.  I almost passed on the movie as a result.  And once again, any character growth we've seen in the previous movies is thrown out the window as the beginning finds Sharpay selfish and manipulative.  As much as I dislike the lack of continuity, I must admit that I find her fun, so I soon forgot about that.

The movie has four new songs (one of them sung twice).  All of them are done on stages, and I'll admit I was a bit surprised not to see more songs like in the High School Musical movies.  However, all of them were good and work for the story as well as the play within the story.

Now here's the part where I have to be honest.  By the time the movie was over, I was enjoying myself.  No, this isn't a great film.  But it is fun and entertaining.  I was laughing at parts, one montage in particular.  I was concerned that the characters get a happy ending.  I have a feeling that the 9-12 year old target audience for this film will absolutely love it.

Praise for that has to go to the actors.  While the characters can be over the top, they manage to keep their performances real enough that I bought them.  That has to be especially hard for Ashley since Sharpay is anything but grounded early in the story.  About the only weak part in the cast was the writer character, and that was mainly because I found his "shtick" less and less funny each time he was on the screen.  Yep, it was a problem with the writing and not the acting.  And actor can only do so much with a one note character

You don't really need to have seen the High School Musical movies to understand this one, although a cameo at the end doesn't mean as much if you don't know the characters.

Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure will never make anyone's list of great films, and it doesn't deserve to be there.  But if your kids are looking for a diverting film, they will find this one fits the bill completely.