Was there any doubt in your mind? After two hugely successful films, the third part of the High School Musical franchise is coming to cinemas, with a shed load of enthusiasm, twirling and musical basketball. It’s an indication of the sheer number of fans the series has that the first two films didn’t even need to be released in cinemas to be successful, and terms such as “the modern Grease” are gladly banded around by us writer types about movies which, to this point, had only premiered on TV.

It’s graduation year (as the title may suggest), and the gang are all back. In their final year at East High, Troy (Zac Efron) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) are faced with the unthinkable notion of being separated after being accepted for different schools. To deal with their mixed emotions, the pair join their Wildcat friends- including Chad (Corbin Bleu), Taylor (Monique Coleman) and Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale)- to put on a musical to express their feelings, ambitions, and fears.

The thing with a film such as this is that it is almost immune to any criticism. The (little) people have spoken, and the squeaky-clean faces of Efron et al adorn millions of bedroom walls all over the world. The plot itself is pretty much more of the same, with new songs and the added nail-biter of Troy and Gabriella’s future. Needless to say, not one plot point goes by without a hugely elaborate song and dance routine, which is where the films’ strengths lie. This is Disney, after all, and no one does a wholesome song and dance routine like the House of Mouse. The energy of it will have even the most bored of parents tapping along (or they will be by the third time they’ve seen it). In short, there’s not much here that’s revelatory, but with such a seemingly winning formula why would there be?  

The cast are all cracking singers, and very much products of the same Disney machine that first introduced us to Aguilera, Spears & Timberlake. The character roles are all very defined (Troy & Gabriella are the golden couple, Chad’s ‘the best friend’, Sharpay’s the theatre diva) and so there’s little room for manoeuvre, however Tisdale does steal a lot of the scenes with some genuinely funny moments. Three new freshmen (including Brit actress Jemma McKenzie-Brown as the interestingly-named Tiara Gold) are brought in try to give this threequel it’s own identity, but it’s clear that this is the ‘B-Team’, ready to be introduced to take the mantle from the old cast should the need arise.

With an ending that rounds off the exploits of the original cast nicely, but still leaves room for ‘options’ (i.e. HSM 4, College Musical or some sort of ‘Next Generation’ movie), we can offer this entirely un-helpful conclusion- if you loathed the other HSM movies, there’s not much here that will change your mind. However, if you loved it, you’ll think of this as 1 hour 40 minutes of heaven. Light, formulaic, and achingly clean-cut, but just what the fans wanted.