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I remember the world premiere of High School Musical vividly. It was billed as a major event and quickly became the biggest film of its kind at the time. Unlike its contemporaries, it wasn’t just another teen drama, it was a serious production with a budget to help support its burgeoning blockbuster status, featuring upcoming stars like Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, and so many more.
While it's miniscule compared to the Disney of today that owns the likes of Star Wars and Marvel, back in 2007, it grew to become one of the most established media properties on the planet. I remember going to Disney World in Florida and seeing High School Musical plastered everywhere on merchandise and attractions, the company clearly recognising its value and pushing it toward the masses in every conceivable way. This popularity resulted in two sequels - one remained on television while the other received a major cinematic release with even larger production values to match.
For my generation, the films remain a cultural touchstone that acted as a major component of our upbringing. Alongside many other Disney Channel original movies, it was a brief respite of comfort that we could sink into in the early evenings alongside our friends and family. While it sounds awfully clichéd today, it was a television event that isn't really possible anymore with our increased reliance on streaming services and online distribution. Jump In, Minutemen, Cadet Kelly and even High School Musical are films that would be made very differently in 2021 - and it’s a shame today's youth have such a different relationship with Disney than I did.
It's still the company known for beloved animated classics, but it's also known for Marvel, Star Wars, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and so much more. I recently wrote about the dilution of Disney's identity when it claimed The Owl House wasn't suitable for its "brand" image and the continued abandonment of original movies feels like a greater evolution of that. It still produces originals, like The Descendents and Zombies, but they are no longer a core part of their connection to today’s kids. Get Your Head in the Game? Get Your Axe in Thanos’ Head, more like.
Disney Channel was a fundamental part of my childhood, with each one being heavily advertised alongside the regular programming of Recess, Wizards of Waverly Place, American Dragon: Jake Long, and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. While in actuality they were fairly low-budget affairs with so-so acting, the likes of Double Teamed, Wendy-Wu: Homecoming Warrior, and Halloween Town felt like next-level shit to a younger Jade. I grew up in Wales, with my house being situated in a field miles away from the nearest town, and even further from a cinema and shops where I could buy and sample the latest releases for myself. I’d venture into Game or HMV every couple of months to trade my games in and buy something new, but the majority of my entertainment was decided at the whim of my parents and the TV before me.
That meant watching a whole lot of Disney Channel. I remember tuning in for the premiere of Corbin Bleu’s Jump In! after the success of High School Musical, even if it was a film about urban jump rope of all things. It’s worth noting that original movies from Disney of this variety are still being made today, but they’re far less frequent than they used to be. Instead of bespoke ideas, they started making live-action adaptations of classic cartoons like Kim Possible with cringe-inducing depictions of characters nobody asked for.
All of the most popular films come from the era that followed High School Musical with classics like The Cheetah Girls, Camp Rock, Twitches, Princess Protection Program and so many more bangers. Okay, from a critical perspective, they are far from masterful, but for a young kid with a basic grasp of cinema, these all managed to appeal to my demographic while delivering meaningful life lessons that are still relevant today. Children today have access to so much media, these films included, that the choices are overwhelming. Many of them focus on social media, YouTube, and streaming services instead, which makes the incentive for Disney to produce them all the more superfluous.
The current viewing figures for original movies are dire, and that’s to be expected. Disney has begun shutting down its traditional cable channels in recent years in several territories, slowly but surely transitioning to an online distribution model that will soon become permanent. I’m not looking forward to that aspect of our future, both due to an attachment to my own personal nostalgia and how such a homogenous model could risk creativity and stop young creators from getting their foot in the door.
We’ll see what happens, but the eventual death of smaller features like this is a crying shame, and something that will be missed dearly when they’re finally put to rest. At least, with the advent of Disney+, such things are available to a new generation in their original form, albeit without the anticipation or star vehicle power that came with awaiting a premiere and watching it with your friends. I was a closeted queer kid when High School Musical came out, so I was sneakily crushing on Zac Efron and learning the songs away from my siblings. Even if I cringe about it today, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Now hurry up and let the films crossover with Kingdom Hearts already.