Gabriella Montez, the girl who turns Troy Bolton’s whole world upside down…
…and is absolutely useless for two out of three films.
Before somebody gets mad at me, think about it for a moment. If Gabriella wasn’t in the second movie, would the plot suffer too greatly? Would the third movie suffer too greatly?
What’s with the sudden uselessness of Gabriella’s character?
First, I think we need to look at the first movie’s shortcomings. High School Musical was Disney’s first big movie musical. It’s what opened the floodgates for the birth of Camp Rock, Descendants, and a bunch of others. The big shortcoming, I think was how incredibly bland it was. Disney’s whole thing is the “be who you are” speech that they have about five million versions of, but this one just takes the cake for cheesiest. All ninety-three minutes can be summed up in ten words spoken by one Troy Bolton:
“Did you ever think that maybe I could be both?”
The movie wasn’t bad, but a basketball player baking was a problem? A smart girl dancing was an issue? These things are only a problem here, and then nobody cares.
Moving on to Gabriella’s uselessness. I gotta be blunt: I don’t like her. I never did. She’s sweet and she’s smart and she’s kinda pretty, but half the time she’s onscreen, she’s moping and crying. The first movie, she’s sort of important, but let’s not kid ourselves: it’s the Troy Bolton story.
The second movie, she’s just…there. She’s at the club, she’s a lifeguard, and Sharpay tries to break them up so she can have him all to herself (oh, and to get him a college scholarship). Gabriella’s seeing how it’s changing Troy, but she’s not the reason Troy comes back to his senses. Troy comes back to his senses because he finally saw how he was treating his friends, and Gabriella left long before that happened. (Speaking of, that Princess twirl thing that Troy does on the golf course, what the heck was that?) She comes back to sing with Troy, and then the movie ends.
The third movie is the same way. She just cries the whole time and agonizes over college. She’s such a downer that it takes away from the fact that her character is actually somewhat decent.
Gabriella started out fine. But nothing lasts forever. Sorry, Gabriella.
