High School Musical 2, on Disney Channel
Disney Channel Wiki; Disney Movies; Disney Wiki; IMDb; TV Tango; TV Tropes; Wikia; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Disney+; Fandango; Google Play; YouTube

This is the first sequel to "High School Musical". It originally aired in 2007, but I didn't see it until 2025, as part of my summer of DCOMs. I actually liked it better than the first movie, though I do think that the first movie was probably a bit better in some ways, and if I ever rewatched it I might raise my rating of that movie. Or not, I dunno. Apparently I'm not alone in thinking this movie was an improvement over the first one, which kind of surprises me. Still, I think my only complaint about the sequel is that Gabriella's character seems a bit less developed than it was in the original. On the other hand, Ryan plays a somewhat more important role, this time. And like the first movie, I thought Kelsi didn't have a big enough role (but at least it was bigger than some of the kids' roles).

So, the kids at East High get out for the summer, and most of them are looking for summer jobs. Meanwhile, Sharpay and Ryan go home to their parents' exclusive country club. Sharpay has decided that she should be dating Troy, so she gets the club's manager, Mr. Fulton, to hire him for the summer. She also gets a job as pianist for Kelsi. Troy agrees to work at the club on the condition that Gabriella and all their friends also get jobs there. This annoys Sharpay, but she's confident she can get Troy to like her. She eventually has Fulton promote him to a better job, and her father helps by introducing Troy to influential people who could help him get a scholarship. Troy's father also convinces him that he needs to do all he can to prepare for his future. So Troy is happy to have things going so well, though he's not happy to have to spend so much time with Sharpay, and so little time with Gabriella and the others. But eventually he starts ignoring his friends, which upsets them, especially Chad.

Kelsi writes a song for Troy and Gabriella to sing together in the club's upcoming talent show. At first Troy isn't interested in singing anymore, but he quickly comes around. However, Sharpay ropes him into singing with her, instead. So Gabriella convinces the rest of her friends to do a song together in the show, and she gets Ryan to become their director. He's happy to do so, after having been ditched by his sister in favor of Troy. Then Sharpay gets Fulton to force all the employees to work on the night of the talent show, so that they couldn't perform and potentially beat her out for the trophy. Of course, Troy's not happy when he finds out about this. And at some point during all this (I've forgotten the order of events), Gabriella quits her job and apparently breaks up with Troy. But of course she eventually returns, and there's a happy ending for everyone. And... I think that's all I want to reveal of the plot. As usual, I feel like I've said too much, while also leaving out plenty of details.

Maybe I enjoyed this one more just because it's set during summer, instead of in school. Or maybe because I was already familiar with the characters. I don't really feel like the story itself was necessarily better. Anyway, I still didn't love the movie, even if I did like it a bit better than the first one, for whatever reason. I still found it a bit formulaic, or whatever. But overall, the movie was decent. And now I kind of want to watch the third movie.