Disney's Star Machine

And there are plenty of Disney rewards for the chosen, not just a single role in a TV movie or series. Once they make it onto Disney's talent roster, they enter a candyland of synergistic opportunity, with spinoffs into feature films, live theater, recorded music, theme- park appearances and licensed merchandise. Disney's synergy czars already are blanketing their media kingdom with the ubiquitous faces and voices of the "HSM" stars.

But don't despair if the names Ashley Tisdale, Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Lucas Grabeel and the rest mean nothing to you. If you're clueless about "HSM" you are probably childless or the parent or grandparent of grown-ups. "HSM" is clearly aimed at tweens--9- to 14-year-olds--and they are the turbopower behind its extraordinary success, each tuning in to the movie dozens of times and listening to the soundtrack incessantly.

Beyond the vagaries of plain dumb luck, you might wonder why "HSM" has become a pop-culture phenomenon. No single answer suffices. Certainly it's a solid piece of entertainment, created and marketed by top pros, with catchy songs, snappy choreography and cheery performances. Its appeal to tweens is innate, striking almost every psychographic chord manifest in the pimpled population, from adolescent angst about fitting in to a taste for airy, singalong pop music. "Wow, you can actually relate to the characters," says Patricia Kessanis, 14, of Wayne, N.J. "You have Sharpay, who's the snobby one but you can't help but love to hate. You've got Gabriella, the quiet one, the brainiac, the smart one. You've got Troy, the basketball player who falls in love with the brainiac."

"American Idol," the country's most popular TV show, also may be a factor. After all, the lead characters in "HSM" find themselves in the unlikely situation of auditioning for and winning the starring roles in East High School's annual musical production. "I think there's a symbiotic relation," says Bill Borden, "HSM" 's executive producer. " 'American Idol' has opened the door, in that anyone can succeed and become the next star."

More-complex social forces are at work as well. "HSM" is set in a fantasy world, which in its way is no more real than "The Little Mermaid." Sure, there are cliques and rivalries at East High, but there's no sex, no drugs, no racial or ethnic tensions, no dropouts and no violence. Everyone is good-looking, well-dressed and talented. Classrooms are spacious and clean. In the end, the home team wins, all conflicts are resolved and everybody dances together in the gym. It's not high school; it's high school the way we wish it could be.

The lustless love on display in "HSM"--there isn't a single kiss--thrusts the film squarely into the center of the ongoing culture wars over "decency" in radio and television, and at a particularly heated juncture. Just last month, President George W. Bush signed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, hiking fines for violations to $350,000 each. But "HSM" is chaste almost to a fault--which is why it comes wholeheartedly recommended as Christian programming. Beliefnet, a religion and spirituality Web site, applauds "HSM" for not featuring "promiscuous greasers and accidental virgins." The musical has also earned the stamp of approval from Focus on the Family, which gauges entertainment for good and evil influences in an effort to foster spiritual growth. "No drugged-up kids cussin' and carousin' here," it said of "HSM." Costuming and dancing--"not Las Vegas sensual." But it frowned at the number "Bop to the Top," specifically the lyric "Shake some booty." At Ramona Convent Secondary School, a Roman Catholic high school for girls in Los Angeles, "HSM" has crept into religion class. Austyn Gabig, a 16-year-old junior, says a classmate recently led the mandatory daily prayer by playing "We're All in This Together" from the soundtrack. "When she played it on her iPod speakers, everyone sang the song," recalls Gabig. "It was cool. It's a positive song; the teacher didn't mind."