Last Updated on January 2, 2023
High School Musical is one of the most successful Disney Channel movies of this century. Those who grew up in the 2000s remember well when DCOM took off. Merchandise flew off the shelves, especially the CDs of these Wildcat hits. There is no doubt that this movie changed the trajectory of the network and became an important part of the Disney family.
If you like High School Musical, watch these ten movies or watch them again. DCOM and other childhood favorites are sure to remind you of the East High!
Table of Contents
10. Model Behavior
What if Sharpay and Gabriella had switched lives? Model Behavior can somewhat offer an idea of what that would look like. In this Wonderful World of Disney movie, Maggie Lawson doubles as Janine Adams and Alex Burroughs. Janine is a famous model living the seemingly perfect life with her mom, brother, and assistant.
Alex is a regular high school girl with the typical loving family and annoying younger brother. The two meet by chance in a restroom at an event Alex and her father are catering, and they decide to escape their everyday lives for a bit. The 2000 ABC film is quite fun and comes with a young Justin Timberlake.
9. Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off
Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off is a DCOM which came out in 2003. Three years before High School Musical, this movie explored the dilemma of a kid who wants to pursue more than one talent.
Eddie’s dad has ingrained baseball in him, but Eddie loves to cook, too. Like Troy Bolton, Eddie is a teen who must overcome an athletic-crazed father in order to try his hand at new passions.
8. Ice Princess
Ice Princess was a theatrically released 2005 Disney film about Casey Carlyle (Michelle Trachtenberg), a high school physics genius whose academic mother is obsessed with higher education. Casey thinks her life will take the Ivy League track, so she crafts an elaborate physics project centered on the movements of figure skating.
In a poignant love story with the sport, Casey hides her love for competitive skating from her mother until it all comes out. She forgoes Harvard but agrees to take a few college classes at the end of the movie. Ms. Darbus would love those costumes.
7. Go Figure
Go Figure is basically the DCOM version of Ice Princess. Ironically, it premiered the year before High School Musical, but it, too, was about a girl juggling two extracurricular commitments. Katelin Kingsford is such a talented ice skater that she will be going to boarding school to study with the finest teacher.
There’s a catch, of course. Katelin can only attend the school on an ice hockey scholarship. The premise is a little hard to buy into, considering that the girl does not play hockey. However, Katelin finds her way with the new sport and grows to love being part of her team. When a game is the same day as a figure skating competition, she has to get creative–much like Gabriella with the scholastic decathlon and Troy with the big game as they try to make it to callbacks.
6. Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen
Although it is also a Disney film, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen is grittier than High School Musical. Lindsay Lohan plays Mary, a girl who starts calling herself Lola as she fabricates elaborate stories to impress her new classmates in New Jersey.
The New Yorker finds her way to the theatre and wins the lead role, much to mean girl Carla Santini’s (Megan Fox) dismay. These teens starring in a school musical way back in 2004 could have inspired that fateful DCOM.
5. Another Cinderella Story
This movie actually came after High School Musical, and it’s not technically a Disney movie. Another Cinderella Story starred Selena Gomez and Drew Seeley. Disney Channel acquired it for a time and aired it constantly, so many tween viewers were inspired by the love story the leads strike up over the art of dance.
And of course, Drew Seeley had an important role in High School Musical, enhancing Zac Efron’s vocals in the first movie, co-writing “Get’cha Head in the Game,” and then going on tour with the cast as Troy after the DCOM’s success.
4. New York Minute
In an alternate universe, New York Minute (2004) is like taking two High School Musical characters and sending them to New York for the day, preferably one being laidback and the other being high-achieving (so, maybe Chad and Taylor). Mary-Kate and Ashley inhabit these prototypes as Roxy and Jane Ryan, teen twins who could not be more different.
They’re stuck together for the day, and a series of mishaps takes them on a bumpy road to New York City. They evade a pirating scheme just in time for Jane to deliver her speech in application for a fellowship. By the end of the film, Roxy’s success as a drummer with her band is celebrated as much as her sister’s academic prowess.
3. Camp Rock
Without High School Musical’s explosive popularity, Camp Rock (2008) might not have gained as wide a following. The movie transports the teen scene from school to a summer camp specifically designed for aspiring musicians, dancers, and DJs.
With the help of the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato’s character, Mitchie, finds her voice and learns that she should be herself.
2. Double Teamed
Going back to the overbearing sports parent idea, there’s nothing quite like Double Teamed (2002). It is based on the real lives of Heather and Heidi Burge, twins who played on different teams in the WNBA. Heidi is more nuanced than Troy Bolton because she is an outspoken young woman who isn’t afraid to try out new things.
She and Heather are volleyball players, and their dad is adamant about them taking all the right steps to be scouted. Heather stumbles on basketball at the twins’ new high school while Heidi falls in love with drama club. Their father demands that they both go out for the basketball team, and he’s a tough nut to crack when it comes to letting a kid follow her dreams.
1. The Luck of the Irish
In this fantastical movie, Kyle isn’t juggling basketball plus another activity. He is balancing his regular American life with the newfound secret that he is actually a leprechaun.
As he learns about his heritage, Kyle goes on an unbelievable journey including a potato chip factory and a duel. Ryan Merriman made this DCOM a fan favorite forever, and the Wildcats might not have excelled if the Soaring Eagles hadn’t flown in 2001.