- "High School Musical" premiered on Disney Channel in 2006, and the film is full of sneaky details.
- Interesting costume choices make characters like Troy and Chad stand out in scenes.
- Fans of the whole series may notice a few Easter eggs and inconsistencies in the first movie.
Troy is first shown playing basketball in a dance studio.
The first time Troy is shown playing basketball isn't at East High, but rather in the ski resort he's staying at with his parents.
While Coach Bolton and his son shoot hoops, viewers can spot ballet bars along one of the walls of the room, making it clear that the rec center doubles as a dance studio.
This seems to be a clever way of foreshadowing the new hobbies Troy picks up when he returns to school after break.
Troy's jacket magically reappears after he sings karaoke.
While singing "Start of Something New" at the New Year's Eve party, Troy hands off his jacket to someone in the crowd.
Since he doesn't really know anyone else at the party, it's not clear who takes the jacket, and seconds later it completely disappears from view.
But by the next scene, Troy is wearing the jacket again, so it must have been in good hands.
The "snow" that falls on Troy and Gabriella is clearly fake.
After singing together, Gabriella and Troy walk outside into a snowy scene.
But when it lands on them — specifically in Gabriella's hair — the snow doesn't even begin to melt, and it clearly looks more like shavings than actual flakes.
Like many movies, this fake snow was likely made of something like potato flakes.
Gabriella's picture on Troy's phone is mysteriously devoid of a crowd.
After exchanging phone numbers, Troy and Gabriella take pictures of each other to use as their contact photos.
Though the pictures are taken outside at a crowded party, there's somehow no one and nothing behind Gabriella in the picture that Troy takes on his phone.
The image of East High in front of the school doesn't match the actual building.
Before East High School is first shown, the shot zooms in on a concrete etching, presumably of the building at some point in history.
However, when the camera pans up to reveal the actual school, the silhouettes don't line up.
The actual building has a completely different entryway and facade than the concrete image.
Chad wears three watches on his wrist.
Throughout the movie, Chad almost always wears three watches on his left arm.
According to a 2016 interview with Buzzfeed, the interesting accessory choice was actor Corbin Bleu's idea.
Jason exits a classroom twice in the same scene.
After homeroom on the first day back from winter break, Gabriella and Troy talk in the hallway.
When Troy first leaves the room, his basketball teammate Jason walks out and pats him on the back.
A few seconds later, however, while Gabriella and Troy are talking, Jason can be seen exiting the exact same classroom for a second time.
East High's hallway decorations almost exclusively center on basketball or the school's name and mascot.
The decorations in the school hallways almost always refer to the school mascot, the Wildcats, or name, East High.
For example, when Sharpay sings on the upper level of the cafeteria, there's a sign behind her that simply reads "East East East" and later, Gabriella sings in front of a giant basketball poster that prominently features Troy.
Chad and Troy's jersey numbers change throughout the movie.
Throughout the entire series, Chad and Troy famously sport the numbers eight and 14, respectively, on their basketball jerseys. However, there are certain moments in the first movie where that isn't the case.
Chad wears the number 15 and Troy wears the number 10 during their practice after detention.
The banners in front of the school can be seen in the gym as well.
There are red-and-white banners hanging on the front of the school, and the same ones seem to be hanging in the East High gym.
Both sets include banners of varying lengths adorned with the Wildcat mascot and words like "Community" and "Respect."
Chad wears fun graphic T-shirts that feature original slogans.
Chad's tendency to accessorize with multiple watches isn't the only fun part of his wardrobe.
Throughout the film — and the rest of the series — he wears slogan T-shirts that feature phrases Bleu came up with himself.
Some of the slogans include, "I come with my own background music" and "Laughing on the inside."
Troy's shoes change while he's running to his audition.
When Troy goes to his first audition for the winter musical, he runs and hides throughout the school to avoid Chad on his way to the auditorium.
At the start of the sequence, he's wearing black sneakers, but when he's outside moments later, he's wearing different, white sneakers.
When he arrives at the audition, Troy's shoes are black again.
Sharpay never actually signed Ryan up for the pairs auditions.
At the auditions, Ms. Darbus says only one couple signed up for the "pairs" option: Sharpay and Ryan.
But when Sharpay signed up several scenes earlier, she only wrote her own name and forgot to include her brother's.
Sharpay has somehow been in 17 school productions.
When talking to Kelsey, Sharpay mentions that she's starred in 17 school productions.
Given that Sharpay is a junior in high school — who's only halfway through the year — this number seems too high to be possible.
Zac Efron's songs were dubbed in the first movie.
Zac Efron doesn't actually sing most of Troy's songs in "High School Musical," the majority of them were dubbed by Drew Seeley.
However, Efron does sing Troy's songs in "High School Musical 2" and "High School Musical 3."
Students' lunches are visible under their tables during "Stick to the Status Quo."
Before the students begin to sing and dance during "Stick to the Status Quo," their lunches are sitting in front of them on their tables.
But once the musical number starts, the lunches can be spotted on the floor under the tables the students are dancing on.
Troy's red and white shirt reappears in every movie in the series.
Troy wears a white shirt with red sleeves during "Stick to the Status Quo."
This shirt actually went on to make an appearance in both "High School Musical" sequels.
He can be spotted wearing it during "You Are the Music in Me" in the second movie and again in his bedroom during the third movie.
Coach Bolton's office is full of basketball-themed decor.
Coach Bolton's office is, unsurprisingly, full of basketball-themed decorations, from trophies to artistic renditions of basketballs.
He also has a "D" sign in the corner office next to one of a fence, which are signs often held up by fans at basketball games to cheer on the "defense."
Chad wears the same necklace throughout the movie.
Chad's wardrobe continues to stand out with his signature necklace.
The accessory features an oval-shaped stone on a brown cord and can be spotted in pretty much every scene where Chad isn't in his basketball uniform.
The character wears similarly styled necklaces during the sequels as well.
Troy should've noticed that he was being filmed.
When Troy's teammates trick him into saying harsh things about Gabriella and the musical in the locker room, they film him so Gabriella will see it — in the hopes that it will make them both drop out of the callbacks.
However, it seems rather unrealistic that Troy didn't notice his teammates were filming him since they're literally pointing a webcam at him in plain sight.
Troy is frequently dressed in blue to make him stand out from his classmates.
There are several moments in the movie where Troy is dressed in blue to make him stand out from other East High students.
This is most noticeable when Gabriella looks out the window at him during the pep rally, and he's surrounded by students wearing red and white.
Gabriella opens her locker without actually unlocking it.
After Gabriella sings "When There Was Me and You," she walks to her locker and easily opens it without touching the combination lock at all.
Though Sharpay usually wears pink, she matches with the rest of her classmates for the final song.
Sharpay's outfits stand out throughout the entire series, as she tends to wear bright pinks.
However, during "We're All in This Together," she sports an all-white outfit to show off her school spirit.
The costume decision helps reinforce that Sharpay's on better terms with everyone at the end of the film.
This story was originally published on January 20, 2021, and most recently updated on October 18, 2023.
You can stream all of the "High School Musical" movies and "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series" on Disney+:
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