Thirty- something speaks
Cinderella's Castle is now East High gymnasium
Mike Maddock

The Easter Bunny must be laughing his little cottontail off because in one night he's turned my house from Cinderella's castle to East High's gymnasium. The long eared little fellow left High School Musical (both in its movie and soundtrack forms) in my two girls' Easter baskets next to the chocolate bunnies and the marshmallow Peeps, and now my life will never be the same.

Gentlemen like Prince Charming and Prince Eric dressed in full royal attire have been cast aside in the Maddock land of make- believe for guys named Troy and Chad in baggy shorts and bad haircuts. Snow White's daintiness and graceful moves have made way for someone named Sharpay and a lot of scary gyrations. A girl named Gabriella has replaced Belle at the ball and the Little Mermaid may as well be just another fish in the sea. I don't know what's more depressing, the fact I know all these princesses or the fact they've been buried at the back of the toy box to make room for a slice of pop culture I'm just not quite sure I'm prepared to deal with.

Of course, I'm pretty fortunate the High School Musical phenomenon has avoided our household this long. Apparently, the folks at Disney unleashed this little movie on unsuspecting parents and their kids over a year ago. What was originally intended as a nice made for TV movie for the Disney Channel has exploded into a national obsession, at least in the pre- teen world. The DVD has spent significant time at the top of the charts, the soundtrack was the most commercially successful album of 2006, and many high school drama departments are doing their own versions of the show. It's this generation's Grease, but don't confuse the two.

I saw Grease for the first time when I was eight- years- old and didn't realize how provocative the movie actually was until I saw it again in my 20s. The Greased Lightnin' number alone was enough to make me blush and say, "I can't believe my mom let me watch this!"

High School Musical is Disney's version of the teenage years, so what it lacks in reality it makes up for in musical numbers. The biggest problem at East High School is its students' hidden talents and their inability or unwillingness to share them for fear of breaking their set place in the social order. Compare that to Grease's Rydell High where one student named Rizzo might be fitted for maternity clothes instead of a cap and gown, and another student named Sandy has to start smoking and wearing spandex to give the movie a happy ending. Suddenly High School Musical doesn't seem all that bad.

Still, this movie represents a significant change in the life of my children. The innocence isn't gone, it's just moving a little closer to the real world. Granted, High School Musical has little to do with the real world - even though I wish it did. I mean these guys had a cheering section at an academic decathlon in one scene of the movie. Fans were screaming as Gabriella completed a long and complicated math problem on a chalkboard. Dare to dream I guess. Stadium seating for calculus is reality TV compared to the fantasyland previously fueling the engine of my kids' imaginations.

I guess I should just be happy when my children are dancing and singing the High School Musical finale We're all in this together instead of sliding up and down the hood of my car belting out Greased Lightnin' .