Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Grease and High School Musical: Semiotic Data


Danny Hargers

Vrooman

10/5/15

Media and Popular Culture

Grease and High School Musical: Semiotic Data

Disney did it again, and again, and again. Taking an idea and manipulating it to create an illusion of a brand that only produces in genius ideas. The entire time you are watching High School Musical you didn’t even notice that the plot was stolen because you were too busy looking into Zac Efron’s dreamy eyes and beautiful brown hair, or too busy noticing how much Ashley Tisdale has grown up; my oh my. Who am I kidding? None of those things matter because in actuality you were caught up in the same love story that was told back in 1979 about two horny teenagers who fell in love but are from two different worlds. Basically you got caught up in the contemporary version of Grease with a little bit of Disney Magic. But only Disney would use 3 movies to tell the same damn story that was told in about 2 hours the first time.

 Let’s take a look as some similarities.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
-Two teenagers meet in between semesters while on vacation.

-They fall in love a go far enough to keep each other craving more and coming back but not too far to relinquish innocence.

-They think they’ll never see each other because the vacation/night is coming to an end so they say “see you later”, secretly knowing that there’s no chance in hell that they’d meet again.

-Then all of the sudden they both end up enrolled at the same school unaware of each other, but just so happen to bump into each other.

Yeah Disney! You think you squeezed by with this one but you can't slick a can of oil! I’m not even going to get into the similarities in the musical numbers or their choice on what type of song to produce and where to place it into the movie. Pattern’s like the one that I just made obvious are continually created throughout the movie but never actually noticed. I could go on for days about similarities but as I look at differences, thing begin to become a bit more complicated. When it comes down to it these movies are the same in the sense they are telling a high school love story along with other subplots within the movie itself. However the subplots are what Disney uses in order to create differences between the two movies.

            In these movies there are issues that occur beyond the main plot that allow for the story to progress. However most people don’t realize that the issues that occur within the subplot are generation specific, which is why these movies appear to be different

            In the Original “Grease”, which was released in 1978, Danny Zuko, leader of the greaser gang "T-Birds" of Rydell High, falls in love with a goody two shoes girl named Sandy Olsen, of Austrilla, over the summer. As summer began to come to a close the two thought they’d never see each other again because Sandy and her family would be leaving back to Austrilla soon, but to their luck...she begins to attend Rydell High. Upon entry into the school Sandy is immediately accepted into the group "Pink Ladies" and shortly she Danny and her re-meet. Due to his reputation and image Danny no longer seems to be the same person that she fell in love with that summer which eventually drives Sandy away. Regretting his actions he is soon “jumping to hoops” so to speak, in order to win Sandy back but also keep his reputation and image from being what he considers tarnished at the time.

            For teenagers the 1950’s was a time of rebellion, shenanigans, and mischief. Grease does a good job of portraying just that especially within the subplot. Issues such as dancing, race, smoking, and sex were seen as key topics in that generation and all of the issues were touched on thoroughly.

            In Disney’s “High School Musical” release in 2006, Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez come from two different worlds: Troy the Basketball God and Gabriella the Smart, Stunning Geek. After meeting at a Ski resort during Winter break and being forced to sing together at a New Year’s Eve celebration they instantly fall for each other, but are forced to say goodbye at the strike of New Years. Not knowing then they might meet again they exchanged phone numbers and said their goodbyes. When Troy and they meet again it’s by accident at East High School in Albequerque, New Mexico. While attempting to catch up Gabriella convinces Troy to audition for their high school's musical just for fun, but when the teacher loves their performance and schedules a call back for the lead roles the cohesion of East Side High stopped all at once. While the social cliques that both Troy and Gabriella belong to don't approve of this new relationship in the making and try to separate them, Troy and Gabriella are now faced with the adversity of following their hearts or sticking to the status quo.

            Looking at the generation of teenagers in the 2000’s not much has changed as far as being rebellious and mischievous, however the main issues of the decade are different. High school musical did a good job at addressing issues/topics of interracial couples, gay rights, being who you are, and being a part of a change. While the issues/topics of the 1950’s all still remain they are not as common nor are they seen the way they used to be.
 
 

2 comments:

  1. Maybe for a possible thesis look into what was going on during each of the time periods in which each movie was made. Check out to see what was going on during the 50s and the 2000s and see if that would give any reason as to why Disney would see the need to remake the movie. Maybe similar issues were going on.

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  2. You did a great job on analyzing the similarities between the two movies, but you should also try to look at more of the differences between the two movies. Maybe you could look at the social groups and how they had an impact in the movie/time period and why were they used as the main focus of the movies.

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