Aside from the inevitable change that comes with adjusting to post-high school existence, a theme that’s prevalent throughout several of the characters’ storylines is that your future plans have to be your future plans—not your parents’ or even your friends’.

“One of the biggest lessons from the first movie is to break stereotypes. The power forward [of the basketball team] wants to be a pastry chef. The star basketball player wants to be a thespian,” says HSM co-producer Don Schain. “The message to children is that you can be whatever you want to be.”

Staying true to form by continuing to throw the audience for a curve, even well established characters like Troy haven’t exactly got everything all figured out.

“For Troy, he’s always been this very average kid going through high school, but now his hidden talents are really starting to emerge,” shares Efron. “Troy’s got a lot to balance now: his basketball career, a newfound love of singing and acting, and then of course his girl, Gabriella. Now more than ever before, he’s wondering what will happen to everyone after high school. And you just don’t know.”

Yet even with all the questioning, there’s still optimism. “Taylor isn’t a conflicted character,” says HSM writer Peter Barsocchini. “She sees no boundaries to what she can achieve, and she’s willing to do the work. We’ve had thousands of letters from parents who say ‘thank you’ for having a character who does her homework. She’s got her eye on the prize.”

Realism and Old-Fashioned Values

Unlike popular teen programming like the recent update of TV’s Beverly Hills 90210 or the CW’s Gossip Girl, these high school students’ experiences aren’t heavy on the sex or innuendo, something of which the cast is particularly proud.

“Even their prom has an old-fashioned feel with a waltz being the centerpiece,” Hudgens shares. “No one is wearing revealing clothes or trying to be all sexy. There’s an innocence there that’s a good example for our audience. And being role models, that’s really important to us.”

And for Hudgens, the HSM experience also gave the home-school graduate an opportunity to experience the defining events of high school. “I’ve never been to a prom, so through a movie I got to experience my prom. I also never went to graduation, but I got to wear a cap and gown.”

Also making the long hours well worth it, was a pervasive sense of family-like closeness with the cast. While “everyone getting along” is the stuff of positive promotion for a film, especially one targeted toward the tween and teen audience, it’s difficult to be cynical about the cast’s camaraderie when each and every one of them describes the others as “family.”