Finally! After much anticipation, the final instalment of the High School Musical series hit the silver screen on October 24th last year. This time it sends you on the emotional path every high school senior will eventually have to take – with a few twists and turns (in a true High School Musical way!)

An interesting announcement made by Disney was made in February 2007, when the announced plans for a 2008 feature film sequel with a Halloween theme dubbed "Haunted High School Musical." In September 2007, Disney announced that they had scrapped plans for the Halloween theme and instead will focus on the senior year of key characters at East High.
The all-star original cast returned to the set earlier this year, including Vanessa Hudgens, rumoured to be excluded from the film by OK! Magazine because of the nude photo scandal of last year. According to the magazine, Vanessa would have been replaced by Adrienne Bailon or Sabrina Bryan from the Cheetah Girls. The Walt Disney Company denied those reports, explaining "Vanessa has apologized for what was obviously a lapse in judgment. We hope she's learned a valuable lesson."

Later on, Access Hollywood confirmed would not be cut from the third film and that the cast was currently still in negotiations. Hudgens’ representative told Access that OK! Magazine never bothered to check the fact with them, but they did call Disney who said it was not true, “but yet OK! ran it anyway. Apparently, OK! Magazine was having a slow news day." Vanessa just said that it was "Totally untrue. It is an old rumour,"
Yet, to spite all this controversy, www.entertainmentwise.com’s, Harjeet Mander, published on October 17th, 2007, that “High School Musical will be missing a very familiar face when they return for a third outing - It’s goodbye to Gabriella. Disney do not want to take on actress Vanessa Hudgens after naked pictures of her surfaced on the internet.”
The article goes on, saying that an unknown source said ”Disney finally decided that they don’t want her back. They feel that, as long as Zac Efron is in the movie, all will be fine. He’s the real star – the household name – and most importantly, he comes without baggage.”

Of course, after the article was published, rumours spread, saying that Efron refused to do the part without girlfriend, Vanessa, and that the Disney company had no choice but to bring her back. But here, we do not care a flying fart in space what anyone supposedly said, and we are glad the entire, original cast reunited for the end of an era, when High School Musical took its final bow.
Obviously, with the first single released (“Now or Never”), the movie kicks off with a nerve-wrecking basketball game, their final together as the East High Wildcats, trying to make their mark before they say goodbye a final time.

The plot in the third film differs greatly from the first two, as Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) does not try get Troy (Zac Efron) all to herself. Instead, she persuades Ryan to pursue the life as a star when starting college the following year. Although she still tries to share the spotlight with him, her goals near the end differ a great deal more than expected.

This said, Troy and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) face a new problem once again: College! Knowing their dreams and further education will send them all in different direction, they join their fellow Wildcats (Sharpay Evans, Ryan Evans, Chad Danforth, and Taylor McKessie) they decide to stage their final, yet elaborate musical reflecting all they have learned throughout the past few years and also share their hopes and fears for the unclear future that approaches way quickly.

Of course, the Wildcats don’t intend on graduating from East High without celebrating the best night of their lives – PROM! – in a way only true Wildcats can; with a great musical number! A Night To Remember – where the guys start out to be very far from eager or excited about prom but has a blast at the end.
“Vanessa's definitely the stronger dancer," Zac Efron tells PEOPLE magazine. "If I forget the next move, she'll lead me. We have to help each other, that's what we do." But with Kenny Ortega choreographing (and directing) they practiced and practised until their routines were perfect… and it definitely paid off. As dance partners, they are very focused, said Vanessa Hudgens. "We want to get it right and we have so much fun together that even if things do get difficult, we still try to churn it out and have fun with it.
This time, their musical was actually screened as part of the film in the form of a medley, dubbed “Senior Year Spring Musical” on the soundtrack. The medley will consist of five songs, performed by just about everyone in the cast, including newcomers Matt Prokop and Jemma McKenzie-Brown. A few hilarious scenes do take place during the musical and you’ll laugh at it again when you hear it on the soundtrack.

An international casting call went out to find three new "Wildcats" sophomores for the film. This resulted in the successful casting of three bright new stars: Matt Prokop, Justin Martin, and Jemma McKenzie-Brown. Kenny Ortega, director of all three High School Musical films commented that the new cast members seemed to bring an overall positive atmosphere to the existing cast, crew, and production as a whole.
McKenzie-Brown's character was originally reported to be named "Tiara Goal", though later confirmed her name was "Tiara Gold". McKenzie-Brown is not the only member of the new cast to have their characters name changed as Martin's character had originally reported to be named "Donny Fox", though it was later changed to "Donny Dion".

As the film goes on, the music will give you goosebumps, the drama might make you shed a tear and the end will make you realize this is it! The end! And then you’ll want to watch it over again.
It was really a very good movie, the best in the series. Well budgeted and well played out, seeing as the budget for the film was almost $2 million less that the DCOM, Camp Rock ($15 million) had. Either there was a mistake on Wikipedia or Walt Disney Pictures really scored this time!
I have to say that I will miss all the characters of the film, it was like I was watching on a series and now it has ended. I was still in high school when the first two films were premiered on Disney Channel and loved it from the beginning. But all good things must come to an end... and what an ending it was!
Even though the original cast will not return for another High School Musical sequel, Vanessa Hudgens says she and real-life boyfriend Zac Efron may work on another project together someday. "No one says it's the last time," she says. "Who knows what the future will bring."

What we do know, though, is that the original cast has made a promise to have a reunion every ten years. “Get together, watch the movies…” and have a lot of fun!