Music and movies are a winning combination. That's why Pitch Perfect and High School Musical were and still are so sensational. Though years have passed since each franchise began, fans love watching these movies again and again. They also love learning about the films and their influence on popular culture.
High School Musical and Pitch Perfect are similar in many ways, but there are also things that set the two movies apart. Here are five differences and five similarities between the movies that keep us singing to this day.
Similarity: Emphasis on Singing
Let's state the obvious--these movies are both about music. Pitch Perfect isn't really a musical (characters sing consciously and usually to perform, not to explore emotions and move the story along) in the way that High School Musical is (characters sometimes sing to perform, but they also use music to express themselves as another form of thought, and it's not always a performance).
Even though the movies differ in form, they would not exist without the foundational fact that the characters sing.
Difference: Style of Singing
In addition to the formic differences in movie genre, Pitch Perfect and High School Musical depict two separate singing styles. The former is a capella, and the latter is instrumentally accompanied.
Pitch Perfect capitalized on the rising popularity of a capella singing, but High School Musical is literally about a high school musical, and every song is made complete by some form of instrumentation.
Similarity: Spirit of Community
Singing is more fun with friends! Both movies capture this belief, and groups of people who were not friends before become friends through the music they sing together.
High School Musical is a little more obvious about community with songs like "Stick to the Status Quo." Pitch Perfect goes a little further to break the established mold of the anthropology shot (a scan of all the expected people groups in a space like a cafeteria: jocks, band kids, smart kids, etc.).
Difference: Personalities of Characters
There's a difference between what writers can do with characters inside and outside of the Disney umbrella. High School Musical celebrates unique characters, but as former Disney stars have indicated, there is a box, and just as Disney doesn't want its stars to step out of that box, characters aren't supposed to cross lines, either. There may be a diva, a basketball player, an academic, a chef, a dancer...but these are prototypes of good kids in a squeaky clean high school.
Pitch Perfect expands the concepts of its characters a little bit more to include sexuality, family background, body image, and other realistic factors that contribute to a human's personality.
Similarity: Memorable Audition Scene
The musical audition sequence is one of the best scenes in High School Musical. Ms. Darbus coins "Thank you, next!" before Ariana Grande, and she sees some pretty rough acts before she gets to the performance from her favorites, Sharpay and Ryan.
Their flashy rendition of "What I've Been Looking For" is a great contrast to Troy and Gabriella's softer piano version with Kelsi. In Pitch Perfect, the auditionees all sing Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone." Put together, all the voices make a memorable collage and a joyful noise.
Difference: Ages of Characters
Pitch Perfect characters are college students. They live together, sing together, and start learning how to handle adult problems. In the first High School Musical, the students are juniors in high school. The age difference between the two movies' characters is noticeable, but it also makes the films good companions for a movie marathon.
High school is a great time for people to explore their musical interests, but so is college. It's great that the movies have different age groups and don't present the exact same story.
Similarity: Birthed a Trilogy of Films
One thing both Pitch Perfect and High School Musical have in common is their tripartite structure. The first movies are crucial in setting up the main characters and overall atmosphere, but there is so much more to see in the sequels.
Both High School Musical and Pitch Perfect were only the beginning of movie franchises that would stretch out over three films and multiple years.
Difference: Time Period of Films
Even if a film is timeless years after it hits the silver screen, it will always be marked by a release year. While High School Musical premiered in 2006, Pitch Perfect came out six years later. The second movies of each franchise came out in 2007 and 2015, respectively.
High School Musical: Senior Year premiered in 2008 while Pitch Perfect 3 came out in 2017. It's also interesting that the first and second High School Musical films were Disney Channel Original Movies; only the third one was theatrically released. All three Pitch Perfect movies were released in theaters. Not only did the High School Musical trilogy release over a shorter span of time; it released in a completely different decade than Pitch Perfect.
Similarity: Success of Actors
Pitch Perfect and High School Musical each launched some incredible actors and singers to fame. Between the two movies, Anna Kendrick, Ashley Tisdale, Zac Efron, Rebel Wilson, Vanessa Hudgens, Brittany Snow, and countless others became even more popular than they already were.
With a more saturated social media landscape, the Pitch Perfect films had the advantage of up-to-date Internet culture almost right away.
Difference: Overall Popularity
Even though Pitch Perfect had the advantage of social media and a capella popularity, the High School Musical franchise has ultimately become more of an institution. In addition to the first three movies and a not-to-be-missed fourth (Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure), High School Musical quickly spawned a concert tour with most of the original actors as well as a reality show on ABC called High School Musical: Get in the Picture, which featured new talent.
Countless high schools have performed the stage musical, and most recently, the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series has been well received.