If you watch both movies in quick succession, it becomes very obvious: High School Musical was the Millennials' version of Grease. The plots were even nearly identical. A guy and girl meet on vacation. Sparks fly. Girl transfers to a new school and, gasp! There's the guy she met on vacation! But oh no - they're from different cliques. Though their friends work to pull them apart and keep the social hierarchy intact, their love can't be denied, and in the end, everybody joins in song.
This was done on purpose. However, High School Musical was just changed enough so it would feel real for a whole new generation, and maybe to improve on some of the lessons taught by Grease that may have been a little out of date.
Misses The Mark: It's A Little Condescending
There are parts of High School Musical where it's obvious that the writers are talking down to the characters in the script. It can get kind of preach-y and heavy-handed at times, which Grease doesn't really do. The movie was aimed at kids, mostly between the ages of eight and 14 - still, it seems the writers underestimated what kids that age could understand on their own.
Sure, a lot of the material in Grease goes over your head when you're younger, but that just means that adults can enjoy it, too - and you can enjoy it with fresh eyes as you grow up.
Does Better: No Uncomfortable Sexual Situations
Then again, by not being too "real" in its portrayal of high school problems means that High School Musical doesn't look dated in the way Grease does, at least not yet.
Between the weird flirtation with the TV host and one of the Pink Ladies at the dance, all the pressure Danny put on Sandy at the drive-in, and whatever the heck was going on in "Beauty School Dropout," there are a lot of cringe-y moments in Grease that remind the audience of just how much more often high school girls were pressured or exploited back then.
Misses The Mark: It Wasn't As Mature
As pointed out, High School Musical was aimed at younger kids; Grease was aimed at teens and nostalgic adults. As such, High School Musical doesn't address a lot of the more serious issues that teens experience in high school the way Grease does - the pressure to have sex, unplanned pregnancies, and drugs - all things Grease mentions and deals with that High School Musical wholly avoids.
This doesn't make Grease better, overall, but it does mean that it stands up to scrutiny, even if you didn't watch it as a kid. High School Musical doesn't really seem as entertaining without the nostalgia factor ... there isn't even a kiss between the two lead characters.
Does Better: There's Just ... More Plot
In general, the plot of High School Musical is way richer and more complex than Grease. Grease has a lot of filler and side-stories that don't really tie into the main plot in any substantive way. Rizzo's pregnancy scare and Frenchie's debacle at beauty school are good snapshots of real high school problems, but they're just that: snapshots. If you took them out of the story, nobody would notice.
High School Musical, meanwhile, has a deep plot around the main characters in which everybody is involved. Eventually, all of the side-stories tie into the main one, and their coming together makes the movie-watching experience more satisfying.
Misses The Mark: The Plot Is More Complicated & Less Realistic
If you want to be able to keep track of all the crosses, betrayals, scheming, and deceiving that goes on in High School Musical, you'll probably have to watch more than once. Also, there are a few things they do in the movie - like rigging the gym's scoreboard or setting off the fire alarms - that real high schoolers would probably not be able to accomplish.
The closest Grease gets to this level of ambition is having the kids race cars that they built, but the movie, at least, sets that up by showing us that they've been in auto shop class all semester.
Does Better: There Was A Third Clique
In Grease, it's clique vs clique, plain and simple: The greasers vs the jocks and preps. Sandy, the new kid, has to pick one to be a part of and emulate it when she gets there. Her whole issue is whether she wants to be somebody new, or who she already is.
The third clique was something they both wanted to veer into, not an identity that Gabriella already had that Troy was trying to pressure her to leave, for his. By doing it this way, the movie put Troy and Gabriella on equal footing and it's also more accurate to the way high school is today: clique-war politics aren't quite as big of a deal now as they were then, though they still exist.
Misses The Mark: The Third Clique Had A Villain
Sharpay, while she was a fun character that fans loved, wasn't really the villain they made her out to be. If anything, Sharpay represented the status quo: She, like most of the school, apparently thought there was a place for everyone and that everyone should stay in their assigned place.
But at the end of the day, Sharpay gets painted as a villain without really doing anything aside from being rude and opposing Gabriella - when really, the villains in the movie are actually Troy and Gabriella's friends, who try to mess with their happiness for their own benefit. Grease doesn't shy away from this - we see that both Danny and Sandy's friends (and they themselves) are the ones keeping them apart in different ways.
Does Better: Troy Is A Nicer Guy Than Danny To Begin With
Seriously, what was the peacocking that Danny Zuko did the first time he saw Sandy at school? Would his bros think that much less of him if he acted excited to see her? Didn't he know that would hurt Sandy's feelings? And why on earth would he dance with his ex at the dance when Sandy was right there? Come on, Danny, a real man doesn't just acknowledge a girl he likes when it's convenient.
At least Troy isn't afraid to show that he's genuinely excited to see Gabriella when she shows up at school. He's not into the idea of auditioning for the musical, but he does it with her when he sees she's nervous - both times. Danny eventually gets his act together - but Troy starts out already about as nice as Danny is at the end.
Misses The Mark: Gabriella Doesn't Leave With More Confidence
Gabriella maybe becomes a little more confident than she was, but she still needs Troy to come save her onstage. This is sweet, but it's not quite as satisfying as the end of Grease.
Hyper-sexualizing an 18-year-old girl in a movie would never fly today, but even still, there's nothing in High School Musical that's quite as satisfying as seeing badass, transformed Sandy coming in completely confident with herself in the end, and making Danny beg her to take him back - for a whole song. Sandy getting all the power at the end almost makes up for how much she gets walked on in the rest of the movie.
Does Better: The Teens Never Needed To Change To Fit In
In Grease, all the pressure to be someone else was on Sandy. Danny tried, but the pressure only came from him and his feelings for Sandy - there was no additional pressure from his friends. In High School Musical, the pressure wasn't actually to change - it was to stay the same. This is more accurate to high school today, and the outcome sends kids a way better message.
They all fit in at the end of each movie, but for Grease, it was because Sandy did all the work - Danny tried, but he was allowed to undo everything and go back to being who he was. Gabriella and Troy both do the play and better themselves a bit, but also prove that doing the play didn't mean they had to leave their friends.
It's like High School Musical finished teaching the lesson that Grease started: Don't be afraid to try new things in high school ...but whatever you want, do it for yourself, not for somebody else.