23 details and mistakes you missed in 'High School Musical 2'
Amory Rose
Here are interesting details, hidden Easter eggs, and errors you missed in the classic Disney Channel musical starring Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.
/public/assets/BI/US/favicons/apple-touch-icon-192x192.png?v=2023-11
Business Insider
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? .

Disney Channel's "High School Musical 2" debuted on August 17, 2007.

In one scene, Troy Bolton's underwear seems to magically change color.

The college that Troy is being scouted by actually closed in 1986.

Advertisement

Jason is awake during part of the homeroom scene, but is somehow asleep a minute later.

During Ms. Darbus' speech in the opening scene, Jason asks a question. However, a minute later, he appears to be sleeping. He wakes up around when the class starts singing "What Time Is It," but seconds later he is asleep again.

Ms. Darbus slams books on his desk to wake him up, but it's quite strange that he fell asleep so quickly when we just saw that he was awake.

Advertisement

Chad wears several T-shirts with quirky phrases that were crafted by the actor who played him.

In all three movies, Chad wears plenty of T-shirts with short, silly phrases on them. The actor who played Chad, Corbin Bleu, said he actually came up with the sayings that we see his character wear.

In one of the first scenes, his shirt says "I majored in vacation," which alludes to the summer vibe of the rest of the film. The last scene features Chad wearing a T-shirt with "I just look like him" printed inside the outline of a television.

Advertisement

Troy's underwear seemingly change color during the opening song.

During "What Time Is It," Troy's shirt lifts up a few times to reveal the waistband of his underwear.

When this happens while he's dancing in the classroom, his underwear is white. But later in the song, when Gabriella jumps on Troy's back, his shirt rises and his underwear appears to be dark blue.

Advertisement

There's a "Twinkle Town" poster in the classroom.

"Twinkle Town" is the musical Gabriella, Troy, Ryan, and Sharpay were auditioning for in the first movie. Posters advertising it can be spotted in the background of some of the school scenes.

The posters have Gabriella and Troy's pictures and names on them, confirming that they were the leads of the show.

Advertisement

In the same display, there are photos of Sharpay in a crown and a scene from the first movie.

The board also has photos of Sharpay holding flowers while wearing a crown and sash.

It's unclear what title she's won in this photo, but it could be something like homecoming queen seeing as the photo is hung in the classroom.

Below those snapshots is a photo of Ryan and Sharpay performing "Bop to the Top" during the first movie.

Sharpay Evans is left-handed.

Like Ashley Tisdale, the actress who plays her, Sharpay is left-handed. This is clear when Sharpay autographs posters for the summer show.

Advertisement

Sharpay's dog carrier has her initials on it. Her dog also belongs to the movie's director.

The bright-pink carrier has white decals on it, and Sharpay's initials, "SE" are hidden along the top of it.

In addition, Sharpay's dog, Boi Evans, was actually played by director Kenny Ortega's real-life pup, Manly.

Troy's name tag disappears during part of "Work This Out."

As part of their Lava Springs uniforms, the gang wears name tags on the upper part of their shirts. During the musical number "Work This Out," Troy's suddenly disappears before returning again.

Advertisement

Troy's red and white shirt appears in all three "High School Musical" movies.

There's a reason Troy's red and white baseball shirt looks familiar to fans who saw the first "High School Musical." During the first movie, Troy wore this shirt after the "Stick to the Status Quo" scene.

In this film, he wears it while singing "You Are the Music in Me" with Gabriella. Troy wears this shirt in the third movie as well.

Advertisement

There's a basketball propping up the car Troy and his dad are working on.

Almost every scene that Troy's father, Coach Bolton, appears in includes a basketball.

The most creative inclusion of a basketball in a scene happens while Troy and his dad work on Troy's car. There's a basketball propping up the hood of the car and, at one point, the basketball appears to be on the car's engine.

Advertisement

Taylor and Gabriella drive a golf cart onto the Lava Springs baseball field, even though Gabriella's close to getting fired.

The Lava Springs manager, Mr. Fulton, explains to staff members that employees who get three strikes will be fired.

By this point in the movie, Gabriella has two strikes against her at work. One is for the picnic she and Troy had on the golf course, and the other is for her and Troy getting caught swimming in the pool after hours.

Despite already having two strikes against her, Gabriella still rides a golf court onto the baseball field with Taylor, something that staff would presumably not be encouraged to do.

Advertisement

Some of the Wildcats appear to have their own, customized baseball uniforms.

When the Wildcats play the staff baseball game in this movie, they all have baseball jerseys in their school's red and white colors.

Chad even has his basketball number, eight, printed on his baseball uniform.

Advertisement

Chad claims he doesn't dance, but we've already seen him dance multiple times.

Chad dances several times in the first movie, most notably during the "We're All in This Together" scene. In this movie, he also dances during "What Time Is It" and "Work This Out" before the "I Don't Dance" scene occurs.

Since the lyrics of this track don't make full sense when interpreted literally, some fan theories have suggested the song is a metaphor for sexuality and experimentation.

This theory became more popular after the film's director, Ortega, confirmed in an interview with Variety that Ryan is gay and was "probably going to come out in college."

Advertisement

Ryan and Chad switch clothes after the baseball game.

At the beginning of "I Don't Dance," Chad's wearing his baseball uniform and Ryan's wearing an all-white outfit. These are the clothes they dance and play in, and both characters are still in these outfits when they talk on the field after the game.

However, when Ryan and Chad sit and eat together after the game, they've switched outfits.

Aside from Taylor commenting on Chad's new hat, no other characters acknowledge this clothing switch. There's also no reason given for why the two would've switched their clothes, but this beloved detail has been used to support the fan theory mentioned earlier and fan-speculated relationship between Ryan and Chad.

Advertisement

The college that Troy's being scouted by actually closed in 1986.

Throughout the movie, Sharpay introduces Troy to various college alumni and faculty members, including basketball scouts.

Everyone she introduces Troy to claims to be from the University of Albuquerque, and Troy even plays basketball in the university's gym. In real life, however, the University of Albuquerque closed in 1986.

Advertisement

Sharpay coordinates outfits with her dog throughout the film.

Whether he's in his carrier or being held by Sharpay, Boi is stylishly dressed to coordinate with his owner.

At one point, just before "Fabulous," Boi can be seen in his carrier wearing pink, just like Sharpay. Later on, he wears a tiara when Sharpay wears hers.

Advertisement

Viewers don't actually see Gabriella remove her "T" necklace.

Earlier in the movie, Troy gave Gabriella a necklace with a "T" ("as in Troy") charm on it. Gabriella wears this necklace throughout the film, but stops wearing it while singing "Gotta Go My Own Way."

As this is the breakup song for her and Troy, Gabriella taking the necklace off during it makes sense, but we don't actually see her do it. Instead, Gabriella goes from wearing the necklace at the beginning of the song to not wearing it by the time the track ends.

Troy ends up holding her necklace as she leaves, so Gabriella presumably handed it off to him while they held hands on the bridge — but we don't clearly see the necklace removal or the hand off.

Advertisement

Troy has his basketball jersey framed in his bedroom, but it's gone by the third film.

It doesn't seem very practical for Troy to have had his jersey framed when he still has another year of high-school basketball ahead of him.

Sure, he could've gotten a new jersey for senior year — but the framed jersey doesn't appear in his bedroom during the next movie, which may imply he took it down to wear it.

Advertisement

Chad wears the same necklace throughout the movie — and he wears a similar one in the first and second films, too.

From the very first classroom scene, Chad's wearing a plain, black necklace with a red bead on it. He continues to wear it throughout the film, with his printed T-shirts and his work uniform.

In the first and third films, Chad also wears a black-string necklace with many of his outfits, though they feature different charms.

Advertisement

While singing "Everyday," the volume of Troy's voice stays the same even though he doesn't sing most of the song into the microphone.

When Troy and Gabriella sing "Everyday" at the talent show, Gabriella consistently holds the microphone up to her mouth while she sings and dances.

Because of this, it's extra noticeable that Troy sings most of the song with the microphone pretty far from him, only bringing it toward his mouth during some of the choreography.

At one point, he even spins around while singing, keeping the microphone at his side. Despite not singing into the mic for most of the song, his part of the duet remains at a consistent volume.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Troy and Gabriella don't actually have their first kiss until the end of this movie.

Though Troy and Gabriella are dating after the events of the first movie, they don't have their first kiss until the end of "High School Musical 2."

There are several moments where the couple looks as though they may kiss, like when Troy gives Gabriella her necklace or while they're on the golf course for their picnic, but they're interrupted during each romantic scene until the end of the movie.

Advertisement

Miley Cyrus has a brief cameo during the last song.

This movie ends with a huge poolside musical number which includes over 60 people. With so many characters singing and dancing at once, it's tricky to spot Miley Cyrus in the crowd, but she's visible from 1:48:52 to 1:48:55.

Cyrus had been chosen to make a cameo in the movie after fans voted online. At the time, she was known for her role on the Disney Channel series "Hannah Montana."

Read More:

The worst movies every actor from 'High School Musical' has been in

50 of the best Disney Channel original movies of all time, ranked

Every single Zac Efron movie, ranked

Every single Vanessa Hudgens movie, ranked

When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.

Read next

Advertisement