The “High School Musical” movies are one of Disney’s most successful franchises of the last decade. The movies are also infamous for being probably one of the most sappy children’s film trilogies of all time.

Every single one of the “High School Musical” movies is filled with cheesy dialogue, everyday situations interrupted with outbursts of singing and dancing, and sentimental songs about friendship and the trials of life. The trilogy embodied the ideal of believing in oneself and expecting the unexpected, such as a basketball player being a star singer.

I first watched the movies at the age of 7, when I, along with other 7-year-olds across the globe, thought the songs were the most well-written works of art I had ever listened to. I also truly believed people randomly broke out into song in high school hallways.

Now I am in my freshman year of high school, and I know that life is nothing like “High School Musical” depicts it to be. Despite all of these facts, I still find myself inexplicably drawn to the television whenever I hear the trademark shouts of “What team? WILDCATS!” coming from the living room.

The relationship that the movie trilogy focuses on throughout the series is a romance between hotshot basketball player Troy Bolton and science geek Gabriella Montez. The entire love affair mostly consists of dramatic love ballads that are sung while gazing into the other’s eyes. Despite the utter cheesiness of Troy and Gabriella’s relationship, I always cheer internally whenever Troy and Gabriella make it through one of their ridiculously over-dramatic fights.

Every song in the movie series is accompanied by random bouts of dancing in the middle of hallways, classrooms, empty fields: pretty much anywhere and everywhere. The lyrics of the songs themselves are full of overdone cliches and inspirational words that are incredibly sappy, yet I still belt out the lyrics if a familiar song from the movies plays on the radio or television.

Maybe the same 7-year-old who was completely enamored with the “High School Musical” movie trilogy still resides within me and continues to remain fond of an old childhood classic. No matter how old I grow, I continue to enjoy watching Pixar and Disney classics such as “The Lion King” and “Up”. Even though I am much older now, these age-old classic stories of good triumphing over evil still resonate as deeply within me as they did 10 years ago.

I still feel Nemo’s pain when he gets separated from his father in “Finding Nemo” even ten years after I first watched the movie. I always recognize the telltale opening notes of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” from the “Toy Story” trilogy. My younger sister and I still bond over our mutual dislike of Rapunzel’s mother from “Tangled”.

One of my favorite movies of all time is “Frozen”, which began as a Disney movie written for young children and became a hit sensation for children of all ages, even attracting teenagers in high school. Even though “Frozen” was so widely praised as a heartwarming movie for people of all ages, the film was only nominated for two Oscars while other deeper movies full of characters struggling for every breath like “Gravity” had ten nominations. These nominations were all well deserved, but I wished that “Frozen” had been nominated more so that the film would receive the recognition and applause it deserved.

Perhaps I love the “High School Musical” movies that are famous for their cliche happy endings because although I know that other movies depicting death and heartbreak are the reality of life, I sometimes crave for a conclusion full of musical numbers and dancing passers-by. At times, watching a lighthearted family classic is easier than watching a deep, soulful movie that encourages viewers to reconsider their views about the meaning of life.

Movies that do not include distress or any serious life-altering struggle are rarely recognized. The Academy Awards tend to nominate movies full of suffering and hardship aplenty for Oscars for Best Picture.

Movies such as “12 Years A Slave” or “Captain Phillips” are excellent, but every single one of them is as emotionally painful as it is entertaining to watch. Sometimes the movies that are light and comedic deserve recognition for relieving stress and allowing their viewers to escape into a more lighthearted and paradisal world.

So the next time someone asks me how I could ever like such an unrealistic movie series like “High School Musical” that is full of never-ending cliches, I’ll smile and say that I don’t know and that it is probably a foolish passing fancy. But I know that most likely, even when I am 23 or 35 or even 41, if someone asks me “What time is it?”, I will always be tempted to answer with “Summertime.”