Gold diggers of 2007

It's nice that the Disney Channel gives young viewers a reliable haven on the TV dial, but it's important to remember that it's not exactly a selfless concern for social welfare that dictates its programming.

"High School Musical 2," the sequel to last year's hit made-for-TV movie, debuts at 7 p.m. today on the Disney Channel, and of course it's free to basic-cable and satellite subscribers. But just try letting your preteen watch it without then having to go out to buy the $19 soundtrack ($30 for the two-disc remix edition) or the $45 Mattel matching Troy and Gabriella action figures or the $30 board game or the $5 novelization (reading is relatively cheap) or -- and it's only a matter of time -- the DVD or the concert or theater tickets (now going for $17.50 to $72.50, before Ticketmaster fees, for the original "High School Musical" production playing downtown).

Disney is nice, to be sure, but it's also all about the marketing, so make that "nice" in a really mercenary sort of way.

All that said, how is "High School Musical 2"? Well, as the junior class at East High breaks for summer before its senior year (allowing ample time for still more sequels), it does display some class consciousness in pitting those who actually have to work against those who simply sit around the pool at the Lava Springs Country Club. Yet, as it traipses determinedly toward its happy ending in which everyone is reconciled, with Zac Efron's Troy urging his fellow country-club employees that they can "make it work," in spite of their domineering boss -- "We've got to work, work, work it out," he sings -- I can't help thinking that what "High School Musical 2" is really about is creating a docile, malleable work force with enough disposable income to buy the accompanying CDs and DVDs and concert and theater tickets.

It's got class consciousness, but no corporate awareness.

All right, maybe "High School Musical 2" isn't the place to break out Marxist critical theory a la Terry Eagleton, but then again maybe it's the one show on TV this summer most deserving of Marxist analysis.

Sorry, but that's a natural reaction to watching the review DVD through the indelible warnings of "Property of the Walt Disney Company -- Do Not Duplicate" and "Viewing Copy Only -- Ted Cox" burned into the screen.

The script, by Peter Barsocchini, could have served for an old Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon movie. The Wildcats of East High start summer vacation to the tune of "What Time Is It?" only to bemoan the lack of jobs. So it's a good thing Ashley Tisdale's privileged blonde Sharpay is so eager to get Troy working at the country club, he's able to barter jobs for all his other friends -- including Vanessa Hudgens' Gabriella, who as we all know is Troy's one and only.

In fact, their music-minded friend, Olesya Rulin's Kelsi, has written a duet for them, "You Are the Music in Me," that's a natural for the country club's summer show (shades of "Dirty Dancing").

Thwarted in trying to make Troy her slave, Sharpay shifts gears and has Daddy try to co-opt Troy instead by giving him a taste of how the other half lives at the club, as well as arranging a scholarship tryout with the local college basketball team. This causes resentment in Troy's best buddy, Corbin Bleu's Chad, and the rest of the gang, including, gasp, Gabriella!

Sharpay also conspires to have the work staff removed from the show, leaving the feature duet to her and Troy.

The one neat twist comes when Sharpay's fey brother Ryan, played by Lucas Grabeel (look for the hat wherever it is in every crowd scene), is co-opted in turn by the working-class kids. Then it's Troy who winds up jealous of Ryan and Gabriella.

There isn't much to recommend in the dialogue, which is full of obvious sentiments rendered in even more obvious language. (One of the gang says of Sharpay: "That girl's got more moves than an octopus in a wrestling match.") And the songs are all catchy yet innocuous in the Radio Disney style.

But I will say this: Kenny Ortega's direction is outstanding and keeps this movie moving along even at its most predictable. The musical numbers are rife with Busby Berkeley homages, and Ortega also displays a knack at the other end of the spectrum for handling intimate conversations (having directed for "Gilmore Girls").

When Troy and Gabriella almost kiss, the golf-course sprinklers go off -- and it doesn't take a Herbert Marcuse to understand the Freudian implications there.

In short, "High School Musical 2" is as irresistibly innocuous as its songs. But, in addition to the Disney marketing juggernaut chugging away behind the scenes, one thing bothers me: Zac Efron's eyes. They're blue, an almost space-alien blue; in fact, they're so blue that if you set him against a cloudless sky as a backdrop it would look as if you could see right through his empty head. Nevertheless, his Troy does manage to learn something about class -- and class consciousness -- along the way, enough to really set those sprinklers spurting in the end.