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NEED TO KNOW
The cast and director of High School Musical are remembering the franchise, 20 years later
The film premiered on The Disney Channel on January 20, 2006
It launched the careers of the young actors in its cast: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Alyson Reed, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman and Lucas Grabeel.
Director and choreographer Kenny Ortega says the magic ofHigh School Musicalwas clear from the start.
"When we were shooting the big finale ["We're All In This Together'] … I took my eyes off the monitor and just took in the scope of the whole room and I thought, 'My God, if Disney Marketing does the job that we're doing in this room today, we have a juggernaut,'" Ortega tells PEOPLE for an exclusive look back at the franchise in the print edition, on newsstands now.
The movie did indeed become a juggernaut after it premiered on the Disney Channel January 20, 2006, becoming the most commercially successful of the channel's original films and generating 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast. The movie's soundtrack reached number one on the Billboard 200, remaining on the list for more than 100 weeks.
It also spawned merchandise, a successful concert tour, two follow-up films, and a tv series — and launched the careers of the young actors in its cast:Zac Efron,Vanessa Hudgens,Ashley Tisdale, Alyson Reed, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman and Lucas Grabeel.
Efron, who was 18 years old at the time of the first movie, tells PEOPLE, "I was so young when we madeHigh School Musical, and it was just a really great experience."
"We were having fun, learning as we went, and honestly just enjoying every moment together. I never could've imagined it would still mean so much to people 20 years later, or that a whole new generation would connect with it, and I'm grateful for that," Efron, now 38, adds.
The musical film premiered on The Disney Channel on January 20, 2006 and followed basketball star Troy Bolton (Efron) and brainy new student Gabriella Montez (Hudgens) who meet at karaoke, discover a shared love for singing, and then audition for the school musical at East High.
While it was something of an all-American story (thanks to being set in a traditional high school), it resonated internationally, garnering fans in every corner of the globe.
Ortega recalls the demand was such that even global audiences wanted more — including concerts in Latin American soccer stadiums built to hold 70,000 people.
"We felt like we had something, and we felt like we were going to make an impression, but we had no idea of the global kind of phenomenon that it became," Ortega says, adding that the film offers something "universal and timeless that speaks to a generation of young people through music and dance and storytelling."
The film spoke to young people, including the cast members themselves — like Bleu, who was just 15 years old at the time of the first movie.
"It's extraordinary how deep of a path was carved ahead of me at 15 years old from working onHigh School Musical," he tells PEOPLE. "At the time I had already been in the industry for over a decade as a child actor, studying and working towards an undefined dream. It was simply a wonderful and fortunate opportunity to apply a multitude of artistic skills alongside peers."
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Bleu adds that the overnight success had its downsides, saying, "Being launched into that kind of whirlwind before your fontal lobe is even fully formed is fraught with pitfalls to navigate."
But it also "opened doors for future endeavors and my Broadway career," he adds, and "forged lifelong relationships amongst the cast and crew."
Coleman, now 45, recounts seeing merchandise with her face on it and feeling shocked: "There was no way to prepare us for what was really happening. We kind of woke up inside of it."
Tisdale concurs, saying, "Whenever you put something out into the world, of course you hope people enjoy it. But I couldn't have imagined the longevityHSMhas had ... It was such a life-changing experience for all of us."
It is the choreography that Hudgens says she remembers most of all from filming, telling PEOPLE the dance number from "We're All In This Together" is "ingrained into my DNA."
"Between filming it, doing it on tour and seeing people doing it on social media from time to time it stays in my head and in my body. I feel like it always will be," she adds.Part of the success of the film, says Grabeel, can be attributed to the chemistry of all those on set.
"What I remember most is how unburdened it felt," says the actor of the first movie in the franchise. "There wasn't a machine yet — no mythology, no expectations, no sense of legacy. We were present: singing around the piano between takes, laughing at our silliness and mistakes, figuring it out together."
"That kind of rarity isn't something you manufacture — it's something you're just lucky enough to be part of and share," says Grabeel.
Disney+ is celebrating the 20th anniversary ofHigh School Musicalwith a dedicated streaming channel from January 7 through March 4 featuring all three films,Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, and every season ofHigh School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
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