My thoughts exactly!

When High School Musical 1 & 2 came out, my boys were interested. They are 9 and 6. This disturbed me. Especially when 6 year old son began to play the music for his little sister, 3, and she became enthralled. Ok, the "relationship" between Troy and Gabriella had a certain sweetness and even innocence to it--they didn't even kiss until the end of the second movie. The music and dancing were definitely something that would draw the attention of children--very upbeat, high energy, and "catchy". But, still....this nagging feeling persisted. Then, I made the unwise decision to take them to HSM 3 when it came out in theaters, and that nagging feeling became a slap to the side of my head. Most of the people in the theaters, besides their parents, were 5-10 year olds. High School Musical doesn't appeal to high school age or even junior high school aged kids!! Its appeal is to much younger children who should not even be considering "high school" issues at their age. My 6 year old doesn't need to be mentally or emotionally "involved" in this on-screen romance between Gabriella and Troy. It is not age-appropriate. It violates his innocence.

**Just for the record, in my opinion HSM 3, since it was released into theatres, unlike the first two movies, lost whatever sweetness it may have possessed. It was a seriously "sexed up" version--the girls' dresses were more low-cut, shorter, Troy and Gabriella were seriously "in each other's space" breathlessly nose to nose, disrespect was shown towards their parents (which didn't happen in the previous two). It was definitely a more sensual movie, also very glitzy and hollywood-ish.**

Other Disney offerings including, Hannah Montana, Lizzie McGuire, Camp Rock, That's so Raven, and on and on....fall into the same trap as HSM. They appeal to a much younger audience than the content of the shows is appropriate for. They are stealing the innocence of our children. I will even go so far as to say that I have seen problems in my children's behavior as a result of watching these programs. Normally these shows have weak, if not absent, parental figures and disrespect for them is common. There is a certain coarseness in the way the characters treat each other, with lots of sarcasm, innuendo, putdowns, etc. These are the behaviors I see reflected in my own children, much to my dismay. I have password protected the Disney channels on our satellite dish, and after pondering this a bit more deeply am more committed to steering my children away from these Disney channel shows.

On her blog, CheekyPinkGirl, Charlotte has captured my thoughts exactly in her post on the Disney "tween", pop-culture offerings, High School Musical, Camp Rock, Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana, and the like. Click the above link to read the entire piece. It's good!