Visible crew/equipment: When "Stick to the Status Quo" is starting, the camera pans down from the balcony past Sharpay. As it goes down, you can see the camera reflected in the balcony's glass screens.
Continuity mistake: The post-callback basketball scene's countdown clock isn't accurate. If you try counting with it, you'll notice that it reaches 0 by the time that the ball's being passed to Troy.
Continuity mistake: When everybody is exiting Ms. Darbus' classroom after the first day back, as Troy and Gabriella talk in the hallway, some of the same people are seen walking out of the classroom twice.
Continuity mistake: When everyone is in home room and they are getting their phones taken away, Troy is shutting his phone in a close up, and then when they show the whole class, his phone is open again.
Continuity mistake: Troy and other members of the basketball team say that the big basketball game is in 2 weeks, and the scholastic decathlon members say that their championship is in 1 week, but near the end of the movie their championships are on the same day. We know Sharpay couldn't have changed it because all she asked to be changed was the call back date.
Continuity mistake: In the song 'Breaking Free,' Troy's microphone constantly jumps from one hand to the other as the shot changes but too quickly for it to be because he moved it.
Continuity mistake: When Sharpay gets french fries dumped on her shirt, her white under shirt has nacho cheese all over it. But in the next scene when she talks to Zeke, her under shirt is clean again.
Continuity mistake: Troy is running down the stairs to get to the audition, his boxers are blue. However when he says " I'll sing with her", his boxers are now white.
Continuity mistake: Near the end, at the end of "Breaking Free" , Gabriella has the mic in one hand, but in the next shot it's in the other hand.
Visible crew/equipment: At the final callbacks, when Ms. Darbus calls Sharpay and Ryan onstage, the reflector screen is seen in her glasses.
Continuity mistake: Just as Miss Darbus walks onto the stage to announce the auditions have begun, Troy quickly hides behind the curtain. However, when they cut to a farther back view, the curtains aren't moving.
Continuity mistake: In the scene at the beginning when Troy and Gabriella sing "Start Of Something New", Troy takes the mic off the stand. Moments later, at a different angle the mic is back on, then off, then back on.
Factual error: The movie takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but the mountains seen in the background throughout the movie are the Wasatch Mountains which are near Salt Lake City, Utah.
Other mistake: On the clock that shows 12:05 (just before the basketball team and the science club start their coup) the second hand isn't moving.
Factual error: It is New Year's Eve in the opening scene. It then cuts one week later to school in Albuquerque, and there is fresh green grass, and green leafed trees, etc. But it is only the start of January.
Continuity mistake: In the locker room, the coach's sandwich goes from his hand to the desk to his hand and switches hands a few times in this scene. It also appears to get bigger and smaller a few times.
Revealing mistake: When Troy and Gabriella are singing "What I've Been Looking For", near the beginning of the chorus, Zac Efron looks at the camera, then looks away. He does this again near the end of the song.
Audio problem: After "Get'cha Head in the Game", Troy shoots one final basketball. When it bounces on the ground, the sound is slightly delayed.
Answer: When Chad brings up Michael Crawford (the iconic Phantom in musical performances of Phantom of the Opera) he points out that Crawford's picture has never been on cereal (Wheaties) boxes like popular athletes. Chad says that his mom saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway 27 times, and she put Crawford's picture "in" her refrigerator. So then Chad tells Troy that if he plays basketball his picture will end up on a cereal box, but if he sings in musicals his picture will only end up in his mom's (or anyone's) refrigerator. Apparently since Chad's mom was nuts about Michael Crawford, one of her "crazy diet ideas" was to put Crawford's picture in the fridge to help her stick to her diet.
Super Grover ★