I happened to see HSM this morning. I'd only seen it once before, back when it first came out. Can't say the two movies really have very much in common. They both have that "feel-good musical" atmosphere to them, which isn't surprising seeing as they are both musicals AND Disney!

I do wonder if the people who say that the two movies are just like each other maybe aren't familiar with a lot of musicals? There are a lot of feel-good musicals like both HSM and Teen Beach Movie (like Grease, Hairspray and Mamma Mia, to name a few) and perhaps there are a lot of people who don't watch many movies like these other than the ones on the Disney Channel. I'm only guessing here so don't take my word for it, but it would make sense.