How did the filmmakers license the song from Led Zeppelin, who are notoriously stingy about licensing? While filming the finale, Jack Black got on stage and shot a video plea with the hundreds of extras playing the audience in the background cheering him on and chanting "ZEPPELIN! ZEPPELIN! ZEPPELIN!" It's exactly as awesome as it sounds and the band clearly understood that they would have been fools to refuse him.
Not enough is said about the costumes. In-Fancy Pants' designs are great. The first "glitter clam fabulous" outfits, while ridiculous, really captures what it's going for, an homage to late-70s glam like Bowie and New York Dolls. Fancy Pants aced the assignment with the "school uniforms," too.
Freddy immediately dives into punk, including getting a haircut and messing with his uniform, including plaid pants that technically fit the program but let him stick it to the man.
After Dewey's whole scheme gets exposed, the kids show up for school the next day... and then quickly say "screw it," hijack a bus, pick up a very surprised Dewey, and do the damn show anyway. That's what being a devoted Team Dad will get you.
Summer manages to get the kids into the Battle of the Bands by tricking the organizers into thinking they're terminally ill.
The entire concert finale! Not only do you see the formerly insecure and overly-challenged and uninspired kids get to have the time of their lives on stage, it's a legitimately awesome rock show! While they end up losing Battle of The Bands, they clearly earned something much greater: self-respect and the respect of their elders. "Today's assignment: kick some ass" indeed!
Dewey successfully stage-diving and Crowd Surfing after painfully failing in the opening scene of the movie. He's visibly delighted to have been caught this time.
Zach throws the horns after his bitchin solo, then throws his top-hat into the crowd.
Gordon improvises the light show.
"So you're not mad?" "I AM FURIOUS. BUT IT WAS INCREDIBLE, IT WAS AMAZING!".
At the end of the movie with the after-school band practice, Summer is on the phone to people who want to either sign the band on to something or have them perform a gig (likely the same people she was introduced to at the end of the rock competition). It's awesome because 1) she's as ruthless a negotiator as you'd expect and 2) it proves that the School of Rock really did make waves at the concert and people really want to see them perform again. They may even become a certified band!
The Musical:
The movie has a Broadway musical. The most awesome part? All the kids are and MUST be musically trained and none of their solos are flukes. Imagine being 9-13 years old and being able to pull off extremely hard guitar, drum, bass and singing solos for their ages in front of live Broadway audiences. School of Rock deserves as many Tony Awards as possible for how well put together it is and how hard those damn kids work, and there was probably only one (not unjustified) reason it didn't get any.
The kids are so spectacular that Andrew Lloyd Webber makes an announcement at the start of the show to assure the audience that it is in fact the kid playing the instrument and not somebody backstage.
In the Broadway show, the kids's parents all storm backstage to try and talk them out of doing the show, only for every single one to effectively tell their parents to shove off. They never cared about what they wanted, but Dewey did and they sure as hell aren't about to let him down.
The last performance for the Broadway musical. It starts off with the current cast of kids singing "If Only You Would Listen", but as the song goes on, the casts from the former years joins them on stage. Even the original cast comes up on stage to join their successors. Then all of them sing "Stick It To The Man".
