Heartwarming / High School Musical 3: Senior Year

• Gabriella teaching Troy how to waltz in the "Can I Have This Dance" scene on the rooftop garden and then telling him yes, she'll go to the prom with him in "every language".
• The Wildcats' reactions when Gabriella returns at the end. Even though she screwed up and left, they're all just happy she's back. Pretty heartwarming for a character who started with no real friends.
• Troy announcing during the end of the play that while he's still gonna play basketball in college, he's going to study musical theater too. The ultimate representation of him being true to himself.
  • Even bigger is his decision to attend the University of California-Berkeley, so he and Gabriella will only be 32.7 miles apart. Goes to show that no matter what decision he made, he didn't ever want to be without her.
  • Don't forget about Chad though. He felt depressed and ran away to relieve his stress but he could not blame Troy for what he wanted. Troy knows where Chad was, playing basketball so that he won't feel sad about Troy's decision. He and Chad played a bit before the former revealed his University will be having a match against Chad's University in a basketball match a few months later. Meaning, that they will get to play basketball again but as rivals. An amazing turn of their friendship.
• Troy's graduation speech. Tear Jerker, too, because damn, Zefron did it well.
  • As soon as he's done, his dad puts on a baseball cap from Troy's college. It's small, but it's very sweet to see how enthusiastic he is about his son's decision.
  • As soon as it's announced that Ryan got into Juilliard, who's the first to hug him? His twin sister; she may be hard on him... but it's paid off. And, before it's announced, Sharpay has that "It's going to be my brother who gets this second scholarship" look on her face; it's pure pride.
  • During Troy's speech, we get a closeup of Gabriella and Sharpay sitting next to each other and they look very comfortable, happy even. After all the drama, they've found it in themselves to become friends.
• In the final song, Sharpay does the jazz square with Ryan. After all her complaining in the first movie, she's just going with it.
• A small, subtle one, but the change in Mrs. Darbus from the first film to the third. In the first film, she doesn't care about the basketball games and views them as a nuisance, and she doesn't pay much attention to Troy (or the other students)until he gets involved in the musical. In the third one, she not only compliments the players and genuinely congratulates them on their win, but she jokes around with all of her students, she made the Julliard application for Troy, and she has a heart-to-heart with Troy after the 'Scream' segment. It really shows how much she does care about all of her students.
• During the final show, you can see Mr. and Mrs. Evans clapping and waving to their children on stage.