Slightly similar to his reputation of being that aforementioned delivery system of Disney values is Efron's ability to immediately make any movie too orientated towards the younger audience. Again, this is largely thanks to the fanbase he will have established during the High School Musical movies, and there is a danger that his appeal to that audience could be exploited. One of the major criticisms of the prequel trilogy, particularly The Phantom Menace, was that they had been made with far too much time dedicated to interesting the younger audience: it was far too kid-friendly. The easiest, and by far most blood-rage-inducing example of a previous Star Wars mistake in this mold was Jar Jar Binks. Setting aside the fact that Binks was an absolutely horrendous example of a racist caricature , the language and the actions of that character were all engineered to be easily understood, accepted and ultimately copied by children the world over. Binks' character could have been smartened up in so many ways if he really was necessary to include in the final film, but he remained a Saturday morning children's show puppet act in an otherwise pure sci-fi movie to sell merchandise to children, and nothing else. So the fear here is that Efron could very well be employed in a similar manner. Of course, he's not going to be given a series of nerve-twisting catchphrases (how rude, etc.), but his face is already one extremely familiar to, and well loved by millions of children. This is a question on whether the decision makers of the movie, particularly those involved in advertising can resist the temptation to capitalise on Efron's marketability to that younger audience. Efron could very well surprise us all by being used in a serious manner, and being good at it, so nothing would ruin this more than if his character kept breaking away from believability for the sake of making sure the younglings are still interested.
