I watched High School Musical in 2006 when it first came out on The Disney Channel. I’m a sucker for musicals and the teen romance. At the time, I was, meh, about it. It was fine for what it was, but I had no idea it would explode into the phenomena that it has. It’s a testament to Disney’s marketing power. They still know how to tap in the tween demo. The thing that makes the High School Musical series work is the energy of the cast. You can’t help but get swept up in their exuberance. Musically, it pretty much sucks. Especially in High School Musical 3: Senior year. Zac Efron (Troy Bolton) has a terrible voice it’s very weak and timid, as is the music itself. But there is undeniable chemistry between Zac and Vanessa Hudgens (Gabriella Montez).
This time out, the kids are in their Senior Year and have to put on a Play about their lives. They find out that Julliard has one scholarship available and everyone starts fighting over it. The non-musical moments with the evil Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) and her brother Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) are great. Disney felt the need to shoehorn new, younger characters into this film. And they are horrible, it’s clear they want to do a 4th film with these new characters, just don’t. You have a great cast in the original don’t soil their memories with these awful new people.
I keep saying this and it’s true. Disney Home Video knows how to put together a Blu-ray package. The Deluxe edition of High-School Musical 3: Senior Year. Is tasty, tasty, tasty. This package includes the Extended Version of the Film, Disney’s Digital File, and if that’s not good enough, they even throw in a DVD copy of the film. Now that’s service! Of course the picture is full 1080pm, 1:85:1 aspect ratio with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. There are two audio and subtitle tracks – English and Spanish. I think I’m going to have to set up my 7.1 surround system and get rid of my Sony Soundbar.
The beginning trailers include Pinocchio, Escape to Witch Mountain, and Bed Time Stories. The menu system is a bit busy with the whole yearbook theme, I do like the background music though. It takes forever for the film to load up and start. On Disc 1 you have the film and all the extra features which include:
Cast Goodbyes
8 Deleted Scenes (7Min, HD)
Bloopers
Sing-Along
New Cast Profiles (God these new additions are AWFUL)
The Senior Awards
Night of Nights (7 Min, hD)
BD Live
Disc 3 is the Disney File Copy and Disc 2 is the DVD version of the Extended film.
Conclusion
The main draw of this Deluxe Edition isn’t the extra features, which are nice enough, but the fact that it includes “every format” of the movie you could possibly want in one nice set. The movie itself is ok, but any fan of the HSM series should get this Deluxe version, it’s a really nice package. It’s available now and retails for $39.99, but you can pick it up for $22 at Amazon. The DVD is $15.
Grades
Movie – C
Video – A
Audio – A
Features – A
Final Overall Grade B
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted, 2.23.09