The international musical phenomenon of the decade concluded with a spectacular grand finale in October, but its DVD leaves room for improvement.
By Blake
Originally posted February 22, 2009.
Soundtrack release, movie release, international mania, DVD release with several bonuses, more mania, special edition DVD release with more bonuses, even more mania, sequel.
That’s been the pattern for both the first two High School Musical films, released in January 2006 and August 2007, respectively. As the third movie, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, makes its way through its release process, that pattern seems to be continuing yet again. The soundtrack was released on October 21, 2008, the movie was released (in theaters this time) on October 24, international mania followed, and now we’re up to the film’s DVD release. Although there’s definitely more mania ahead, I don’t know if we can expect a sequel or not. And as for another DVD release? Probably, especially when you look at the contents of the new DVD, which was released last Tuesday, February 17, 2009.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year Extended Edition DVD
Soundtrack release, movie release, international mania, DVD release with several bonuses, more mania, special edition DVD release with more bonuses, even more mania, sequel.
That’s been the pattern for both the first two High School Musical films, released in January 2006 and August 2007, respectively. As the third movie, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, makes its way through its release process, that pattern seems to be continuing yet again. The soundtrack was released on October 21, 2008, the movie was released (in theaters this time) on October 24, international mania followed, and now we’re up to the film’s DVD release. Although there’s definitely more mania ahead, I don’t know if we can expect a sequel or not. And as for another DVD release? Probably, especially when you look at the contents of the new DVD, which was released last Tuesday, February 17, 2009.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year Extended Edition DVD
Total approx. disc running time: About 180 minutes (about 3 hours) (includes bonus features)
Highlight of Disc: Feature film
Highlight Runner-Up: “Cast Goodbyes” featurette
First of all, the movie itself is sensational. All of the East High Wildcats return for thirds and are getting excited as the milestone events of their senior year approach, including the prom, graduation, and preparing their own musical (which the audience gets to see this time). All in the midst of this, each of them must decide where their future lies as they prepare for college, a concept that each of the six main characters Troy (Zac Efron), Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens), Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale), Ryan (Lucas Grabeel), Chad (Corbin Bleu), and Taylor (Monique Coleman) finds very pressuring and uncertain. Each of them is unsure whether to stick together or to follow their own individual desires, while at the same time staying true to themselves. Of course, there are a few cheesy moments, but overall the film deserves its spot on the silver screen as opposed to the television set format its two predecessors had. The music and dance sequences are on a more vast scale, the characters reach new heights in the depth of their personalities, and the emotion of the film is on an entirely different level than the two other High School Musical films. These components make Senior Year blossom into much more than the small Disney Channel franchise that High School Musical once was.
Zac Efron as Troy Bolton and Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez in High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
Release
However, the great movie that’s also the show-stopping conclusion (for now, at least) to the High School Musical phenomenon arrives on DVD with no real excitement, not even on its two-disc Extended Edition. I gave in to the Extended Edition version, thinking I would be getting two discs’ worth of bonus features. However, just like with November’s release of Wall-E, I was tricked into believing something that wasn’t. Here, two discs means one disc for the movie with a few bonuses and one disc for the digital copy of the movie for your iPod, not two discs of material. With Wall-E, that was OK because in total it was a three-disc set (I was thinking there would be three discs of material, instead there were two). However, with High School Musical 3: Senior Year, the set is labeled as a two-disc compilation, and technically it is. Unfortunately for consumers, with the introduction of the DisneyFile digital copies, purchasing a DVD has now turned into a question of what we’re really buying. Which makes me uncertain as to whether next month’s release of Bolt will turn out the same way.
Anyway, the bottom line here is that there’s the regular, standard version of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which includes one disc that features the movie and one bonus feature, and there’s High School Musical 3: Senior Year Extended Edition, which includes one disc that features the movie with slightly more bonus features and one disc for the digital copy of the movie.
Bonus Features
The one bonus feature that’s included on both versions is also the most worthwhile: “Cast Goodbyes” (about six minutes) is a featurette that includes interviews with the cast about not only their characters graduating from East High, but also on themselves graduating from High School Musical. Emotional and teary, I’m glad Disney included this in the set – it was definitely the highlight of the bonuses and to see how the performers of this wild phenomenon said goodbye to three years of their life was something really special.
Zac Efron (who plays Troy Bolton) and Vanessa Hudgens (who plays Gabriella Montez) on the set of High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
That’s the only bonus feature that the standard DVD offers, though the Extended Edition includes several other bonuses. Though to be called “Extended,” there’s nothing really added on to the movie itself at all. I was half-expecting a new musical number like the one that made High School Musical 2’s DVD “extended,” but here I suppose the word really means the inclusion of deleted scenes (which, played together, are about six minutes). All together there are eight deleted scenes, most of which seem too short to even consider being deleted at all. The most memorable, though, is one where Zeke asks Sharpay to the prom.
Continuing through the bonuses are additional bloopers (about three minutes), which are always a pleasurable inclusion.
Next is Disney’s Song Selection, which allows viewers to play all the songs in the film consecutively or by themselves. If you choose to play them all, they’ll total about forty-eight minutes. Personally I prefer to skip to my favorites instead of watching them all.
Lastly, under Backstage Disney, is the aforementioned Cast Goodbyes, as well as two additional featurettes focusing on the prom. The first, called “Night of Nights” (about seven minutes) mostly involves the rehearsals and hard work that went into the choreography of the “A Night to Remember” and “Can I Have This Dance” numbers. The second featurette is called “It’s All in the Dress” (about three minutes) and deals with the costume design of the prom dresses for Gabriella, Taylor, Kelsi, and Sharpay. When played together, these three featurettes offer about fifteen solid minutes of behind-the-scenes entertainment from several different areas of the film as a sort of mini-making-of that should please fans of the movie.
From left: Corbin Bleu as Chad, Monique Coleman as Taylor, Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella, and Zac Efron as Troy in the "Can I Have Dance" number from High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
The absence of more similar featurettes hint that another DVD release is on the way in the future, possibly with an additional disc of bonuses that would further continue these entertaining featurettes. We can hope for an audio commentary, too, though that’s unlikely. Another DVD release would certainly make sense, especially since the first two High School Musical films did exactly this, and it would follow the aforementioned cycle that appears to be patterning with these films. However, for the record, no announcement, confirmation, or declination of a future DVD version of High School Musical 3: Senior Year has been released by Disney.
Menus
The menus of the Extended Edition are themed to the East High yearbook, and with all of the pictures, “autographs,” and other items placed on the screen, it’s often difficult to see where your selection icon is. This is primarily the case with the bonus features sub-menu, where the underline that serves as your remote control selection is red, and the background is a different shade of red.
Wrapping It Up
High School Musical 3: Senior Year is probably a film that Disney fans or families that have kids in the elementary- and middle-school stage will be wanting to have on their shelves. If you want to know the truth, the smart thing would be to hold off about a year to see if another, more elaborate release of the film is coming. However, that decision to hold off is likely not to happen due to the impatient nature of today’s generation, including myself. For now, you’re better off with the standard, single-disc version of High School Musical 3: Senior Year. The two additional featurettes and deleted scenes included on the Extended Edition are nice, but I don’t think they justify purchasing the more expensive option, unless you really think you’re going to use to the iPod copy of the movie that’s also included on the Extended Edition. I’d advise the standard version – you’ll get the great movie, as well as the better bonus feature, for a reasonably low price, especially if buy it at a discount store like Wal-Mart or Target. Because High School Musical 3: Senior Year really is a special film, and this time it’s not the start of something new, but the end of something great.
How do I rank High School Musical 3: Senior Year Extended Edition DVD? (Bolded is my choice.)
Very good movie + good bonus features =
- Aaaah!
- Blech
- Not good
- Good
- Very good
- Brilliant
By Blake; posted February 22, 2009. All images (C) Disney.
0 comments:
Post a Comment