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High School Musical 3: Senior Year - Deluxe Extended Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (30th March 2009). |
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The Film
 Over the past couple of years musicals have really made their mark on the box office standings. In 2007 it was “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” which pulled down over $150 million, well beyond it’s $50 million budget, but the fact that musicals are getting such funding seems to speak to their bankability at the box office. 2008 wasn’t particularly different with 3 major musicals, 2 with major budgets, 1 with major success and 1 with major goodness running through it’s creative concept. Even though “Repo! The Genetic Opera” (2008) did terribly in the box office, making $184,000 off of an $8.5 million budget, it was the best musical of that year and potentially one of the better and more original musicals ever made (I’ll battle with my fellow DVDcompare reviewer Anthony Arrigo over his astoundingly low C rating, any musical that brings together Anthony Stewart Head and Joan Jett deserves way more props than that). At the other end of the spectrum was “Mamma Mia!” (2008) continuing a trend of exclamation points, but not the poor financial success even though it opened the same day as “The Dark Knight” (2008) in the United States, grossing over $600 million worldwide. Right in the middle came Disney’s made-for-TV turned theatrical success “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” (2008) that pulled down over $250 million on an $11 million dollar budget. You can tell Disney spent the most on this third installment in the series as it becomes far more theatrical and flashier than its predecessors, yet this added feel still doesn’t pull it above the previous two installments lack of depth (and Albuquerque? Really?). Senior Year for the “High School Musical Gang” starts at about the same point where the gang was before, Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) is still the star captain of the Basketball team trying to get his team past the West High Knights, but this time it’s his last game where he brings his team together with a song that pushes them to victory. Along with some support from Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) his team pulls it out thanks to a last second shot by Jimmie Rocket (Matt Prokop) who starts to follow and annoy Troy after the game. Soon Troy and Gabriella are forced to make their decisions about life after high school with Troy being pressured to attend the University of Albuquerque to play basketball and Gabriella on track for the Stanford honors program. Of course the pair are still involved in the drama department of their school, as the teacher brings the whole class together to create an original musical based on their senior year and highschool experiences, as well as their future plans. Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) wants to have the spotlight on her as much as possible and so tries to make it so she winds up in the major song for Troy and Gabriella by trying to distance the two, but of course you know they’re going to wind up together in the end, but with a few dramatic songs scattered between happy opening and happy conclusion. At the core of the musical should be the songs and performances that go into the entire production, how well the songs themselves tell a story and how well the songs function in their own right as good music. Unfortunately none of the songs in “Senior Year” have grown beyond their fairly shallow and functional uses in the film, though much of the flash and theatricality that’s added through the sub-story of the musical make it slightly more engaging than the first installment. It’s a little odd to see how none of the characters have really progressed since their very first appearances in the series, everyone still is either a superstar and hugely talented, or… superstar and hugely talented. As a Disney movie you know that it’s all going to work out fine in the end so I’m not sure whether or not to be even more frustrated or impressed with the way the film seems to capture high school drama as fairly inconsequential but blown up to supersize proportions for no particular reason. Overall “Senior Year” is just a revisiting of the formulae of the first two films, but with a bigger budget and bigger standards of how the musical looks. There were some huge lighting and stage sequences that are fairly impressive from a technical standpoint in production design for the stage, but other than that the music, characters and story are not too interesting. Again, if you’re a fan of the series and the Disney channel movies you don’t need my review to sway your opinion on whether to purchase or watch the film, but for those few who either have been able to ignore everything "High School Musical" or just let it slide past you, there’s no reason to bother to stop and take a look at the third installment (that apparently won't be the last, but why would Disney stop using it’s formula for financial success?)
Video
Presented in 1080p 24/fps with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and AVC MPEG-4 encoding, the film itself looks clean and clear in the blu-ray transfer, adding to the bigger budget look of the film in clarity, though there are still some moments where the lighting feels a bit off and the color levels seem a bit messy, especially in the opening basketball scene that seems so brightly lit that at some points some of the paler player’s legs almost blend with the hardwood flooring.
Audio
There is audio in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. The DTS-HD track similarly sounds good in this transfer with the enhanced budget and bigger sense of the film, but still has that tinge of odd dubbing that I associated with the first film’s transfer. I’m not sure whether to put more blame on the overly acted facial expressions of the actors or the sound transfer, but based on the rest of the acting in the film I’m looking more to the actors than the dubbing, as the rest of the levels and sounds in the film are well mixed. Included as well are English for the hearing impaired and Spanish subtitles.
Extras
The Blu-Ray release of “Senior Year” boasts a 3-disc set, though the special features aren’t really spread out between the three as only the first disc is a blu-ray disc with the film and special features including deleted scenes, a blooper reel, 6 featurettes and bonus trailers, while the second is simply a digital copy of the film and the third is a DVD copy of the film, yet at the same time it’s an impressive effort to have the film watchable from just about every format you can use. DISC ONE: The special features are arragned in 2 ways, either through a more confusing "Yearbook view" that is a clever enough idea in terms of the senior year theme, which shows the special features unlabeled but selectable as pictures in a yearbook style presentation across 13 menus/pages, or the more easily accessible and understandable list view accessible directly from the video index submenu. However in the yearbook menu mode there are a bunch of fairly obvious easter-eggs of short sequences based on each picture that play in the menu itself which makes the yearbook mode’s load time a bit more acceptable. First are the deleted scenes, 8 in all, which are playable all together with an introduction from director Kenny Ortega, which run 7 minutes and 16 seconds combined, or individually. They include: - The "introduction" from director Kenny Ortega runs 24 seconds where he basically says that these are the deleted scenes. - “Lucky Socks” runs for 41 seconds, Troy wonders who on the basketball team washed their lucky socks, everyone (meaning the 3 characters that actually have lines in the film) says no, so they go back to the game. - “Wildcats in the Kitchen” runs for 33 seconds, at the after party for the basketball game, Troy and the rest of the major team members walk through the kitchen. - “Under the Tree house” runs for 27 seconds, Troy brings Gabriella some food at the party before they go up to the tree house. - “Homeroom” runs for 42 seconds, Sharpay and company arrive in homeroom. - “Asking Sharpay to Prom” runs for 1 minute and 38 seconds, Zeke asks Sharpay to prom, she takes control of everything. - “Kelsi and Ryan Share a Moment” runs for 41 seconds where Kelsi and Ryan talk and share a moment. - “Prom Posters” runs for 26 seconds where Sharpay, Tiara and others put up posters for senior prom. - “Passing of the Torch” runs for 1 minute and 41 seconds. Tiara and Rocket inherit the lockers of Sharpay and Troy. “Out of Sync: HSM 3 Bloopers” blooper reel runs for 2 minutes and 46 seconds, which just shows some small flubs and laughs on set, fairly typical blooper reel that is only different since it’s a disney production and there’s no swearing or real aggression on set, instead it’s all just laughter and cheeriness. “Cast Goodbyes” featurette runs for 5 minutes and 40 seconds. The six main stars talk about the film and talk about looking back on the series in some interviews along with some on set footage, talking about the camaraderie and friendships that have developed off screen between the actors and moving on from “High School Musical.” “It’s All in the Dress” featurette runs for 2 minutes and 31 seconds. Here the four major female stars, the director and the costume designer talk about their prom dresses shown in the film, how the design went into dresses and the way each dress is meant to reflect the personalities of each of the characters. “New Class Profiles” featurette runs for 13 minutes and 18 seconds, covers the three new major characters added to the film, Rocket, Donny and Tiara, speaking with the new actors about their characters and roles in the film, as well as talking with Ortega and the current cast about the characters briefly. It’s an interesting look at the auditioning process for the three actors to get the characters, and there’s a ton of talk, mostly from Ortega, about the future of these actors in the “High School Musical” series as he makes it fairly obvious how he plans for the series to be an almost perpetual installment for the Disney Channel. “Night of Nights” runs for 7 minutes and 27 seconds. This featurette deals mostly with prom, both in the actors opinions of what prom is to them in real life, as well as the prom in the film itself, using a good amount of cast interviews and behind-the-scenes footage in putting together the prom. “Senior Awards” runs for 2 minutes and 15 seconds. This final featurette looks at the cast voting on some senior awards for the cast, such as the most spirited or most intellectual, an interesting and clever choice considering these actors basically went to high school together in producing the three films. There are also "BDisney live network" BD-Live features, such as being able to upload your own photos to the Wildcats yearbook through BD-Live, which requires a profile 2.0 player and internet connection. Bonus trailers on the Blu-ray are: - "Disney DVD and Blu-ray" runs for 52 seconds. - "Disney Blu-ray" spot runs for 55 seconds. - “Pinocchio” runs for 1 minute and 27 seconds. - “Race to Witch Mountain” runs for 2 minutes and 26 seconds. - “Bedtime Stories” runs for 1 minute and 32 seconds. - "Disney Movie Rewards" spots runs for 20 seconds. - “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” runs for 2 minutes and 20 seconds. - “Bolt” runs 2 minutes and 30 seconds. - “Monsters, Inc.” runs for 1 minute and 8 seconds. - “Disney XD” spot runs for 31 seconds. DISC TWO: This disc is the digital copy of the film. DISC THREE: The third disc is an exact DVD version of the film, including some of the same bonus features (except for the BD-live feature and the "Yearbook view" mode) but with some extras that strangely aren’t on the Blu-ray release. The deleted scenes are all the same as the Blu-ray version of the film. “Out of Sync: HSM 3 Bloopers” blooper reel is the same as the Blu-ray version. The “Sing-a-Long with the Movie” interactive feature provides a sing-a-long subtitle track to the film, as well as the ability to sing along to select songs listed below: - “Now or Never” - “Right Here, Right Now” - “I Want It All” - “Can I Have This Dance” - “A Night to Remember” - “Just Wanna Be With You” - “The Boys Are Back” - “Right Here, Right Now (Reprise)” - “Walk Away” - “Scream” - “Can I Have This Dance (Reprise)” - “Last Chance” - “Now or Never (Spring Musical)” - “I Want It All (Spring Musical)” - “Just Wanna Be With You (Spring Musical)” - “A Night to Remember (Spring Musical)” - “We’re All In This Together” - “High School Musical” The Backstage Disney section of the disc contains the “Night of Nights,” “It’s All in the Dress” and “Cast Goodbyes” featurettes also carried over from the Blu-ray version. Bonus trailers on this disc are: - "Disney DVD and Blu-ray" runs for 52 seconds. - "Disney Blu-ray" spot runs for 1 minute and 4 seconds. - “Pinocchio” runs for 1 minute and 27 seconds. - “Race to Witch Mountain” runs for 2 minutes and 26 seconds. - “School House Rock! Earth” runs for 32 seconds. - “Bedtime Stories” runs for 1 minute and 32 seconds. - "Disney Movie Rewards" spot runs for 20 seconds. - “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” runs for 2 minutes and 21 seconds. - “Bolt” runs 2 minutes and 31 seconds. - “Air Bud” runs for 1 minute and 5 seconds. - “Disney XD” spot runs for 32 seconds.
Packaging
Packaged in a deluxe 3-disc Blu-ray case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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