High School Musical (Encore Edition) (DVD)

...am doing a review for High School Musical.

---------History-------
Last year during the Christmas period Disney went crazy advertising this straight to television movie. They knew they had gold and built up the premiere on their channel for 3 weeks. It’s all everyone was talking about, and no one knew a thing about it. At the time, I was working in Virgin Megastores *shudders* and every 5 min I had a snotty nosed brat asking ...
...his coach at his home high school team. His mother things they both need to slow down and have some fun giving you the illusion that basketball is their lives. Gabrielle is being a swot in her room and reading her books instead of being at the party. Her mother tells her to have some fun. Both end up at the party and for some unexplained reason get stuck doing karaoke together. This is where the ‘magic’ begins and the both realise they can sing and ... more

Hello *stands up, shuffles feet and looks uncomfortable* er, I’m Jade and…and…I’m *sigh* I’m a Disney-oholic. There, I finally said it. I love Disney and I am quietly proud. Who cares if I’m twenty and as a manager I’m meant to be a role model to my staff. My fiancée secretly hates coming to mine because he knows he will be subjected to at least an hour of the Disney Channel *giggle*. So bearing all this in mind you probably understand why I am doing a review for High School Musical.

---------History-------
Last year during the Christmas period Disney went crazy advertising this straight to television movie. They knew they had gold and built up the premiere on their channel for 3 weeks. It’s all everyone was talking about, and no one knew a thing about it. At the time, I was working in Virgin Megastores *shudders* and every 5 min I had a snotty nosed brat asking me when it was coming onto DVD. When it hit the Disney channel it was the best ratings they had received for 2 years. The weeks followed with HSM weekends, dance lessons on the scenes and of course the soundtrack was released. On December the 5th 2006 it was finally released and the DVD stores went CRAZY. The first weekend of its release our store sold 200 copies. Then when I saw the Encore Edition version I finally folded and had to see what all the fuss was about.

---------Story Line-------
Set your self up for a rip off of Grease. Troy and Gabrielle (the main characters) are both on holiday at a ski resort with their families. You are shown a short introduction to each family. Troy loves nothing but Basketball, as does his father who is also his coach at his home high school team. His mother things they both need to slow down and have some fun giving you the illusion that basketball is their lives. Gabrielle is being a swot in her room and reading her books instead of being at the party. Her mother tells her to have some fun. Both end up at the party and for some unexplained reason get stuck doing karaoke together. This is where the ‘magic’ begins and the both realise they can sing and enjoy each others company. They take each others details and the New Year comes in with a bang.

Queue start of the new school year and gee wiz, was a shock. She just HAPPENS *wink wink* to be starting at her new school, which just happens to also be Troy’s…*Yawn*. Then…they are in some of the same classes *Gasp*…I can hear you. You’re going NOOOOOO they wouldn’t do that. They did.
It soon comes to light that there will be a new school musical this year and try outs are taking place. Both of the leads are drawn towards it and end up on the list for call backs.

Of course there are ‘bad guys’ this time disguised as brother and sister Sharpay and Ryan who also want the lead in the musical. They are always the leads and are not happy about the competition.

The main story is about Troy’s and Gabrielle’s battle against the stereotypes they are placed into as sports freak and science geek and wanting to reach out into something else they both love – music. Both have to deal with the people from their social circles, their parents and of course our bad guys. Then there is the growing relationship the pair has with each other and how they are dealing with it considering they are both from different worlds and both feeling the pressure.

---------Entertainment-------
Now there have been quite a few complaints running through my fingers to the screen but bearing in mind this is rated U and is meant for the younger members of the family this is a really good movie. The story line flows well and is entertaining but not confusing. The scenes are colourful. For example, whilst the class is in detention there are loads of little scene parts. One of the main characters is hanging out of a stage tree having a nap, Gabrielle is standing behind a huge bright blue moon and all the team are wearing their red uniforms. Now this may seem like a silly thing to mention but most parents know young children can lose interest quickly. Every time I have shown this to a kid I have babysat, they have had their eyes glues to the television the whole time…Bonus!
With it being a musical there are loads of songs to show the current emotions of the characters. From ‘get your head in the game’ to ‘Breaking free’ they are all entertaining and catchy. Each song has great chorography included. My favourite song in the DVD is called ‘Stick to the status Quo’. The scene unfolds in the school cafeteria. There are around 100 students dancing around tables and singing. They use all the props (like tables, chairs etc) around them perfectly and it just all flows together.

The other great thing that I loved about this is the hidden lesson for children about being able to become what you want to. The big problem I have with the end of Grease is that the girl become someone totally different and I felt I was being told I couldn’t be me to be happy…ok. Well, they hit the mark with this one and let is all know we can be ourselves.

---------Main Cast-------
Zac Efron as Troy Bolton
Vanessa Anne Hudgens as Gabriella Montez
Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans
Luca Grabeel as Ryan Evans
Corbin Blue as Chad Danforth
Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie
Bart Johnson as Coach Jack Bolton
Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus

---------On The DVD-------
Despite having quite a few extras, the Encore Edition only has one disc (which is great as its one less disc to scratch to shreds)
When you start off the DVD you of course get a series of adverts from Disney but you can easily skip forward and straight to the main menu. I notice very quickly that each time you enter a different menu within the DVD there is a ten second snippet of a song from the movie. Gets annoying very quickly if you are on the same menu screen for about 60 seconds.

Play – Nice and simple, play the movie!!!
Bonus Features – You are introduced to a notice board with two options:
--Music and More – You have three options within this. First is to listen to a song that was in the background of the movie at times called ‘I can’t take my eyes off you’. It is sung by the characters Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay and Ryan. The ‘music video’ is the four of them surrounding a microphone in a recording studio and black and white shots from the movie. The song is quite catchy with a good salsa beat in the background but despite studio tweaking I still find the voices quite weak.
Next is the music video ‘We’re all in this together’ which is just the gym scene from the movie with some flash backs of other parts of the movie. This is the best ‘feel good’ song in the movie and as I listen to it in the back ground I am also shaking my booty in my seat.
The final option in this menu is to have a go at singing with the movie. This means that when you watch the movie and the music scenes come on, the words will appear at the bottom of the scene. This would be really good for the kids if they love the movie and have seen it a couple of times before. The words appear at the bottom of the screen in white and whilst being sung they change to a light brown colour. A good laugh :). Ok, so I thought I would give it a quick go and I have to admit that the words only JUST come up as they are about to be sung – a sentence at a time – and if you are in a song that is sang quite fast you have no chance of keeping up. So you should know the words of by heart if you want to sing along which is a shame.
--Backstage Disney – Two options this time. First is ‘Bringing it all together: The making of High School Musical’. Consists of cast and director interviews, seeing the guys filming, cast practicing. It lasts for 8 minutes and is a nice little insight into the movie.
Second option is the best bit ‘Learning the moves’. Now I thought, for research purposes only of course, I thought I should have a go at learning the moves myself. So here goes…
Ok so I’m introduced to the dancing lesson by Kenny Ortega the Director/Choreographer – and I have to say…I wouldn’t like to see him dance so I hope someone else will pop up. Thank god, Lucas (Plays Ryan) and Ashley (Plays Sharpay) are going to teach me…themselves, how to do the dance to the song ‘Bop to the top’. I notice a slight problem straight away that I’m sure that is meant to be a couples dance *goes to get mop*. Ok, I’m ready again – I am now introduced to some assistant choreographers. Ok, we are getting started. Maybe not, they are just doing the dance again…Errrr. Maybe they are showing me?!? Ok, they try and break it down for me but I am 20 and I am seriously struggling. Their idea of breaking it down is taking 30 extremely difficult moves and breaking it into three. But still they are going at normal speed and not explaining the moves at all causing me some serious problems. After four attempts I sit down. They then try and break it down by showing three screens. One of the dance from the movie, one of the guys practicing and the other of a close up of their feet…WHY?!? I have to say, that is a total waste of time and I’m sure some 5 year old out there will shame me by getting it but they would have to have a lot of dedication.
Scene Selection – There are 12 scenes to choose from with a space of about 5 minutes between each. Each has a picture of the scene and a simple caption below to help you identify the right part of the movie. In the background of the scene are a load of lockers and post-it notes.
Set Up – The only option is ‘captions’. In other words, subtitles. Available in English and English for the hearing impaired.

---------My Opinion-------
I love Disney movies so there was no way I was going to hate this either. Ever child I have ever babysat has also loved the movie and it is now always in my babysitting bag. The movie itself is a great laugh for any ‘family’ person but if you don’t want a classic Disney ending then you are looking in the wrong place. Considering that the Encore Edition cost an additional £4 to the plain DVD I felt a little let down with the extras, especially the ‘learn the moves’ part as we all know I failed miserably with that. I was a bit annoyed wit the start of the movie being ripped out of Grease but as this is intended for a younger audience they may of not seen the movie. The songs are all great and I shouldn’t admit this but I also know have the soundtrack. When I’m all grumpy I listen to it at the bus stop and get my groove on (yes, with everyone watching me prancing around too). I am also quite happy that there are going to be two more movies coming out. One will be this summer and if you were a true fan then you would of gone onto the Disney website and voted for particular things in the movie. Of course I am sure they will totally kill the sprit with the second and third but I will still be compelled to watch it. Then there is the High School Musical at concert. At time of print it is showing on the Disney channel but you can also get the soundtrack form your local Disney Store. Both boys and girls will love it and because it is Disney you know you can’t go wrong with the young ones.

Got to go as Mum wants the mop back now, happy dancing… 

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