In the 65-plus years since Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland first all but patented the idea of putting on a show, the spirited high-school-musical formula has been reworked on film countless times. Still, one is hard pressed to recall a variation that has met with more phenomenal success (besides Grease) than the Disney Channel's surprising High School Musical. Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) is his school's star basketball player. Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) is a math whiz he meets on vacation. The pair make beautiful music together in a karaoke contest. After Gabriella turns up as the new transfer student at Troy's school, they decide to try out for the school musical—a move that threatens the social status quo. The karaoke-crossed lovers first face peer pressure from Troy's teammates and Gabriella's "brainiac" pals, and then are targets of the machinations of the school's reigning drama queen, Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) and her brother, Ryan (Lucas Grabeel). Ultimately, of course, all ends jubilantly during a confluence of musical callbacks, a championship hoops game, and a scholastic decathlon. Alyson Reed deserves applause as the hilariously "harsh" drama teacher Ms. Darbus, who is part Margo Channing (from All About Eve) and part Simon Cowell, while director/choreographer Kenny Ortega (Dirty Dancing) makes all the right moves with such high-spirited showstoppers as "Stick to the Status Quo," "Get'cha Head in the Game," and the sassy, Latin-flavored "Bop to the Top." Since High School Musical debuted on TV in January 2006, the film has become a pop-culture phenomenon, spawning sing-along and dance-along rebroadcasts, as well as a chart-topping soundtrack album and singles. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include the nine-minute “Bringing it All Together” making-of featurette, a “Learning the Moves” dance featurette (4 min.), music videos (with optional sing-along) for “We're All in This Together” and the never-before-seen “I Can't Take My Eyes Off You,” and trailers. Bottom line: a so-so extras package for a surprise TV hit film.] (D. Liebenson)[DVD Review--Dec 12, 2006—Walt Disney, 2 discs, 98 min., not rated, $29.99--Making its second appearance on DVD, 2006's High School Musical: Remix (2-Disc Special Edition) features new DVD extras including the sing-along version of the film, “Disney Channel Dance Alongs” featuring the cast teaching the dance moves (17 min.), “A High School Reunion” featurette with exclusive cast interviews (6 min.), a three-minute behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood premiere, music videos for “Breaking Free Remix,” “We're All in This Together Remix,” and “Eres Tu,” and trailers. Bottom line: Worth the upgrade? Don't even think that this won't fly off the shelf.][Blu-ray Review—Feb. 19, 2009—Walt Disney, 98 min., TV-G, $34.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2006's High School Musical (Remix) looks good and has a 5.1 Uncompressed soundtrack. Blu-ray extras are identical to the previous DVD release, including the “Disney Channel Dance Alongs” segment featuring the cast members teaching dance moves (17 min.), the nine-minute “Bringing it All Together” “making-of” featurette, “A High School Reunion” featurette with exclusive cast interviews (6 min.), a dance featurette on “Learning the Moves” (4 min.), a three-minute behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood premiere, music videos (with optional sing-along) for “We're All in This Together,” “I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You,” “Breaking Free Remix,” “We're All in This Together Remix,” and “Eres Tu,” the sing-along version of the film, and trailers. Bottom line: the maiden film in the HSM franchise makes a solid debut on Blu-ray.]
High School Musical
Walt Disney, 97 min., not rated, DVD: $26.99 Volume 21, Issue 3
High School Musical
Star Ratings
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