High School Musical 3: Senior Year DVD Review
From Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
High School Musical 3: Senior Year : Extended 2-Disc Edition
For Gabrielle, Troy and the gang, it's the last year at East High. It's time to make life-altering decisions about the future....of course with some cool and bouncy songs to help make the transition easier! Will Gabrielle go away to Stanford, leaving Troy and best bud Chad to play basketball for the local university team? Will Sharpay and twin bro Ryan vie for one scholarship to Julliard? And which lower classmen/gals will step into these folks' shoes at good ole East?
Special Features: You get the usual collection from Disney and all are enjoyable. "Deleted Scenes" are very short as Zeke asks Sharpay to prom (or she tells him he's taking her), Ryan and Kelsi share a flirty moment and the senior Wildcats pass on their dirty gym socks to the junior varsity guys. These can be watched with or without director Kenny Ortega's comments.
"Out of Sync: 'HSM 3' Bloopers" are all PG-rated goofs, super mild compared to what we know really goes on on sets when actors mess up a take! A lot of running/dancing and falling.
Under "Music and More" you get a choice to sing along with a long list of songs in the film with karaoke-style lyrics on screen. A lot of fun.
Under Backstage Disney are all the interview featurettes. They are divided into "Prom" and "Graduation". Under "Prom" is something called "Night of Nights" in which cast and crew talk about what prom means etc. You see a lot of dance rehearsal footage and learn that it was hard for the cast to say goodbye to the gym where they've filmed all the dances over the HSM years.
In "It's All in the Dress" each lead actress talks about her prom dress and you see the costume designer fitting each design to each character's personality. Very cool.
Under "Graduation" we spend time with the whole cast as they talk about shooting the last big graduation scene and their emotional memories as they say goodbye to HSM and move on. Lots of crying and hugging involved. To them, it was like growing up together and then really leaving high school.
The second disc in the set is the digital version of the film for your i-pod or other electronic device.
Wrapping Up: I missed the dance instruction features in previous DVDs. It was fun for fans to learn step-by-step, some of the choreography in the film. If you are a tween or very young teen, you might see these films totally differently than those who are in high school or college. The world of the HSM films is fantasyland but fun. Maybe we all wish our high school experience was like this or maybe you'll just enjoy the singin', dancin' aspects. Either way, this is the last in the series and the cast does a great job of making us believe growing up can really be like this. Although there is a set-up for the franchise to continue with younger cast members, I seriously doubt that these younger folks can reach the mega-popularity of Zac, Corbin, Vanessa and Ashley. You need to buy this big screen swan song DVD if you are collecting the film series. If not, just rent it for a bouncy, escapist lark.
