|
|
 |
High School Musical: Remix
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (26th March 2009). |
|
The Film
 Although it’s an urban legend that Walt Disney’s body was cryogenically frozen to preserve himself for future reanimation, it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true considering the way that Disney seems to pump out teen and pre-teen triple-threat stars it would almost require some of the most advanced gene sequencing and human cloning known to science. Considering how much money Disney has made off of these actors, between concerts, songs and made-for-TV movies (or full theatrical films) I wouldn’t be surprised if they could afford it. Just look at the sales of the first “High School Musical” (2005) film. Produced on a $4.2 million budget (really high for a made-for-TV film, but again supporting my argument that they can afford it and their secret genetic plant) the DVD release sold 1.2 million in the first few days of release, assuming each copy was bought at full price, that puts it at around $20 million gross, not counting the millions more sold in the following days, the millions in advertising during the airing of the movie on TV and the countless repeats, or the sales on the soundtrack and accessories; this film is a money making behemoth. If you’re a little confused by the title, “High School Musical” is a musical set at East High in Albuquerque, New Mexico (even though it’s all filmed in my hometown of Salt Lake City, which I almost find insulting that Albuquerque is deemed more interesting a location than Salt Lake when they don’t even have a real NBA team, d-league doesn’t count, let alone one with a superstar like Deron Williams, who is definitely better than Chris Paul and has been snubbed harshly in All-Star voting for the past 2 years). During a winter vacation at a ski lodge, Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) bump into eachother during a karaoke session on New Years Eve and fall in love, exchanging numbers though never expecting to see each other again. Of course, Gabriella is a new transfer student to East High where Troy is the basketball team’s superstar player (but if you look at his moves he doesn’t even have a crossover, come on, even Milt Palacio could dribble between his legs). Gabriella on the other hand is a science genius, placing them in apparently oppositional cliques even though their love of singing and each other must remain hidden. Soon the two wind up trying out as a couple for the school musical, even getting to the call back stage, causing the ire of Troy’s teammates, Gabriella’s academic decathlon compadres and the drama club, all of whom seek to bring their clique status back to the way it was and stop this über-couple from taking over the school. If you couldn’t tell by my NBA tangents in the middle of the synopsis, I had trouble paying attention to the movie. It’s not that the film was slow or moved at a bad pace, except for the ending which solved everything literally in about 10 minutes, but it’s just not designed to entertain me. Sure I like basketball, sure I like musicals, but the lyrics aren’t well written and it all seems incredibly fake and forced, which is what some people find charming about the series, but it just comes off as annoying and frustrating. It’s hard for me for me to care or even think about a character whose biggest problem in life is the choice of whether or not to sing or go left to the hoop. Really Troy, that’s it? Sure it’s not the Disney Channel’s style to create real life problems, outside of easily fixable superficial drama like choosing between singing or winning the academic decathalon (spoiler, Gabriella does both), but when I see all of this taking place at locations I drive by on a regular basis, in hallways that I’ve been in within the last 5 years, it breaks all kinds of 4th walls that make me think more about how weird it is that it’s set in Albuquerque rather than Salt Lake (I mean Paul Millsap has been a beast on the glass this year, 19 straight double doubles after taking over for Carlos Boozer? Albuquerque?) Overall “High School Musical” is disinteresting and unengaging for me. Sure there’s lots of singing and dancing by young talent, but with the Disney sound mastering it just adds to the fake factor of the entire production. I know musicals aren’t meant to be realistic, but when the plot itself is disinteresting, the actors are cheesy and fake, the sound just compounds the problem. Efron and Hudgens don’t do much to dissuade me of Disney secretly engineering new stars, other than reassuring me that they aren’t under mind control after the naked cell phone pictures that Hudgens sent to Efron wound up as a major tabloid story (even though it strangely didn’t de-rail the production). If you want to see some of the most choreographed lives ever, either in dances or just in the way they act when they try to act normally, and you want to see a film that really rushes to their hyper happy conclusion where everyone mean is suddenly nice, you could indulge in "High School Musical", but honestly it’s not very good (and honestly Albuquerque? What about the fact that the Utah Jazz have only missed 3 playoffs in the last 25 years? COME ON).
Video
Presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio in 1080p with AVC MPEG-4 encoding, the film itself looks incredibly clear for a made-for-TV film, showing off the $4.2 million budget and high definition of the Blu-ray disc. There’s some occasional background grain depending on the lighting and coloration of the scenes, but otherwise the video transfer looks good, even if the world they live in has that feel of artificiality that Disney movies seem to give off.
Audio
There are audio tracks in English uncompressed PCM 5.1 track mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, as well as standard Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, French and Spanish. The PCM track is similarly impressive for a made-for-TV production and transfers fairly well, though the way the sound production did the dubbing for the singing sections of the film it feels too blatantly dubbed over, making the film that much more annoying to watch. The levels for the most part are fine, though again with the sound design of the film there are some background noises that seem to disappear or get over emphasized (sometimes for comedic effect) that just throw me off. English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish subtitles are available.
Extras
Typical of a Disney release, the Blu-ray edition of the film carries over the extras from the 2-disc edition (without the optional 1.33:1 full screen original television version, which makes sense since the disc is supposed to be high definition) including 8 featurettes, 5 music videos, a sing-a-long feature, dance-a-long feature and bonus trailers. First up are the music videos, 5 in all, each one is actually a music videos of clips of the film with some new footage unique to each video: - “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” runs for 3 minutes. - “We’re All In This Together” runs for 1 minute and 32 seconds. - “Breaking Free Remix” runs for 3 minutes and 8 seconds. - “We’re All In This Together Remix” runs for 3 minutes and 59 seconds. - “Eres Tu” runs for 2 minutes and 12 seconds. There’s an option to play a sing-along version of the film which is basically the film with some sing along subtitles of the lyrics to each song. “Bringing it All Together: The Making of ‘High School Musical’” featurette runs for 8 minutes and 45 seconds. This brief making-of takes a look at the choreography, music and actors, as well as giving a good amount of behind-the-scenes footage combined with individual interviews. The youth wunderkind actors talk a lot about how true to the highschool experience it is and all of the energy in the film and how much they love it. “Learning the Moves” is a collection of dance featurettes that each look at a different aspect of the choreography more in depth, speaking mostly with Kenny Ortega, the director/choreographer, and they include: - “All 3 At The Same time” runs for 4 minutes and 7 seconds, where Ortega, some of the actors and choreographers talk about the “Bop to the Top” sequence, including some behind-the-scenes looks at the actors practicing for the sequence. - “Close-Up of Rehersal” runs for 4 minutes and 7 seconds, is what it says it is, a close up look at the different moves used in the sequence. - “Wide Angle of Rehersal” runs for 4 minutes and 7 seconds, again a wide angle version of the sequence. - “Final Movie” runs for 4 minutes and 7 seconds, same thing, only thing that changes is the final showing which is the sequence from the film itself. “Hollywood Premire” featurette runs for 2 minutes and 23 seconds, covering briefly the premire of the film in Hollywood, including a red carpet DVD release celebration of the film itself, generally it has the feel of a Disney Channel bump between programs and just features some on carpet interviews from the major players in the film. “A High School Reunion” featurette runs for 5 minutes and 54 seconds, which brings the actors together and covers all of the different events and awards shows around the world that the cast have been to, talking about life before “High School Musical” though I was most shocked to hear that one of the cast members, Monique Coleman, got her BFA before getting into the Disney Channel racket, which makes me thing that at least one of them isn’t genetically engineered by Disney. “Disney Channel Dance-a-Longs” video feature runs for 16 minutes and 35 seconds, much like the music videos this sequence uses the songs from the film as well as some new footage to look at two of the major dance sequences and invites the audience to dance along to some of the major sequences. Of course there’s also a huge clustering of bonus trailers attached to the release: - "Disney DVD and Blu-ray" spot runs for 52 seconds. - "Disney Blu-ray" spot runs for 55 seconds. - “Pinocchio” runs for 1 minute and 27 seconds. - “Earth” runs for 2 minutes and 6 seconds. - “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” runs for 1 minute and 37 seconds. - "Disney Movie Rewards" runs for 20 seconds. - “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” runs for 55 seconds. - “Bolt” runs 2 minutes and 30 seconds. - “Disney XD” runs for 31 seconds.
Overall
|
|||||
|