DVD Review: High School Musical 2 (Extended Edition)

By Jeff Swindoll Dec 10, 2007, 15:24 GMT

The gang from East High takes the stage at the local country club summer talent show! Scheming drama queen Sharpay is at the center of intrigue once more, using her influence to get Troy a job at the club in order to make him her singing partner at the annual show. When Troy arranges jobs for Gabriella and the Wildcats too, Sharpay has to do some fancy maneuvering to keep ...more

You should’ve saw this one coming when High School Musical burnt up the small screen the way that it did.  Now the sequel comes onto DVD after burning up the small screen as much if not more than the original.  

Summer vacation is nearly here and the High School Musical gang is watching the clock tick down till school’s out.  Young lovers Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) have big plans for the summer, but first everyone has to get summer jobs to fund those plans.

Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) and Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) Evans head to the Lava Springs Country Club, which their family is the board of directors, where they usually spend their summers. 

Sharpay has other plans in mind though and informs the manager Mr. Fulton (Mark L. Taylor) to make sure that Troy is hired on at the club “at any cost.”  The cost turns out to be, to Sharpay’s shock, that her schoolmates all get jobs at the club.  So Gabriella, Taylor (Monique Coleman), Chad (Corbin Bleu), Zeke (Chris Warren Jr.), Kelsi (Olesya Rulin) and the rest all show up at the club. 

Things aren’t much different than high school in that Sharpay is the predetermined winner of the Razzle Dazzle Award, an award given at the club’s talent show.  Not only does she want to steal Troy from Gabriella, but she also wants to have Troy be her partner in the talent show and uses her parent’s influence to bait Troy with promises of a brighter future. 

His pals start to dislike the new Troy and can he turn things around before he loses Gabriella and his friends?  

When the second film premiered on the Disney Channel it drew in over 17 million viewers and became the highest rated movie to be shown on the channel.  Since the original boasted around 7 million on its first showing I guess we can safely say that the sequel is a great success.

Although the setting is different the music seems to be about the same – and that’s not exactly a bad thing.  We’re treated to the same power ballads and duets that made the first film so great and the songs have a habit of sticking in your head.  They’re obviously going to have the same “sing-ability” that the originals had and will be repeated by tons of kids everywhere. 

This version even features a sequence cut from the original showing where Sharpay treats Zac to a Hawaiian number.  I’d have to say that High School Musical 2 is more of the same and really doesn’t differentiate itself too much from the first one, but if you’re one that loved the first one then you’ll love this one in equal amounts. 

High School Musical 2 is presented in fullscreen as it was shown on television.  Special features include 4 minutes of bloopers.  The “Music and More” sections contains the extended scene separately and some music videos.  The 5-minute “Humuhumunukunukuapua’a” is the Hawaiian themed show that Sharpay puts on.  The 3 minute “You are the Music in Me” is a music video lifted directly from the film. 

The next is a 3 minute “You are the Music in Me” done for Spanish audiences with different performers.  There are also two 3-minute versions of “Gotta Go My Own Way” for Canadian markets in both English and French.  This section also gathers all the songs from the film in the “Sing Along with the Movie” option and you can put Karaoke lyrics on the songs during the movie.

The “Backstage Disney” section starts off with 35 minutes of rehearsal cam footage with an introduction by director Kenny Ortega.  You can also activate the “jump to movie” feature, which shows the completed sequence after you watch the rehearsal footage.  There’s also a 2-minute “Phineas and Ferb Sneak Peek” introduced by Ashley Tisdale (who also stars in the show).  

High School Musical 2 is more of the same, but with twice the ratings success.  It’s just as appealing as the first film and should please fans of the show.  A third sequel is already in the works, which should also please fans.  High School Musical 2 only proves that lightening can strike twice.  

High School Musical 2 (Extended Edition) is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.