DVD Reviews

High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Deluxe Extended Edition) – Blu-ray Review - CLIPS ADDED!

By Jeff Swindoll Feb 17, 2009, 14:50 GMT

It\'s time to celebrate as Disney\'s phenomenal High School Musical hits new heights in High School Musical 3: Senior Year! Fresh from the big screen, this motion picture extravaganza delivers non-stop entertainment from start to finish! It\'s almost graduation day for high school seniors Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Chad, Ryan and Taylor - and the thought of heading off in separate directions after leaving East High has these Wildcats thinking they ...more

High School Musical made the leap to the big screen with this movie continuing the hit television franchise.  It also ends the story (or possibly sets up the next generation), but fans will find something to love and groove along with in this big screen version.

It’s senior year and everyone is thinking of his or her future, but not before prom or the final musical.  The Wildcats are facing defeat on the basketball court from their rivals the West High Knights.  They’re far behind but team captain Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) encourages them and they pull victory from the jaws of defeat thanks to a winning shot from new player Jimmie “Rocketman” Zara (Matt Prokop). 

At the celebration for winning the game, Troy and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) wonder what the future will bring since their time in high school is coming to an end.  Not only was that the last game of their senior year, but drama teacher Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) is also staging their final spring musical.

Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale), of course, wants to be center stage in the musical that Kelsi (Olesya Rulin) is writing.  Sharpay has also acquired a personal assistant in Tiara Gold (Jemma McKenzie-Brown), an exchange student from England, and her brother Ryan (Lucas Graybeal) is choreographing the musical. 

Chad (Corbin Bleu), Troy’s best friend, asks Taylor (Monique Coleman) to go to the prom but does it so impersonally that she initially refuses.  Each of our seniors has opportunities presented to them for their college careers.  What Troy and Gabriella find is that their paths lead in opposite directions and she decides to go to college early and separate from Troy.  

High School Musical 3: Senior Year is the final chapter in the High School Musical saga.  Actually, they seem to be setting up the characters of “Rocketman” and Tiara Gold (now that’s a name for a character to supplant Sharpay) as potential leads in a spin off of the popular films. 

Disney hoped that the success on the small screen would translate to the big screen and they were right to the tune of a 246 million in worldwide box office receipts.  On a 13 million dollar budget, that’s one heck of a profit. 

I already know that I’m out of the target audience for the film, but my daughter seemed to enjoy it.  I thought it was just more of the same and was a tad bored with it.  The film did have some great production numbers so they knew that they had to bring the goods to the big screen. 

We also get some new characters, both in the teen department and in the adult range.  I don’t recall ever seeing Chad’s parents but they’re cast in the film.  The songs have the same uplifting swing that we’ve come to expect from the television films, though I don’t think they come close to the power that the ones from the first film had.  It’s obvious that the filmmakers know what their audience wants as we’re treated to a huge close-up of a sweaty Zac Efron as the film begins. 

If you’re in that category then you’ll swoon over the Blu-ray definition.  There’s also 5 more minutes of footage in this extended edition.  

High School Musical 3 is presented in 1080p high definition (1.85:1).  All of the special features are also presented in high definition.  Special features are included in a navigatable yearbook, you can also use the video index or bookmark you pages.  In the yearbook you’ll find 7 minutes of deleted scenes, 3 minutes of bloopers, 5 minutes of “cast goodbyes,” and much more.

You can also connect to the Internet via Disney’s BD-Live feature, providing you have a capable player.  Disc two is a regular DVD of the film.  I like this feature, as it’s more compatible if you’ve got kids or want to share the film with friends that don’t have a Blu-ray player. 

I like the backwards compatibility aspect of including a DVD copy.  The disc also contains the special features so you don’t have to miss out on those either.  Disc three is a digital copy that you can download to your PC or portable device.  

High School Musical finally makes it to the big screen, but the formula has been set.  They do add more production values for the finale to the series that features the original cast, but you just know that they’ll try and get more out of the series. 

The new characters sure feel like they’re set up to continue High School Musicaling.  There are some nice moments for fans here though and high def will only make them better.  

High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Deluxe Extended Edition) [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.