HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
**/**** Image A- Sound B+ Extras C+
starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel
written by Peter Barsocchini
directed by Kenny Ortega
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2
½*/**** Image B Sound B+ Extras C-
starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel
written by Peter Barsocchini
directed by Kenny Ortega
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR
*½/**** Image A Sound A- Extras B-
starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel
screenplay by Peter Barsocchini
directed by Kenny Ortega
by Ian Pugh Not exactly the cultural apocalypse its Disney Channel roots and preteen popularity would have you believe, High School Musical is no worse, really, than any other cookie-cutter musical in recent memory. A by-product of pandering to a young, young audience, its biggest sin is that it alleges a greater basis in reality than its more "adult" contemporaries: The movie endeavours to give credence to the familiar tropes of storybook romance and rags-to-riches by applying them to the politicized zoo known as high school. Troy (Zac Efron) is captain of the basketball team and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) is a brainiac, but all it takes is one happenstance karaoke duet for them to discover they both enjoy singing a whole lot, and their pursuit of that mutual interest throws the entire clique-driven society of East High into disarray. Although it's bolstered by a few genuine chuckles, the premise can't hide the fact that the high-school backdrop actively highlights how inconsequential the whole blasted thing truly is.
|
![High School Musical (Remix Edition) [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KTzYUdRKL._SL500_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
Admirably biting the hand that feeds in a tame mockery of Broadway geeks, High School Musical surrounds its central couple with a wacky drama teacher (Alyson Reed) and the designated antagonists, Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) and Ryan (Lucas Grabeel), each of whom is characterized by an overwrought, showtune-driven staginess. (The real laugh here is that it never bothers to forge any significant differences between that form of vapid theatricality and the vapid theatricality that infests the rest of it.) The songs are terrible and impossible to tell apart, the choreography is pedestrian, and it's all tethered to the awkward statement that high school will always constitute the best days of your life. It's difficult to take High School Musical to task for emphasizing the virtues of individualism in a rigid social dynamic, especially considering it doesn't get bogged down in unrealistic, reach-for-the-stars egalitarianism. In preaching to an audience not quite prepped for the titular environment, though, it doesn't even bother to demonstrate that not everyone slots comfortably into an archetype with easily-digestible quirks–or, for that matter, that everything these people know is going to change dramatically within a few short years. Boasting a reach that well exceeds its grasp, the High School Musical experience is like the final, fist-pumping shot of The Breakfast Club repeated ad nauseam for ninety-eight minutes straight.
The filmmakers were clearly caught off-guard by High School Musical's enormous success in the ratings, and the expectations for merchandising and sequelizing resulted in an already wispy concept being stretched to the breaking point. Taking place the summer bridging the junior and senior years of the previous film's core ensemble, High School Musical 2 is best described as the unholy spawn of a Busby Berkeley musical and an Elvis movie. Nothing much has changed since the credits rolled on the original, save that, contrary to her apparent redemption, Sharpay has resumed the role of unrepentant villain–and in her latest bid to win Troy's heart, she's snagged him a job waiting tables at her parents' Hawaiian-themed day spa. Unfortunately for her, he's brought most of the familiar East High Wildcats along with him, and the sudden influx of ready-made talent threatens to usurp her at the spa's annual talent show.
As Sharpay's parents try to lure him to their alma mater with the promise of hefty scholarships and secure futures, Troy eventually falls for the life of caviar and golf, making a tour through the role of entitled asshole and back again, casually ignoring his bros before arriving at the inevitable non-conclusion that Gabriella is still the only girl for him. I'm not sure whether it was the songs (ten times worse than anything in the original), the beach-blanket-bingo aesthetic, or the excessively simplistic examinations of the class divide (it says a lot that the series has to concoct a Paris Hiltonite like Sharpay to locate a baddie among so many "beautiful people"), but this misbegotten sequel nearly prompted my mind to shut down in protest. These first two films end in precisely the same way–don't bother thinking about tomorrow because you're going to be young forever (a message distinct, mind you, from "you're only young once")–but for comparison's sake, the cheerful inconsequence of High School Musical rolled right off my back. Quickly maxing out the potential of its summer-vacation milieu and running on fumes thereafter, High School Musical 2 is infected by the kind of aggressive inconsequence that manages to linger like a stench.
Because everything reset to status quo at the beginning of High School Musical 2, turning the high-school experience into an infinite loop of rehearsed set-pieces and superficial drama, High School Musical 3: Senior Year initially suggests a breath of fresh air, poised (or, at least, forced) as it is to gaze beyond the standard parameters and acknowledge that there is, indeed, life after graduation. Upon winning another big game late in his final year, Troy is confounded and intimidated by the choices laid out before him: Should he follow his father's expectations to become a basketball star for the University of Albuquerque, or should he pursue a potential vocal scholarship to Julliard? Where does either plan leave his darling Gabriella, who's been accepted into Stanford for whatever the hell it is that she does?
This scenario allows TIGER BEAT pin-up Zac Efron to establish himself as a potential movie star, free to express the uncertainty of his age bracket without most of the irrelevant bullshit weighing him down anymore. When it's not pushing its still-unbearable pop nonsense, High School Musical 3 creates the impression that it's following suit. The climactic talent show is once more a full-blown stage production, this time literally recreating every important event in our heroes' end of days as high-school seniors. At first it feels like an act of pre-emptive nostalgia, an attempt to preserve these moments in uncritical amber almost before they've happened. (The presence of "The Boys Are Back," a paean to childhood immaturity set in Imaginationland, certainly reinforces that.) But this feeling disappears as soon as you realize that the lavish production doesn't merely recreate these moments–it actively replaces them in our eyes; eventually the play evolves into a platform on which the new graduates are forced to officially announce their future plans to the world. It's not commiserating with the adolescents' malaise so much as it's defining the sense that their lives and choices are a puerile sideshow dictated at the behest of the masses.
As the major players are set to be replaced by younger, sprightlier, borderline-body-snatcher versions of themselves (understudies for their roles in the musical-within-the-musical and, metatextually, future films), the High School Musical trilogy seems to have learned something, God forbid, about the impermanence of the teenage years and the irrationality of assigning too much importance to them. And then Troy takes the stage to announce he has chosen basketball and theatre at a magical school that, as luck would have it, is a short drive away from Stanford. The ultimate message appears to be that when the time comes to let go of the past and move on to the future, seek the compromise that prevents you from having to make any real decisions at all. The whole shebang ends with the lyric "I want the rest of my life to feel just like a high school musical," which is either the most incisive blow delivered by a brilliant tragicomedy, or, more likely, the coup de grâce of a genuine piece of crap built on wilful ignorance.
THE BLU-RAY DISCS
High School Musical debuts on the Blu-ray format in a "Remix" edition, whatever that may mean. The 1.78:1, 1080p transfer has a certain flatness that corresponds to the project's low-budget, TV roots, though the level of detail is incredible enough that you could make a sport out of counting the individual sequins. Audio is 5.1 PCM uncompressed or Dolby Digital, and both sound canned but not tinny, if you catch my drift. Special features begin with "Music & More" (and if anyone can tell me where or what the "more" is, I'd appreciate it), an umbrella heading, for starters, for "Music Videos"–in actuality studio-recording sessions and clips attached to "I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" (3 mins.) and "We're All in This Together" (3 mins.). There are also (dance?) remixes for "Breaking Free" and "We're All in This Together," which change things up a bit by using clips and studio recording sessions. Capping off this section is a sing-along option for the film and "Eres Tu," the Spanish-language version of another of High School Musical's functionally-identical tunes.
The meatier "Backstage Disney" menu begins with "Bringing it All Together: The Making of High School Musical" (9 mins.), in which cast and crew reveal that musicals are hard work. In "Learning the Moves" (4 mins.), director Kenny Ortega offers a multi-angle choreography lesson with Grabeel and Tisdale. "Hollywood Premiere" (2 mins.) sees the Disney Channel stable gathered together for a theatrical screening of High School Musical to celebrate the movie's DVD release–a lot of red-carpet blather, in other words, ending with Coleman opining that the movie is the defining musical of her generation. It's a frighteningly accurate assertion proved by "A High School Reunion" (6 mins.), wherein a reunited cast discusses the enormous fanbase the franchise has attracted and how it's changed their lives. (All answers pre-approved, no doubt.) With a touch of sadness, Hudgens contributes the lone realistic response, i.e., that she'll enjoy her fame while she can. (Was this filmed before or after those nude photos caused a minor uproar?) Lastly, there's another (possibly televised) version of "Learning the Moves," "Disney Channel Dance-Alongs" (16 mins.). The four principal actors conduct the lessons this time, spouting the sort of scripted camaraderie that makes Disney Channel stars so difficult to watch whenever they play "themselves." A Disney Blu-ray reel cues up on startup alongside semi-forced previews for Pinocchio, Earth, High School Musical 3, and Disney Movie Rewards.
Given its faux-tropical setting, High School Musical 2 utilizes a more vibrant palette than its predecessor, but whomever took charge of mastering the 1.78:1 image in 1080p for Blu-ray arguably let things get out of hand: the blues, pinks, and yellows are blindingly intense; saturation is pumped up to the point where Hudgens's black hair shines blue under bright light. Again it's tack-sharp, although some of that clarity seems to come at the expense of video noise. Audio specs are identical to the previous film's, literally and figuratively. Bonus features launch with immanently-skippable "Bloopers" (4 mins.) and another "Music & More" option. The sing-alongs also return, complete with karaoke! Aren't you a lucky duck? "'Humuhumunukunukuapua'a' Exclusive Scene" (5 mins.) features a Hawaiian musical number that apparently accounts for this being the "Extended Edition" of High School Musical 2, but since it was already reintegrated into the movie proper, why double up? "Music Videos" contains international renditions of the awful songs: Paulina Holguin and Roger González perform "You Are the Music in Me" in Spanish, while we're treated to separate French and English renditions of "I've Got to Go My Own Way" from Canadian songstress Nikki Yanofsky. The "USA" version of "You Are the Music in Me" is ripped right from the film and disturbingly credited to "Troy and Gabriella" rather than to their real-life counterparts.
Blessedly little from "Backstage Disney" this time around. Introduced by Ortega in a terrifying, high-octane tone of voice, "Rehearsal Cam" is a comprehensive video history of the rehearsals for just about every single song, with the added option to bounce you to the relevant scenes to view the final product. A "sneak peek" for the Tisdale-starring cartoon "Phineas and Ferb" wraps things up. The Disney Blu-ray reel kicks off the disc, joining previews for Underdog, Tinker Bell, and "High School Musical: The Ice Tour"(!).
High School Musical 3: Senior Year docks in a three-disc "Deluxe Extended Edition" that collects the Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copies of the film in a single package, a thoughtful way to accommodate fans with future but no current plans to upgrade to Blu-ray. The step up in picture quality from the prequels to the 1.85:1, 1080p image on the third instalment's BD is, frankly, astounding, albeit anticipated by the increased budget and transition to the silver screen: the pale off-orange of the Wildcats' jerseys becomes a blazing, fire-engine red, for example, and more supple lighting schemes lead to a greater overall illusion of depth. Audio, too, enjoys a boost, the 5.1 DTS-HD track in general delivering a punchier, livelier (if no less synthetic) soundstage.
Supplementals technically commence with another sing-along option as well as a "song selection" menu, but "Explore Yearbook" is where the "action" is. You'll have to click the pictures in the fake yearbook to find out what you're going to be watching (though most of these segments are conveniently listed in a "Video Index"); select the untitled paw prints to access minor production/rehearsal notes and tips on how to ask your date to the prom. Seven minutes' worth of "Deleted Scenes" are introduced by Kenny Ortega, who expresses his regret that High School Musical 3 could not be a three-hour epic and that these scenes were removed for "pacing reasons and story reasons." I was surprised, actually, that the majority of these excised moments not only revolve around character development for the pod people–their inclusion might have made the final product a more human experience to boot. I think it's clear that I don't watch "Bloopers" (3 mins.) anymore, so let's move on to "Cast Goodbyes" (6 mins.), a pseudo-emotional retrospective piece on everything and everyone the actors are going to miss now that their time with the franchise has ended. How many High School Musical veterans do you suppose will Ortega end up using in his remake of Footloose?
"It's All in the Dress" (2 mins.) is a costume-design piece, natch, focused on Caroline Marx's efforts to give the characters a memorable prom experience. "New Cast Profiles" (15 mins.) has the aforementioned body snatchers sharing their experiences as "the new guys" on set–including video diaries revolving around the shooting schedule and the five-tier audition process. Considering that their most substantial material hit the cutting-room floor, it's cruelly ironic that this mini-doc should represent the most time we spend with these folks. (Fret not–we'll no doubt be seeing more of them in High School Musical: The New Class.*) "Prom: The Night of Nights" (7 mins.) invites the cast to describe the prom mock-up, which they do with a crazed earnestness. Last but not least, in "Senior Awards" (2 mins.) we learn that the High School Musical company produced a real, live yearbook and awarded plaques like "Most Dependable" and "Class Clown." Pretty fatuous to show this to outsiders, yet I do love Grabeel's half-sarcastic reaction to his two awards: "I never won any superlatives when I went to real high school, but when I went to fake high school, I got 'Most Intellectual' and 'Most Artistic.' Look where I am now!" Guy's got no illusions about the lasting impact of this franchise or his participation therein. There's also a Disney BD Live function that lets you upload your own photos to the Wildcats' yearbook. Yippie-skippy! One more Disney Blu-ray reel cues up upon insertion of the disc–ditto spots for Pinocchio, Race to Witch Mountain, Bedtime Stories, and Disney Movie Rewards; an additional "Sneak Peeks" menu adds Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bolt, Monsters Inc., and something called "Disney XD" to the fold. Originally published: February 25, 2009.
*Apropos of nothing, High School Musical 3 ends with the promise that Sharpay will go on to help run the East High drama department. Does that mean Ashley Tisdale is the new Dustin Diamond?
