Movie Info:
Writer: Peter Barsocchini
Director: Kenny Ortega
Cast: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Alyson Reed, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Olesya Rulin, Chris Warren Jr., Bart Johnson, Ryne Sanborn, Socorro Herrera, Matt Prokop
Rating: G
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Release Info:
Theatrical Release: October 24, 2008
DVD Release Date: February 17, 2009
Online Availability: Amazon for $22.99
The sequels to any movie are never quite as good as the original. That’s true for nearly every movie I’ve seen, except perhaps The Godfather. After surprising myself by liking High School Musical and it’s sequel, High School Musical 2, I was ready to check out High School Musical 3: Senior Year. I had heard some of the rather catchy songs while watching the Disney Channel with my son and nephew, so I knew, if nothing else, the music would be good.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year is a decent movie. That being said, you shouldn’t expect it to live up to enchantment of the first movie. This is a rather sad film, merely because the characters your kids know and love are moving on. It’s no longer about High School. The main characters are all headed to college. The creators of High School Musical are trying to suck more money out of the franchise as they make the fourth movie in the series, but I can bet loyal fans of the original movie will not be as thrilled with this future installment. The majority of the main cast, who have delighted audiences of all ages through three films, have made it all but clear that they will not be returning.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year is good merely because it is the last hurrah for Troy, Gabriella and the gang. The best part of the movie is the songs and the choreography. The story isn’t as fun as the past movies, but it is pertinent to the closing of this trilogy of films. This movie is a pleasure film. By that, I mean that it was merely written because audiences know and loves these characters. That’s why I feel this plot is the weakest, thus far, in this franchise. Still, it’s clear the actors continue to give it their all as they prepare to say goodbye to their fans and the roles they made famous.
Don’t get me wrong, I would watch High School Musical 3: Senior Year again. The primary audience this franchise is geared towards, children, tweens and teens will love it. I don’t know if they’ll be as crazy for it as they were about the first movie, but they’ll love it none the less. The entire set of High School Musical movies are something that parents can enjoy watching with their kids. While the plot isn’t as enthralling as the previous movies, there is an obvious plot. The actors are excellent performers, talented singers, and great dancers. Even if this film didn’t seem to have as much spice as the original, a lot of work still went into making it.
The acting is part of what stands out in High School Musical 3: Senior Year. The cast has really grown since High School Musical. Their singing, acting, dancing and even their camaraderie is much better. The cast always had a lot of chemistry, but as they’ve matured into their roles they’ve grown together. It’s easy to see the cast as a group of longtime friends because that’s exactly what they are. Off the screen, they are all really good friends, and that transfers onto the screen. It makes the movie that more enjoyable.
The High School Musical 3: Senior Year Plot
High School Musical 3: Senior Year is the only movie in the franchise to debut on the silver screen. Disney knew the loyal HSM audience would head to the theater in droves. While the movie has received a mixed bag of reviews from critics, this isn’t reflected in the profit. In its opening weekend, the movie made $40 million domestically and $42 million internationally. This makes it the biggest opening for a musical movie ever.
The movie starts off at a familiar place for High School Musical fans, on the basketball court. It’s Troy’s (Zac Efron) final championship game with the East High Wildcats. They are playing the West High Knights. The game is tight, but as the captain, Troy knows how to mellow his team out. With their game on, the Wildcats win and it’s all thanks to newcomer, Jimmie “The Rocket” Zara (Matt Prokop).
During the celebration after the game, Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) talks about the future with Troy. Both are very apprehensive about the future and they don’t want their time at their high school, or together, to end. The main duo aren’t the only one with problems. Mean girl turned sorta okay at times girl aka drama queen Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) meets her match in a new exchange student named Tiara Gold (Jemma McKenzie-Brown). Sharpay thinks she’s doing Tiara a favor when she hires her to be her personal assistant, but Sharpay ends up getting more than she’s bargained for with the girl.
The spring musical, which is being composed and written by Kelsi (Olesya Rulin) is not very popular. When the head of the drama department, Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) realizes there is very little interest in the show, she considers Sharpay’s offer to have a one woman show. Luckily, Kelsi gets droves of people to sign up, therefore saving the school from a show full of Sharpay. The musical is so popular Ms. Darbus plans to chronicle and reflect the senior year of this class of students.
It also becomes known that multiple students from the school have been considered for scholarships to Julliard, including Troy, Sharpay, Kelsi, and Sharpay’s brother, Ryan (Lucas Grabeel). Only one can win the scholarship, so Sharpay sets out to seek and destroy anyone who gets in the way of her (and Ryan) getting into Julliard.
The prom is also a big deal with it being senior year and all. Gabriella teaches Troy to dance and Chad (Corbin Bleu), Troy’s best friend, wants to take Gabriella’s nerdy friend, Taylor (Monique Coleman). Tensions are high, as the group look for prom dates. Troy learns Gabriella has the chance to move on to the next level and graduate early, but he knows he’s holding her back. Troy also faces tension with his dad, who wants him to go play ball, and ignore his passion for singing. Ms Darbus says the opposite, of course, but she’s more kind because she knows how much singing means to him.
In a finale that is full of high energy, bright colors and stories that reveal who got the scholarship, who is moving where, what happens to Gabriella, and what goes down during the musical, the entire cast give a star studded performance, allowing us to say goodbye to the characters we’ve grown to care for throughout the three High School Musical films.
Plot/Storyline: 
Replayability:
Acting:
Singing:
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Directing:
Audio/Visual:
High School Musical 3: Senior Year is a vast improvement, in the Blu Ray department from the original. This is the area where this movie shines above the others in the series and this is in large part due to the much bigger budget. High School Musical 3: Senior Year is vibrant, bright, and a visual explosion of song and dance. The 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC transfer certainly helps to give this film the ultimate Blu Ray feel. While the transfer isn’t perfect, with a bit too much color at times, the dark colors, especially black levels are richly gorgeous and this is a step above what you expect from this type of movie from Disney.
Fleshtones are natural, though they occasionally brighten a bit too much, as well. Still, the transfer is as clean and clear of compression errors and other visual problems that plague many standard edition releases. This means that even if the colors can be too saturated, at times, the picture is still crisp and clear. You can see the fine details down to every little mark on the individual cast member’s faces, which is typical for a decent Blu Ray transfer.
The audio for High School Musical 3: Senior Year features a 5.1 DTS-HD MA English track. This is a decent transfer though it’s not as good as I would expect from a Blu Ray. I want my musicals’ audio to pop out of the speakers. This did pop somewhat, but not as much as I like. There is some good bass and multichannel speaker action going on. The sound is dynamic, but it’s not overly zestful, especially considering the audio on the original High School Musical‘s Blu Ray release, which is superior to what’s available on this release.
The best part of the audio is the surround sound. The background music isn’t over powering and the occasional sound effect comes through quite clearly. While the audio is, for the most part, clear and it’s a decent track, it isn’t so outstanding I’m jumping off my seat in excitement.
Besides the English DTS-HD 5.1 audio track, there is a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish.
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Audio:
Bonus Features:
The bonus features are brimming in this set. This is a three disc, deluxe extended edition of High School Musical 3: Senior Year. The Blu Ray Disc is available. There is also a standard DVD, which is really convenient whenever you travel and might not have the Blu Ray player or PS3 handy. Additionally, the digital copy of this movie is made available so you can take this with you on your portable player, as well.
The menu for HSM3 offers the option to select sing-along mode. There is also a song selection option. Sing-along actually highlights all of the words in a karaoke style as they are sung, so you and your child(ren) can join in whenever or wherever you want.
You can play around with this menu and you’ll find one potential Easter Egg. There is a hidden featurette when you click on the paw print in the “Table of Contents”, supplement section. This also features a virtual yearbook for everyone’s favorite HSM school, East High. From there, there is a selection of deleted scenes. There is over seven minutes worth of scenes and Kenny Ortega, the HSM director introduces the scenes to you. All of them are in HD. Mostly, the cuts are just chunks of dialogue that take or add little to the movie.
“Out of Sync: ‘HSM3′ Bloopers” – This is, obviously, the blooper reel. It offers some funny outtakes of the cast and crew, though nothing too dirty is featured. This is Disney, after all. The blooper reel also in HD.
Featurette: “Night of Nights” – The cast talks about prom, their own ideas on this infamous night that every high schooler has to decide whether to attend. It also looks into the choreography for the dancing at the prom. Another HD featurette is here.
Featurette: “It’s All in the Dress” – A very quick featurette with Caroline Marx, the costume designer for HSM3. She talks mainly about how she found the right prom dress to suit each individual character’s personality. This feature is HD.
Featurette: “Cast Goodbyes” – The main cast reflects on saying goodbye after working on three films. This should have been longer, because it’s nice to see the camaraderie and friendships made. They also talk about shooting the last number and how emotional it was to leave the set. This is in HD.
Featurette: “New Cast Profiles” – The series is supposed to carry on with the new characters, who debuted in HSM3. Kenny Ortega introduces the audience to the new cast head on. This features footage of their auditions, clips of the cast, and video diaries. This is in HD.
Featurette: “Senior Awards” – This quickie feature gives awards to the members of the cast. These awards are kind of like the awards you receive in your High School yearbook, such as best dressed. This is in HD.
“BD-Live Feature – Community Features” – You can post a picture of yourself or your kids on the community cyber yearbook for HSM3. There is an online chat option and you can also test your HSM3 trivia in order to win Disney reward points.
Finally, there are previews for Pinocchio: 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition, Race to Witch Mountain, Bedtime Stories, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bolt, and Monsters, Inc.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
If you are going to pick up High School Musical 3: Senior Year, you are going to want to purchase it in Blu Ray. Not only do you get the Blu Ray, you get the standard DVD and it comes with the digital copy. You can take this movie with you everywhere. I like the benefit of the standard DVD because while we have a Blu Ray player, we also have a portable DVD player. If the kids want to take this movie with them in the car, now they can! It’s a brilliant idea by Disney, because families can really benefit from having this film in various forms.
I liked High School Musical 3: Senior Year. While I thought the story wasn’t as good as the first, the movie was a fitting closer to the three-movie franchise. While I don’t believe a 4th movie is necessary, they are going to make one anyway. I recommend you get the first three and try to ignore any further releases, as this is the final one with the original cast. High School Musical 3: Senior Year comes recommended, especially if you have children or enjoy a movie full of catchy song and dance numbers.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: High School Musical 3, Senior Year, Disney, Blu Ray, Review, Sharpay, Gabriella, Troy, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, HSM, musical, Ashley Tisdale
Written by Dominick Evans – Visit Website
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Dominick is in his late 20s. He lives in Michigan with his life partner, Ashtyn, their 14 year old son Robert, and their Shih-Tzu, Oliver. Dominick is a writer and the head editor for both LI Kids and Literary Illusions. He enjoys composing music and is an aspiring director/screenwriter. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family, playing and watching sports, playing video games, watching movies, and singing.
