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High School Musical: The Concert
R1 - America - Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (4th July 2007). |
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The Film
 If you have kids, nephews or know anybody under the age of 13, chances are high that you're familiar with 'High School Musical', the wildly popular musical by Disney. It spawned various DVD releases, two sequels and, well, a concert tour. Being familiar with the movie (and its songs), I had an idea of what to expect, and I got what I expected. The trouble about adapting a concert from a movie (which, as I look through my memory, doesn't seem to happen all that often), is that you lose the characters, their relationships, the plot, as you well know. For a musical, all your left with are basically the songs. Without the naive charm of the simple and sweet-as-candy story and relationships between the characters, you're only left with the songs, which, depending on your familiarity and tolerance for all music simple and sweet-as-candy, will probably tip the scales of enjoyment. The songs are now completely out of context and although there's no plot or characters, I doubt many of the audience members complained about this. The movie has some very nice choreography (the cafeteria and basketball scenes in particular), and the concert does the best it can, but of course can't compete with what's already in the movie. Being in a different environment, the choreography had to be adapted to the stage (by the movie's director, Kenny Ortega, and Charles Klapow) rather than movie sets, and the choreographers and performers do a very nice job. The concert stage is big and spacious, and has enough space to add nicely to the movie scenes shown on the big screen at the back of the stage. The editing could be a bit better, but that, I guess, might be overlooked. With the exception of Zac Efron (replaced by Drew Seeley), the entire singing cast of the movie returns in this concert, which, for fans, is great news. They're talented singers and do a nice job with the choreography. They're comfortable with the songs and it shows. A lot of the times, singers in concerts are not as good as they are in a studio, but these are very similar to what you hear in the movie (though I won't speculate at the amount of lip-synching in this thing. The use of both a microphone headset and a hand mic at the same time is a bit baffling.). The 'Extreme Access Pass' tag of the edition refers to the small and somewhat fluffy interview bits taken backstage that are shown between the musical numbers. This also makes me wonder what the DVD is missing from the actual concert. At less than an hour, it's a very slim concert if it were actually that length. I suppose that will have to say a mystery. The bottom line is, do you like 'High School Musical'? If not, and you don't think you would, then skip this and go for the Within Temptation set you already own. If you do like the film, then by all means get this as well (which, incidentally, was recorded in Houston). Disney obviously wants to cash in as much as possible on the success of 'High School Musical', and this concert is a logical progression in that cashing in. It's a fun, light concert that will be very enjoyable to fans of the movie. It shows the cast in a somewhat more personal atmosphere.
Video
1.77:1 non-anamorphic widescreen. For some reason, Disney chose not to enhance the movie anamorphically, possibly because it was shot letterbox for TV and Disney didn't see fit to bother remastering the picture for DVD. In any case, the picture is very good. With such a short main program, the transfer gives no way to noise, pixelation or other such problems. The colours are bright and the contrast is very good. The level of detail is very good, as well. The concert's lighting was very good and so nothing is relegated to darkness. It's a strong transfer here.
Audio
The only audio track is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track and it's adequate. The entire track is very clear with all the cheers, lyrics and instruments mixed in very well. In my mind, the concert's audience was a bit short-changed in the mixing, as they don't seem to be as loud as they should. The rear speakers are also kind of forgotten, with no real sounds being there. The separation is basically non-existent in the front. This is okay, though, because the music comes out clear as a bell, and you're not distracted by fancy mixing. The movie comes with optional English (hard of hearing) subtitles.
Extras
Disney added a few extras to this disc, but most will only appeal to fans of the music. Jordan Pruitt starts things off with four songs. She was invited to open the concert, so here you see her songs, 'Jump to the Rhythm' (3:49), 'Teenager' (3:04), 'Outside Looking In' (2:48) and 'Miss Popularity' (3:44). If you've heard Disney starlets before, you'll know what Miss Pruitt sounds like. High School Musical: On the Road follows. This 9-minute piece is pretty nice. Lucas Grabeel take you on a day-in-the-life-type journey from one concert to another. You see the cast signing autographs and meeting with fans after a concert, then Mr. Grabeel shows you the tour bus and the hotel they stayed that particular night. The cast goof off and relax before their next concert. Mr. Grabeel also shows you backstage, with make up and dressing rooms. The next thing is probably the one that will interest most people. It's called U Direct and as the title suggests, you get to pick what song you want to see and from what angle. You can pick from 'Start of Something New' (4:42), 'Get'Cha Head in the Game' (2:32), 'Bop to the Top' (2:26), 'Breaking Free' (3:33) and 'We're All in this Together' (6:06). You have four video angles and two audio channels: the song, and the backstage audio. The authoring on this extra is pretty nice, because you can see all 4 angles on screen at the same time, with the chosen one taking up most of the vewing screen. It's easily the best extra of the bunch, especially if you like the music. There's a very disappointing Sneak Peek at High School Musical 2, which is only 32 seconds long and, oddly enough, different from what's in the Sneak Peeks section. It shows the cast rehearsing and giving tiny soundbites. Nothing else. The last thing are a bunch ofSneak Peeks. 'Meet the Robinsons' (2:29), 'Bridge to Terabithia' (2:00), 'The Santa Clause 3' (2:23), 'High School Musical 2' (0:31), 'Peter Pan Return to Neverland' (1:01), 'The Jungle Book' (1:26), 'Underdog' (1:13) 'Return to Halloweentown' (1:30), 'The Suite Life of Zack & Cody' (1:05). The last four of these are also start-up trailers.
Overall
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