High School Musical 3: Senior Year
By Karen Wilson with Laura YoungMPAA Rating: G
Genre: Musical/Comedy/Romance
Release Date: October 24, 2008
DVD Release Date: February 17, 2009
Running Time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Plot Synopsis: The busy seniors of East Side High School are halfway through their final year, but they still have so much left to do before graduation. There are final basketball games to play, the yearbook to finish, a prom to plan, and of course, an extravagant spring musical to put on.
But the biggest challenge facing lovebirds Troy and Gabriella is how, after sharing so many soulful duets, they will be able to say goodbye to each other when they head off to different colleges.
Sex/Nudity: Troy and Gabriela kiss in their secret garden on top of the school's roof. Various boys ask various girls to the prom. A goofy freshman nicknamed Rocketman hits on Sharpay.
Violence/Gore: None
Profanity: Are you darn tootin' kidding? None.
Which Kids Will Like It?
Elementary school and pre-teen girls will go gaga for this Disney sequel. At one screening, the aforementioned groups produced squeals of delight when the film started and led a resounding ovation when the credits rolled.
Will Parents Like It?
Even if they were forced to chaperone a movie outing to this flick, parents will find the flashier dance numbers and brisk pacing of the film will keep them relatively entertained.
Special Features: The 1-disc DVD version includes the theatrical version of the movie plus: "Cast Goodbyes" featurette. The 2-disc Extended Edition DVD showcases the extended version of the film, plus: "Cast Goodbyes" featurette, sing along with the songs, bloopers, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes features "It's All in the Dress" and "Night of Nights," and DisneyFile digital copy of the extended movie.
The 3-disc Blu-ray Deluxe Extended Edition includes the extended version of the film, plus all of the bonus features from the DVD included in the 2-disc Extended Edition DVD, plus exclusive bonus features highlighting new cast profiles, "Senior Awards," and BD Live Experience (US only). The Blu-ray edition also includes a DVD copy of the extended movie.
Kaboose Review: When the Disney Channel first aired their modest little teenage song and dance movie High School Musical in 2006, they couldn't possibly have known it would become the cultural juggernaut it is today. Now there's scarcely a kid (or parent) who doesn't know the story of how the basketball star Troy Bolton and the transfer student math geek Gabriella Montez met on a karaoke stage, falling for each other's fresh-faced looks and pop star-ready singing skills.
Since subsequent 2007 made-for-cable sequel, High School Musical 2, further proved the appeal of the HSM brand by continuing to shatter Disney Channel viewing records, the company has bet its money on a big box office cash-in by brining the franchise and all of its stars to the big screen for High School Musical 3: Senior Year. As a result of a bigger Hollywood movie budget, this latest installment is brighter and faster than its predecessors, and chockablock with joyful, elaborately choreographed dance numbers.
Like in the previous two movies, the kids from East High School in Albuquerque are putting on a show. Despite their busy schedules and pre-college pressures, the school's resident composer Kelsi (Olesya Rulin) ropes the whole gang into participating in the final spring musical.
Not much has changed since the first HSM—Troy (played by Zac Ephron) is still the swoon-worthy basketball star and brilliant, sweet Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) has already been accepted to Stanford University. Drama queen Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) is still fascinating and terrorizing her fellow students with her loyal brother, Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) by her side.
But all of the Wildcats know that their idyllic high school experience will soon come to an end, with everyone graduating from high school and moving on; maybe to attend the University of Arizona or perhaps The Julliard School in New York, if they win a coveted theater scholarship that's up for grabs.
Watching HSM 3 back-to-back with the original, it is astonishing how much confidence and stage presence all of the film's stars have gained in the intervening years. The charming kid actors now wear their familiar roles like well-worn tennis shoes.
No longer impeded by a small TV movie budget and scale, breakout performers like Zac Ephron and Ashley Tisdale have been given the opportunity to really shine--thanks to huge-scale choreographed numbers and show-stopping solos. Whether they're dancing around a moving junkyard or singing on a stage replica of Manhattan's Great White Way, it's clear Ephron and Tisdale are ready for the big time.
Granted, the movie's contrived plot is flimsy, with the songs only loosely connected to it, and the last 20 minutes leading up to the finale drag on a bit, but High School Musical 3 shows the Wildcats know how to put on a thrilling, yet wholesome show.
When kids are done watching the movie, there are still a chock full of things to watch on the DVD. For children who aspire to be in the next iteration of High School musical, the sing-a-long feature in the Blu-ray and Extended 2-Disc DVD packages will be a favorite with them. Another highlight in the Extended packages is the featurette "The Night of Nights," which shows viewers all the dance training and preperation it took to put on the fantasy prom sequence in the film.
And last, but certainly not least, fans of Zac Efron can get a few more longing glances at him as HSM's basketball star Troy Bolton in the "Cast Goodbyes" section (featured on all DVD packages) in which the original HSM cast bid their farewells to the successful franchise. But for girls still a little weepy-eyed that Zac will not be in the next HSM, those who own the Blu-ray version of the DVD can soak in all the information about the next breed of Wildcat heartbreakers in the new cast profiles.
Directed by: Kenny Ortega
Cast: Zac Ephron (Troy Bolton), Vanessa Hudgens (Gabriella Montez), Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale), Corbin Bleu (Chad Danforth), Lucas Grabeel (Ryan Evans), Monique Coleman (Taylor McKessie), Olesya Rulin (Kelsi Nielsen), Kaycee Stroh (Martha Cox), Alyson Reed (Ms. Darbus), Bart Johnson (Coach Bolton)
Be sure to check out our review of the original High School Musical movie, High School Musical 2, and our fabulous High School Musical party ideas.
Karen Wilson is a freelance writer living in New York City. Laura Young is Crafts/Holidays & Fun editor at Kaboose.com
Star Rating
3 Stars
