High School Musical DVD

DVD
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The DVD Disney has released "High School Musical" with a disc dubbed the "Encore Edition," which include two not-at-all-different versions of the film. (More on that in the Extras section.)

Video
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Despite its low budget, the movie looks quite good, the full screen (original 1.33:1 broadcast aspect ratio) image making good use out of the bright, crisp colors. No problems at all arise during the fast moving dance and basketball scenes, the action allowed to burst to life.(A note on that aspect ratio: the film was shot in a 1.85:1 format, as evident in footage seen in the disc's making-of, which features clips from the movie in hard-matted widescreen. However, it was broadcast in a pan-and-scanned 1.33:1 ratio, the same ratio seen here on the DVD. Not one single shot of this cropped image seems to be missing any information - in fact, it looks to be framed quite well in 1.33:1. So well, in fact, that I would assume the movie was intended for the standard broadcast ratio, but was filmed with some extra padding on the sides, a little bit of spare image that could be included in any future high definition broadcasts/video releases. Disney's choice to release this with only a full screen option should therefore not be viewed as a slight at all.)

Audio
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The Dolby 5.1 Surround soundtrack is equally notable. The sound editors wisely felt little need to fiddle with the broadcast mix, merely using the capabilities of 5.1 to produce a lush, rich texture to the songs, without overdoing it. Optional English subtitles are provided.

Extras
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The main extra here is the "sing-along version" of the film, which aired from time to time on the Disney Channel. It's nothing more than the original movie with on-screen lyrics that light up, karaoke-style, during each song. It's a nice addition, although in an odd move, Disney has made this version an entirely separate title, when merely adding an extra subtitle track to the feature presentation would have sufficed. (Perhaps they wanted to retain the exact look of the sing-along broadcast, for the sake of the purists. That's just a hunch, though.)"Bringing It All Together: The Making of High School Musical" is an eight-minute behind-the-scenes featurette that's pretty light on information, delivering little more than your typical on-set interviews and random footage. It gets interesting when it takes a look at the choreography, but it doesn't provide enough to be satisfactory.In "Learning the Moves," Ortega walks us through the "Bop To the Top" steps, with rehearsal footage of Tisdale and Grabeel. The final section in this four-minute bit allows you to access different views of the dance routine (plus the final number as it appears in the film) via your player's angle feature.Rounding out the disc are music videos for "I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and "We're All In This Together," as well as Disney's usual lineup of previews, several of which also play when the disc starts up.