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What make it a great movie? An all round cast featuring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke (with his rather dodgy London accent). A great setting based in a dark and gloomy London. Not forgettinng Disney's trademark of musical songs. Remember songs like A Spoonful of Sugar, that just a simple and nice worded song. A good mix of animation , which is pretty amazing. The extra featured are excellent with rare and exclusive interviews with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. For the kids, you can sang along to the songs featured in the movie.

The perfect treat for Dinsey fans and a good collector item.

The bestselling soundtrack is catchy in that Disney-pop kind of way, mixing in a dash of hip-hop ("Getcha Head in the Game," punctuated by squeaky basketball shoes and other sound effects), salsa ("Bop to the Top"), and the endearingly hammy ("What I've Been Looking For" performed by Sharpay and her brother, Ryan, played by Lucas Gabreel). It's not hard to imagine High School Musical becoming a semi-staple for high school groups to perform themselves. DVD bonus features include sing-along subtitles; a 9-minute featurette discussing casting, recording sessions, and rehearsals; a multi-angle look at a rehearsal of "Bop to the Top"; and music videos for "We're All in This Together" and a song that didn't make it into the final film, "I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You," performed by Efron, Hudgens, Tisdale, and Gabreel. --David Horiuchi
cheesy and fantastic, 2008-10-19
Been trying to ween my 9 yr old daughter off toons for an age,
High school musical worked.
first play, complete silence totaly absorbed.
second play, tapping feet singing chouros.
and ever since dance moves full songs and teaching it to me.
I am a single parent and on a rainy day I know im in for a work out.

High School Musical (Encore Edition)
The Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical is a combination of backstage action and Grease without the unwholesome habits. It's a smash hit with tween audiences (ages 6 to 10), but appealing for all ages. At a New Year's Eve party, Troy (Zac Efron) has a chance meeting with Gabriella (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) when they share a karaoke song. Lo and behold, when school resumes, they discover that Gabriella has just transferred to Troy's East High School, a campus divided into tight cliques of jocks, cheerleaders, brainiacs, and skater dudes. Eager to recapture the magic they'd discovered during karaoke, Troy and Gabriella consider auditioning for the school's upcoming musical, much to the dismay of the school's frost queen/theatre goddess, Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale). Problem is, Troy is also the star of the basketball team and Gabrielle is being recruited to compete in the Scholastic Decathlon. Will they give up their cliques to start something new, or will they do as the show's first big anthem urges and "Stick to the Status Quo"? Well, this is a Disney movie, so maybe the sacrifices won't be that hard, and even the hints of romance are mild.

The bestselling soundtrack is catchy in that Disney-pop kind of way, mixing in a dash of hip-hop ("Getcha Head in the Game," punctuated by squeaky basketball shoes and other sound effects), salsa ("Bop to the Top"), and the endearingly hammy ("What I've Been Looking For" performed by Sharpay and her brother, Ryan, played by Lucas Grabeel). It's not hard to imagine High School Musical becoming a semi-staple for high school groups to perform themselves. --David Horiuchi

High School Musical 2
What time is it? Time for High School Musical 2, the sequel to the Disney Channel smash. School is out, and Troy (Zac Efron) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) are looking forward to a summer to remember, but Troy also needs to earn money so he can go to college. As it turns out, Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale), the self-proclaimed primo girl of East High, has her eye set on primo-boy Troy, and gets him a job at the country club her parents own. It looks great for Troy when Gabriella and the rest of the Wildcats are hired also, but when he gets preferential treatment from the club manager (Mark Taylor) and others, it puts all of his relationships in hot water.

Everyone's back from the original movie, including Zac's buddy Chad (Corbin Bleu), Sharpay's brother Ryan (Lucas Grabeel), and Gabriella's friend Taylor (Monique Coleman). And the songs on the hit soundtrack often parallel the originals and are just as catchy: the Troy-Gabriella duet ("You Are the Music in Me," which is later Sharpay-ized into a rock version), the sports-flavored hip-hop number ("I Don't Dance," but this time on the baseball diamond instead of the basketball court), the Gabriella lament ("Gotta Go My Own Way"), the climactic stage duet ("Everyday"), and the mass-ensemble closer ("All for One"). But the sequel doesn't just stick to the status quo. Other songs include a flashy opener ("What Time Is It"), Sharpay's poolside feature ("Fabulous"), a percussive ensemble number ("Work This Out"), and Zac's solo ("Bet On It"), and the dances are even bigger this time around, relentlessly high-energy and often spectacular. In addition, the "let's put on a show" angle is only a subplot and the romance is now front and center--which means High School Musical has lost a bit of its innocence. But it's still wholesome viewing for tweens of all ages. --David Horiuchi

In the 14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) taunts a king that his infant Aurora will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her sixteenth birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true love. Fortunately, some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are on hand to assist.

It's not really all that much about the title character--how interesting can someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number of animated films since. See it in its original glory here, alongside Maleficent's castle, which, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. --David Kronke, Amazon.com
After 50 years, even more dazzling and more delightful animation, 2008-10-15

This is a new release of a Disney classic that first appeared in 1959. As is my custom, I much prefer to watch an animated feature film with several of my younger grandchildren (ages 3-7) and did so again with Sleeping Beauty on its 50th anniversary. Once again, they were engrossed in the story line whereas I was somewhat more interested in how the quality of animation measures up (after 59 years) when compared and contrasted with recent films such as Toy Story and Toy Story 2, the three Shreks, Ratatouille, Cars, and Wall-E. It measures up remarkably well. Just as there is a certain charm in black-and-white classic films from the 1930's and 40's (e.g. Casablanca, The Little Shop Around the Corner, and It Happened One Night), the same is true of older Disney features (e.g. Dumbo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Pinocchio) despite relatively less sophisticated animation.

There were also generational differences when my companions and I examined the special features that include "Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough (a fully immersive virtual tour), an all-new "Enchanted Dance Game," the "Dragon Encounter Audio Sensory Experience," and an all-new "Making of Sleeping beauty." Predictably, my grandchildren much preferred the supplementary games whereas I was (as always) intrigued by the "behind the screen" material such as a discussion of the film by John Lasseter of Pixar, the film critic Leonard Maltin, and the Disney animator Andreas Deja. The production values in this new edition are superb, especially in the Blu-ray version. The running time of 75 minutes seems just about right. Whatever the ages of those who see this film and one or more of its numerous special features, they will find much to enjoy and appreciate.

The story line is strikingly similar to the one in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A daughter named Aurora is born to royal parents and then cursed to die by her 16th birthday by an evil fairy, Malificent. To protect her, three good fairies take her away, re-name her Briar Rose, and raise her themselves. A handsome prince meets her by chance, they fall in love, and agree to meet again soon. However, on the night of her 16th birthday, as she prepares to return to her parents and be crowned a princess, the evil fairy locates her and then.... Fortunately, everything eventually works out for Aurora as it also does for Snow White, Belle, and other Disney heroines.

I highly recommend this 50th anniversary celebration of one of Disney's most delightful animated films. Under-appreciated when first released, I think it will now receive the praise it so clearly deserves. Bravo!