High School Musical 2 on DVD and Blu-Ray

The release date for High School Musical 2 on DVD has just been announced. High School Musical 2 will be released on DVD December 11, 2007. For the first time ever, High School Musical 2 will also be released on Blu-Ray disc. For those of you who aren’t sure, Blu-Ray disc is one of the new high definition disc formats on the market. Blu-Ray discs only play in a Blu-Ray player, so if you get the movie on Blu-Ray be sure you have a player for it (just like a DVD won’t play in a regular CD player).

The DVD is called High School Musical 2: Extended Edition and it features an all new, never before seen musical number; the song that Troy and Sharpay rehears but never perform. You’ll recognize Humuhumunukunukua’pua’a from the bonus track on the CD, performed with Ryan rather than Troy.

High School Musical: Extended Edition special features include

• Sing Along with High School Musical 2 – On screen lyrics for all the songs from the movie let viewers join in with their favorite stars
• High School Musical Karaoke – Anyone can be a star with this interactive, highly entertaining bonus feature
• Rehearsal Cam – An unprecedented opportunity to watch the rehearsal footage in sync with the movie.
• Bloopers – Nobody’s perfect and that’s half the fun! Watch as the movie’s stars try to cover their hilarious missteps.
• Music Videos – Including a performance by popular Canadian artist Nikki Yanovsky singing “Gotta Go My Own Way” in French and English.

High School Musical 2: Extended Edition is now available for pre-order

HSM2 Dance Along Announced!

The original High School Musical had dance-along segments where you could learn the dances step by step to Getcha Head in the Game and We’re All in This Together.

The dance-along for High School Musical 2 has been announced! The cast will be joined by talented dancers from the movie to teach two dances from the new movie. The dance-along will feature the opening and closing numbers; What Time is It? and All For One.

The High School Musical 2 Dance Along will be airing Saturday, September 8 at 8pm on the Disney Channel. Starting Friday, August 24 you will be able to download and print out guides to the choreography from DisneyChannel.com so you can start learning the dances right away!

HSM2 Breaks Records!

On Friday night, High School Musical 2 got an estimated 17.2 million viewers. That means some records got shattered!

- It was the most-watched cable telecast ever! It got 8% more viewers than the previous record holder, which was ESPN’s monday night football. I won’t pretend I’m not pleased about a musical beating out a football game.

- High School Musical 2 was the most watched basic cable movie of all time! It got 2 million more viewers than TNT’s Crossfire Trail which aired in 2001 and previously held the record.

- With 6.1 million kids ages 6-11 and 5.9 million 9-14 year olds watching, High School Musical 2 can now claim to be the most watched entertainment telecast ever in the “tween” demographic.

- High School Musical 2 also had the biggest audience of any Friday night broadcast in the past 5 years, directly contributing to low ratings on the major networks.

- High School Musical 2 helped the newest episode of Hannah Montana become basic cable’s most watched series telecast ever, with 10.7 million viewers.

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HSM2 Review

Hopefully everyone has watched High School Musical 2, because I sure enjoyed it! My sister and I sat down to watch it together. We were especially excited at the introduction and applauded when Kenny Ortega came on(we are long-time fans of Newsies). The musical numbers were every bit as fabulous as I expected, with more ensemble numbers than the first movie, and I felt that the ensemble numbers are the strongest points of these movies. Most exciting, this movie reminded me much more of  Newsies than the previous one.

It was a treat to see the opening number,  What Time Is It? in it’s full form. We’ve seen the music video version on the Disney Channel of course, but that cuts to clips from the movie. The number was amazing with it’s full choreography. The supporting characters seemed a bit more established in this movie and played bigger roles in the story which was nice to see. One important thing about these movies is that it’s an ensemble cast. Sharpay’s feature song, Fabulous really looked it, and it reminded me of a glamourous old-style movie musical down to the style of swimwear the girls had on. Ryan in the pool was just inspired.

Work It Out was another great ensemble number and well contrasted to Fabulous. You Are The Music In Me was basically this movie’s What I’ve Been Looking For with a slow version done by Troy and Gabriella and later a flashy reprise with a quicker tempo, although this time it was even more dramatic and Sharpay was accompanied by Troy instead of Ryan. I loved Ryan and Sharpay’s different relationships with their parents and how their dad kept straightening Ryan’s hat.

I Don’t Dance may have been the best number in the movie. First of all, it was really sad to see what happened to Ryan at the hands of Sharpay, especially when their parents started being friendly with Troy and he got left out. It was really sweet to see Ryan becoming friends with the other group and Gabriella extending the hand of friendship. The whole arc really further developed Ryan’s character, showing that he really is “not just Sharpay’s poodle”. It looked a bit awkward when Ryan showed up to the baseball game, and the contrast between his costume and everyone else’s was great visually. I think I actually got chills when they did I Don’t Dance. The song itself was very dynamic with lots of parts and the baseball game’s choreography just got more dramatic and elaborate as the song went on. I loved that they were singing “I Don’t Dance” while they were, in fact, dancing. Cutting between the baseball game and the dance off with a full ensemble dance in the middle, the number was simply amazing to watch. The pairing of Lucas with Corbin was in itself brilliant. It’s nice that they recognize Ryan’s talent and start rehearsing something for the talent show with him. The drama with Troy ignoring his friends and Sharpay ignoring her brother was well paralleled.

Go My Own Way, though Troy comes in in the end, is basically this movie’s version of When There Was Me And You, only it is more dramatic with a prettier setting and features very dramatic facial expressions from Troy. Bet On It is Troy’s first real solo song. It was a bit more like a music video, he was totally alone without alot of other setting around him, mostly just desert. I couldn’t help thinking that if it was Corbin doing that choreography those jumps would have been full flips. Everyday is the new Breaking Free, but it is improved by the whole cast joining in. It’s nice that Troy showed compassion by offering to sing with Sharpay anyway, but it’s funny how Ryan double-crossed her, and Sharpay even demonstrates her humanity by offering the star award to her brother. Troy and Gabriella were finally successful after 4 interrupted kiss attempts.

All For One was an amazing finale number with a great theme that included the entire cast and really captured the mood of the movie. All in all, I’m not ready to commit to a decision yet, but I think this movie may be better than the first. It was more polished and I think the cast has improved since the first movie, especially the younger ones.

HSM2 Tonight!

I’m sure you know that High School Musical 2 will be premiering tonight, but there’s more going on today than the feature presentation.

The Disney Channel is playing a Suite Life marathon with all the Road to High School Musical 2 featurettes from noon until the High School Musical 2 starts at 8pm/7c

Be sure to tune in early enough to see the premiere party with the cast at Kenny Ortega’s house!

After the movie, there will be the premiere of a new Disney Channel show called Phineas and Ferb. It is a new cartoon that features Ashley Tisdale as a voice talent.

Then there will be a new episode of Hannah Montana featuring the Jonas Brothers.

So don’t forget to tune in tonight at 8pm/7c, and if you miss it, it’ll be on again the same time Saturday and Sunday nights as well. Come back this weekend or next week for some great new HSM2 stuff on the site!

Comment Challenge: Let me know in the comments how you’re going to watch High School Musical 2! Are you having a party? Watching with your family? Recording it for later?

Corbin and Ashley Promoting HSM2

Last week, Ashley was on The Sauce (TV show on FUSE really good I highly recommend everone watching it!) and I managed to find a video of the interview posted below:

Tomorrow on Regis and Kelly, Corbin Bleu will be on so make sure you watch it!!