Disney Fan Club Blog

Posted on Saturday, 8th November 2008 by astronomius

The “Big Three” of the High School Musical series are inarguably Troy Bolton, Gabriella Montez and Sharpay Evans, and probably every character in the series is a lesser variation of these three; my pick of the most interesting, fun and representative of the series is Sharpay Evans.

To me, Sharpay is the true soul of all things High School Musical, because acting, singing and dancing is her main reason for being… not shadow-presiding over the East High student body, nor getting together with Troy nor ruining Gabriella.

House lights off. Spotlight on center stage. Drama queen. Flashy musical numbers. Carry the show. Big finish. Break a leg. That’s Sharpay all over.

The beauty of a series like High School Musical, however, is that an exaggerated character like Sharpay Evans can be toned down by good writing and direction and finely focused to fit into a much larger cast of characters without destroying any scene; more than good writing, direction and awesome choreography, though, Sharpay is given true reality and substance through the brilliant acting, singing and dancing talents of Ashley Tisdale.

Disney really had the good sense to strategically use Sharpay for heightened dramatic and comedic effect, much like the great movie monsters as the shark in “Jaws” or the giant spider in “Tarantula” were used, and Tisdale has become an expert in doing just that playing Sharpay over the past three years.

Even though the big screen story of HSM3 has stated that her character Sharpay will return to assist Ms. Darbus in the East High Drama Dept. after graduation, there have been no official talks or contracts made for her to do a fourth film in the series. “I don’t know anything about that,” Ashley told the press. “It is flattering to have an open door, obviously for my character, but I am doing other projects as well and moving on.”

Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens also told reporters as far back as last April that they will not return for a fourth HSM. “I think it’s been a crazy journey for all the Wildcats, and watching them turn into adults is a great way to finish it off,” Efron said.

It is much easier for me to say good-bye to Zac and Vanessa as Troy and Gabriella than Ashley as Sharpay; they’ve been a real couple for a long time and continue to get lots of publicity together offscreen.

And somehow, i still expect Sharpay to lead theater production after what she had been doing the entire series. That is what Sharpay was meant to do, you know? Quite honestly, I seriously can’t see anyone else but the original High School Musical cast play their characters effectively after they’ve grown in the roles and made them their own.

Ashley is very pleased with having worked on the series and grown in her talents. “I think that High School Musical has given us so many more opportunities than we had before. We’re so grateful for it. We’ve been doing this since we were younger. I’ve been doing it since I was three, Vanessa’s been doing it since nine, so we’ve worked hard to get here. It’s not been an overnight success for us and I think we’ll carry that on for all the other projects that we do. It’s not going to be like, okay, now we’re done. We have a lot more to show and we’re very talented, I feel, and I think that will carry through.”

So, will there be a High School Musical Reunion in the future with the original cast, or is this really goodbye? Well, remember, anything can happen. After all…

This IS show biz.

Posted in Disney Movies, Disney Music, Disney Stars | Comments (0)

Posted on Saturday, 1st November 2008 by astronomius

A small German Shepherd (voice by John Travolta) is the star of a wildly popular TV show about a super-powered (only onscreen, by special effects) dog named Bolt who fights crime with his human partner, Penny (voice by Miley Cyrus), but offscreen gets shipped to New York by accident and teams up to fight real crime in his natural, non-superpowered abilities with a TV-loving hamster named Rhino (voice by Mark Walton) and a jaded female cat named “Mr. Mittens” (voice by Susie Essman).

As with Disney’s “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” (currently playing) and many others, Disney has put together another “talking animal” movie where the animals all communicate directly using spoken (human) language with each other and the people in the story just hear animal sounds come from the animals; also, “Bolt” looks like another example of animals “finding the hero within”.

Unlike “…Chihuahua”, however, “Bolt” is entirely CGI-animated and Disney is using a new animation process called “Non-Photorealistic Rendering”; the movie has a painterly, dimensional look.

Writer / Director Chris Sanders (”Lilo and Stitch”) helped begin the project, but the film is directed by Byron Howard and Chris Williams and written by Dan Fogelman (”Cars”) and Chris Williams (”Mulan”).

John Lasseter is the Executive Producer.

Other voice talent actors in “Bolt” include Malcolm McDowell as the evil “Dr. Calico”, Greg Germann (from “Ally McBeal”) and J.P. Manoux (from Disney’s “Phil of The Future” and the “Emperor’s New Groove” TV series).

“Bolt” is rated PG for some mild action and peril.

US Release date: Nov. 21

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Posted on Saturday, 25th October 2008 by astronomius

HSM 3 explosively begins with the final basketball game of the Wildcats’ season (with the first musical number “Now or Never”), and quickly winds down at a celebration at Troy Bolton’s (Zac Efron) house to slowly build all the way up to Senior Class graduation.

Troy and Gabriella (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) spend a lot of time together deciding what they’re going to do with their lives, as Ms. Darbus (Alyson Reed) assigns her Drama class to create and star in a musical about their own High School experiences, hopes and dreams after they graduate; Darbus plainly, ironically titles their final stage project “Senior Year”, the students are instructed to write and perform larger-than-life versions of themselves for the stage, and their stage scenes all play out during the course of the film.

Of course, we also find out what Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale), Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) and new couple Chad (Corbin Bleu) and Taylor (Monique Coleman) are up to, but the story mainly focuses on Gabriella (Hudgens) and Troy (Efron, both pictured here at right).

A romantic interest sparks between Ryan and Kelsi (Olesya Rulin) as Sharpay makes one final (secret) campaign to win Troy and schemes to quickly send Gabriella from East High to her next academic plateau, Stanford University; Sharpay’s selfish scheme unwittingly undercuts the entire graduating class by doing so, because many of them feel the empty void of Gabriella’s efforts and presence and have difficulty going on without her… especially Troy.

Remember, though, that they’re “all in this together” and everybody gets a happy ending.

Three new Wildcats are also introduced early on in HSM 3, thereby creating a thread for a possible HSM 4, and they seem interesting enough to write a new story around: Jimmy “Rocketman” Zara (Matt Prokop - hilarious !), his sidekick Donny (Justin Martin) and Tiara Gold (played diabolically by Jemma McKenzie-Brown).

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Many of HSM’s regular cast and crew (if not all of them) returned to make Disney’s “High School Musical 3″ a memorable movie event and a grand slam with moviegoers at the box office in its opening weekend revenue of over $42 million, much to the embarrassment of stanch movie critics.

Kenny Ortega returned to direct and choreograph along with Bonnie Story and Charles Klapow, composer David Lawrence again directed the music, as well as cinematographer Daniel Aranyo and film editor Seth Flaum.

The acting in HSM 3 was beefed up for the big screen and lead actors Zac and Vanessa proved themselves more than capable of carrying scenes together and on their own; their onscreen chemistry together is really amazing and they look so comfortable with each other (their real-life relationship paid off, other actor-couples take note). Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay is riveting and electric whenever she is onscreen, and Lucas Grabeel’s performance is more polished and punctuated than before. Manly Ortega, Kenny’s lovable Yorkie, also returned from HSM 2 as Sharpay’s purse pooch “Boi”.

Peter Barsocchini (the co-creator of HSM) turned in an excellent rewrite after the original script was found to have several problems.

Ironically, the problem of separating Gabriella Montez from the rest of the Wildcats in the story seems to parallel the problem producers had with wanting to keep Vanessa in the regular HSM cast after her real-life scandal last year; fortunately, (just about) everybody forgave her.

I enjoyed all of the songs, but six songs really stand out memorably to me from the soundtrack and play much better in the movie than in their Official Video versions: Now or Never (a rousing, definitive fight-cheer),  Right here, Right Now (a definitive, romantic song about Troy’s and Gabriella’s relationship), I Want It All (the definitive, big, brassy showstopper of the HSM series), The Boys Are Back (a definitive Rock/Pop song about Troy’s and Chad’s friendship), Walk Away (a definitive Soul/Pop song about Gabriella’s tenuous resolve) and the slow, stirring We’re All In This Together - Graduation Mix (a poignant reflection for the Senior Class at East High).

All of the musical numbers sung by the characters on stage in the story are switched to from various situations they’re in, so the story still advances that way, and the audience is left to assume they are the same routines, costumes and sets used for their final project for Darbus; a very clever plot device and a great way to save a lot of time telling the story.

What’s funny (when you stop and think about it) is the story makes all of the routines look made up on the spot and we know they’re not, but that’s the wonder of movie musical magic.

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“High School Musical 3: Senior Year” is a fun, big-budget, big screen celebration of beloved Disney characters as they anxiously prepare to leave East High, with an abundance of Disney movie magic moviegoers count on and pay for; definitely worth seeing on the big screen as everything is at its best in the series.

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Made by Walt Disney Pictures, released in the US on October 24th, 2008

Length: 112 minutes

Grade: A+

Posted in Disney Movies, Disney Music | Comments (0)

Posted on Sunday, 19th October 2008 by astronomius

“He’s a quiet guy, practically silent, but also thoughtful… curious: a real observant fellow. And a bit of a disaster.” - - this is Disney Channel’s voiced-over description of their new comedy character, “Brian O’ Brian”, for the show’s TV promotional spot.

Disney Channel regular Brian Stepanek (”Arwin” from “Suite Life”) stars in and co-writes each short, interstitial episode with his writing partner, director Danny Kaplan (lead writer of “As The Bell Rings”), and the result is intelligently hilarious.

“Brian O’ Brian” is essentially about a well-meaning, child-like doofus who bumbles his way into an everyday situation in each short, self-contained episode; he does dress and groom himself well, however.

None of the show’s characters speak any dialogue, which frees the actors, writers, director, special effects and camera crew to use physical action and expression to its fullest extent, but the show does use a pre-recorded laugh-track to gently guide the viewer along through the action.

Though the concept of “Brian O’ Brian” is not entirely original (ala Charlie Chaplin, Ernie Kovacs and Mr. Bean), the series is unique to Disney Channel in that its intentional lack of dialogue transcends any language barrier and viewer age and easily enables the episodes to be viewed and distributed internationally.

Another unique feature of the show is that it is filmed in Italy (near Milan) and has a classy, European look; Brian Stepanek, the show’s star, says he enjoys working for Disney Channel there…

Stepanek is also scheduled to appear on “The Suite Life On Deck”, where he will reunite with former cast members (from the original “Suite Life”) in a guest role(s); one episode has him playing dual roles as both “Arwin Hawkhauser” and one of Arwin’s relatives.

“Brian O” Brian” is thoroughly enjoyable, must-see Disney Channel TV, and ideas for keeping the show fresh and funny are nearly inexhaustable.

Premiere dates differ, but the US premiere was on Oct. 3rd, 2008.

Episode length: under five minutes.

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Posted on Saturday, 11th October 2008 by astronomius

Put identical twins Zack and Cody Martin (Dylan and Cole Sprouse), spoiled heiress London Tipton (Brenda Song) and hotel manager Marion Moseby (Phill Lewis) in various comical situations on and off a commercial cruise liner while they travel all over the world, and you have Disney Channel’s latest spinoff “Suite Life On Deck”.

Brenda Song and Phill Lewis reprise their established “Suite Life” roles as spoiled heiress London Tipton and hotel manager Marion Moseby in the Disney Channel spinoff, “Suite Life On Deck”, and that’s good because they’re good actors, completely know their characters and have a wonderful sense of comic timing.

They’re the mainstays of the show, even though they’re playing thin, cartoon versions of their former characters.

“Suite Life On Deck” also showcases new Disney Channel actress Debby Ryan; she plays Bailey Pickett, an attractive, good-natured, downhome, intelligent, somewhat complex, country girl who does well in school and has to spend some effort making new friends.

Bailey is the most credible, well-rounded and well-written character “…On Deck”; partly because of the writing and partly because Debby plays her character Bailey truthfully with hidden sweetness and vulnerability.

The official word for the show is that Debby Ryan’s character, Bailey, replaced Maddie Fitzpatrick (Ashley Tisdale).

The main deck of “Suite Life On Deck” is the best and most attractive looking set I’ve ever seen on any Disney Channel show, probably cost them a bundle to design and build, and the ship’s deck is even better looking than the hotel lobby on the original “Suite Life”.

The show also has identical twins who look exactly like Dylan and Cole Sprouse, and this set of twins doesn’t quite play Zack and Cody like the other ones did; there seemed to be a lot more to shoot for on the original “Suite Life” by the actors and creative staff, it was Emmy-nominated and it showed.

I also think the original music could rock a bit and reflect the inner struggle and discovery of the teens onboard, instead of the tame imitative musak offered.

Soap opera actress Erin Cardillo, though, comically plays the teens’ frazzled school instructor, Miss Emma Tutweiler, with noticeable zest and always a little something interesting going on inside.

“Suite Life On Deck” is worth watching, but I’m still waiting for the situations, dialogue and lacking characterization to improve.

3/5

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Posted on Sunday, 5th October 2008 by astronomius

Disney’s “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” is a live-action comedy; it has funny situations, funny characters, funny dialogue, and funny-looking dogs like “Papi” (at left) pepper the film throughout. So be encouraged, it is a relaxing comedy you can bring your kids to or forget about the rigors of your hard work day with.

“…Chihuahua” is also a mild adventure of sorts and has some sad and tense moments, but the humor smooths everything over.

And the police catch the bad guys, too.

Chloe, the “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” (voice by Drew Barrymore), has a very cushy life; she’s Aunt Viv’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) prized, pampered pet and they live in a fully-loaded, Beverly Hills mansion. Chloe’s life is full of doggy parties and playdates, even regularly courted by lovable Papi (voice by comedian George Lopez), Sam’s (Viv’s landscaper, played by Manolo Cardona) little helper.

Aunt Viv (Jamie Lee Curtis) soon has to leave for Italy on a business trip and trusts Chloe with her niece, Rachel (a thoroughly spoiled playgirl, played by Piper Perabo) and Rachel later dashes off with Chloe to Mexico City for a weekend getaway with friends. Rachel and Chloe separate and Chloe struggles to survive before Rachel, Sam and Papi can find Chloe and bring her safely back to Beverly Hills before Viv returns.

Chloe’s Mexican adventure includes being taken by bad guys, forced into a brutal, Mexican dogfight arena, escaping onto an old, rusty freight train and traveling to the Mayan ruins of Chihuahua to learn about her Mexican ancestry.

There are many cultural references throughout “…Chihuahua”, as well.

The Mexican holiday “El Dia del Muerte” (Nov. 1 - 2) is briefly celebrated in the story on the streets of Mexico City and the US release of “…Chihuahua” on October 3rd coincides with Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 to Oct. 15) and Dia de la Raza (Oct. 12), for example.

Papi has the funniest lines in the film that mostly reflect unique, Latino culture such as: “Hey, fool, let’s go!”, going “Mexican all over” and the ever popular “Mexi-can, not Mexi-can’t”.

There are even a few tense moments in the film where Sam (Viv’s landscaper, played by Manolo Cardona) quietly confronts Rachel about her cultural ignorance.

One of the more serious themes tackled in the film has to do with cultural assimilation, and how people of Mexican ancestry can forget or ignore their heritage, and this thread runs lightly, intelligently throughout the film.

The other serious theme of the film is more universal and lurks underneath and throughout: the need to actuate inner might and develop personal integrity.

Nothing like finding or protecting a beloved pet to bring out the hero in (some of) us.

Chloe is heroically protected by a large, hard-bitten but good-natured German Shepherd named Delgado (voice by Andy Garcia) with a mysterious past and serious issues that resolve beautifully in the film’s satisfying conclusion.

The dramatic, inner conflict and change Chloe and Delgado undergo is what gives the movie its emotional punch and the audience takes the rough ride with them.

The direction of the film (Raja Gosnell) is both masterful and insightful, the script (Analisa LaBianco and Jeffrey Bushell) is clever and relatable and the animal training is highly detailed; 42 animal trainers were used to help get the right physical expressions from the animals to match their characters in the story, for example.

Convertible sports cars, fancy hotels, romantic beaches, dark alleys, rusty train yards, scorching deserts, Mayan ruins and intelligent intelligent use of camera angles also add to the depth of the story as we really get into the film’s characters.

What really did it for me, above all of that, were the worthy vocal talents involved; especially the talents of Drew Barrymore and Andy Garcia and they compel audiences to care about and root for troubled characters who could have been reduced to shallow stereotypes in less capable hands.

The musical score and Pop music samples by Brazilian composer Heitor Pereira are highly effective (he usually works with Hans Zimmer); the music is at times riotously funny, but I recommend that you also give close attention to the closing orchestral theme as the end credits finish.

That song is just amazing.

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“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” is a fun, romantic, comic adventure, smartly told and wonderfully made, so sit back and take the trip. You’ll be glad you did.

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Released by Walt Disney Pictures in the US on Oct. 3rd, 2008.

Rated PG for some mild thematic elements.

Length: 91 minutes.

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Posted on Sunday, 21st September 2008 by astronomius

ATTENTION!!! ALL DISNEY FANS ON DECK!!! As you may already know, Zack and Cody are back and heading out to sea in a new comedy series made for Disney Channel!

“Suite Life On Deck” chronicles the further adventures of Zack and Cody on the “S.S. Tipton”, a luxury liner that cruises all over the world, and they do more of what they usually did at the Tipton Hotel: go to school, concoct schemes, get into usually harmless hi-jinks and chase girls.

Cole and Dylan Sprouse (Zack and Cody Martin), Brenda Song (London Tipton) and Phill Lewis (Marion Moseby) star in the new series, and pretty ingenue Debby Ryan co-stars as the boys’ new friend, Bailey. Busy actress Erin Cardillo as the young, “charmingly frazzled” school instructor “Miss Emma Tutweiller” has also joined the cast.

The new “Suite Life On Deck” series is a spin-off of the popular Disney Channel “Suite Life…”, which was twice Emmy-nominated and ran for three seasons.

Disney fans are still waiting for confirmation that Ashley Tisdale will appear on the new series and reprise her role as “Maddie Fitzpatrick”; reports are confirmed, however, that “Suite Life” actress Kim Rhodes (Carey Martin, Zack and Cody’s mom) has a recurring guest role on the new show.

Many of the creative and production staff from the earlier “Suite Life” series have also returned to work on the new series: Danny Kallis, Jim Geoghan, Pamela Eells, Irene Dreayer, Kelly Sandefur and Walter Barnett.

The US premiere of “Suite Life On Deck” is on Friday, September 26th at 8 PM on Disney Channel !

Book your reservations now!

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