High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Release Oct 24, 2008)

[NotaGeek]

Yep, it's time for the Wildcats to hit the big screen folks! You can check out the official HSM3 site or the Yahoo! Movie page.

[Dopey's Girl]

Thanks! My little Wildcat will be so excited to see this!

[barnaby]

On a side note......
Not a fan myself, but my wife and kids are.
We went to see "High School Musical: On Stage" at the local college theater.
The kids in the production (high school and some college) did a great job and put on a great show.
Even I enjoyed it.

[disneycutie165]

I am 13 and I don't even really like HSM, but I will go see it with my younger cousin. She wants to see it because she LOVES IT, but I on the other hand just want to see what happens.

[NotaGeek]

Ok, Wildcats ... who's ready out there?

[Disneypixie513]

I'm sorta excited.. I really want to know what happens with Troy and Gabriella, but i'm really against the movie going to theaters instead of TV.. I almost want to just wait till it is on tv..But I don't think I can wait that long.

[RedSoxFan]

DD who will be 12 next week is very excited about HSM3. However, we will be in Disney when it's released and she'll have to wait until we come home to see it.

[Momof2boys]

We also arrive in WDW on the 24th. My 2 boys were excited to watch it on TV but now they're embarassed to go OUT and watch it in a theatre.

[Princess'Mom]

DD is counting down! She is very excited to see Troy and Gabriella again! She is a huge fan.

I'm a bit miffed that I'll have to shell out the $$ for the theater and then have to pay for the DVD later! I guess I should look at the previous two HSM as a cost savings - only had to buy the DVDs!

[threeh]

My DD is having her bday party at the movies and we are going to see HSM3 tomorrow. I'll report back!!

[ncscgirl2005]

My girls are pumped up. We are going to see it tomorrow.

[2Epcot]

I went to see the movie last night with my niece and nephew brother and sister-in-law while I'm visiting here in AZ this weekend. We got there kind early expecting a line, but that wasn't the case. We actually changed our tickets to an earlier show, since we saw that theater across the hall was only about 25% full.

The movie was pretty good. I loved the first HS Musical. I would put the 3rd film about the same or a little bit below the 2nd film. What I loved about the first HS musical is I thought all the songs worked great and the Kenny Ortega's choreography was fantastic.

In both the second and third movies I felt only a few of the songs really added to the story and the rest were just filler, or at the very least were just not great songs. A couple of scenes in HS Musical 3 had what I would call great choreography, the other scenes just seemed pretty basic, a step down from previous films. What I did think was done well in HS Musical 3 was a great blend between watching a live stage show, and a movie.

As far as the story, HS Musical is what it is, no big surprise there, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. There was lot of laughing and screaming from the kids in our audience.

This was sort of a passing the torch film to the new characters who I thought did pretty good with the established characters. The graduation send-off was good, and it was a nice way to say goodbye to these characters (assuming they really are going away).

[Melanie]

'High School Musical 3' leads worldwide box office

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - " High School Musical 3: Senior Year ," the first big-screen adaptation of Walt Disney Co's popular TV movie franchise, rocked movie theaters around the world during its first weekend of release, the company said Sunday.

The movie sold $42 million worth of tickets across North America for the three days beginning Friday , and grossed $40 million internationally. It was No. 1 by both counts, becoming the first worldwide chart-topper since the Batman sequel " The Dark Knight" in July, Disney said.

The "High School Musical" franchise has generated two smash TV movies, two chart-topping albums, and made teen idols out of its stars, Zac Efron , Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale .

The plot of the new film brings the cast back to their fictional New Mexico high school, where Troy (Efron) must decide between pursuing a basketball scholarship or his song-and-dance dreams. The usual teen-angst issues ensue.

Elsewhere at the North American box office, " Saw V" came in at No. 2 with $30.5 million, in line with the previous three installments in the horror franchise. The series was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

Last weekend's champ, the Mark Wahlberg thriller " Max Payne ," slipped to No. 3 with $7.6 million, taking its 10-day haul to $29.7 million. The film was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

[Ian]

DW took DD to see it on Saturday and they both really liked it. DD wants to go back again ... and again ... and again ... and again ...

[Jeff G]

DW took DD to see it on Saturday and they both really liked it. DD wants to go back again ... and again ... and again ... and again ...

My DD saw it Saturday with a couple friends and she had the same opinion as your DD. All three said it was the best HSM yet. We weren't out of the theater and they were making plans to see it again, saying it was a must buy DVD and all three want the soundtrack. It sounds like another mega hit for Disney that will leave my pocket book lighter.

[tinksmom02]

I bought the CD for DD6 on Tuesday, so by the time we saw the movie yesterday, we knew all the songs by heart LOL

It was weird seeing it on the big screen. It seems like they had to do things BIG to justify having it open in theaters. Big scenes, big scenery, big songs...it was good, don't get me wrong, and DD loved it. It's just hard to compare it to the first 2, because of the formats.

DD did have a hard time differentiating between some of the scenes--were they part of the musical, or "real"? When we get the DVD and she can watch it 10,000 times I'm sure she'll understand it better LOL

[Princess'Mom]

DD & I saw the movie Friday night. All in all, it was an ok flick. The funniest part of the movie to me was the reaction of the young girls in the audience when Troy took off his t-shirt. Lots of screams!

[brewcrew26]

DH took me on Sunday. We loved it! The production values were so much better this time around, as were the songs.

Zac Efron really shines in this film, and Ashley Tisdale and Ryan Grabeel have great supporting roles. "I Want It All" was very reminiscent of a Bob Fosse/Cabaret number. Loved it! And the little boys they have to look like Zac and Corbin in the "Boys are Back" are so cute! I think they should just end the franchise here. I wasn't too impressed with the younger Wildcats they brought out.

It's not going to win any Oscars. But, it's definitely the "Grease" for the Gen Y-ers.

[Melanie]

I really enjoyed the first movie, the second I could have done without, and this one was good. I agree, Zac Efron was the star, and at one point I thought I was already watching him in Footloose. I think he'll be good as Ren.

I felt there were too many slow, soul-searching numbers in this one, but as that is the whole point, I can't win there.

I wasn't too impressed with the younger Wildcats they brought out.

Me either. They were fine in this movie, but I can't imagine them carrying another film. Let's hope they end it here!

[Disneypixie513]

I saw it yesterday and i thought it was good. I thought the dances and songs were good. But i absolutely have to rave about the song "The Boys Are Back" number. Being a dancer myself, i watch the dancing more then listening to the singing. I thought this was by far the best dance/choreography in the whole trilogy of HSM. I wish i could have rewinded that scene! I was extremely disappointed with the "prom" scene. That really bummed me out.
I also really hope they don't try to make another HSM with the other 3 kids. Three movies is enough.
Overall i thought it was good enough for theaters...But i'm still bitter about that fact that it wasn't on tv. =/