Camp Rock – Blu-ray Disc Review
August 16, 2008 – 3:55 PM --- by: Danielle ByingtonTags: Demi Lovato, Disney, Joe Jonas, Meaghan Jette Martin, The Jonas Brothers
has an average rating of 4.8 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Linear @6.9Mbps
are pretty entertaining…
– 
– 2008
– 94 minutes
– Walt Disney
– 
Overall Verdict – 13 & Younger Will Be Rocked
Buy it for $22.95 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Danielle Byington —
The Movie Itself is directed by Michael Diamond, and written by Karin Gist and Regina Y. Hicks. The movie revolves around Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato), a musically-inclined teen hoping to have “a summer of music” at an infamous camp known as “Camp Rock”; where, coincidently, a favorite band of hers, “Connect 3” (The Jonas Brothers) formed. The camp is costly, and her father Steve Torres (Edward Juanz), who owns a hardware store, and her mother Connie Torres (Maria Canals-Barrera), who runs her own catering business, can not quite afford the fees. That is of course until Connie gets a job catering food at the camp for the summer which will allow Mitchie to attend at a discount with some simple helping-out in the kitchen. Immediately upon arrival at “Camp Rock“, the antagonist is made clear; a manipulative-snotty-blonde named Tess Tyler (Meaghan Jette Martin), the daughter of a fictional pop-goddess. Tess is the “popular-kid” and basically runs the social order at camp (not because anyone actually likes her though), so befriending her would be a huge accomplishment. Mitchie does exactly that; except she completely lies about herself, telling Tess and her popular friends that her mother owns a hipster-shop in China, making it seem as though her family is wealthy, and even trendy. So, the plot’s core becomes Mitchie pretending to be someone she isn’t, and constantly trying to cover her middle-class-footprints trying to not be seen working in the kitchen all summer. Mitchie does become some-what friends with one down-to-earth camper, Caitlyn Geller (Alyson Stoner), and it’s the strain of getting to be herself with a “real” individual that really tests her values as a person. Also adding more complication to her make-believe life is the fact that a member from “Connect 3”, Shane Gray (Joe Jonas) has to spend his summer at “Camp Rock” to sort-of be taught a lesson and get his act together for letting his rock-star-ego get out of control; not to mention Shane’s uncle, Brown Cesario (Daniel Fathers), is just so happen the camp moderator. Shane and Mitchie spend time together becoming friends, but Shane is also only getting to know the Mandarin-mogul-Mitchie, and not the real teenage girl that she is.
The movie is obviously geared towards a particular age group, and that group just so happens to be very impressionable. I did favor the film’s message to its young audience to be who they really are, and not attempt to impress people with money, clothes, or who their family is. I also imagine that a lot of pre-teens (who practically have convulsions over these sort of Disney releases) were influenced by this film to start learning a musical instrument, which could turn into a bigger part of their life. This brings me to another point about the film that slightly displeased me; yes it is a musical, but it is a musical about making music, and the closest thing shown in the movie to what it takes to actually produce music of any genre were a couple of brief scenes showing Tess and her back-up singers rehearsing. All of the campers just always magically knew the song, and again though it is a musical, because of the movie’s matter, I think it could mislead the kids who were just influenced to play music into believing the composition process is effortless, and perhaps make them feel like they are not musically inclined. All of that in mind, the movie receives a “3 ½ Star Rating”.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p High Definition in AVC MPEG-4 on a BD-50 (50GB Dual Layered Blu-ray Disc). This is a decent transfer to High Definition from an assumed 35MM negative (since this was first debuted on Disney Channel) with just two notable flaws. The first is that the black level is not solid, which is sort-of a visual association a lot of people probably have with Disney Channel presentations. A lot of the material on their channel has that tint/tone to it, so the black level issue here may not be a remastering error. The second being film grain that is noticeable depending on the lighting conditions through out the film; mostly faint-fuzziness. The color palette is vibrant, and this is very obvious (and really necessary) with the film’s plot involving a summer camp, providing several outdoors scenes during the time of the year when the sunlight is brightest. Flesh tones are accurate in all lighting conditions. There are no signs of Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) or Edge Enhancement (EE) filters, and appears to have no compression flaws. Overall, the video quality receives a “3 1/2 Star Rating” for being capable of presenting its most-likely young viewers with a bright and vibrant presentation of this movie/musical, but just not being crisp and clear.
Audio Quality on this release is in Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 @6.9Mbps
& Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps. Uncompressed Linear sound is really impressive during the songs. There is definite rear channel presence, and the bass is actually somewhat overwhelming for the content of the songs. Dolby Digital 5.1 of course isn’t as impressive as your other option during the songs, but does have subtle rear channel presence in the outdoors scenes, and scenes with several extras. The Linear PCM’s landscape of sound is quite formidable for the musical, but aside from the songs the movie does not initiate stately action requiring further showy use of the format, and receives a “4 1/2 Star Rating” with the competency to surely make “tweens” feel like they are also part of the synchronized musical numbers.
Bonus Materials are presented in Standard Definition (480i/p) using the MPEG-4 codec and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound.
- Music Videos (7 minutes) “Start the Party”, “We Rock”, and an “Easter Egg” consisting of a song performed by Demi Lovato live at the end of production which she wrote for her fellow cast and crew members.
- “Sing Along With the Movie”: Much like an audio commentary, it displays the lyrics to every song through out the movie at the bottom of your screen.
- “Camp Rock Karaoke”
- “The Camp Rock Set Tour” (6 minutes) Informative as far as technical production goes showing the planning for set construction and such, with appearances by Joe Jonas.
- “How To Be a Rock Star!” (30 minutes) A tutorial, if you will, of advice and opinions from the cast on how to sing, dress, dance, behave, practice, and network “like a rock star”.
- “Jonas Brothers: Real Life Rock Stars” (16 minutes) A brief autobiography starring themselves.
- “Introducing Demi Lovato” (6 minutes) Get to know the new Disney star one on one.
- Camp Memories (6 minutes) A slideshow of photos taken during the production of the film.
- “Hasta La Vista: From Rehearsals to Final Jam” (5 minutes) A behind the scenes look at rehearsals and preparation for what is probably the film’s most popular musical number.
- “Too Cool: Setting the Scene” (4 minutes) A look at what went into designing the set for the film’s performance of “Too Cool”.
Overall, the bonus materials have a lot to offer, and are very entertaining for the “tweens” who are really into this movie, getting to see their favorite Disney stars behind the scenes, and enjoy the features such as Sing Along With the Movie and “Camp Rock Karaoke” to sing along with the musical over and over. The bonus materials receive a “3 1/2 Star Rating” for it’s variety of features, and being presented in High Definition.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
One Response to “Camp Rock – Blu-ray Disc Review”
Sorry guys, no comments here… Disney doesn’t find immature behavior acceptable — nor do I. I apologize for getting upset with the silly people that attacked Danielle in comments, I was merely sticking up for my girlfriend in a small mistake she had made on her 2nd review for the site.
By Justin Sluss on Sep 3, 2008