A charming, entertaining and enjoyable family-fun Disney original movie. Sterling Knight and Danielle Campbell are a joy to watch! If you are a fan of the film and its stars, definitely pick up the “StarStruck- Extended Edition” for the extended music scene and for the music soundtrack.
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DVD TITLE: StarStruck – Extended Edition
DURATION: 84 Minutes | CD: 37:42
DVD INFORMATION: Color, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Widescreen (1:78:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 Television, French and Spanish Language Tracks, Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish
COMPANY: Walt Disney Home Entertainment Studios
RATED: TV G
RELEASE DATE: June 8, 2010
Directed by Michael Grossman
Teleplay by Barbara Johns and Annie DeYoung
Story by Barbara Johns
Executive Producer: Douglas Sloan
Co-Executive Producer: Jon Brown, Jeffrey Thal
Producer: Jayne Bieber
Cinematography: Horacio Marquinez
Production Design: Mark Hofeling
Set Decoration: Debra Combs
Production Management: Mary Church
Starring:
Sterling Knight as Christopher Wilde
Danielle Campbell as Jessica Olson
Maggie Castle as Sara Olson
Brandon Smith as Stubby
Chelsea Staub as Alexis
Matt Winston as Alan Smith
Beth Littleford as Barbara Olson
Dan O’Connor as Dean Olson
Alice Hirson as Grandma Olson
Hugh Dane as Howard
Sunkrish Bala as Dr. Sanjay Lad
StarStruck, a music and adventure-filled romp that hits all the right notes for kids and tweens, tells the story of Jessica Olson (Danielle Campbell, Prison Break) and her older sister Sara (Maggie Castle, Time Traveler’s Wife), who are heading to Hollywood from Kalamazoo, Michigan, on a family trip to visit their grandmother. Sara is obsessed with pop star Christopher Wilde (Sterling Knight, Sonny with a Chance) and hopes to track him down while in California, but Jessica could care less about the stuck-up star and would rather go sightseeing. When the sisters arrive in L.A. Sara takes Jessica on a hunt to find Christopher and a chance meeting with the star sets off a series of comic adventures that feature many of L.A.’s landmark locations. As the sisters sightsee and spend time together, Jessica gets to know the real Christopher and soon their friendship grows. Ultimately Christopher must decide what is more important — being himself or becoming a movie star. Disney Channel stars Brandon Mychal Smith (Sonny With a Chance) and Chelsea Staub (JONAS) also star as Christopher’s loyal best friend and famehungry girlfriend, respectively.
With the success of Disney original movies such as the “High School Musical”, “Camp Rock”, “Princess Protection Program” and”Wizard of Waverly Place – The Movie”, these films have literally been ratings gold for the Disney Channel. And this time around, Disney tries to repeat their TV movie success with “StarStruck” starring “Sonny with a Chance” actor Sterling Knight, “Prison Break” actress Danielle Campbell, “Sonny with a Chance” actor Brandon Mychal Smith and “JONAS” actress Chelsea Staub.
“StarStruck” is directed by Michael Grossman “Dirty Sexy Money”, “Zoey 101”, “Grey’s Anatomy”) and a teleplay by Barbara Johns and Annie DeYoung (“Prison Protection Program”, “The Ron Clark Story”).
The film debut on the Disney Channel in Feb. 2010 and was #1 in its time slot with kids ages 6-11 and tweens ages 19-14 and was the most watched February original movie premiere in total viewers and now the film will be released on DVD via a original edition and an extended edition which comes with the movie soundtrack and also an extended musical scene for the song “Got to Believe”.
“StarStruck” revolves around popular pop star Christopher Wilde (played by Sterling Knight). Always constantly stalked by the paparazzi, Christopher is told that if he wants to be in his first Hollywood movie, he has to stop attracting attention from the paparazzi and show that he is serious about his work. The problem is that despite his best friend Stubby (played by Brandon Miychal Smith) trying to keep him out of trouble, his actress girlfriend Alexis (played by Chelsea Staub) loves the attention from the paparazzi and is good at leaking information of locations where she will be spotted with Christopher.
But Christopher’s manager parents have ordered him to stay home in order to avoid the paparazzi but with Alexis’s birthday party coming up, she’s expecting him to show up.
Meanwhile, all the way in Michigan is the Olson family who are planning to visit Los Angeles in order to visit Grandma Olson. Sara (played by Maggie Castle) is the biggest Christopher Wilde fan and her younger sister Jessica could care less about him. But Sara looks at this opportunity to be in Hollywood and meet up with Christopher and get pictures and an autograph for the fan club.
All seems good in Los Angeles as Sara receives information that Christopher will be showing up at Alexis’ birthday party and wants to be there but she is forced by her parents to bring her younger sister Jessica along. As Christopher manages to make a quick performance at Alexis’ birthday party at the club and avoid the paparazzi, as he is trying to make a quick getaway in the alley, while opening the door, he accidentally knocks Jessica in the head accidentally. Afraid that the paparazzi are after him, he quickly helps Alexis to the doctor and takes her home.
The following day, as Christopher tries to stay away from paparazzi, as Sara and Jessica go to the beach, once again Jessica meets Christopher and because of the paparazzi, must spend the day together and thus Christopher and Jessica spend time together as he shows her all around Los Angeles. But Christopher finds himself attracted to Jessica because she is the first person who is not attracted to his star personality, him being a celebrity and not starstruck at all. And despite not liking Christopher the pop star, she finds herself enjoying time with Christopher Wilde, the normal guy.
But as the two share an outdoor adventure trying to dodge paparazzi, the adventure brings the two together much closers than they ever expected but because she’s a normal girl and he is a star, Christopher knows that he can’t let the paparazzi invading her privacy and the only way to do that is by hurting her and pretending he never met her. But unbeknownst to both Chris and Jessica, the paparazzi have shot photos of them together already and now Jessica finds out for herself how life is for Christopher when she is stalked by the paparazzi.
As for the “StarStruck” CD soundtrack, the following tracks are included on the CD:
- StarStruck – Christopher Wilde
- Shades – Christopher Wilde
- Hero – Christopher Wilde & Stubby
- Something About the Sunshine – Christopher Wilde & Anna Margaret
- What You Mean to Me – Christopher Wilde
- Party Up – Stubby
- Got to Believe – Christopher Wilde
- Hero (Unplugged) – Christopher Wilde & Stubby
- Something about the Sunshine – Anna Margaret
- New Boyfriend – Anna Margaret
- Welcome to Hollywood – Mitchel Musso
- Make a Movie – Jasmine Sagginario
VIDEO:
“StarStruck” is presented in Widescreen (1:78:1). For the most part, picture quality is good for DVD but as expected for a DVD release, you can see a bit of compression and also aliasing. But for the most part, for most young viewers, this is a non-issue for a DVD release.
AUDIO:
“StarStruck” is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with French and Spanish language tracks. The audio is clear through the front and center channels and with the film utilizing music, the audio quality is good for a Disney film on DVD.   I didn’t notice any major surround usage but for a film such as “StarStruck”, the soundtrack is appropriate and overall good.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“StarStruck – Extended Edition” comes with the following special features:
- Rock Along – While watching the film, you can watch it with karaoke style subtitles for the music portion of the film.
- Music Videos – The DVD contains three music videos: “StarStruck” by Christopher Wilde, “Something about the Sunshine” by Anna Margaret and “Party Up” by Stubby.
EXTRAS:
“StarStruck – Extended Edition” comes with a slip cover case.
“StarStruck” is an enjoyable, charming and a pretty entertaining Disney original film. I’ve seen Sterling Knight’s work on “Sonny with a Chance” and it’s my first time watching Danielle Campbell but overall, the two have good chemistry onscreen and I was quite impressed by the Knight’s vocals (as well as the hip hop track by Brandon Mychal Smith).
It has a similar charm to other previous Disney original films, fun in terms of storyline with the quirky situations (and of course, some situations are a bit farfetched) but I was entertained. Sterling Knight is definitely showing his versatility as an actor and also as a vocalist. I didn’t know he could sing but he did a solid job and definitely an up-and-coming Disney star who definitely has the potential to becoming a much bigger star.
Danielle Campbell also brings something new, similar to how Demi Lovato brought that fresh face and talent to “Camp Rock” and even like Selena Gomez when she first began making her appearance on “Hannah Montana” and “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody”, so I guess we’ll see if she will be making more Disney appearances in the near future.
If anything, the film is a fun teen and children’s film and parents looking for a safe, music-driven Disney film will definitely find “StarStruck – The Extended Edition” to be a solid release with the DVD movie and the music soundtrack included. Granted, for parents wanting to know if it’s “really safe”, well, you don’t want your daughters walking through Hollywood especially alone at an alley late at night (which is how the two main characters meet) but despite that one scene (well, there is one other scene in which the two drive a car into quicksand but I doubt any teenagers will have to worry about that), the film is quite safe and really, there is nothing to worry about in terms of content.
Overall, “StarStruck” is an entertaining film. And if you really enjoyed the film on television, especially the music, definitely pickup the “StarStruck – Extended Edition” for the musical soundtrack and the extended scene.