Z-O-M-B-I-E-S – A DVD Review by John Strange

 

Z-O-M-B-I-E-S – A DVD Review by John Strange

 

I know that many people love the Disney Channel.  Well, me too!  When it comes to family programming they give us perhaps the most well rounded selection I have seen in a while.  Zombies is a great example of this programming.

 

Imagine if you will, the town of Seabrook.  It is a beautiful scenic town which happens to have a power plant in its city limits.  Until "the accident".  Fifty years ago, something happened in that power plant.  An accident while involving a lime soda caused a green hazes to spread out from the plant enveloping part of the town.  Everyone touched by the gas was transformed into… ZOMBIES!  To protect the rest of the town, a giant wall was built around the zombies, corralling them into a zone where they could be contained.

 

The movie is set fifty years after the cataclysm.  The government has devised Z-band that emit soothing electromagnetic pulses to allow the zombies to stay in control of themselves.  The people on each side of the barrier have lived in peace since the advent of the bracelets. 

 

Seabrook is known for two things, bad football teams and the best cheerleader squad in the region.  the captain of the team is Bucky (Trevor Tordjman).  His ego is only slightly smaller than King Kong but he apparently has the talent to back it up.

 

Addison (Meg Donnelly), his cousin is a brand new freshman ready to try out for the squad.  Her parents have groomed her since an early age by sending her each year to cheer summer camps.  It is her fondest wish to join the squad and fit in!

 

Today is the first day that zombie teenagers are going to be allowed to attend human high school.  Zed, is a normal kid except, of course, that he is a zombie.  He lives with his dad and kid sister, Zoey (Kingston Foster).  His greatest desire is to be allowed to play football.

 

Zed and his friends Eliza (Kylee Russell) and Bonzo (James Godfrey) find out quickly that even though they are allowed into the school, they are to be segregated from the human kids.  Ordered to stay in the basement, they will not be allowed to try out for the football team or join the computer club (Eliza) or the band (Bonzo). 

 

Zed being a typical teenager rebels.  Soon the Zombie sirens throughout the school are sounded and the human kids scramble for safety (i.e. they panic and run around like chickens with their heads cut off).  Zed ducks into a room to hide from the chaos.  Addison picks the same room shortly after him and, they meet.

 

The rest of the story is pretty much what you would expect from a "human girl meets zombie boy and they fall in love" movie.  Ah, but this is a musical so the most important scenes are filled with some and dance.  Is this part of the movie good?  I can honestly say I found myself singing along and or humming with the music all the way through the film.  If you enjoyed watching the music and dance in Glee then you will love this movie, too!  Some of the dance numbers are just that, with the kids singing and dancing.  The rest are single people singing about their feelings as the story progresses.

 

And the extras on the DVD?  Unlike some films I have watched recently, the length of time it takes to get through all of them was not long at all.  But the quality of the extras make up for it.  We see the audition tapes of the kids who play Zed and Addison.  While a bit out of focus, it was interesting to see their early approach to the roles.

 

The blooper real was fun but nothing to write home about but the Zombie Survival Guide made up for it.  Fun stuff.  The best parts of the group of supplied extras were the Dance Tutorial and the music and lyric videos of "BAMM".  Finally, they included a sheet of glow-in-the-dark tattoos in the DVD case (which I have to admit I did not try out)!

 

All in all I had a nice afternoon watching the film and since the disk automatically slid into the extras following the end of the movie, I didn't even have to pick up the remote to work my way through them!  I recommend the movie to kids who like musicals, especially young teens who may connect with the characters who are almost all high school students.  Adults who enjoy musicals, especially fans of Glee will enjoy that film!

 

By the way, check out little Zoey.  Her role isn't very large but she steals the scene every time the camera is on her!

 

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BRAND NEW: Should add to your DVD collection at any cost

SALE ITEM: Worth owning, but try to catch it a sale

SECOND HAND: Plan to get it, but wait to buy it used

RENTAL: Worth taking a look at, but not owning

COASTER: Pick it up at a garage sale and use it for drinks

PULL!: Makes a great Trap Shooting target