The 2-disc DREAMGIRLS DVD — Page 3

I thought the same thing daspazoo.

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So I just watched all the extended musical numbers on the DVD. Some thoughts:

-Fun to see all the extended 'performance' numbers and dance sequences, but understandably a lot of these are superfluous to the movie as a whole. Especially the whole bar fight bit in Fake Your Way to the Top--glad that wasn't kept!

-If I had to pick what to have kept in the final cut? I think both the intro to 'Steppin to the Bad Side' (and that extended dance sequence is the best, imho, just riveting) would really have let the audience know early on that the characters would sing to each other as well as in performance, one of most common critiques of the movie. Keeping 'Effie Sing My Song' would have kept that going throughout, as well as giving more weight to that wonderful reunion moment. Also, the bridge end of 'One Night Only' really shows the contrast between the two versions and I think would have helped with the storytelling as well.

-It probably wouldn't make a difference, but my sentimental keep would have been for the second verse (before the bridge) in 'I Am Changing.' *sigh*

-So with all these extended musical numbers, is the extended edition in Dec just going to have these numbers interpolated or is there more? I'll get it for the director's commentary either way, but I'm just curious if the movie itself will have any additional material.

-To whom would I write to petition that the Oscar performance gets put on the Decemeber release version? That site just isn't doing it for me.

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The documentary is really fantastic.

The Dreams/Stepp Sisters face-off is so funny.

Anika caught in the mic during "dreamgirls" is hilarious aswell. I love that B is still going- even though she is laughing.

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I felt the extended 'steppin to the bad side' was way too long.

I enjoyed watching it- but I can see why it was trimmed.

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While I think that the beginning of Stepping to the Bad Side was very nice to see, I'm glad that it was cut out of the film. I love films that don't hide their musicality (such as Hairspray) but Dreamgirls was clearly not one of those films. Including this scene with Curtis and the guys dancing (which was great) would have taken us out of the "reality" the film was trying to create. Without as much dancing, I think it would have been ok to include in the film, slowly easing us into the idea that these non-musical characters sing as well.

For those who have bought the Target edition what is on the mysterious third disc?

Z.

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I think the extended version of Stepping to the Bad Side was much better than what was used in the film.

I know many think it would've been too much on film, but I think that would've been the perfect song to introduce the audience to the fact that this was a musical and there would be scenes where the characters would sing to each other. The audience didn't get it until Family, which, IMO, is a bad song to introduce non-staged singing to the movie. Also, Stepping to the Bad Side is much more effective in it's extended version than it was in the film when they just cut to the middle and made it more of a boring montage.

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Updated On: 5/2/07 at 02:37 PM

"...steppin' to the bad side"

"...whoo-whoo-whoo"

Anika's screentest blew me away.

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The 3-DVD set I bought at Target are all DVDs. No CD.

Bettyboy72---I agree with everything you said.

I won't bash you for your Hudson comments, either, because they are largely true. Jennifer herself knows this. The best thing she did was to trust her director, choreographer, and her co-stars (particularly Beyonce and Anika). They leaned on each other heavily, and for someone with no acting experience to have that level of trust (even if she was lacking in confidence, as Bill Condon says), is really remarkable. She went into this project blind and inexperienced, yes, but FEARLESS. Ready and willing to take a giant leap with any and all risks asked of her. That is no small feat, either... I can't think of many with ten times the experience that could do that, in fact... And I believe that this, mixed with the great role, and her incredible talent, won her that well-deserved Oscar.

It's interesting... now that the DVD is out, I've read several reviews that are singling out Beyonce as being largely "unsung" in the high praise department when the movie first came out. The best part is that the work is still there on film, and it will be forever. People eventually without bias can look at this film and, as years go by, her work will be recognized as first-rate.

Them's my opinions. I've heard all the "Beyonce Bitchies" before... and will likely hear from them again now... and I'm really not interested in the She Sucked Camp.

I just happen to agree with your post.

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best12bars, you raise a good point- J-Hud's naivete and ability to take a HUGE risk is part of the reason she has been lauded. If she had stopped to think about the enormity of the project, she might not have done it. She deserves mad props, of course, but I am enjoying the new subtleties of Beyonce and Anika which the DVDs afford me time to relish since the J-Hud furor has died down a bit.

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Awhile back, they said that there would be a huge DVD with lots of special features, etc released around Christmas time. I just searched amazon and the archives of this board, and could not find any updated info. Any idea if this will still be released? And if so, exactly when?