“Glee” Vol. 1: Road to Sectionals – My Personal Review!
Christmas came a little early for me when I received my advanced review copy of Glee, Vol. One: Road to Sectionals yesterday. If you want to see all of the DVD set’s general info (such as episode listings), then you should visit my recent post: “Glee” Season 1, Vol. 1: Road to Sectionals – Dec. 29th!
Some of the first things that I noticed when I played the DVD were all the cool menus! Everything is organized quite nicely, and each menu screen has a different background featuring the different Glee characters. It plays the a cappella music that is used for background music and scene transitions in the show. I really like it. :)
From the title menu, you can choose to automatically play all the episodes, you can select a specific episode (which is handy since it features a nice episode summary), you can go to the ‘set up’ and adjust the subtitles (English, Spanish, French or Portuguese) and lastly, you can watch the bonus features!
Now I’ll get into the bonus features, aka ‘Extras’. The first is called Welcome to McKinley! and it features the hilarious Principal Figgins. With the help of McKinley’s AV club, Figgins has created a welcome video for 8th graders that are about to start school at McKinley High. Iqbal Theba, the actor who plays Figgins, has perfect comedic timing and I promise that the entire video (which is a little over 5 mins long) will crack you up.
Next is a Glee Music Video. It features the Glee cast’s version of Somebody to Love and is edited together very well. It uses a lot of promo footage that was shot when the show was new (bits of which might look familiar from early Glee promos) and adds in some scenes from the first few episodes. Then they creatively edit in some of the song lyrics and the result is a video that perfectly capture’s the feeling of Glee‘s early days. I LOVE it. :)
Then there are the Full Length Audition Pieces. The DVD has the full version of Lea Michele singing On My Own as Rachel Berry’s audition piece for New Directions. It also has an extended version of Mercedes’ Respect. Amber Riley kills it, in a good way of course!
Fox Movie Channel Presents Casting Session is a 12 minute video that was created to be shown on the Fox Movie channel. It talks with a lot of the creators of Glee and other important people at Fox Broadcasting. It really gives you a behind the scenes look at what it was like creating Glee, long before it became a huge success. It’s probably the most informative of all the videos and you even get to see some awesome audition footage from the actors’ Glee auditions.
Then there’s Deconstructing Glee with Ryan Murphy. This featurette tries to answer questions like ‘What is Glee?’ and tells you more about the casting, music selection and misfit characters.
We get to see footage from dance rehearsals for Glee and hear what the cast thinks about dancing in Dance Boot Camp. The actors reveal the fact that they’re not professional dancers, but choreographer Zach Woodlee (who seems both awesome and hilarious) guides them when creating the many dance numbers for the glee club’s performances.
Then you can get to know the cast and characters with a series of videos filled with fun facts! I love these. Every single one is hilarious!
• Jane Lynch A to Glee
• Meet Jane Lynch
• 5 Things you don’t know about Jayma
• 7 Things you don’t know about Cory
• 6 Things you don’t know about Amber
• 7 Things you don’t know about Chris
Finally, the Video Diaries are the last set of bonus features and they’re some of my favorites! Why the heck Fox chose to put them last, I will never know. These are the Glee cast’s video diaries that follow them on their adventure in New York City last May for the Fox Upfront where they performed ‘Somebody to Love’ live! Maybe I love them so much because I’ve always wanted to go to NYC, or maybe it’s because they remind me of way back when Glee was new. Good times, good times. :)
Either way, I promise you will love them, too! They show how hilarious the cast is when you give them Flip cams and turn them loose in the city that never sleeps. If you’re newer to the Glee fandom, then you’ve got to see these, but if you’re an old time Gleek like me, then you’ll love to watch them and relive this past summer’s Glee hysteria. I would buy the DVD set just for these vids, honestly. xD
There are video diaries for the following cast members:
• Jane Lynch
• Lea Michele
• Matthew Morrison
• Cory Monteith
• Kevin McHale
• Amber Riley
• Chris Colfer
• Dianna Agron
Overall, this DVD set completely lives up to my high expectations while still leaving stuff for the future. Maybe we’ll get some episode commentaries or deleted scenes in the full release of season one…? Who knows! All I know is that Glee, Vol. One: Road to Sectionals is a must have for every Gleek or anyone who is trying to get into the series. Seriously. Preorder/buy it NOW! You will not regret it, I promise. :)
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All Rights Reserved.
I AM IN LOVE WITH GLEE! I CANT WAIT TO GET IT!! MY NEIGHBOUR HAS IT AND IM JELOUSE! FROM SEEING MY NEIGHTBOURS 5 STARS!!
Glee is grest, dont get me wrong, but when the next half of the season comes out, it will include the first and second half, they wont make the other half separate to the first half so why waste your money, Buy it when the second half is released! Also When season 1 is over, they graduate so the gleeks in the first season wont be in the second season… Please people spread the word to keep the same gleeks forever and ever or else im turning of glee…
Whats it rated? G, PG or M………… or HIGHER? see , these are the questions that haunt you…
HEY!! LILLY SAID THAT ON HANNAH MONTANA!!!
@ Hih
IF YOU THINK YOUR SOO SMART …..
Hmmm… Uhh… OK WELL
THEN YOUR smart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!
thanks for the preview! but disappointed that i’ve already seen most of these special features, as they are available on the web. was hoping for more unseen clips, but thanks for letting us know, and am still gladly waiting for my copy!
and i agree, i hope there are commentaries/deleted scenes in the future :)
Re the “important notice” comment:
I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to be sophomores, so I don’t see why they won’t return.
Hey on the menu, look at rachel , her mouths open like a train chu-chuing with the L for loser on top of her head
@ IMPORTANT NOTICE comment and @Hm
You both have points which are really good. Just have to see what the future holds Hm is proberly right and hopefully right because if they change the characters i`m turning of glee too. The gleeks now make the show!!
And….
@ IMPORTANT NOTICE
Good point about the DVD but they maybe will make it separate. If you buy this DVD keep the receipt until the other half’s out including the first half
@I LOVE GLEE – first comment
Yuh Lilly said that on Hannah Montana Hih was right. BUT USE YOUR BRAIN FOR A SECOND WILL YA? All the glee episodes are PG They are not even close to G or M or Higher. Its PG. Isn’t that obvious
@IGleek
Naughty Naughty, special features are surprises- to me atleast. Don`t search anymore on the internet
@Gleek 98
Lol is it good?
()_()
oo
-|-
and
@Glee Episode 6 News | Most Popular Searches – Webmastereye.Net
Thats what this blog says, we dont need it in a comment
@ Olom
I know , its funny
hahaha!!
Glee dvd is out today in Australia. Thats what it said on channel 10 forms. I honestly cant wait
I WENT TO BUY IT BUT IT RAN OUT :(
BUT GOOD NEWS I PRE-ORDERED IT!
thanks for posting this! My dad read it and now i am aloud to get it!!
Dianna agrons video diary is sooo funny!
Dianna and cory are recording each other and cory`s like:
your recording me i`m recording you. you me you me you me
I’m pretty confident that the “Glee Music Video” on the extras was what they played in the background of the cast’s performance of Somebody to Love during the Fox Upfronts!! :)
I think its worth it, if you’re a fan of the show. I got my copy at Target for 24 bucks. :D So act quickly if you guys can’t buy from amazon. Although the extras contain stuff you can see online, you get to see Cory’s audition tape where he drums on tuppeware. It was really charming.
It was sold out at over 8 different stores today by 4 PM….so I didn’t get it :(
its not out yet in Australia when they said it would be
I pre-ordered this dvd from amazon.com last week and they said that it would come @ January 5. Then I checked my mail and it came 5 days early!!!! A day after it’s nation wide release :DD Go Glee!
@ Egghead
Its not out nation wide every country had a different relese date
P.S
If your in america, road back from sectionals comes back on T.V in aprill. Be haappy because Australia have to wait till septemeber 24th to wach it
LOVE this show! Jayma is AMAZING, just saw some clips of her in a new video on tylershields.com, check it out!