The always incredibly dynamic Eddie Murphy gives the performance of his career as Jimmy “Thunder” Early, a dynamic composite of R&B greats like Little Richard, James Brown, and Marvin Gaye. Murphy plays the character with an extraordinarily seamless blend of light-hearted charm and subtle anguish that really shows that his level of talent transcends beyond the world of comedy.

But the real surprise of this film is American Idol finalist Jennifer Hudson in her extraordinarily show-stopping film debut. Her Best Supporting Actress Oscar win was well-deserved as not only does she prove herself instantly adept at doing dialogue, but she proves to be an extraordinarily gifted performer and vocalist during the musical numbers. Her abilities here are a great vindication that she was destined for far greater things than any hollow accolades from the musically MOR and shallow world of Idol.

The Dreamgirls film does manage to succeed mostly in compressing its lofty story of racism, greed, and the cold-heartedly capitalistic world of the music business into something consistently entertaining. However, a few of the songs suffer from being a bit generic, a few of the transitions from dialogue to song come out a bit awkward when shown in the realm of film, and the film is so labored that despite all the thrills, it does get a bit exhausting by the final stretch.

The DVD’s picture quality is presented in the 2:35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio, with the sound quality in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. Both of the DVD’s are generously packed with an abundance of special features.

The first disc contains 12 extended or alternate versions of the musical numbers performed, which is a real treat for fans who want to see a performance of a particular musical number in its complete and undiluted form. A few of the scenes were deleted musical numbers, one called “I am Somebody”, performed by Beyonce Knowles and another called “Effie, Sing My Song”, sung by Jennifer Hudson and Keith Robertson.

The addition of these number would have slowed down the already lengthy final film even further, but is great to watch in this context, particularly “Effie, Sing My Song” for anyone wanting to see the more of the talented Hudson vocal performances. Rounding out the first disc is the music video for the film soundtrack’s single “Listen” from Beyonce, which is the performance footage of her singing is a bit disappointing in its simplicity.

The bulk of Disc 2 is a lavish two-hour documentary titled Building The Dream, that ambitiously covers the film’s conception, filming, and execution from start to finish. It also features great behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew.

Dream Logic: Film Editing is a featurette that focuses on the process of editing the film. It contains interviews with editor Virginia Katz and others, who discuss how she dealt with the arduous task of stitching the final cut ...