The Movie
When you have young children and a good Dish Network package, you wind up watching a lot of Disney Channel, and one day I stumbled onto Hannah Montana. It was the middle of the episode and I'd never seen it before, but I got the gist: Teenager uses a fake persona to live out her dreams as a pop singer yet still maintain a "normal" life. I remember being stuck by the star, Miley Cyrus, who instead of spewing the painfully typical sitcom dreck with the same obliviousness of most of her peers, actually managed to put her own spin on it. Turns out that the girl has some pipes, too. In short, she's a genuine talent and not even of legal age.
She and her show (and literally tons of merchandise) are a bona fide phenomenon, and so the next step was the feature film Hannah Montana: The Movie. Yes, well, remember that dreck I mentioned earlier? Sadly, despite the bigger budget and theatrical release, this "movie" plays like an extended episode of the TV show, right down to the underwrought slapstick and overwrought schmaltz. Seems that after some particularly diva-like behavior, Miley's dad (played by real-life pop Billy Ray Cyrus) hijacks her back to her small hometown. This being Hannah, schemes aplenty and about 147 songs follow her down South, y'all. Too bad they couldn't pick up a decent screenwriter along the way.
For a second opinion, check out Mark Grady's review of Hannah Montana: The Movie.
The Picture
Depending upon the focus of the shot, far-off trees and rolling hills can either look lovely or artificially flattened, while many interior backgrounds can be terribly noisy. Blacks are unimpressive, often lacking any specific picture information, as when for example Billy Ray's hat blends mushily into the shadows of his pickup truck. Where this 1.85:1 disc excels are the lush, candy colors of the fantasy world Hannah/Miley inhabits, which impart a level of cartoonish appeal.
The Sound
This is one of Disney's first live-action discs with a full-blown DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1-channel soundtrack (the Narnia films, and concert videos by Hannah and Jonas Brothers being the others), and it is exploited in some interesting ways. The opening concert boasts plenty of realistic rear fill from the 360-degree audience, with voices that become even more pronounced when the crowd sings along during a fundraiser performance. The soundstage usually widens during the musical numbers, and there are many, while certain cues in the background score make excellent use of the different channels. The thundering surf of the Pacific craftily segues to the engines of Hannah's private jet, a paparazzi helicopter swoops around us, and there are apparently a lot of happily tweeting birds down in Tennessee.
The Extras
Director Peter Chelsom, a very charming Brit, provides an audio commentary for the film, the most serious of the extras and therefore the least likely to appeal to Hannah/Miley's fans. Surely more to their liking will be "The Hoedown Throwdown Dance-Along: The Home Experience" (14-and-a-half minutes), which goes behind-the-scenes for the cast and crew experiences teaching and learning the movie's signature moves, with step-by-step instructions for us, too. Disney BD-Live connectivity is also provided, with the new Radio Disney and Country Store features.
A whopping seven music videos are included: two versions of "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus, "Back to Tennessee" by Billy Ray Cyrus, "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Let's Get Crazy" by Hannah Montana, "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascall Flatts and "Crazier" by Taylor Swift (about 27 minutes total). Up next are four minutes of bloopers, ten-and-a-half minutes of deleted scenes with director introductions, a tour of Miley's and co-star Emily Osment's hometowns (15 minutes), and co-star Jason Earles' guide through life on the set and the various jobs held by many talented people, with a little educational tickertape along the bottom of the screen (also 15 minutes). All of the extras are presented in HD except the music videos which are all MPEG-2 of drastically varying quality.
In this high-value package, Disc Two is a DVD of the movie, with many of the same bonus features (plus a Blu-ray promo) for the standard-def crowd. Disc Three contains a Digital Copy for either iTunes or Windows Media.
Final Thoughts
No studio blurs the lines between TV and movies better than Disney, and the idea of a big-screen Hannah Montana was a sound one. Too bad the film's comedic/dramatic aspirations did not more fully celebrate its star's considerable gifts.
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