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Hannah Montana on DVD:
The Complete First Season | Compilations: Livin' the Rock Star Life • Pop Star Profile • Life's What You Make It • One in a Million • Keeping it Real
That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana • Wish Gone Amiss | Hannah Montana DVD Game | Hannah & Miley: Best of Both Worlds Concert Film
"Hannah Montana" Keeping it Real DVD Review
In two weeks, Hannah Montana will make the leap from cable television to the big screen. Six years ago, that would have seemed special. Ten years ago, it would have been momentous. Today, it feels like business as usual. That's because movie studios have been granting cable properties theatrical treatment for some time now. Hannah Montana: The Movie follows similar spin-offs of "South Park", "Reno 911!", "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", "Sex and the City", and Disney Channel's own "Lizzie McGuire." Hannah's big movie is also the most interesting thing about her latest DVD release. That's because "Hannah Montana": Keeping it Real includes a unique code to get a free ticket up to $7.50. Beyond that offer and the inclusion of a bonus episode, there's not much to distinguish Real from the four previous 4-episode compilations Disney has issued since 2006. Last fall's Complete First Season DVD suggested the studio was letting its frugal tween sitcom grow up and get a box set like Mommy and Daddy's active favorites all do. Now, it's back to the 90-minute disc and until we see the rest of the year's schedule, we won't know whether that's the result of disparate sales numbers, the floundering economy, or Disney just trying to cover every consumer demographic.
I felt like I said everything I could about Disney Channel's top-rated sitcom in my Season 1 review. I've never been a fan of it, but there's something about watching ten hours of something you don't care for that brings out stronger feelings of dislike. Three months later, those feelings haven't quite dissipated; I guess I'll give the movie a chance, In television and film, there are kid-friendly properties that bring no pain to older people tuning in with an open mind. Then there is something like "Hannah Montana" and practically everything else being produced for today's Disney Channel, which can magically delight those aged about 7 to 13 (especially girls) and those who are able to recreate the mindset of that life stage. The show does little, however, for anyone outside that audience, with reactions typically ranging from apathy to anger.
The more exposed to the series I am, the more threatened my apathy becomes. Why can't this show do some good? Blessed with an enormous, impressionable audience, all it wants to do is recycle pickles facing the teen everygirl who's secretly a music megastar. My standards aren't too high. I'd settle for a few morsels of humor or the slightest sign of a genuine heart. Instead, we continue to receive broad and unfunny hijinks, where every joke and twist is foreseen so far in advance that payoffs never come. At no point does "Hannah Montana" seek to move things forward or gain substance. It's one shallow predicament after another -- boys, beaches, fashions, and nonsensical secrets -- always ending happily with a disposable lesson unconvincingly delivered.
Maybe the premise is just too hokey to amount to anything special. So, we get Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) repeatedly fumbling to protect her huge secret (a concept that's never believable in the age of TMZ). Sometimes evidence of her country upbringing slips through the cracks of her Malibu dream life, but for laughs, not trouble of consequence. Here's a look at Keeping it Real's featured episodes, which are by far the show's most recent to be made available on DVD.
"The Test of My Love" (22:35) (Originally aired August 31, 2008)
"Don't Stop 'Til You Get the Phone" (22:35) (Originally aired September 21, 2007)
"Yet Another Side of Me" (22:35) (Originally aired August 3, 2008)
"We're All on This Date Together" (22:35) (Originally aired October 12, 2008)
VIDEO and AUDIO
"Hannah Montana" appears in 1.33:1 fullscreen and Dolby Surround. I guess the studio has stopped bothering with the 5.1-channel soundtracks, but you'd be hard-pressed to notice the difference anyway. The show looks about the same as it has on past DVDs, which is to say it's as bright, garish, and full of motion blur as it is on television, but doesn't have the Disney Channel bug on the screen.
BONUS FEATURES, MENUS and PACKAGING
The DVD contains two video bonuses. First up is the featurette "Miley's Makeover: Hannah Gets a New Look!" (4:17), which is every bit as throwaway as the extras on such discs usually are. Then more likely to be appreciated by fans is a "bonus" episode, Season 3's "Ready, Set, Don't Drive" (22:37; Originally aired November 9, 2008). In it, Miley fails her road test, then plots to get her license in time for a cool party, winding up in jail in the process. Also, Rico's presence at the Stewart home drives Jackson crazy.
The disc loads with ads for Disney, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Up, Dadnapped/Hatching Pete, Princess Protection Program, Disney Blu-ray, and Disney Movie Rewards. Post-compilation/menu previews give us looks at the High School Musical DVD Game, High School Musical 3, Monsters, Inc. Blu-ray, Disney XD, and Bedtime Stories. Oddly, there isn't a Hannah Montana: The Movie trailer to be found.
The main menu jazzes up its featured montage with swinging Hannah/Miley lockets and flashy graphics. This might be the first Disney DVD menu I've seen that cues episode playback after timing out.
Three items are found inside the keepcase. A booklet is 7 parts Blu-ray promotion and 1 part Disney Movie Rewards code. A smaller but thicker one further advertises Blu-ray and a number of Disney Channel DVD titles. The final sheet provides your unique code for printing out a movie ticket worth up to $7.50.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
You can get whole movies for the per-episode cost Disney places on these "Hannah Montana" compilations and those movies aren't aired around the clock on basic cable. If you've got some pre-teen girls at home, doing that might not make you the world's best parent in their eyes. But it makes sense economically and once the kids have grown out of their Hannah phase, they'll likely see more value in DVDs like most of these. Besides, it doesn't take a genius to recognize that season sets are a much better deal for the customer. And as long as this show continues to keep enough folks happy, even Disney's hesitance in the TV DVD market won't be enough to leave future "Hannah" collections off store shelves.
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UltimateDisney.com | New and Upcoming DVD Schedule | Upcoming Disney DVDs | DVD and Blu-ray Reviews | Search This Site
New to DVD: Bolt (Deluxe Edition) • Bedtime Stories (Deluxe Edition) • Schoolhouse Rock! Earth • Follow That Bird (25th Anniversary Edition)
Hannah Montana: The Complete First Season • Hannah Montana: The Movie • Hannah Montana DVD Game
4-Episode Hannah Montana Compilations: Livin' the Rock Star Life • Pop Star Profile • Life's What You Make It • One in a Million
That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana • Wish Gone Amiss • Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert
High School Musical 3: Senior Year • The Game Plan • Camp Rock • Princess Protection Program • Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie
Wizards of Waverly Place: Supernaturally Stylin' • Lilo & Stitch (2-Disc Big Wave Edition) • Full House: The Complete Seventh Season
Phineas and Ferb: The Daze of Summer • Disney Channel Holiday • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Lip Synchin' in the Rain
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Reviewed March 27, 2009.