Hannah Montana: The Movie [Blu-ray]

The Hannah Montana unstoppable money-making express keeps right on track with Hannah Montana: The Movie. The first big screen fictional story film for the pop teen superstar after the big, unexpected success of her 3-D concert film last year, Hannah Montana: The Movie is pure Disney fluff from beginning to end: a G-rated, slapstick-filled, teen angst saga crammed to the gills with music, big smiles, a little bit of heartbreak, and the inevitable happy ending. There’s nothing original or out of the ordinary with this filmmaking-by-the-numbers movie, but one wishes the geniuses at the Mouse House who find ways to make many of their animated features so special could find a similar approach to movies with their real-life teen stars.

 

Teenager Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) may live a double life as ordinary schoolgirl and pop superstar Hannah Montana, but her father Robby Ray (Billy Ray Cyrus) thinks maybe Miley is enjoying the perks of superstardom a bit too much and needs to be brought back down to earth, and what better way to do it than to take her back to her roots: Crowley Meadows, Tennessee, where she can visit her grandmother (Margo Martindale) and see how the other half lives a simple rural life far away from the paparazzi, Rodeo Drive, and Malibu. Miley meets and falls for her grandmother’s handsome farmhand (Lucas Till) but finds she must don her Hannah Montana mantel again to help raise money to prevent land developers from turning the charming small town into an urban metropolis. So, once again, she finds herself dashing helter-skelter between being Hannah and being Miley and not really enjoying either existence.

 

Sure, it’s corny and predictable from beginning to end. All of the slapstick sequences from careening water bottles to exploding birthday cakes, grandma’s collector plates, a truck full of walnuts, and the inevitable disastrous dinner party with Baked Alaska catching the room on fire are telegraphed and unsurprising. I mean, from the first moment Miley begins gathering chicken eggs from the hen house and putting them in her back pocket, is there any surprise how the scene ends? No, the screenplay by Daniel Berendsen (whose script for the Cheetah Girl’s One World was similarly derivative and predictable) covers all the familiar bases: father-daughter disagreement and eventual reconciliation, girl friend-boy friend disagreement and reconciliation, best friends argument and reconciliation. He does manage to work in as many performance songs as possible and when he can’t fit them in, they’re played on the soundtrack as background music. Not all of the tunes stay in the mind in this film, but two are particularly striking and rank as the film’s best moments: Miley’s tender, touching “The Climb,” and a father-daughter duet between Billy Ray and Miley in “Butterfly Fly Away,” the best number in the show. Director Peter Chelsom does film the movie’s big production number “Hoedown Throwdown” with some interesting camera moves, and there’s some graceful concert-to-music video segues with “Best of Both Worlds” though the tune itself isn’t especially notable.

 

Miley and Billy Ray have been playing their roles on television for quite some time now and have them down pat. So, too, do best friend Lilly (Emily Osment) and brother Jackson (Jason Earles). New to the Montana world are Vanessa Williams who has fun playing Hannah’s exacting publicist, Peter Gunn who’s just fine as an unscrupulous tabloid journalist looking to expose Hannah’s secret, Melora Hardin as a perky new romantic interest for widowed father Robby Ray, and Margo Martindale as Grandma Ruby, the best performance in the film. Lucas Till is effective eye candy for the tween girl fans as Miley’s new love interest, but Barry Bostwick is pretty much wasted as the money-grubbing land developer the town is fighting against.

 

 

The film’s 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio is delivered in a colorful 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Flesh tones are this encode’s most striking feature, lushly realistic as they are. Sharpness is good-to-excellent though varying contrast levels keep the image from sustaining optimum clarity for a perfect video score. The film has been divided into 13 chapters.

 

 

The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track certainly fills the soundstage with music for much of the movie, but otherwise very little is done sound-wise with the many opportunities to fill the elaborate soundfield with discrete effects in all of those available channels. It’s a good but not great audio track.

 

The audio commentary by director Peter Chelsom has some slow or quiet moments, but he speaks glowingly about the cast and crew of the film and tries to find opportunities to discuss his favorite scenes and also parts of the story which were changed or cut.

 

There are four deleted scenes each with director commentary which can be watched separately or in one 10 ½-minute grouping. They’re presented in 1080p.

 

“The Hoedown Throwdown Home Experience” is a 14 ¾-minute featurette showing the teaching of the dance moves for various members of the cast who perform the dance on film and then choreographer Jamal Sims along with cast members Moises Arias and Mitchel Musso teach the dance to those at home who want to learn it. This is presented in 1080p. (The segment is divided into two sections so you can skip the interview section and get straight to the instruction if you prefer.)

 

There are seven music videos which can be played individually or in one 8 ¼-minute group. They’re in 480i.

 

There are 4 minutes of bloopers showing script and balance mistakes.

 

“I Should Have Gone to Film School” is a 15 ¼-minute featurette with co-star Jason Earles taking the viewer behind the scenes of the movie interviewing members of the crew. It’s in 1080p.

 

“Find Your Way Back Home” is a 1080p feature in which Miley, Billy Ray, and Emily take the viewer on tours of their hometowns: Franklin, Tennessee, and Los Angeles, California. It lasts for 15 minutes.

 

BD-Live sections on this disc include Radio Disney (which hadn’t yet been activated during the review process) and The Hannah Montana Store which offers items seen in the movie for sale. The film can also be watched interactively where the viewer can make wish lists of items seen in the film for later purchase.

 

Disc one contains 1080p trailers for Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, The Princess & the Frog, Earth, Santa Buddies, and Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, among others.

 

Disc two in the set is a DVD copy of the movie.

Disc three in the set is DisneyFile, the digital copy of the movie with enclosed instructions for installation on PC and Mac devices.

 

 

 

 

There are no surprises at all with Hannah Montana: The Movie. Disney knows its audience and has delivered a film that’s sure to please all but the most demanding members of its focus group. The Blu-ray release has very good picture and sound, some fun bonus features, and both DVD and digital copies for added value.

 

 

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC