Hannah Montana Forever: Who Is Hannah Montana?

The Disney Studios have excelled in providing well crafted, family oriented entertainment. When you think of magic, princesses and programming that appeal to the exceptionally popular tween demographic. They were always the most successful providers of family entertainment but now that they have their channel on cable their series are guaranteed star makers. Practically every tween girl or boy given their own series will be on the top of the charts and plastered on every pre-teen magazine around. Names like Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato have used the exposure they received through their respective Disney staring vehicles to become household names. For the last four years the brightest star in the Disney constellation has been Miley Cyrus as the talent behind the House of Mouse’s flagship series ‘Hannah Montana’. The series was scientifically engineered to reach out of the television screen to grab its youthful demographic turning them into zealous fans. As with many of the tween series that populate the Disney Channel the creators took particular care to make sure the episodes would be able to entertain the parents that might happen to be in the room. The series was part high school comedy, part musical and altogether excellent for that hyper impressionable demographic. While a first complete season set has been released on DVD most of the releases have been down through theme oriented collections of episodes. This is not only typical for the presentation of this show but has proven to be a successful marketing strategy for most of the tween line up on the network. This compilation of similar stories tends to hold the attention of its audience well by grouping favorite episodes together. The latest in these releases is Hannah Montana: who is Hannah Montana?’ the central theme here reflects on the premise of the series; a talent young girl, Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus), disguises herself with the nom de voyage of Hannah Montana in order to preserve her privacy and attend a normal school while also pursuing a career as an international pop star. In this set the episodes focus on the difficulty this secret has on Miley’s personal and professional life as she grows towards adulthood.

As any person who has watch entertainment news or have leafed through a tabloid magazine knows in real life Ms Cyrus has been experiencing some well publicized growing pains in both her professional and personal life. Her concerts now feature costumes that show more skin, and a few tattoos not on display on her Hannah personae. While this has garnered a lot of negative attention it has to be remembered that the bottom line is she is a talented teenage girl coping with an inordinate amount of pressure. As she changes as a person her musical focus and ultimately her fan base will naturally change. In many ways this forth and reportedly last season on the Hannah Montana series seeks to offer the fans some explanation and perhaps a little closure to the alternate identity. The series basically was inclusive of Miley’s high school years with season one showing her and her best friends Lilly (Emily Osment) and Oliver (Mitchel Musso) beginning high school and this forth season having them prepare to go off to college. The transition as shown on TV is much more family friendly than what the real life Miley has gone through but at least Disney gave her a chance to wrap things up neatly while reflecting some of the true emotional conflict she underwent. As with previous sets this one features fan favorites tired together by a theme; Miley’s secret identity.

This is the double episode where ‘The Secret’ of Miley’s dual identity finally is revealed. In this episode Miley/Hannah has already challenged her recording company wanting to break out with a new sound that better reflects her maturing tastes but with this episode she realizes that the double identity is rapidly becoming more problems than ever. First and foremost plaguing the young Chanteuse is how the secret is beginning to get in the way of her budding romance with Jesse (Drew Roy). He is the guitarist in Hannah’s band but is unaware of his boss’ true identity. The past has shown Miley that the secret is something that can almost immediately ruin her romance. She tells him and the try to make a go of it but a spontaneous public display on the Jay Leno Show makes Jesses an object of fan hated when they think he is running Hannah’s love life. This conundrum is made much worse when Lilly and Miley get their college admissions back. Lilly and Miley are about the same academically but because of her work as Hannah has no extracurricular activities. Since Lily did participate in such functions she gets in but Miley is rejected. She winds up driving back and forth between home and the school only to discover Hannah would be accepted on life experience but unfortunately cannot prove any academic achievements. She is faced with having to make the big reveal in order to preserve her relationships.

Miley’s brother Jackson (Jason Earles) is at a lost to explain to his girlfriend, Siena (Tammin Sursok), why Famous Hannah Montana is lurking outside his house. This results in some flashbacks to when the press thought Jackson was dating Hannah now the cause of Siena’s ire. It is becoming clearer to Miley that her secret is having adverse affects on her family.

Miley is anxious to drive but fails the test so she gives into temptation retaking it as Hannah so her star power will get her a passing mark. Ultimately she discovers that she created Hannah to live a normal life but can’t resist the perks of fame.

When Hannah falls for teen heart throb Jake Ryan (Cody Linley) their mutual fame gets in the way and when Miley reveals her true identity to him the relationship goes wrong. This is evident by Jake’s inability to live a normal life sway from the spotlight.

This was the pilot episode where Miley has to decide to let her best friend, Lilly, in on her secret.

As always there are some fun extras for the family to enjoy. In all this is an entertaining disc that the entire family can enjoy together.

Extras

Ashley Tisdale breaks out with her ‘High school Musical’ character in ‘Sharpay’s fabulous adventure Sneak Peak

Dylan and Cole Sprouse: Blu-ray is Suite

Learn to take your favorite movies on the go

Posted 11/30/2010