Hannah Montana Forever: Who Is Hannah Montana? – DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews

In the past, all Disney channel shows had this rule about not lasting more than two seasons. Obviously, that doesn’t hold much weight since Hannah Montana, the network’s cash cow, has been the Disney Channels most popular television series ever. But even Hannah’s days are numbered. The series will finally come to an end after four seasons later this year, but before that can happen, Miley still has a secret that must be revealed to the world. Will she reveal it in latest episode, “I’ll Always Remember You”? If you missed it on television, you can find out for yourself in the latest compilation DVD set, Hannah Montana Forever.

Hannah Montana is a series about the life of 14-year-old named Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus), who is the precocious daughter of former singer/songwriter star, and widower, Robbie Stewart (Billy Ray Cyrus). Living in a Malibu beachfront home, Miley hides the fact that she lives a secret second life just so she can live a relatively normal teenage life. That second life consists of her donning a blonde wig, and becoming Hannah Montana, a famous tween pop singing idol adored by millions of American boys and girls. But soon complications arise as Miley tries to negotiate her real-life and fantasy personas. Meanwhile, her father has double-duty keeping Hannah’s career on track, while making sure that Miley’s career doesn’t get in the way of her learning the difficult lessons all teenagers have to learn. She lives with her brother Jackson (Jason Earles) who is a goofball who tends to get himself into some sort of predicament at home or at work at the hot dog stand owned by young entrepreneur Rico (Moises Arias). Fortunately for Miley/Hannah, she is fortunate to have her best friends Lilly Truscott (Emily Osment) and Oliver Oken (Mitchel Musso) around at times to be her voice of reason and to help bail her out of trouble.

This set contains the first two episodes of the series (“Pilot” and “Miley, Get Your Gum”), an episode from season two (“Achy Jakey Heart”), an episode from season three (“Ready, Set, Don’t Drive” ), an episode from the most recent season four (“De-Do-Do-Do, Da-Don’t-Don’t -Don’t Tell My Secret!”), and finally the latest hour-long episode, “I’ll Always Remember You (Part 1 & Part 2)”, that is the sole reason this DVD set was created. In the feature episode, “I’ll Always Remember You (Part 1 & Part 2)”, the main conflict comes when Miley and Lilly both apply to Stanford and only Lilly gets in. So Miley goes on a weird road trip to Stanford to try and persuade the admissions people to let her in as well. She quickly finds out that perhaps the only way to get into Stanford is to reveal who she really is to the world. Later, she appears on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where she finally has to decide whether to keep her Hannah Montana wig on or take it off forever.

Looking specifically at the central episode, the acting has definitely improved over the years. Everyone has grown up into their roles, and have mostly matured, with the exception of Rico and Jackson. That said, even those two often-times annoying characters, have toned down their over-the-top comedic antics over time. As far the storylines goes, is it really that big of a surprise still in the Hannah Montana world? The secret being revealed is really more like a symbol. Just like Miley Cyrus is growing up in real life and moving away from her Disney star image, it’s time for Miley Stewart to shed her Hannah Montana persona and just live on as herself.

Hannah Montana fans will love getting to see how Miley has grown up on-and-off the screen in this set. This DVD compilation set might seem like just another random set of Hannah Montana episodes thrown together, but really each one shows us how Miley has grown up. In addition, each episode shows Miley revealing her secret to her friends, family, and eventually the entire world. Parents will be happy to know that majority of this set is less annoying to watch, because the rest of the characters and actors around Miley have grown up as well. In the end, Miley is who she is, like it or not. Hannah Montana fans will probably like it enough to buy this set as soon as they can. The complete season four will likely still be released someday, but what true fan can wait that long?

Episodes:

Episode 1 – “I’ll Always Remember You (Part 1 & Part 2)”
Conflict arises when Miley and Lilly both apply to Stanford and only Lilly gets in. Meanwhile, an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno leads to unexpected consequences for Hannah Montana.

Episode 2 – “De”
Jackson tries to cover for Miley when his girlfriend, Siena, sees Miley as Hannah outside looking through the window. Earlier, Jackson had used his sister to score points by saying Hannah was an old girlfriend. Meanwhile, Robbie takes Rico fishing.

Episode 3 – “Ready, Set, Don’t Drive”
Miley finds herself in the same situation as when she gets turned down for Stanford. Miley gets treated differently as Hannah than as Miley, and when she takes advantage of that, it backfires.

Episode 4 – “Achy Jakey Heart (Parts 1 and 2)”
Miley and her old heartthrob Jake reunite. After a rocky start, things start to move in their relationship, but while Hannah is comfortable living life as Miley, Jake is only interested in living like a normal person.

Episode 5 – “Miley, Get Your Gum”
Oliver has a crush on Miley and Miley has a crush on Corbin Bleu. Meanwhile, Jackson finally saves up money and buys a car that turns out to be a chick car, not a chick magnet.

Episode 6 – “(Pilot) Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?”
Miley confides her BIG secret to best-friend Lilly.

The video is given in fullscreen color with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The transfer is good with colors generally looking bright and vivid details everywhere. It is disappointing to not see this show in widescreen high-definition format, but as it is, it’s pretty solid. No major problems.

The audio included is available in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound. There are subtitles available in English and Spanish as well. The dialogue and music come out loud and clear. No major problems here either.

“Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure!” Sneak Peek – It probably barely classifies as an extra. But this a sneak peek of the new spin-off film from the High School Musical. In this film, Ashley Tisdale once again plays Sharpay as she heads to New York City to make it big as a musical actress.

The only people who will want to own this DVD set are the hardcore fans of the show, who must own every Hannah Montana related thing. Fans have likely seen all of these episodes before, and even if they haven’t, they will probably see it on TV at some point. There are no extras that make this a “must-buy”. However, this is still a nice mixture of older and newer Hannah Montana episodes, though.


Walt Disney Home Entertainment presents Hannah Montana Forever: Who Is Hannah Montana. Created by Michael Poryes, Rich Correll, and Barry O’Brien. Starring Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment, Mitchel Musso, Jason Earles, Moises Arias, and Billy Ray Cyrus. Running time: 182 minutes. Rated: NOT RATED. Released on DVD: November 2, 2010.

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