Disney Channel Shows

Looks like Disney's learned their lesson and are actually going by ratings now. Good for them. Official Disney Press Release:

Disney Channel has ordered a fourth season of the worldwide smash hit series and cultural icon "Hannah Montana," a property that has triumphed in every frontier from television, music, concert tours and books to DVDs, consumer products and films. The announcement was made today by Gary Marsh, president, Entertainment, Disney Channels Worldwide. Production wraps on Season Three this week and will resume early next year on Season Four in Hollywood. The storyline for the fourth season will have the Stewarts grappling with saying goodbye to their beachfront Malibu home. In making the announcement, Marsh said: "’Hannah Montana’ has become one of the most iconic series in television history. That is a direct result of the extraordinary collaboration between the show's producers, writers and cast – all of whom constantly challenge each other to raise the bar, comedically, musically and from a storytelling perspective. In keeping with that approach, Miley and the producers have proposed a change of setting for Season Four that will provide the catalyst for wonderful new characters and further expand the storytelling opportunities." Starring are Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana, Emily Osment as Lilly Truscott, Jason Earles as Jackson Stewart and Billy Ray Cyrus as Robby Stewart. Mitchel Musso, whose solo recording album debuts Tuesday, June 2 on Walt Disney Records, will recur as Oliver Oken. The wildly popular series, which premiered in March 2006, delivers an average of 4.4 million viewers per episode. An episode of "Hannah Montana" (August 17, 2007) is the highest rated series telecast in the history of basic cable television, delivering 10.7 million Total Viewers, 4.2 million Kids 6-11 and 4.1 million Tweens 9-14. "Hannah Montana" has generated two double-platinum soundtracks that made history as the first TV soundtrack to debut on the Billboard Top 200, a #1 box office movie from Walt Disney Pictures, popular episodic compilation DVDs, a junior novel series, apparel, accessories and video games. In addition, Miley Cyrus headlined a sold out concert tour in which she performed songs from the series as well as songs that introduced her as a new solo recording artist. A 3D concert film, “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert” in Disney Digital 3-D, is the #1 concert film of all time. The series was created by Michael Poryes, Rich Correll and Barry O'Brien. The executive producers are Steven Peterman and Michael Poryes. "Hannah Montana" is a production of It's a Laugh Productions, Inc.

Looks like we won't need SaveHannah.com after all.

I went to see the HM movie today. It was actually rather well done. It starts with Robbie Ray sitting in Miley's dressing room wondering where she is. We then see Miley and Lilly desperately trying to get into the concert venue - and they are not having much luck. "You're the only pop star I know who can't get into her own concert" - Lilly. They end up stealing a security golf cart and smashing some stuff backstage. Miley eventually takes the stage and through an interesting cinematic trick, we come out of the scene and into a music video shoot which might be before or after that first scene. After the video shoot scene, we meet the tabloid reporter that follows Miley the entire film. Following the introduction, it is conveniently Lilly's 16th birthday. And Miley gets into her shoe fight (after being egged on by her publicist) and misses Jackson's departure for college in Tennessee. She then races to make it to Lilly's sweet 16 party, but is being pursued by the reporter which prevents her from changing back from Hannah to Miley. Instead of telling Lilly what is going on, Hannah crashes the party and totally upstages Lilly at her own party. Oh, and Oliver and Rico blow up the cake. That's all they do in this movie. This is all a plot construct in order for a then pissed off Lilly to tell the Reporter that Hannah’s hometown was Crowley Corners. Great timing there, Lilly. After the party, Hannah’s publicist sets up a trip to New York for some big awards show, but it means missing Miley’s Grandma’s birthday. And Miley’s dad won’t stand for that, so he redirects the plane to Tennessee and Jackson meets them at the airstrip. Miley’s rather pissed and is still all Hannah-ed up on their drive to the house. Miley demands her dad stops, and she gets out and refuses to go along with this … and gets attacked by a horse. And it’s her horse “Blue Jeans” too boot. Anyway, to cut to the chase, she meets the guy that she knew way back in kindergarten, meets up with the rest of the family, and is generally miserable. Then she starts doing stuff with the guy, and she starts to legitimately enjoy herself. Now for the complication, a large tract of land called Crowley Meadows was deeded to the city on the death of its owner. But to pay the income/inheritance/capita gains taxes, they need to raise half a million dollars. And cheapskate Miley doesn’t just cut them a check. Okay, I guess her Hannah money would be in a trust fund, but her Dad could cut the check if she wanted him to. However, I’m getting ahead of myself. Instead, they have a music night fundraiser, which raises a few thousand, but nowhere near enough. The seedy developer guy challenges them to get a headliner (he suggests the Beatles) at which point Travis announces: "Miley knows Hannah Montana!" In order to keep up the charade, and because we needed some excuse to get Lilly out to Tennessee, Lilly dons the Hannah wig and flies out to meet Miley. Once Hannah has arrived, Miley uses Hannah to see if Travis likes her (Miley, not Hannah). Turns out he does (duh) and at Hannah’s urging, he proceeds to ask Miley out – the same day that Hannah/Lilly agree to go to the mayor’s special Hannah dinner. Again, instead of talking to people, (ie “Travis, I really like you, but can we reschedule for tomorrow?” It’s not that hard.) Miley conducts a series of quick changes and runs back and forth between both events. She ends up ruining both dinners, blows her secret to Travis and another random Hannah fan, Travis dumps her, and inadvertently forces her dad to choose between her and his new girlfriend. This turn of events, while expected and predictable was a lot worse than I would have ever imagined. It was quite a powerful scene toward the end, even if it was kinda stupid. Following that disaster, it was time to put everything back as it should be and resolve everything. The important change being that Miley did not care how Hannah affected her when everything went wrong at the beginning of the film, but totally got it the second time around. With this accomplished, Miley, and her dad resolved their issues with a song “Butterfly Fly Away.” She then finished her project with Travis and was off to her Hannah benefit concert. Her grandma met her there, and they had the traditional “I’m so proud of you, and your mom would be too.” Hannah takes the stage and everything is okay. Then Travis sees what Miley did for him, he realizes that he was an idiot, and races to the concert. When Hannah sees him show up, it triggers something deep within her and as she looked at all the people her Hannah secret had hurt, she says: "There's only so many sacrifices you can ask a family to make. The last time I stood on this stage, I was six... I was just Miley... I still am.” At which point she pulls off the wig. And there’s just this stunned silence. At this point, she decides to sing a new song, “The Climb,” on stage as Miley. After the song, the little girl that saw her change before yell to her, "Please don’t stop being Hannah!" The rest of the crowd follows suit with similar comments and a general promise that they’ll keep her secret. Sleazy tabloid reporter guy, on the other hand, doesn’t play fair and snaps a picture. They chase him down and use his kids (whom the publicist brought to the show for some reason) to convince him not to. His character seems completely unnecessary to the plot. Anyway, Miley takes the stage for one more song as Hannah, there is a shot of the money being raised, and the movie ends. I don’t know what it is with recent Disney films and abrupt musical endings, but it’s starting to get a little old. Nevertheless, it was a decent film. Definitely watchable, the music didn’t seem overdone, the physical comedy was kept to a minimum, and there were some very beautiful scenes. Overall, I’d say it was a B-