Barnes & Noble

Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) seems just your ordinary high school “dork.” But she has an extraordinary secret: She’s the fabulous, wildly popular pop star Hannah Montana, recently transplanted from Tennessee to tony Malibu. This volume contains four episodes from the Disney Channel series’ first season. They are not presented chronologically here, so it is best to start with “Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret,” the debut episode, in which Miley’s friend (Emily Osment, a natural talent who deserves her own show) discovers her secret and is upset that Miley didn’t trust their friendship enough to tell her. In “Miley Get Your Gum,” Miley is compelled to reveal her identity to Oliver, her platonic friend, who is obsessively crushing on Hannah. In “I Can’t Make You Love Hannah if You Don’t,” Miley tries to be in two places at once when she attends a Hannah Montana concert with her boyfriend, who prefers hip-hop to Hannah. In "Money for Nothing, Guilt for Free," Miley, Lilly, and Oliver are determined to top obnoxious mean girls Amber and Ashley in a fund-raising drive. Hannah Montana combines elements of Disney’s other popular tween sitcoms (twitcoms?): misfit empowerment (Lizzie McGuire); fantasy fulfillment (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody); and coming-of-age, lesson-learning misadventures (That’s So Raven). Miley is admirably well grounded, and Lilly is the very model of a faithful best friend. A teacher is unfortunately portrayed as a buffoon, but at least Miley’s father (played by her real-life dad, country star Billy Ray), is a rock-solid voice of reason, even if some of his southern-fried adages are indecipherable. Painful Disney Channel acting is in effect (punch every precocious punch line, mug shamelessly), but the writing can be clever, and Hannah’s catchy songs are perfectly pitched to join High School Musical tunes on your iPod. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

Another teen-oriented Disney Channel comedy series, Hanna Montana was a tailor-made vehicle for Miley Cyrus, the daughter of country & western star Billy Ray Cyrus. Newly arrived in Malibu from her Tennessee hometown, heroine Miley (Cyrus of course) did her best to adjust to her new lifestyle and to her classmates at Seaview Middle School -- while at the same time carrying on a "secret life" as preteen pop star Hannah Montana! Billy Ray Cyrus himself was seen as Miley's father and manager Robbie -- strict, loving, traditionalist, and "hip" all in one. Another celebrity relative in the cast was Emily Osment, younger sister of Haley Joel Osment, as Miley's best friend Lilly Truscott. Rounding out the cast was Jason Earles as Miley's traditionally irksome brother Jackson, and Mitchel Musso as classmate Oliver, who carried a torch for the heroine. The weekly, 30-minute Hannah Montana debuted March 24, 2006. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 786936712155
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Time: 1:32:00
• Sales Rank: 10,226

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• Hannah Montana: Money for Nothing, Guilt for Free
• Hannah Montana: Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?
• Hannah Montana: Miley Get Your Gum
• Hannah Montana: I Can't Make You Love Hannah If You Don't

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