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| by John Mundazio with additional writing by Beth E. Cochran | ||
| Disney's ‘Hannah Montana-Miley Cyrus Concert’— Very Impressive. | ||
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I give the pretty tight
band backing Montana/Cyrus much of the credit. I expect that the studio
versions of these same tunes probably sound much more pre-fab and
sterile, whereas the live renditions actually show some kick. These
folks manage to add real punch to material that easily could— and
probably should— have been borderline grocery store muse-ack, more
emphasis on the "ACK!". The lyrics are harder to digest, I admit. With
titles like “Rock Star”, “Life’s What You Make It”, “Pumpin’ Up the
Party”, “We Got the Party” and “Girls Night Out”, I can’t say I expected
much from the words, and I got very little, maybe I just need a time
machine and some "tween power bar". The lyrics provide simple aphorisms
and “Woo-hoo! Let’s party!” nothingness. I can’t say this side of things
disappointed me, though, since I certainly didn’t exactly anticipate
“Positively 4th Street” here. |
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John Mundazio works for one of the numerous publishing companies in the
New York metropolitan area which is currently planning a bold takeover
of the parallel universe in which he occasionally resides with several
of his imaginary friends and at least two of the strange voices in his
head. But he is confident it is not the one you're thinking of at this
very moment. Convinced that Susie-Q's are indeed a food group and that
no REAL list of fun toys is ever really complete without mentioning
"Log"— that quintessential Ren and Stimpy Show toy that boldly dared to
go where no toy ever could... "The Dazed-Meister" refuses to partake in
anything which requires him to dress up like Wonder Woman or sing the
theme song from The Partridge Family in its entirety. He also opposes
floatation devices of any sort. |
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As
a thirty-something male with no children, I feel compelled to ask
myself a good question: what the [BLEEP] am I doing watching Hannah
Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert DVD? (Profanity
altered to protect any kiddies who may stumble across this review.)
Obviously I’m both the wrong age and gender to fit in the Montana/Cyrus
demographic, but the whole thing turned into such an enormous cultural
phenomenon that I wanted to give the DVD a look and of course, to "take
one for the UPBEAT team". After all, the “Best of Both Worlds” tour
received breathless media coverage due to its enormous success. The
shows sold out faster than Bugs Bunny's mail arrived and inspired
parents to drop the big bucks on scalped tickets for their precious
offspring. Much societal angst came along with this, as many wondered if
parents over-indulged their kids. In addition to this, the concert
industry received some unwanted negative attention over the nature of
ticket sales and how so few apparently wound up in the mitts of fans
while the scalpers boasted scads of seats. In addition, I do have a bit
of a penchant for live performances, and I acknowledge an affection for
big, showy concerts. Sure, I want to hear great music, but I have little
interest in a show that lacks some exceptional visual component. I
didn’t expect to think very much of the Montana/Cyrus brand of light
pop/rock, but maybe the performance would be engaging enough to maintain
my interest but I assumed I would be asleep by the end of the first song
as I am a bit of a "Nite Owl" [see Nite Owl Productions, Inc, our sister
company. 
When
I review concert DVDs from acts I don’t like, I avoid personal
judgments of the music. It doesn’t seem fair for me to actively
criticize material I already knew wouldn’t do much for me. Since I still
want to review these discs, I prefer to concentrate on how well the DVD
reproduces the live event. And I plan to adhere to that rule here,
though I will throw out a few thoughts about the music. In short, it
isn't bad at all. Granted, one must go into a Montana/Cyrus concert with
certain expectations. I figured the music would be the sort of generic,
inoffensive, derivative light pop/rock favored by the majority of the
Disney Channel musical performers, and I was right. However, the
Montana/Cyrus tunes favored the rock side of pop/rock more than most.
Usually these acts provide dance music with a guitar riff or two, but
the Montana/Cyrus songwriters went about their business with a crunchier
edge much of the time. No, the music won’t make anyone forget the
Ramones, but I must admit it was more aggressive than I expected it to
be. 
I
was very pleased to see that the concert really was live. I expected
a lot of canned music and probably a great deal of lip-synching, but it
sure sounded to me like Cyrus did all her vocals live. That’s a “for
better or for worse” situation though, as Cyrus doesn’t boast much of a
voice. She’s a competent singer, but she usually sounds flat. Still, I’d
much prefer erratic live vocals to flawless canned and auto-tuned
singing, so I appreciate the apparent lack of “fixing” given to the
music. As for the visual performance, I’ll say this about Cyrus: she can
perform and hold her own on stage. She manages to remain enthusiastic
but usually doesn’t seem plastic. To be sure, this is clearly a very
choreographed set without an ounce of spontaneity. For all the
declarations of how she’s a “Rock Star”, there’s no hint of actual rock
star swagger or anything other than the appearance of a girl playing
dress-up. But that’s to be expected, and I can’t knock the pre-planned
nature of the performance too harshly because lots of established acts
do the same thing. Just last week I saw the Police four times— and heard
Sting toss out the same between-songs pattern every time. And that’s
from a concert that just featured three guys on stage, not one with all
the choreography and effects found here. So I’ll cut Hannah/Miley a
break. Is she particularly talented as a vocalist or dancer? No, but
neither was Madonna in the early days. I’m certainly not saying Miley
will become a pop icon ala Maddy, but it’d be far too easy for me to
dismiss her as a Flavor of the Month without a future. I have no clue if
she’ll still have a career five years from now, but she does manage to
display a charisma that gives her a fighting shot for continued success.
In
terms of the entire DVD presentation, Worlds usually maintains a
logical focus on the concert stage. Director Bruce Hendricks keeps
things quite simple and effective. Appropriately, Hannah/Miley fills the
screen most of the time; we get cuts to the musicians, dancers and
crowd, but I’d guess Hannah/Miley stays at the center at least 75
percent of the time. And that works, since she’s the star. The other
shots allow us to gain a better take on the performance as a whole, but
the fans probably just want to see their heroine, so the shot choices
make sense. The cutting patterns manage to remain unobtrusive. Hendricks
cuts fairly quickly much of the time, but not to a dizzying degree. This
isn’t a hyperactive “cut every millisecond” presentation; it keeps
things moving but doesn’t annoy us with obnoxious rapidity. I could live
without some theatrical moments like Hannah/Miley staring into the
camera; those harm the illusion that this is a real concert. However,
they’re infrequent enough to do little harm. In addition to the concert
bits, we get a few glimpses behind the scenes. After the opening song,
we go to rehearsals, and we find some other tidbits like Miley’s fear of
being dropped during one dance bit and her mother’s comments about the
Hannah to Miley costume change. One segment chats with young fans before
the show, and we also observe the mania for tickets. I’d prefer a
straight concert film, but these clips don’t harm the end product. 
Buena
Vista
Home Entertainment
Television Shows
http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/hannahmontana/