woensdag 20 oktober 2010

Hannah Montana Forever: The Final Series Draws In!

The long-awaited fourth series of Hannah Montana begin this month; something that’s got lots of people talking. The latest season, which is the last in the Hannah Montana saga, is entitled Hannah Montana Forever. It will air on the Disney Channel and the Disney Channel HD at 17:00 in the UK, with back-to-back half-hour episodes.
The series follows US teenager Miley Stewart (played by the famous actress and singer Miley Cyrus) as she goes through life, facing average teenage problems like trying to get the attention of a cute boy and dealing with her annoying older brother. Although the show is first and foremost a comedy, there are moralistic undertones aimed at the eager ‘tweens’ watching, who are mainly aged from eight to 13. There are also many older viewers who love the show, growing up with it throughout adolescence.
The twist in Miley’s ‘average’ life is that she is also the popstar Hannah Montana. Only her closest friends and family know this, so it is a struggle everyday to keep it secret while living an otherwise normal teenage life. Throughout Hannah Montana Forever, Miley must decide whether to ditch her showbiz career in favour of being able to enjoy a regular life or carry on with her alter-ego to pursue superstardom.
The main characters alongside Miley Stewart are her father, her best friend Lilly, her brother and his best friend. Miley’s Dad, Robby Ray, is played by her real-life father, equally-famous musician Billy Ray Cyrus. As Hannah Montana’s manager, he also sports a secret identity in the form of a rather unconvincing fake moustache! When this inevitably fails, he claims to be Hannah’s father, Mr Montana.
Father to Miley and her brother Jackson, he plays a responsible parent role by guiding his children to make the right decisions in life without forcing anything upon them, instead opting to let them make their own mistakes and learn lessons from them. Miley’s older brother, Jackson, is a typical older brother; annoying, big-headed and pretty useless with girls. But deep down he’s a nice guy, and despite always arguing with Miley he is really delighted about his sister’s success.
Lilly Truscott is Miley’s best friend and she features throughout the series as she has always done in Hannah Montana. With quite a bubbly personality she provides many of the show’s comedy moments. She also helps keep Miley down to Earth when things get tough; after all, being a superstar can’t be fun all the time! When watching Hannah Montana’s concerts she adopts an alter-ego in the form of Hannah’s long-time best pal Lola Luftnagle. As you can see, there are striking similarities between the two lives Lilly and Hannah lead, with the pair sticking together whatever happens.
The final main character, Rico, is almost Jackson’s protégée with his boyish, egoistic personality. He is convinced Miley has a crush on him, and is always annoying Lilly when she is working in the snack bar on the beach.
The new series has some character differences; most significantly that Oliver Oken, Miley’s friend since series one, doesn’t have a heavy role. In all the other Hannah Montana series he played a leading part. Instead, he makes a guest appearance along with other celebrities such as Iyaz, Ray Liotta and Christine Taylor.
Hannah Montana Forever contrasts to previous series in other ways as well. It is the first (and only) series to be filmed in HD. Also, the Disney Channel has never before aired a special finale series, meaning each episode of the concluding series will be memorable. Even though the new title sequences look exactly the same, diehard fans will notice an acute difference in the video clips throughout the titles that have been updated to include the new season.
A fresh set of songs has been produced for the series by various songwriters and composers. There are three duets featuring Iyaz, Billy Ray Cyrus and Sheryl Crow. An album of these songs will be released in the UK on October 19th. The lead single from the album is Ordinary Girl, which hit the US music charts when it was released in the summer.
Hannah Montana also comes with a brand-new website. The brightly coloured animated graphics create a showbiz theme for the site, with the main browsing page designed like a studio. Users can navigate to various sections of the website by clicking on various items, as the pages are interactive, and see more of the ‘studio’ by scrolling along the edges. As you enter to site, there is an introductory scene featuring Miley Cyrus changing from Miley Stewart to Hannah Montana. Other members of the cast also feature. In the background there is music from the new Hannah Montana Forever series but without the lyrics. As well as numerous fun features such as favourite video clips and a music player, the website has a link to a programme guide which shows when Hannah Montana will be aired on the Disney Channel.
All-new Hannah Montana games are featured on the website. There are 16 games to try, which differ in style from Rico’s Surf Shop Challenge, in which you have to make money, to Roomy Room re-do, in which you can decorate Hannah Montana’s bedroom. There is also a variety of suitable themed music games such as Rock the Beat and Jammin’ with Hannah. The games have relatively quick uploading times and are easy to play.
In the ‘downloads’ section of the website, there are a number of Hannah Montana pictures available to download onto your PC. In addition to this, printable posters and t-shirt decals are available. There is also a downloadable guide called Get the Hannah Montana Look, which shows girls how to do Hannah-inspired make-up and hairstyles.
Hannah Montana Forever will be the end of Miley Cyrus’ time playing the role, as she is working on other areas of her career, predominantly her music. No new series of Hannah Montana is planned, although the Disney Channel is likely to run repeats of the programme into the future.

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