If you are in need of a fun, colorful movie filled with nostalgia and songs you cannot resist singing, I suggest “Hannah Montana: The Movie.” Not only does the movie have cringe-worthy Disney dialogue, but it also has iconic scenes from 2009. The opening scene of Hannah trying to get into her own concert is one that will go down in history. Miley Stewart has to be the only pop star who cannot get into her own concert. The montage of her getting ready made every girl jealous. She had the perfect makeup box that every girl begged their moms for. And her rainbow sequin dress is such a staple that people still buy it as a Halloween costume 15 years later.
One of the subplots in the movie is Hannah being confronted by a tabloid reporter hoping to find some dirt on the pop star. For the entirety of the movie, a grown man named Oswald Granger, with two teenage daughters of his own, follows the 16-year-old to her hometown to find something that could ruin her career.
Oswald begins to follow her, where he covers a fight between Hannah and Tyra Banks over a pair of heels. He then follows Hannah from the mall to Lilly’s birthday party. Scared of letting her secret out, Miley decides to stay as Hannah, which causes a huge commotion. Hannah steals the party’s attention from Lilly and performs one of Hannah’s hit songs, “Let’s Get Crazy.” While mad, Oswald approached Lilly, hoping to get some information on Hannah’s secret. Lilly decides to tell him where she is from, so Oswald follows Hannah all the way to Tennessee.
Her father Robby Ray becomes angry that Miley missed saying goodbye to her brother Jackson before he went to college and Miley realizes that she prioritizes being Hannah over her friends and family. After being a reckless teen pop star, Miley’s dad takes her to spend some quality family time in her small town, Crowley Crows, Tenn., for her grandmother’s birthday.
Blindsided, Miley thinks she’s going to New York and arrives on the flat plains of Tennessee. Miley refuses to keep going and gets out of the truck, still wearing her Hannah wig. In classic Disney fashion, Miley removes her wig. She attempts to ride her old horse, but the horse runs away. Here, she meets her dashing cowboy after he saves her horse, Blue Jeans. He becomes her knight in shining denim. The cowboy’s name is Travis Brody, played by Lucas Till, who gave me my obsession with country boys. His dazzling smile, bright blue eyes and dimples can make any city girl turn rustic.
Another memorable scene is when Robby breaks all of Grandma’s collectible plates. This happens after Robby meets Lorelai, a beautiful country woman who, for some reason, lives on the same ranch. Even though Robby is only staying in Tennessee for two weeks, he still flirts with her, showing men never mature and just want one thing. In an attempt to impress her, Robby fumbles and manages to shatter every single one of this poor lady’s priceless rare plates — even the Elvis one. Despite this, Lorelai, being a 40-year-old single woman, is still willing to give this man a chance even though he has a goatee.
After spending some time with her grandmother, Miley learns that the town is trying to raise money to avoid building a shopping mall and stripping the town of its charm. During her stay, Miley reconnects with her town and performs “Hoedown Throwdown.” The choreography is still engraved in my head. Mr. Bradley, the mall developer, tells the whole town that they will never raise enough money to stop “progress.” Miley is then forced to admit that she knows Hannah Montana and that a concert from her will raise enough money.
In a last-minute attempt to save her old town charm, Miley has Lilly fly in as Hannah. While preparing for the concert, Miley and Travis spend time together building a chicken coop, and Travis eventually asks her out. In predictable Disney fashion, Travis’s date is at the exact same time as a mayor’s lunch, which Hannah has to attend. For some reason, Miley couldn’t have rescheduled her date an hour later.
In this back-and-forth, Travis becomes annoyed at Miley’s flakiness and goes to look for her. He finds Hannah taking off her wig to reveal her true identity. He becomes angry at her and accuses her of mocking him the entire time.
Afterwards, Miley spent the entire night finishing the chicken coop she was working on with Travis. Touched by the effort, Travis goes to the concert to cheer Hannah on. During the concert, Hannah sees Travis and her dad and stops mid-song to remove her wig, declaring she can no longer live in a lie when the crowd promises that they will keep her secret. Realistically, her secret would’ve been revealed long ago, but Disney needed more seasons. Hannah’s publicist has Oswald’s daughters flown in for the concert, and they convince him not to expose Hannah’s secret.
The movie is filled with a lot of Disney magic; a lot happens, but nothing is resolved or talked about again. However, it is a fun girly movie that gifts us songs like “The Climb,” “Butterfly Fly Away” and “Hoedown Throwdown.” I suggest that every girl rewatches this with her friends to remember that it is okay just to be a girl and that the climb is an adventure and we should enjoy it.
