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Cheetah Girls: One World - Extended Music Edition (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (12th January 2009). |
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The Film
 It’s hard to think of a film less geared towards me than "The Cheetah Girls: One World". First off, this is a made-for-TV Disney Channel movie about a group of aspiring pop singers. Secondly, it’s a movie in a series of established characters that I have no recognition of. It’s not even that I’ve never seen a "Cheetah Girls" movie before, but I never knew they existed. I feel as though I’m pretty well versed in what is popular, but I had to ask my girlfriend, who is a nanny of two girls under the age of 5, what the hell I was watching. This film is obviously geared towards little girls, and I’m an adult male. With this in mind, I’ll do my best to relay what I just watched. "The Cheetah Girls: One World" tells the story of The Cheetah Girls, a pop-singing group comprised of Chanel (Adrienne Bailon), Aqua (Kiely Williams), and Dorinda (Sabrina Bryan), three high-school students with dreams of making it big. The three girls land an audition for what they think is a Hollywood film, but to their dismay, discover they just got the leading roles in a Bollywood film. The three agree to go to Mumbai. There, it is revealed the producer only wants one girl for the lead, so now the three Cheetah Girls have to compete against each other for the role, and their friendships hang in the balance. I will now reiterate, I have no idea what to make of this movie. I really didn’t like it, but I didn’t actively hate it, but it just did nothing for me. But, again, that’s because I’m not a 7-year-old girl. I have to imagine for the audience, this movie probably works on some level, but certainly not for me. The 21-year-old college student that is me watched a completely conventional romance/musical that showcases overused themes of friendship and love. I just don’t have any interest watching high school girls talking about cute boys, and how “cool” crap is. Believe it or not, there are components of this film that I could have been interested in. First off, the film revolves around the world of Bollywood. I’m a pretty big fan of Bollywood films. For some reason, I tend to love the energy of sporadic songs and amazing dance numbers. Secondly, I’m really interested in India examined through the eye of narrative filmmaking, seen through the eyes of foreigners. Films like "The River" (1951) and "The Darjeeling Limited" (2007) come to mind, and for whatever reason, those films left huge impressions on me, and I’ve been fascinated with India ever since. Thirdly, this movie is a musical, and I’m a huge fan of musicals. Despite all these facets, none of them worked to service the movie. The Bollywood plot is inconsequential, and could have taken place in the US with the same plot. Also, the film doesn’t really take a sincere look at Indian culture. Ganesh’s name is dropped a few times, and The Cheetah Girls think Indian culture is “neat”. In the end, I recognize this movie isn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean it gets a pass. I can tell that this movie was lazily made, isn’t funny, and is littered with bad songs. I mean, this may work as something for little children, but there isn’t anything here with anyone who’s been alive for more than a decade.
Video
"The Cheetah Girls: One World" is presented in a 1080p high-definition widescreen 1.78:1 transfer mastered in AVC MPEG-4 compression, and I have to admit, I’m amazingly impressed. The picture quality here is astounding, especially considering this was created for TV. The picture is crystal clear, and the movie, being extremely colorful, pops off the screen more so than most other films. There is really no grain or noise to speak of here, and the picture lives up to other Disney Blu-rays that look amazing. The film, taking place in India, take full advantage of the Blu-ray format to show off the county’s amazing colors.
Audio
The film is presented here in an English uncompressed PCM 5.1 HD audio track mastered at 48kHz/16-bit, as well as an English and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, with optional English and Spanish subtitles. In terms of clarity, the audio here lives up to the picture. The song numbers sound more like an MP3 recording than coming from a movie. I felt like I was listening to an album. In terms of movement however, I was less impressed. The audio seemed to stay stationary, and didn’t take full advantage of a surround sound set up. So, I was half impressed with the audio here.
Extras
"The Cheetah Girls: One World" offers only a few extras, including a trivia track, a sing-a-long mode, a blooper reel, three music videos and bonus trailers: "Cheetah Spots" acts as a trivia track to go along with the movie, telling “interesting” facts about the movie’s production. Secondly is the "Rock-a-long" sing-a-long mode, allowing people, God willing, to watch their favorite songs from the movie again, and sing along, kareoke style. Next up is a blooper reel, running for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and like most blooper reels, is pretty worthless. Actors flubbing lines just isn’t interesting to me in the slightest. Next is three music videos for songs from the film, most of these are just re-used footage from the movies, only in standard-def. I did not enjoy watching these musical numbers again. The videos included are: - "One World" which runs for 4 minutes and 2 seconds. - "Cheetah Love" which runs for 3 minutes and 12 seconds. - "Dance With Me If You Can" which runs for 4 minutes and 2 seconds. Lastly, the film contains some bonus trailers for: - "Disney" spot which runs for 55 seconds. - "Disney Blu-ray" spot which runs for 55 seconds. - "Pinocchio" which runs for 1 minute and 26 seconds. - "Earth" which runs for 2 minutes and 14 seconds. - "Space Buddies" which runs for 1 minute and 28 seconds. - "Disney Rewards" spot which runs for 20 seconds. - "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" which runs for 55 seconds. - "Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure" which runs for 1 minute. - "Disneyland Parks" spot which runs for 32 seconds.
Overall
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