For those of you who may not know, The Cheetah Girls are a girl group created by The Walt Disney Company. Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan, and Kiely Williams are a nothing less than a group manufactured by a studio with the sole purpose of appealing to the masses of tweens that love to buy lots and lots of merchandise. There have been many of these groups before them: N’SYNC, New Kids on the Block, LFO, O-Town and The Spice Girls to name a few. In those cases, some music mogul(s) got together and decided to put together a pop group they could sell to the masses. With a few notable exceptions, the members of these groups aren’t mega-talented, but are very good looking and talented enough to be molded into the next object of tween desire.
The Cheetah Girls have been a massive success. They grossed more than $26 million on two nationwide tours and their Christmas album reached number five on the Billboard charts. Not to mention that their second Disney Channel original movie, Cheetah Girls 2 drew an impressive 8.1 million viewers, a Disney Channel record at the time. I’m not part of The Cheetah Girls target audience. However, I’m around some kids in the target age group and they all want to know, where is Raven? Long time Disney Channel staple Raven-Symone played the fourth Cheetah girl in the first two films but decided to leave the group in 2005 because of the success of her show That’s So Raven and to pursue her own solo career. In the world of the Cheetah’s Raven’s departure is explained away quick simply: she went away to college.
One World finds the girls in a bit of flux. Aquanetta (Williams) has a crush on a phone tech guy named Kevin whom she wants to meet in person, Dorinda (Bryan) is dealing with being dumped by her boyfriend, and Chanel (Bailon) just wants a boyfriend. However, while eating at an Indian restaurant, the future starts to look brighter. It turns out that an Indian man named Vikram (Michael Steger) is planning a remake of his uncle’s most popular film, Namaste Bombay and is combing America looking for a female lead. Naturally, he sets his eyes on The Cheetah Girls, even though his uncle told him he needed only one star. So the girls are off to India.
Once the girls arrive in India, the focus of the film shifts to tryouts because of the uncle’s insistence that only one girl be hired. All the girls compete for the job, vowing to keep everything on the level. Predictably, it doesn’t take Chanel long to break the promise and cozy up to the director; angering the other girls. In a wacky twist, it turns out that Aqua’s Kevin is based right there in the same city! Is that kismet or what? However, if you’re expecting a deep lesson in multi-culturalism, The Cheetah Girls – One World isn’t the place to look.
One World is squarely aimed at its tween audience. It’s a story of three girls trying to maintain a friendship, despite issues that might tear them apart. And most importantly, the video-like presentations of all the songs are designed to keep fans dancing. The film includes the following songs: “Dance Me If You Can,” “One World,” “Cheetah Love,” “I’m the One,” “Getting Crazy on the Dance Floor,” “Dig a Little Deeper,” “Circle Game,” “Feels Like Love,” “Fly Away,” “No Place Like Us,” “Stand Up,” and “What If.” The box says the film includes a special song, Feels Like Love,” which apparently wasn’t telecast when the movie was originally broadcast.
One World is presented by Disney in 1.78:1 (1080p/AVC). The ultra-bright color palette of the film is presented well here, looking incredibly vibrant and bright. Sharpness and detail are mostly good, despite a couple of softer moments. For the most part, the picture appears crisp. Although a couple of instances of minor edge enhancement and noise appear, it should not affect the viewing experience.
The film has a PCM 5.1 track that presents the film’s pop tunes in satisfactory fashion, as the music sounds full. Dialogue sounded well-recorded and clear. However, some may feel that their surround sound is underutilized.
For you fans out there, the film can be watched with “Cheetah Spots”, which are brief pop-up facts and video footage. You also get three music videos from the Cheetah Girls, bloopers and a sing-a-long mode.
