An Avid Fan's Opinion: A Pointless and Repetitive DVD

By the end of Genie Gets Her Wish, you will have heard "Genie In a Bottle" at least four times with only one of those times being a live performance. If you are a big fan, you will know no more than you did after every early interview in just about any magazine or on any television show. Also, if you are a big fan, you will have probably wasted some money. Let me explain why…

Why I purchased this DVD
I purchased this DVD for $14.99 at a music store, several years ago, after her second DVD was already sitting on my DVD rack. I have been a fan of Christina Aguilera since I heard "Genie In a Bottle" at a summer camp when I was thirteen. I still cannot get enough of that huge voice. Of course, being such a big fan, I had to have all of her DVDs and this one was no exception. I don't expect to persuade another huge fan to not go out and buy this DVD, but at the very least I wish to warn you of what is on this DVD.

Did you ever watch one of those "Funniest Home Videos" shows?
Usually at one point during those shows, they would show a "musical montage" of videos. It would usually consist of short videos of people falling or tripping to some up-tempo song. The majority of Genie Gets Her Wish is a musical montage. You will see clip after clip of Christina performing to the original CD tracks. Yes, they actually muted the audio and played the CD track. One song may show clips of her performing to that song over 7 or 8 different shows--you can tell by the different outfits. It is almost insulting that the record label would hold back her live performances and play these clips to the track, considering that this is an artist known for her tremendous voice. Even more insulting is that occasionally they dubbed in audio from the live performance, for example, on the musical montage of "Genie in a Bottle," after the words "who needs me" they added in audio of Christina saying to the crowd at a live performance, "Do you need me?" Similar treatment was given to the songs "When You Put Your Hands On Me," "What A Girl Wants," and "Come On Over (All I Want Is You)." All consist of live performance clips to the original tracks, with the exception of the first of the aforementioned tracks which consists of the beginning of a rehearsal (including the live audio), followed by the track played with rest of the rehearsal. I believe they did this because the live beginning of this song differs from the CD track because as soon as they can, they start up that prerecorded track for us!

Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive
As I stated before, "Genie In a Bottle" is abundant on this DVD. You will hear it first in a montage of Christina acting like she is recording it. I don't know if they were recording additional audio or a remix, but you will see Christina singing "Genie In a Bottle" into a microphone in a recording studio. The reason I don't think it is possible that this is an original video of the recording is that before the montage starts (in the same clothing and studio) she says the song has been at number 1 on the Billboard charts for 5 weeks. That would be even more amazing if she didn't record it until the fifth week. We then see the "Genie In a Bottle" video. Nothing new here, this is the same video played on MTV and VH1. Next is the musical montage of performance clips. Three times we have now heard the same CD version of the track. Finally, we get to actually see a live version, as they show Christina rehearsing for The Tonight Show performance of "Genie." This is also the most fun moment of the DVD when Christina takes an early stab at Britney Spears. While talking to her choreographer, she says "There has to be a good balance so I'm not too out of breath," then turns to the camera saying "'cause a lot of people want to lip sync and I'm doing it live!" We get to see another bit of live audio as Christina sits down with her record people to watch her live performance of "Genie In a Bottle" on Jay Leno. The aforementioned performance is one of only two performances, the other being an early performance of "At Last" in the home of her A&R Guy, Ron Fair. The song "So Emotional" is also shown in a video montage of recording-type clips. I again doubt that this is the original recording session that produced the CD track they are playing in the background.

Interviews are repetitive as well. You will hear the same thing she said in every other interview, as bubbly as she ever was during the duration of her career. She talks about how she was discovered, those early days of performing, her influences, and even her high school prom. This will be nothing new for the devoted fan base but might enlighten newer fans.

Interesting Stuff and Bonus Features
The parts of the DVD I really enjoyed seeing were the ones that stuck out less. While playing another track, we watch the original photo shoot that would lead to the cover of the debut album. You will see some behind the scenes footage; Christina joking around with her dancers, the concert crew missing their plane, and Christina getting ready for bed. Bonus features include a photo slide show of early shoots and the music videos for "Genie In a Bottle" (not only is it in the main video, but you can access it again later as a "bonus") and "What A Girl Wants."

Overall Impression
Although I fully expect that every huge fan will want to pick this one up, it is a pointless and repetitive DVD. I can't imagine what the record label was thinking by taking live audio out and replaying the CD for us for over an hour. If you're not a huge fan, save your money for one of her other two DVDs, both of which contain full-length concerts. If you are a huge fan and have to buy this, at least you know the money is going to Christina…