The Princess Diaries (DVD)

I watched this film with my nine year old niece who clearly adored it. It is fundamentally Disney feel-good pap but is watchably comic enoughof the time to avoid the need to grip the sick bucket all the way through. My three year old daughter also enjoyed it in passing, though she couldn't concentrate all the way through. The film was made in 2001, and there is now a sequel. The main character, Mia, opens the film as a bright but gawky schoolgirl in San Francisco who is uncool in the high school environment and so nervous of speaking in public she throws up in the middle of a school debate. Played by teen actress Anne Hathaway, we witness her ...  Read the complete review

Based on the book by Meg Cabot The Princess Diaries is a fairly typical girly Disney offering. Typical isn't, however, a slight. Mia Thermopolis is your typically gawky American Teen and, from the opening scenes you know just where this story is going. Clearly our teen is not going to be one of the "A list crowd" and she's going to have an equally weird friend (a superb character, Lilly Moscoviz, played by Heather Matarazzo). She's the type of kid who's likely to have slightly off-beat parents (in fact her mother is an artist, her father deceased) and no boyfriend. Scene set? Our hapless teen then discovers the truth that's been hidden ...  Read the complete review

This is one of the movies that I watch all over again and never, ever get fed up of it. I think that Princess Diaries is uniquely refreshing, not only because of the great fairytale touch to it, but also because of the exceptional cast and acting in the film. I first watched this film two years ago and my DVD got so worn out that I had to buy yet another copy of it. I just love the quite charm of the movie as a whole, and what particularly impresses me is the way that the cast was so natural in their roles and constantly in touch with the storyline. Even the minor characters, such as Lily (Mia's best friend) and Lana (the most popular girl at school, played by Mandy ...  Read the complete review

Mia Thermopolis is a pretty geeky, frizzy-haired 15 year old girl who just about gets by with her best friends at school. However, Mia's life takes a dramatic turn when her paternal grandmother arrives back in Mia's life and makes a shocking announcement - Mia is a Princess and needs to return home to Genovia to take the crown so the Thermopolis family can continue to rule there. Mia is shocked and is unsure how she can be transformed from geeky schoolgirl to Princess in just a few weeks. But with the help of her grandmother, some highly trained beauticians and a wise chaffeur, Mia's transformation is well underway. But is becoming Princess Mia exactly what Mia wants? ...  Read the complete review

========= The Plot ========= The film is based off a successful book series by Meg Cabot and it follows Mia Thermopolis, a girl from San Francisco who is plain, clumsy and just really an outcast. It's your usual story, ugly swan becomes beautiful swan kind of thing, but the way be becomes beautiful is a bit different to usual stories. When Mia's grandmother comes to visit, Mia is told that she is next in line to the throne, and it's her choice whether she becomes Queen, but in the mean time she is receiving princess lessons. ======== The Cast ======== Anne Hathaway: Mia Julie Andrews: Queen Clarisse ...  Read the complete review