"Down the glens, Where the headlands stand, I feel a healing, Through this land" (Runrig)
"Down the glens, Where the headlands stand, I feel a healing, Through this land" (Runrig)
Member since:01.07.2009
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So, it's a Sunday evening. You've had a lazy day. You've finished your book and written a review. There's not much on the TV. So what do you do? Put on a DVD of a nice grown up film. Well, that's what any sensible person would do. I watched the Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
Starring Anne Hathaway, Princess Diaries 2 was released in 2004, the sequel to the popular Princess Diaries. Both movies are Disney "princess" movies, so you can't really go into them expecting too much. I haven't actually seen the first film, but I can report that you get an adequate summary of it at the start of Princess Diaries 2; the story is condensed into a five minute catch up, and I now feel like I have seen both films.
In the first movie, our heroine Mia (Hathaway) learns she is the heir to the throne of Genovia, a fictional country. Now, in Princess Diaries 2, she has finished college
in America and is returning to Genovia to learn how to be a queen and to take over the throne from her grandmother. But oh no! Parliament decrees she must first of all take a husband - within 30 days or the throne will go to the scheming Lord Nicolas! Will our plucky heroine find a husband? Will true love win through? Do you care??
The story is as transparent as a freshly washed window. With no prior knowledge of the plot, I had figured everything out within 15 minutes. It may be a Disney film, but it wasn't all going to go smoothly - there had to be some obstacles thrown in Mia's way. But being Disney, it is of course a happy ever after story.
The acting was....well, appropriate I suppose. Anne Hathaway was exactly the kind of cool princess that little girls will love - the only other film I have seen her in (that I can think of) is The Devil Wears Prada, and I see little difference between her in that and in Princess Diaries 2, so I'm not too impressed with her acting range so far. Mia's grandmother the Queen (Julie Andrews) was elegantly regal, but also rather hip; the best friend Lilly (Heather Matarazzo) wasn't as pretty as Mia, and was suitably loud and outspoken; the royal staff were all adoring of the family they serve. In short, the characters exactly fitted the formula you would expect from a Disney princess movie, and the actors portrayed them adequately.
Why I watched this to the end I don't know. It was painfully clichéd, and I knew exactly what was going to happen from early on. I was so appalled by the cheesy bridal shower scene that I almost turned it off, but I couldn't stop torturing myself. This scene would have been heaven for little girls, the kind of thing they would dream of - instead of going out on the town, getting hammered and seeing a stripper like most 21 year olds would, Mia has a slumber party for princesses. Most of whom are under the age of 10. They mattress slide down the ceremonial staircase. They rollerblade round the entrance hall. They have a cabaret. Even one of the footmen starts dancing.
I also had problems with the name Genovia - it is far too close to Gibrovia, the name of the "emerging nation" that Billy Connelly made up in his 1985 An Audience With... show to illustrate how depressing the British national anthem is - "We come from Gibrovia, And we don't give a s***". If you haven't seen it, do. Hilarious.
Little girls will adore this. It is full of sumptuous royal sets, a cool princess, beautiful princes, chaste romance, and of course the dream that any ordinary girl could find out she is a princess.
I love Disney, I really do. The animated classics are just that, classics. They are works of art. And of course there are modern live action films like Pirates of the Caribbean, which I absolutely adore, and The Chronicles of Narnia, which isn't bad. But this...this is not a film for the whole family. It is a film for little girls, up to maybe the age of 12. And the parents who have the misfortune to have to sit through it. It is not a film for anyone over the age of 12 to watch through choice. Yet for some reason I chose to put Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement on, and then sat through it...I will be making an appointment with my doctor.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1995 - Family - Director: John Lasseter - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Tom Hanks, Annie Potts, Tim Allen, Jim Varney, John Morris, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles
Family - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Fireman Sam, Pingu, Bob The Builder, Thomas The Tank Engine, Barney The Dinosaur, Angelina Ballerina
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![The Princess Diaries 2 - Royal Engagement [DVD] [2004]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78485512.jpg "The Princess Diaries 2 - Royal Engagement [DVD] [2004]")
Sep 4th, 2009
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