The Princess Diaries (Wide Screen) > Reviews > ♥Ugly duckling to Beautiful swan♥

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Fantastic film .
Disadvantages:	Can't think of any .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

♥THE CHARACTERS:♥

♥Anne Hathaway, who plays Mia Thermopolis:♥

She plays Mia and she does a great job of it. I don't really know who I love more Anne or Mia; I love Anne for her spectacular acting and performance, of course, then again I love Mia for her dazzling personality and splendid humour. Anne plays a young teenager, 15, who is a top-geek at school and gets great grades all the time, she's far from being the next "miss world" and lives in a tiny flat with hardly any decent stairs, well, life couldn't get any more interesting than that for Mia. She doesn't have much going for her really, she's the geek of the school, no way near popularity, no boyfriend, her flat is as tiny as my living room and well, her appearance, she's an ugly duckling; unplucked, thick eyebrows, thick bushy hair and glasses, how worse can you get? But Mia's whole life is turned around, when she is told that she is a princess, and her grandmother is a queen. She's quite stubborn at times and when she is told she is the next princess of Genovia, she is very stubborn and tells her mother she doesn't want to be a princess or a queen! Now who would want to do a silly thing like that? Of course, obvious as it is already, she agrees to become the next princess of Genovia, so let the film begin! (This is when the film "really" starts, and all the excitement seems to kick in.) Well, I don't want to give of half the storyline, although I probably have already; I just want to give you an idea of this young teenager's role in the film.

♥Julie Andres, who plays Queen Clarisse Renaldi:♥

She plays Queen Clarisse and I love her fabulous acting. She acts out a queen, which is usually a difficult role to act out; there are certain ways a queen acts, talks, walks etc, these all have to be looked at carefully and precisely and they must be acted out the exact same. Julie was so good at acting out as a queen; she used the accurate and precise behaviour, as a queen would behave. This may sound confusing but what I mean for example is that she walked in a calm way, as so does the queen and she spoke in a gentle and posh way, she used posh ways of acting like pointing her little finger when drinking tea and that particular wave queens wave (I wouldn't know, I'm hardly a queen myself.) You may think these are easy to act out but at the end of the day they need to be looked at carefully and cannot be forgotten. Her son (Mia's father) was the prince or king (not too sure) of Genovia, which means that Mia is the next princess of Genovia and when Clarisse passes away, Mia will then be the next queen of Genovia! Clarisse only decided to tell her granddaughter this when she was 15 years old! Clarrise and Mia have a wonderful granddaughter-grandmother relationship; they have a lot of funny and emotional times together. They both love one another a lot and become exceedingly close to one another when Mia is in learning on how to become a princess, they have many funny times together, which really adds some humour to the movie.

♥Hector Elizondo, who plays Joe:♥

He takes the role as playing Joe. Joe is the Queens driver, but he not only drives her, he's particularly with her everywhere, he's her friend and helps her out. In fact he's such good friends with the queen that he falls in love with her. But does she love him back? Well I'm afraid I can't possible tell you that, now can I? Guess you'll just have to watch the film and find out for yourself. He is kind and warm-hearted; he adds a little kindness and some humour to the film. The film isn't a very lovey-dovey film, mostly about teenager-becoming a princess, there's not much romance into the film. Joe and Clarrise's relationship adds a little love and romance to the film. I personally think they make a great couple and I think that they should be together, but who says everything I say is right? Clarisse may be a queen and you may think she has everything she needs in life but the one thing she doesn't have and desperately wants, is some love in her life. Joe is also lonely at times, he spends most his time in the castle with Clarrise, and starts to grow feelings for her. They are both lonely and they aren't getting younger any time soon.

♥Heather Matarazzo, who plays Lilly Moscovits:♥

She plays Lilly, who is Mia's best friend. Lilly is a really decent girl and a fantastic friend, especially to Mia. She loves the real Mia, the one with thick, unplucked eyebrows and bushy, black hair, with huge, round, geeky glasses. She doesn't care about what others think about her or Mia. Mia has no self-confidence, Lilly pushes some self-confidence into her and helps her in every way she can. She's a great friend and Mia is grateful to have her. Lilly isn't the worlds number 1 billionaire, so, you'd hardly call her rich and you'd hardly call her popular either, she's not the US next top model but at least she has 1 important thing in life- self-confidence. She's not like Mia, she doesn't care whether people laugh or make jokes at her, and she cares only about what "she" thinks of herself. Mia is really sensitive and lets everyone get to her she always ends up crying. Lilly is good to Mia and when Mia discovers she is the next princess of Genovia, she has a total makeover, her hair Is straightened-bye bye bushy hair, they colour her hair, light brown-bye bye black dark hair, they pluck her eyebrows-bye bye thick eyebrows and most importantly they lose the glasses-bye bye geeky looking glasses! Mia is not comfortable and is too nervous to face the world, this is when Lilly jumps in to help her. Lilly is with Mia at every step, they will always be there for one another.

♥Caroline Gooddall, who plays Helen Thermopolis:♥

She plays Helen, who is Mia's mother. She cares deeply about her daughter and is always sticking by her. Mia and her mother seem to get on but what I don't understand is why didn't her mother tell her that she is a princess sooner? Or didn't she know either? I mean isn't that every girls dream. Hellooo I'd be over the moon if my mum just one day came up to me and out of the blue announced that I might one day be a queen, wow now wouldn't that just be a dream come true, huh well to me it's a dream that'll never come true in a million years. But overall Caroline is a good actor and Helen is a great character. Of course she may feel a little left out, her daughter Mia is a princess, her mother-in-law Clarrise is a queen, so what about her? What is she then? She's just an ordinary lady who isn't really part of the royal family at all, although she did marry a prince, or did she even know he was a prince because she didn't seem to tell her daughter that she was a princess. Helen and Mia's mother-daughter relationship is no way near better than Clarisse an Mia's relationship, I think they have something really special.

♥Robert Schwartzman, who plays Michael Moscovits:♥

He plays Michael who is Lilly's brother. He likes Mia but there's one problem Mia's not interested in him and hardly realises, because she's too busy with the school's hunk, Erik, but of course he's just using her but she's too blind too realise, she's so amazed that for once she's the centre of attention and that the school's most popular boy is into her, out of all the girls in the school, he's attracted in her but there is a much bigger surprise awaiting her. Of course I wouldn't want to ruin it for you all, so I won't say what happens. But what's going to happen at the end? Will she realise that Michael is the one for her, or won't she? You'll just have to watch and trust me it's worth watching; this little love story is indeed an interesting one. I personally think Michael is much better for her, he's sweet, kind-hearted, kind of good-looking too if you ask me and he loves her. Isn't that enough? Does he have to be the most popular boy in school? I think she's just blinded with her popularity.

♥THE STORYLINE:♥

Mia is a teenage girl,15, who turns from an ugly ducking to a swan, mind you an absolute beautiful swan, the best-looking swan there is. Ask yourself this, how can someone change from a top geek, ugly duckling, poor and an absolute nobody into a Gorgeous swan, most popular girl in school, spoiled rich and a PRINCESS all in less than a year? Wow well that beats the record. She is totally transformed and her life begins to straighten up, she starts to love every second of life and enjoys every second of it, she explores a whole new life. No only does her appearance and life style change but so does her personality, she is more confident and more social.

Of course there are all those little problems like her best friend, popularity and her boyfriend. She and best friend start to argue, when her best friend accuses Mia of changing. Lilly feels that since Mia has become a princess, she has started to change, and she has started to leave Lilly out and hangs around with the popular group. I think Lilly just starts to miss her best friend. Mia is really starting to get popular but that doesn't mean that everyone has to like her does it? There are always those mean "cheerleaders." Its always the cheerleaders you have to look out for, isn't it? They give her a hard time and make her life a living hell, they are so jealous of her as she's getting all the attention now but don't worry Mia's got her own little mean streak too. Boyfriend problems? Yeah, she has this really cute guy, most popular guy in school In fact, all girls are into him but he's not into them, oh no he's "surprisingly" attracted to Mia but what she doesn't know Is that he's using her. What's going to happen? How is she going to make him pay? Ooh now that's sounds interesting

I don't want to give away too much of the story, as I want you to watch the film yourself, so I don't want to spoil it for you. I really do hope you watch it, well I didn't write this review for nothing!!!!

♥WHAT I THINK OF THE FILM:♥

I think this a spectacular film, the characters are amazing and so is the storyline, I guess it just shows you shouldn't lose hope, no matter how messed up your life is, you have to always keep positive, you never know your life could change in the wink of an eye and your dreams can be fulfilled in a spec of a time, just like Mia's. This film teaches you something as much as it makes you laugh, cry and smile. It's a great film to watch and I would recommend it to anyone from all ages. I enjoyed the film because it taught me to never give up, but it's not just a film to teach it's a family film, suited for the whole family no matter whether you're 1, 10 or 100 it'll be the film for you! Its absolutely hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing from start to finish. The scenes that really made me laugh were the scenes when Mia was training and learning how to become a princess I found it so amusing.