11th December 2009

You know it's that time of year when free-to-air television stations start to play Disney family films that are shown every Christmas. The Princess Diaries (2001) is one of those films that you see often on television, and I took time out of my night to watch it, mainly because I was extremely bored. The Princess Diaries is not all that bad, it has my favourite actress in it, Anne Hathaway. This was the first of many films in which she portrayed a royal fairytale sort of character, and it is hard to believe that these days she stars in artsy awardsy films like Rachel Getting Married. In this she plays Mia Thermopolis, a girl with frizzy hair and glasses, who likes to be invisible at school rather than stand out. She succeeds in doing this until she is contacted by her grand-mother, Clarisse Renaldi, who is the Queen of her country, Genovia. Clarisse asks Mia if she would like to be the Princess of Genovia as she is the heiress to the throne, but Mia has her doubts. But trying to keep being a princess secret from the rest of her school is not as easy as first thought. The movie is cute, funny, and pretty much what you expect from a Disney film. Yet the over-used formula (horrible nemesis, friends, loser at school, etc) actually works in this film, which is rare because most Disney films fail with this formula. Princess Diaries is good fun, and the perfect pick-me-up when your down.
8/10