I HAVE TO SAY…

SYNOPSIS

In the first movie, Mia is a high schooler and learns that her father was royalty in Genovia. She goes through training to become a Princess. This movie follows Mia, post college and back in Genovia, getting ready to take the throne as Queen. There’s pushback because she’s new to Genovia and its customs and she’s an unwed woman.

What could possibly happen?

RECAP AND REVIEW

The Princess Diaries 2 was one of my favorite movies as a teenager. I recently rewatched the movie now that I’m older and it still hit the same for me. I even think it’s better than the first one.

Mia is older in this movie, but she is still young, and is navigating how to step up and take throne while being herself, without disrespecting their people or embarrassing herself.

Mia is trying to live up to the expectations of her people and assimilate in order to take over as Queen for her grandmother. The council decides she has to get married because it’s tradition, so she begins her hunt to find a husband on top of participating in Genovia’s events.

Nicholas’s uncle believes the Crown belongs to Nicholas and his family line, so he preps Nicholas to be King, with the goal of sabotaging Mia so that she will fail.

This is one of the 2000s movies that began my of the enjoyment of enemies/rivals to lovers trope. The chemistry and banter portrayed between Chris Pine as Nicholas and Anne Hathaway as Mia created the right amount of tension.

I know there are Anne Hathaway haters, but I’m not one of them. Her impact in 2000 rom coms hasn’t gone unnoticed by me. Chris Pine was smooth in this role and the only complaint I have is the side burns he had, because he didn’t need them! He naturally looks good!

I also loved the Raven-Symoné cameo, and seeing Julie Andrews as Queen Clarisse Renaldi perform at the sleepover. Fun fact, don’t hate me, I’ve never seen Sound of Music, so this is the movie I used to (and still kind of) associate with her. Julia Andrews has a regal air about her that comes through in her voice. Also seeing her relationship with Joe played by Héctor Elizondo develop was sweet.

OVERALL

Overall, I highly recommend The Princess Diaries 2. It’s a G rated movie, and it could be the nostalgia, but it still made me smile and laugh after all of these years. The casting of this movie was great and the messaging at the end was honestly ahead of its time.