Having grown up during Clarissa Explains It All times, and having a younger sister, I’m well versed in Lizzie McGuire lore. A worthy heir to the refreshing Clarissa, Lizzie captured the minds and hearts of teenage girls everywhere by animating her inner monologue. The Lizzie McGuire Movie beefs up what the TV show did so well, resulting in a simple, fun adventure every teenager would obviously love.
After a disastrous Junior High Graduation Ceremony, Lizzie (Hilary Duff) wants some time out of the spotlight: on a pre high-school class field trip to Rome with one of her best friends Gordo (Adam Lamberg), vowing to go on an adventure. As fate would have it, adventure finds Lizzie in the form of Paolo (Yani Gellman), a pop star who’s having a dispute with his partner Isabella, whom Lizzie resembles to a tee. Paolo hopes Lizzie will agree to help Paolo with an upcoming concert, while Gordo helps Lizzie’s cover from being blown by chaperone Miss Ungermeyer (Alex Borstein) and Lizzie’s friend turned enemy Kate (Ashlie Brillault) so she can have that adventure of a lifetime.
The Lizzie McGuire movie was never going to be a hard hitting expose on the teenage experience, especially with Disney heavily marketing the movie. So the movie just has to be something that will satisfy the fans of the show, most of all. The creative team was initally dealt a blow, because Lalaine, playing Lizzie’s other best friend, had to drop out of the movie with scheduling conflicts. However, when life gives you lemons, you make sweet lovely, Italian lemonade, because Lalaine’s absence snaps Lizzie’s entire story into place. Gordo/Lizzie shippers can enjoy a will they/won’t they story of a secret crush that drives the movie, and Kate can play a mysterious antagonist or accomplice, using her past relationship with Lizzie. Moving the movie’s setting to a foreign country makes the movie feel like a fantasy of some kind, putting Hilary Duff front and center in a teenage version of Roman Holiday. She’s funny, neurotic, clumsy, sweet, sometimes all of these at once. It’s a big risk, relying so heavily on Duff’s ability to carry a movie by herself, but the talented actress proves the fans right in that at any time Lizzie remains a relatable, aspirational teenager kids want to hang around with, who can also somehow lead a concert in the Roman Colisseum too.
So now that your movie is a getaway fantasy, and you’re sure Duff can carry the plot, you put the rest of the actors from the show, and some new faces, into spots that play to their strengths. Refreshingly for Disney, one of Lizzie’s problems is not her family; so they are relegated to the worrying, supportive clan who are good comedic transitional figures, and good for emotional uplift. Alex Borstein gets to do a PG version of her Marvelous Mrs. Maisel character, eyerolling and deadpanning to all the apathetic teens around her, more funny than it isn’t. I wish Clayton Snyder’s Ethan were used more; he would have been an excellent airhead teen to infuriate Alex Borstein, though he did give me a couple of the movie’s biggest laughs. Sure there’s some cringey accent mocking and some uncomfortable romance stuff, but credit the creators for keeping the film on the right side of breezy and fun, while throwing in some beautiful shots of Rome and some great pop songs to be sung by tween girls for decades. Hey now, this is what dreams are made of, right?
There are a lot of ways The Lizzie McGuire movie could have been something dumb, boring, or at worst mean spirited. But that’s why Disney has been a successful company for so long. They know what Lizzie McGuire fans want and give it to them, just bigger and brighter in movie form. Viva Roma!