The Princess Diaries/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: The movie seems to believe that Beauty Equals Goodness - no matter how strong or intelligent or charismatic Mia is, she must look like a supermodel at all times or she isn't worthy of having authority or being noticed. Note that the villains in the first film are hideous and the film makes sure you're aware of it.
    • In the books, Mia points this out and mocks the movie creators about it.
    • Book example: Michael insists that Mia has to have sex with him in order to be a true girlfriend. She eventually gives in. When she walks out on him before they can do the act, even her PARENTS say that she did the wrong thing. The only guy who stands up for her decision turns out to be an inadequate boyfriend for her. Eventually she reconciles with Michael because First Guy Wins. The moral of the story? If you love him, sleep with him, even if he's fooled around with girls where it didn't mean anything and he's being borderline abusive about the issue of sex and YOUR RESPECTIVE AGES MAKE IT STATUTORY RAPE.
    • Um, no, she decides to have sex with him to try and convince him not to go to Japan (when he's going there to try and prove he is good enough for her), and when Mia finds out he isn't a virgin, and hadn't told her this, she overreacts and breaks up with him.
    • Also, I think her parents meant breaking up with him because of Judith was the mistake, not changing her mind about sleeping with him. And Michael clearly knew she was not ready to sleep with him, he even indicates he knows she is only trying to change his mind and that he didn't want it to happen if she was not actually ready.
      • It IS true that Mia wasn't really ready (and I think she even admits this when Michael comes back later), but Michael had been pressuring her about having sex. He even mentioned that it might be good for them to have a break from each other because he was "sick of cold showers" or something to that effect. So it's kind of a borderline issue...
  • Fan Girl: Tina is a fangirl of all things romantic.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: The part with Prince William in the second movie becomes all the funnier once the Royal Wedding comes to mind.
  • Magnificent Bitch: Grandmere borders on this sometimes. At one point she puts on a school play to help Mia raise money enough to save the student government, ensure her own purchase of an island in Dubai, and get her granddaughter closer to a boy she thinks is more suitable consort material. She succeeds on all counts.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Critic Kevin Murphy - yes, that one - noted in his book A Year at the Movies that the makeover in the film seems to have removed every trace of Semitism from Mia's face.
  • Unnecessary Makeover: Dovetailing with the Broken/Family Unfriendly Aesops, the Hollywood Homely Mia has to get a makeover because she has glasses and a ponytail curly hair. On the other hand, she's clearly unhappy with her appearance until her makeover.
  • Wangst: Mia can arguably veer in to this at times, although it's possibly justified since the story is written from entries in her personal journal, and it would make sense for her to be inwardly more over-dramatic.