The Princess Diaries (film)
Based on the book series of the same name, this pair of films stars Anne Hathaway in her Star-Making Role and Julie Andrews in her first Disney film since Mary Poppins.
Although very little resembles the plot of the books -- the second film, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is in fact an entirely new creation -- these movies did give the world Anne Hathaway, and they are popular sleepover fare with preteen girls to this day.
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The Princess Diaries (film) is the Trope Namer for:
Tropes used in The Princess Diaries (film) include:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism
- Adaptational Jerkass: This happened by virtue of the book series eventually surpassing the films.
- Lana Weinberger is known to be an Alpha Bitch in both versions, but she and Josh broke up after he went to college, and she matures in the later books after gracefully losing to Mia in the student elections. She offers an olive branch and genuine friendship to Mia after the latter breaks with Michael, saying she knows exactly how that feels. Mia eventually realizes that Lana isn't trying to hurt people's feelings; it's that she thinks she's being funny while coming off as insensitive, which actually makes her the Alpha Bitch version of Lilly who does the same thing. The first film had none of these moments since Book 9 came out long after production and Lana is nowhere to be seen in the sequel; she remains a vapid cheerleader who mocks Mia for the heck of it, with none of the Hidden Depths she would show later.
- Principal Gupta in the book is strict, coming down hard on Mia for the times she's come to blows with Lana, which happens quite a bit, but she's pretty fair. In fact, for the ice cream incident, all she asks is that Mia pay for the dry-cleaning on Lana's shirt as well as apologize to Lana, giving her detention when Mia refuses to apologize. She later cancels the detention when Book!Grandmere outs Mia as a princess, half-joking that Mia ought to have told her she was under a lot of stress that week and saying the press drama is punishment enough. Principal Gupta in the films doesn't even know who Mia is until the latter is outed as a princess, referring to her as "Lilly's friend" and clearly buttering up Grandmere for being royalty. While she doesn't punish Mia for the ice cream incident, it's after Lana's friends humiliated her at the beach and besides which the principal didn't see what happened, so Gupta merely advises Lana to send her dry-cleaning bill to the school.
- Adaptational Villainy: Inverted. Clarisse is much kinder to her granddaughter than in the novels.
- Adaptation Dye Job: Mia in the books is a dirty blonde, and has it cut short. Movie Mia is brunette with shoulder-length hair.
- Artifact Title: The movies lose the diary format the books are written in. Mia has a diary of low plot importance, making the title technically applicable, but not really.
- Better as Friends: Mia and Andrew decide they are this in the second film.
- Black Best Friend: Arguably, Asana from the second movie.
- Cucumber Facial: "Can I tell you a secret? The cucumber does nothing."
- Damned By Faint Praise:
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Clarisse: You look so... young. |
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Mia: You broke my glasses. |
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- Hands-On Approach: Nicholas teaching Mia to shoot an arrow in the second movie.
- Homage: In the second movie, Mia dances with a succession of royal suitors with humorous personalities and/or odd dance styles, much as Audrey Hepburn (also playing a somewhat unorthodox princess) does in Roman Holiday.
- The Makeover: Played straight in the movies.
- Makeover Montage
- Micro Monarchy: Genovia, described as "a small country between France and Spain".
- Modesty Shorts: Seen when Mia comes down the spiral steps at the beginning.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Mia. She even provides the picture for the trope page.