The Lizzie McGuire Movie

The Lizzie McGuire Movie

Rating: 3.75/5

Though heavily cheesy by today's standards, the Lizzie McGuire Movie is still enjoyable to watch if you loved it when you were younger.

Famously clumsy and accident prone Lizzie McGuire (Hilary Duff) is about to graduate from 8th grade when her teacher informs her at the last minute she needs to deliver the speech at the ceremony. Terrified of speaking in front of so many people, she tries to flee the stage, only to take all the decorations down with her. Humiliated, all she wants to do is leave the country; fortunately her 8th grade class trip to Rome is just around the corner.

Once arriving in the Eternal City, Lizzie and her best friend Gordo (Adam Lamberg) are eager to explore all that Rome has to offer, but their trip of a lifetime gets an unexpected detour. Out of the blue, Lizzie is being surrounded by Italians that think she is a famous pop singer named Isabella, who was part of a duo with a man named Paulo (Yani Gellman). In a very unexpected turn of events, Lizzie is asked by Paulo to pretend to be Isabella for the upcoming music awards, and she accepts. Suddenly Lizzie and Gordo's time in Rome is taken over by sneaking out and secret trips throughout the city, but how long can Lizzie keep the facade going without being caught?

Watching the Lizzie McGuire Movie as an adult is one of those experiences where I watch, knowingly aware of how silly and implausible the entire film is, but I'm just too blinded by youthful memories and nostalgia to care. As soon as the opening credits begin to roll, I'm taken back to a time where one of my most pressing concerns was whether Lizzie and Gordo were going to get together, or wondering if they were going to turn any other Disney Channel original show into a full length feature film. That's what so great about watching movies you loved as a kid, it practically erases any stress you may have from your mind, and all you have to do is sit back and enjoy.

When discussing the acting on a movie that is a continuation of a Disney Channel show, it's difficult to really judge it, as the majority of the cast had never been anywhere remotely close to the big screen before. Hilary Duff was a fairly well seasoned actress before Lizzie McGuire, but many of the others were very green, and that definitely comes through in the movie. They certainly give it their all, but they just almost seem out of place in a film designed to be seen in a theater. That being said, that concept definitely doesn't apply to Alex Borstein, who plays the kids' future high school principal. Her comedy is as well timed as ever and she is responsible for the bulk of what I still find funny when watching this film today.

Could the Lizzie McGuire Movie be enjoyed by kids experiencing it for the first time nowadays? I really don't know. I almost feel like you had to be enchanted by the original series to really be able to look past some of the movie's goofier aspects, but then again, many of the live action films being released into the children's genre these days, aren't exactly garnering numerous accolades. This movie has all your typical Disney troupes; montages, love triangles, and an over the top musical number, but that's part of what makes it so fun. You know exactly what you're going to get from it, and there's something very comforting in that concept.

Though this movie is intended for a much younger audience than myself, I don't think I'll ever lose the desire to watch the Lizzie McGuire Movie on occasion. Watching movies for the purposes of sentimentality rarely loses its luster, so I know somewhere in the not so distant future, I will find myself wanting to watch Lizzie's escapades through Rome once more.