The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)

If I had to choose between Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff, the latter would win every single time. In general, I find her movies more innocent and more fun. I believe Hilary Duff got popular because of Disney and her role as Lizzie McGuire. I haven’t seen it so I had to give it a go on Netflix. It looked like a rather easy going movie.

Lets check it out!

The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)

Director: Jim Fall

Cast: Hilary Duff, Adam Lamberg, Clayton Snyder, Yani Gellman, Alex Borstein, Ashlie Brillaut

Lizzie McGuire has graduated from middle school and takes a trip to Rome, Italy with her class. And what was supposed to be only a normal trip, becomes a teenager’s dream come true. – IMDB

The Lizzie McGuire Movie is definitely a kid or teens sort of movie, much like High School Musical. It isn’t a musical and yet, there is a rather neat soundtrack and features a bit of singing. it is funny that I am spotting a partner of doubles. This is unintentional, seeing as I knew nothing about Lizzie McGuire Movie before starting it. As cliché as these types of Disney teen features are, there is always some sort of enjoyment I got out of it. Probably not enough for me to go finding Lizzie McGuire stuff but enough for me to not mind putting it on again and still having a good time with it. There are obvious silly moments and they are in Italy so some nice places to see so it isn’t hard to not laugh just a little. Plus, I love the little inner animated Lizzie inserts. They are so quirky and cute, adds a neat style to the movie.

Like many of these movies (as I also pointed out in The Parent Trap), a lot of the movie’s charm is in the characters. For The Lizzie McGuire Movie, there is also an additional hurdle of making it independent and standalone. It needs to not let the audience that doesn’t know Lizzie McGuire and her friends to get lost with the characters and still be able to like them, to a certain extent. The simplicity  of the story itself makes it easy to get to know these characters. While I didn’t grow up with Lizzie McGuire Show and the characters aren’t complex, it might be for exactly that reason that it is a relaxing movie to watch (at least for me). There isn’t a ton of overanalyzing to do and its fun to see the shenanigans go on and just see the story unfold because it is kind of obvious  how it will end. Plus the characters all work together whether it is her overprotective mom or her prankster little brother or the commanding principal Miss Ungermeyer or her best friend Gordo and even the skateboarder dude.

Its always hard to be too much of a critique in these movies. They are geared towards a younger audience and for the most part, it keeps that rather innocent vibe. There are some simple messages just about honesty and whatnot. I’m definitely not the age for these and yet, for a few days after, I’ve had the song that Lizzie McGuire sings at the end. It wouldn’t be fair for just myself to have it stuck in my head, right?

Overall, The Lizzie McGuire Movie is a cute little Disney movie. Hilary Duff is fantastic as always. The movie itself is cliché but simply fun. There is a charm in not only the character of Lizzie but also, from her best friend Gordo and even the supporting characters.

Have you seen The Lizzie McGuire Movie? Any fans of Hilary Duff?