Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway Return in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

In the summer of 2001, The Princess Diaries was released and ended up being popular. I had to wait to rent the DVD to see the movie, but I did enjoy it. I have been seeing some previews for the sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, for a few months and I wanted to see it. I know that sequels usually aren’t as good at the originals, but I still wanted to see it.

I will mention some things that happened in The Princess Diaries that could be spoilers if that movie hasn’t been seen. Read at your own risk if you haven’t seen that movie yet.

Five years ago, Mia’s life changed when she met her grandmother Clarisse and learned she was a princess in the European country of Genovia. Mia’s parents had divorced and Helen had decided not to tell Mia that she was a princess. Mia never met her father before he died. Mia learned how to act like a princess. She had to decide if she wanted to accept her title and the right to rule Genovia. Mia had several changes in her life in a short time. She finally decided that she wanted to accept her title.

Mia just graduated from college and was returning to Genovia with her cat, Fat Louie. Her mother, who had married Patrick, still lived in the United States and was expecting a baby. Mia planned to work with Clarisse to learn about being queen of Genovia. Once she was ready, Clarisse would step down and Mia would become the new queen. Mia wanted to do that, but she was nervous about it. Viscount Mabrey, a member of Genovia’s parliament, brought up a very old law that said an unmarried woman could not become queen. Viscount Mabrey then brought up that his nephew, Sir Nicholas, had a claim to the throne and should become king. Men didn’t have to be married to become king. Clarisse was very upset and tried to convince parliament that the law was outdated. Viscount Mabrey objected and got parliament to declare that Mia had thirty days to get married or she wouldn’t be able to be the queen.

Mia was very upset about the law. Her family had ruled Genovia for hundreds of years, and she intended to be the next queen. Lily, Mia’s best friend, arrived for a visit. She helped Mia try to find a suitable man to marry. Charlotte, Clarisse’s assistant, was still around to help with the running of things in the palace. Nicholas ended up staying at the palace, and he kept reporting back to his uncle on what Mia was doing. Joseph was still in charge of security. He was training a new security man. Joseph still had some feelings for Clarisse. Mia met Andrew, a man from England that had a title. They got along well and did get engaged. Mabrey came up with a plan after Mia got engaged that would cause her to call off the wedding. If the wedding was cancelled, Nicholas would become king.

CAST

Julie Andrews - Clarisse
Anne Hathaway - Mia
Hector Elizondo - Joseph
Heather Matarazzo - Lily
Chris Pine - Sir Nicholas
Kathleen Marshall - Charlotte
John Rhys-Davies - Viscount Mabrey
Caroline Goodall - Helen
Sean O’Bryan - Patrick
Raven - Princess Asana
Callum Blue - Andrew
Spencer Breslin - Prince Jacques Dube
Larry Miller - Paulo

The Princes Diaries 2: Royal Engagement was released in August of 2004. The movie was just under two hours long and rated G, like the first movie. The first movie was based on a book of the same name by Meg Cabot. I know there were other books featuring Mia, but I haven’t read any of the books. This movie wasn’t credited as being based on one of the other books, so I have a feeling it is very different from anything that happened in the books. People who read and enjoyed the books could be disappointed with the movie.

Some things that happened in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement were silly. I did expect that since there were silly things going on in the first movie. It could be too silly for some people, but the silliness didn’t bother me. I thought it was a funny movie. It wasn’t the funniest movie I’ve ever seen, but it was entertaining. Mia was still clumsy at times, which caused a few funny moments. Some of the characters did or said things that were funny at different times. Fat Louie and Clarisse’s dog made me laugh at different times as well.

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement was fun and light-hearted overall, but it did touch briefly on something more serious. There was a law in Genovia that said a woman had to be married to become queen even if she was a blood descendant. If there was a male descendant to the throne, he didn’t have to be married to become king. Mia had to face the possibility of an arranged marriage to be able to rule Genovia. Discrimination against women is a serious subject. It was dealt with some in the movie, but not with any depth. There was resolution to this issue, but I never thought there wouldn’t be. Even when dealing with a serious subject, the movie remained light-hearted. The movie did show a few realities of being a queen, including some things that Clarisse did for her country. Humor was included in those things as well.

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement was predictable for the most part. Some things that happened were original, but there were things that weren’t and that reminded me of other movies. There were things in this movie that did remind me of Pretty Woman, like the first movie did. For her birthday ball, Mia wore a red gown that really reminded me of the dress Vivian wore in Pretty Woman when Richard took her to the opera. There was even a scene in this movie that had a woman singing an aria from an opera. Mia had to deal with some things that were similar to things that happened to her during the first movie. Mia was older, and more comfortable in her role as a princess, but she still ended up getting into some strange situations. I still enjoyed the movie even though it was predictable. I don’t mind predictable movies sometimes.

Several characters from the first movie returned for The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Mia was the main character in both movies. She was five years older, and a little more comfortable being a princess, but she did have some doubts about her abilities to be a queen. She still had some clumsy moments. Clarisse was also in both movies. Her relationship with Mia seemed to be stronger. Mia’s mother Helen was only in a few scenes. I think she was in less of the movie this time. Helen had gotten married to Patrick. He was one of Mia’s teachers in the first movie. Since they weren’t around too much, I don’t know how much they changed other than their marriage. Joseph was still the head of security for Clarisse. He still had feelings for her, and he did actually mention them. Lily and Mia were still friends. Lily was going to graduate school at Stanford. Lily didn’t annoy me as much in this movie. Charlotte still worked for Clarisse. She was only shown doing some of her job duties, but she did seem to really like Clarisse and Mia. Paulo the hairdresser also returned for a few scenes. He did some interesting things to Mia’s hair. There were also some new characters in the movie. Viscount Mabrey was a member of parliament that wanted his nephew Nicholas to be the new king. Mabrey wasn’t a nice man. Andrew was a man from England that Mia started to date. They ended up getting engaged. Andrew wasn’t around too much considering he was engaged to the main character. Some of the characters, like Charlotte and Paulo, were rather flat.

Anne Hathaway was good as Mia. I thought she was believable in the part. I loved Julie Andrews as Clarisse. She is just perfect for the part. She provided the voice for Queen Lillian in Shrek 2 earlier this year. She did sing a little in the movie, the first time she’s done that since the throat surgery she had that ruined her voice. Her voice wasn’t like it use to be, but it was still nice to see her sing again. She did speak some of the lines. Raven, who was playing another princess, sang with her. Raven is the one that hit the high notes. Raven’s part in the movie was very, very small. From the previews, I had thought she would be around more as a close friend to Mia. She was only in a few scenes, and had almost no lines. Hector Elizondo was very good as Joseph again. I really liked him. I think Heather Matarazzo was better as Lily in this movie. Larry Miller only had a few scenes, but I did enjoy him as Paulo. Caroline Goodall and Sean O’Bryan had very little to do as Helen and Patrick.

John Rhys-Davies was very good as Viscount Mabrey. The part was so different from Gimli that he played in The Lord of the Rings movies. I haven’t seen him as a bad guy before, and he did well with the part. Every time Chris Pine showed up as Nicholas, I was thinking I had seen him in something else before. I checked after seeing the movie, and he had only been in a few episodes of some tv shows before this movie. I might have seen his E.R. episode, but I don’t watch the other shows. He was good in the part. Spencer Breslin, who was in The Cat in the Hat last fall, showed up briefly as a young prince. He only had a few lines. He was a bit irritating, but I think that is how the character was written. The other actors were also good in their parts, though nothing really stood out about them.

CHARACTERS

Mia - Young woman that was the princess of Genovia. She recently graduated college and moving into the palace in Genovia. She wanted to learn from her grandmother how to rule the country. Mia was worried about her ability to be a queen, but she did care about the people in Genovia.

Clarisse - Queen of Genovia and Mia’s grandmother. Clarisse wanted her granddaughter to be the new queen and set out to help her. Clarisse was well liked by the people of Genovia. She was a kind woman. She was conflicted about a few things though.

Lily - Mia’s best friend. Lily was a graduate student. She wasn’t as critical as Mia as she had been in the past.

Joseph - The head of security. He was training a new security guy and getting a bit annoyed with him. Joseph didn’t trust Lord Mabrey. Joseph was close to Mia, and had feelings for Clarisse.

Helen and Patrick - Mia’s mother and stepfather. They had a new baby and lived in the United States.

Andrew - Young man with a title from England that asked Mia to marry him. He was aware that it was an arranged marriage, but he was all right with that. He was very kind.

Lord Mabrey - He was a member of the parliament in Genovia. He didn’t think Mia should become queen. Mabrey wanted his nephew to become king. Mabrey was very sneaky, and loved it when things went bad for Mia.

Sir Nicholas - Mabrey’s nephew. He had lived in Genovia his whole life. He set out to try to keep Mia from becoming queen.

I did enjoy The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. It was fun and entertaining. This would be a good movie for families to see. I do think girls would like it more than boys. Since this movie wasn’t based on any of the books in the series, fans of the books might be disappointed with the movie. People who enjoyed the first movie might like this one as well. This is another movie I would give three and a half stars to if I had that option. Since I can’t, I’ll round up to four.

Related Reviews
The Princess Diaries ~ Shrek 2 ~ The Cat in the Hat ~ -The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ~ The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ~ The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ~ The Medallion ~

Other Family Movies
Freaky Friday ~ The Haunted Mansion ~ Around the World in 80 Days ~ Looney Tunes: Back in Action ~ Garfield ~