The Lizzie MaGuire Movie

The Lizzie MaGuire Movie

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            Growing up watching the Disney Channel, the show Lizzie Maguire was a big hit, perhaps the Hannah Montana of my generation. Staring Hilary Duff, the show follows a young blond girl name Lizzie and her life at home and in middle school. A threesome since elementary school, Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo have been best friends for as long as they can remember but now that they’ve entered middle school and it’s all about cute boys and climbing the social ladder. Along with Kate, the most popular girl, Lizzie’s number one enemy and used to be best friend and Ethan, the heartthrob of their class, Lizzie is faced with the daily struggles of middle school life. Based on the hit show, a movie was made that follows Lizzie, Gordo and their classmates on a trip to Italy before they enter high school. While in Italy, Hilary Duff’s character runs into an Italian Pop Star Paulo and is mistaken for the famous Isabella that is his singing partner. Throughout the film, Lizzie tours Rome on the back of Paulo’s vespa and practices on what will be an out of this world performance at the end of the movie in the Colosseum.

                   While I actually enjoyed this movie, it quickly grew frustrating when Lizzie is mistaken for an Italian Pop Star and ends up singing at the end of the movie. One thing I truly don’t understand is that every actor and actress can now sing and become instantly famous pop stars. This movie is essentially building on the Hilary Duff brand and is the beginning of her singing career. Despite being this girl who deals with mean girls and wondering if she’ll ever be kissed by Ethan, the cutest boy in school, Lizzie now becomes a pop star, wears designer fashion and ‘girlfriend’ of the biggest Italian Pop Star. What kind of message does this send little girls, that is normal?! With shows like Hannah Montana that focus on a girl who is a normal little girl by day and pop diva by night and Lizzie Maguire becoming the it girl in The Lizzie Maguire Movie, we’re playing on the idea that a girls only ambition is to become pretty, perfect and famous! 

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen 

(based on the novel by Dylan Sheldon)

           Based on the novel of the same name by Dylan Sheldon, the film revolves around Mary Elizabeth Cep as she moves from New York City to a New Jersey suburban town where she attempts to become the new queen bee. Demanding to go by a new name she makes up herself, Lola (Mary Elizabeth) runs into the the school’s popular crowd and their head, Carla Santini and they become instant enemies. They go head to head in dance offs, competing for the lead in the schools play and trying to befriend the band, Sidarthur and the lead vocalist, Stu Wolff.  Known for being a drama queen and a bit of an exaggerator, Lola is an aspiring actress but tends to get caught up in her own lies and ultimately is brought down by her enemy Carla. At school the next day after spending the previous night hanging out with Stu Wolff at the band’s after party, Carla reveals that Lola is a liar and never attended the party. With the success of the school play and Lola perfectly executing her performance as the lead and Stu Wolff showing up at a Friday Night party to give Lola a necklace she left at his house, everyone sees that she wasn’t lying.

                        A story that follows a young girl as she moves across the Hudson River to New Jersey, Mary Elizabeth is not happy about moving to a new town and a new school. Known for being a drama queen and a bit of a liar, this movie focuses on popularity, revenge and fame. Half of the story in this film is about the relationship between Lola and the band Sidarthur. Lola is obsessed their music and the lead vocalist and guitarist Stu Wolff. The main character played by none other than Lindsay Lohan, another tween idle, she makes for a perfect Lola in this adaptation on the book of the same name. In the movie version, Lohan’s character gets to meet the pop star first hand and learns he’s a drunk who doesn’t seem to know his own music. Let down and heartbroken, by the end of the movie the pop star sobers up and comes back to seemingly win back Lohan’s character. Movies, books and television shows that focus on this theme of fame and portraying that fans get to become friends as easily as they make it seem in the movies, this simply not real.  

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass

Before watching The Golden Compass, I couldn’t help but do a little research on the background of the story.  Based on the British Series, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (the North America title) was originally released as Northern Skies in England in 1995. The Golden Compass was the first in the trilogy and was successful enough to be made into a hit movie starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliot and Dakota Blue Richards as the young and adventurous Lyra Belacqua. Told as a fantasy novel, the story revolves around the young Lyra Belacqua and the journey she makes through time and space to save the ones she loves. It is beautiful coming of age story as Lyra travels through a series of parallel universes against the backdrop of adventurous and sometimes life threatening events, with friends, enemies and animal spirits.

            Having not read the book and only watching the film, the story was a bit confusing at times. Much of the story revolves around the powerful Magisterium (which is obvious it represents religion-specifically the Catholic Church?!)  The almighty Magisterium is looking to rid all tolerance and free thinking, therefore their mission to destroy all alethiometers, which is also known as a truth teller (what looks to us like a compass). We learn they have succeeded and have obliterated every compass except for one in which only one can read, precious little Lyra. Most of the story follows Lyra on an epic journey to find her friends who have been taken by the Gobblers and to save her Uncle. Throughout the story, we learn that everyone in this alternate world (that looks very similar to earth) has an animal spirit that walks along the side of humans. They are also referred to as daemons. Children’s daemons are able to change shape and form, while at a certain age an adult’s daemon, takes on its permanent form.

            Like any typical tween or young adult novel, it’s a story of a child growing up and finding who they are and what their voice is. In this case, we learn early on that Lyra is an orphan. Not growing up with a parent, Lyra is this young girl who is trying to make sense of the world around her despite her upbringing and little guidance. Most of the story focuses on Lyra being the only person who can read this compass and finding the confidence and pride she needs that she is the one who will save all these worlds from clashing and going to war with one another. This young girl is the protagonist of the story and will rise to become a leader and the voice of all the orphan children she must save in the first novel. I think this story is an excellent source of literature for young children, particularly to ‘tween’ age children, this is the age where children start to make sense of the world and their place in it.