The Princess Diaries: Critic Reviews

A modest, enjoyable fairy tale that easily outcharms its animated stablemates of the past decade.

Screenwriter Gina Wendkos, working from Meg Cabot's novel, resorts to monotonous movie cliches: almost uniformly cruel classmates and a callous, cacophonous mob of media jackals.

Occasionally funny but more often hackneyed, schmaltzy, predictable and overdone.

Terrific fun for girls and their families, too.

The unexpected rewards of director Garry Marshall's ("Beaches") latest spin on the well-worn Pygmalion fairy tale are numerous.

That this failed is largely down to the stilted, cliched dialogue of the screenplay; fans of the wittier novel by Meg Cabot may well be disappointed.

This Cinderella fantasy transforms a geek into a princess, and teaches a few life lessons along the way.

Marshall milks the San Francisco scenery for all it's worth, but is all thumbs when it comes to squeezing the full comic possibilities of the story...

A light, uneven Pygmalion story that may win young girls over with its wish fulfilment theme and teen movie staples, but does not live up to the expectations created by the cast and director.

Notions of responsibility, surrogacy, rites of passage and the value of friendship are gone through, but the highlighting of modern tropes merely serves to emphasise the film's conventionality.

One of the most delightful and touching comedies to grace the big-screen in years that features no swearing, no sex, no violence, no drugs -- and no dull moments.

...doesn't hold much appeal for those outside its target audience.

These diaries have too many dull pages and not enough juicy bits to keep you interested.

It's a cozy message for young girls, even if it's couched in a predictable plot that is pure Disney.

Despite the hackneyed quality of the pretext, nice performances save this film from itself.

What starts as a feel-good movie quickly degenerates into a feel-bored movie, not least because at two hours it's at least thirty minutes too long.

It's an absolute credit to the cast that The Princess Diaries has charm at all.

It's another movie where teenage girls look like a bunch of unfeeling idiots or worse.

Garry Marshall directs with the same fairy tale charm he gave "Pretty Woman," but without the disturbing prostitution angle.

The film was directed by Garry Marshall, who turned "Pretty Woman" into a fairy tale for big girls 11 years ago. In many ways, "Diaries" is the G-rated remake...

El Diario de la Princesa es el regreso de estos estudios a las comedias blancas e inocentes.

Those in the market for what it has to offer will find it pleasantly agreeable, and those who aren’t won’t be in the theater in the first place.

The film is so carelessly made that every surprise in the story is given away very early on--we know from the beginning exactly what will happen, and scenes are so badly staged that any comic or dramatic potential is lost.

Slugs through its almost two hour running time.

I'm sick of these movies.