"Ice Princess"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Michelle Trachtenberg as CASEY CARLYLE Joan Cusack as JOAN CARLYLE Kim Cattrall as TINA HARWOOD Hayden Panettiere as GEN HARWOOD Trevor Blumas as TEDDY HARWOOD Rated G Studio: Walt Disney Directed by: Tim Fywell Back to DVD Review Home |
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You’ve gotta hand it to the marketeers at the Walt Disney company. They know their audiences - at least when it comes to their staple releases. While “Ice Princess” was never a huge hit, it nailed its audience perfectly. And the idea to give it the title it has is brilliant (if not annoying to a parent). Let’s face it. This movie has nothing to do with princesses. It’s more of a stretch than you’d ever get in the “Princess Diaries” movies. At least those had something to do with royalty.
Disney has cornered the Princess market, and they manage to shoehorn that word into every title they can. Maybe M. Night Shyamalan left the studio for Warner Bros. because they insisted on titling his next film “The Supernatural Princess Surprise.”
Most critics dreaded “Ice Princess” when it was released, and it was universally panned at the theaters as well as on home video. But who’s gonna listen to them? Not the teenage girls this movie is after.
I’m sure that every girl involved in ice skating is going to run out and rent this movie, if they haven’t seen it already. I did have a conversation with a man from Cleveland whose daughter was an ice skater. I asked him if she saw “Ice Princess,” and he said they did. However, he did make a comment that the girls scoffed at the speed by which Casey became a champion skater. Even if you’ve never put on a pair of skates in your life, you’re gonna know that this is a lot harder than it looks in this movie.
While most of the movie is extremely predictable, as most Disney movies are, there are parts that still got on my nerves beyond that. Having Casey performing unnecessary physics computations in her head and blurting them out in a party was a little absurd - especially when she predicts something that anyone can guess. It’s times like these that are overwritten with the script. Isn’t it enough to have Casey’s overbearing mom pushing her to a Harvard scholarship? Isn’t that enough to believe she’s a bit of a nerd?
The DVD includes a standard slate of additional features. While they are listed as “Cool,” “Must-See” and “Hot” on the DVD case, these are basic features you’d find on many DVDs. Again, there goes Disney with their marketing machine.
The DVD features an alternate opening which hammers home even more how much Casey’s mom has been pushing her towards math and physics. There are several deleted scenes that are interesting to watch, although like most deleted scenes, it is understandable why they were cut. The audio commentary features stars Michelle Trachtenberg, Hayden Panettiere, Trevor Blumas and Kristen Olsen who plays the Jumping Shrimp ice skater.
The commentary track is actually pretty good. Usually a group of actors don’t have the overall view of the film that a director has to make an interesting commentary. However, this group of actors tend to gel together rather well. There’s enough diversity - and politeness - in the group to give some interesting information as well as insight into the film. Particularly interesting is what Kristen Olsen has to say about how real ice skating differs from what you see in the movie.
There are also two music videos from the Radio Disney vault. Caleigh Peters performs “Reach” and Aly & A.J. perform “No One” from the soundtrack.
Ultimately, “Ice Princess” offers a family-friendly movie without the baggage of its G rating. It’s not a shoot-‘em-up action flick or cerebral art-house flick. But that was never its destiny. It pushes the right buttons, but will most likely annoy anyone who isn’t a teenage girl.
Specifications: Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.85:1). French language track and subtitles. English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
