The Lizzie McGuire Movie

This first feature starring the relentlessly effervescent Disney Channel teeny bopper is not as fresh, imaginative or risky as its source and feels blatantly designed to entertain an indiscriminate pre-teen, female fan base rather than entire families. Lizzie McGuire (the blond Hilary Duff) and her signature cartoon alter-ego take a class trip to Italy, where she happens to look exactly like the female half (a brunette Duff) of the country’s most popular pop music and tabloid couple. Singers Isabella and Paolo have just separated both personally and professionally as McGuire wanders into Paolo’s radar and gets involved in a sort of Milato Gelato scandal similar to the lip-sync scam that toppled America’s very own Milli Vanilli. The amazingly implausible plot about friendship and finding love in one’s own backyard is a far stretch and big disappointment for this closet adult fan of the more reality-grounded and much wittier McGuire series. The film was directed by Jim Fall, who debuted with the 1999 gay romantic comedy Trick.