Sunday, November 06, 2005

Ice Princess

Ice Princess is a fun movie. It's rated G.

The Plot: Casey (played by Buffy alum Michelle Trachtenburg) is a physics nerd and loves watching figure skating. She has the chance to win a national physics scholarship if she comes up with the perfect physics project; she decides to study skating to see if it can be broken down to the physics involved. Along the way, Casey applies her studies to herself and surprises everyone by discovering this is something she is actually good at. The problem: her mother is convinced that Casey's road to success and happiness is thru higher education, not skating.

The Good: I love that a movie can be G and fun for everyone watching. I like that this movie goes beyond stereotypes about mean girls and popular girls. And I like that despite the initial conflict in Casey's life -- school or sports? -- their is a solution. I also liked the questions Casey faced: what is friendship? Who can she trust? What is her dream, and what is her mother's dream? It also addresses the issue that just because someone is good at something doesn't mean they love doing it.

Extra fun facts: based on a story co-written by Meg Cabot.

Several episodes of BTVS mention Buffy's love of ice skating and Ice Capades . "Look, I know you guys think it’s just a big, dumb, girlie thing, but it’s not. I mean, a lot of those skaters are Olympic medal winners. And every year my dad buys me cotton candy and one of those souvenir programs that has all the pictures, and okay, it’s a big, dumb, girlie thing, but I love it.”

My favorite ice skating movie: The Cutting Edge (Toepick!).

NaNoWriMo wordcount: an extremely pathetic 2215.

2 comments:

Kelly said...

Hi Liz:

We liked this movie too. My daughter skates and her coach says that the physics aspect is actually true and he was surprised by it. (He didn't like the love interest part, especially the driving of the zamboni to a pond, which was, of course, ridiculous.)

I really liked Kim Cattrell in this movie, especially her relationship to her own daughter.

Liz B said...

When the Zamboni came over the hill, I thought oh no. What I liked about the love interest is that it was light & not really a part of the main story. There, but not distracting.

I really liked how it didn't go the "mean girl" angle with the other skaters. Kim Cattrell was great; but I thought Joan Cusack's character needed something more. She's a lit teacher who values hard science? Why? She almost seemed like a version of the mom in Almost Famous. It felt as if an important part of the mom's backstory was missing.

I loved how they made the point about the sacrifices made to achieve; and that Casey was going to skate and go to college.