In 2003, Lizzie McGuire, America’s favourite junior high student, embarked on an adventure. Already a widely popular Disney show, Lizzie McGuire became a Feature Film. Lizzie, played by early 00’s disney icon Hilary Duff, finishes junior high and jets off to Italy on a class trip. While at the Trevi Fountain she’s mistaken for an Italian pop-star, Isabella, (also played by Hilary Duff, wow the resemblance is uncanny!) and mistaken identity ensues. It’s a truly outrageous plot but one that is very on brand for early 00’s Disney. This movie has everything you’d expect from this time – non-offensive Disney pop, a sequence with Lizzie riding on a vespa, a runway fashion show – it’s really just this unreal dream where a teenage American girl ends up parading as an Italian pop star.
I truthfully never really watched Lizzie McGuire – the TV show – that much, however I was truly obsessed with this movie. I used to run into the lounge after school and chuck the DVD on, often just skipping to the end of the movie, which is the best part. The finale, a performance at the Italian Music Awards (in a Colosseum look-a-like) has Lizzie perform the absolute bop ‘This Is What Dreams Are Made Of’. This song is phenomenal. It’s still a bop. It’s a cultural reset and I stand by it.
A movie that set the way for future secret pop stars (looking at you, Hannah), The Lizzie McGuire movie is the purest form of disney escapism and I still love it.
10/10: Hey Now (Hey Now) This Is What Dreams Are Made Of