On January 30th, 2023, I posted my first newsletter on The Princess Diaries. I chose this movie because it’s one of my comfort films, and I’ve always been intrigued by Mia’s evolution from an insecure and immature teenager to the princess of Genovia. In my newsletter, I wrote about how important it was for Mia to understand her power and how capable she was of stepping out of her comfort zone so she could become the person she was meant to be. As Mia’s father writes in his birthday letter to her toward the end of The Princess Diaries, “From now on, you’ll be traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be. The key is to allow yourself to make the journey.” This always resonated with me.
When I published my first newsletter, I was writing Reality TV stories that I wasn’t passionate about, and I had lost my spark and inspiration for writing because I was spending so much time devoting my energy toward something that didn’t fulfill me. Movie Mondays with Gina was a way for me to create something I was proud of again and a way I could express myself through writing about my favorite films. I started out with less than ten subscribers, mostly people I personally knew. However, I knew that if I kept going, my passion for my newsletters would emanate out into the world and draw in other people, allowing them to be passionate about what I was writing too.
While the strikes set me back a little, I never stopped, and as I’m nearing 500 subscribers and coming up with new ways to draw people in and expand Movie Mondays with Gina, I’m happy I kept going even when it felt like I was the only one who cared. I’ve decided that in honor of one year of my newsletter, I will be launching a monthly paid newsletter, just $5 a month, where I will be interviewing creatives on one of the movies I wrote about that month to see their perspective and how they interpret its message. The weekly newsletter will remain free!
This week, I decided to go back to the franchise that started it all and cover The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Just as we can look back on how much Movie Mondays has grown, we can also see how the characters in the film have grown, especially Mia, who I have always seen myself in.
The Princess Diaries 2 was released three years after the first film but has a time jump, so Mia is now a 21-year-old Princeton graduate instead of the high school sophomore she was when we first met her. This time, Mia has to prepare to take over her grandmother Clarisse’s reign as Queen of Genovia. Unfortunately, she finds out she has to be married in order to be queen. If she doesn’t get married, Member of Parliament, Viscount Mabrey’s nephew Lord Devereaux (Nicholas) will take over as King of Genovia.
My favorite part about re-meeting Mia is that she’s clearly a much more sophisticated version of herself. She knows how to greet the guests at her 21st birthday party, and she carries herself with grace. Still, throughout the movie, we see countless moments where Mia’s authentic self slips out. She makes one mistake after the other, and it’s clear even though she’s not a teenager anymore, she’s still as awkward as she always was.
“To be a princess, you have to believe you are a princess,” -Mia, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
I think this is what makes Mia so relatable; even as she takes responsibility for her life and does her best to present herself as royalty, she never stops being authentic, even if it’s not what people would expect from a princess. I believe Anne Hathaway played a massive role in making Mia so likable and relatable, as even watching her in interviews 20 years later, she still possesses many of the characteristics Mia has.
One thing I loved seeing Mia do in The Princess Diaries 2 is she actually wrote in her diary, and we got a glimpse into her entries through voiceovers. In the first film, Mia was gifted her diary toward the end as a birthday present, but having Mia write in it in the sequel honors Meg Cabot’s book series, which was told through Mia’s diary entries. Even though the second film strays far from where Meg Cabot took her book series, it still feels appropriate for the filmmakers to have acknowledged the importance of Mia’s diary in the books.
The most queenly thing Mia does in the film is invite an orphan named Carolina (played by Abigail Breslin) to walk with her in the Genovia Independence Day Parade. Mia makes this choice after seeing Carolina being picked on by two little boys. Instead of letting the bullying continue, she takes the orphans into her parade and allows them to be princesses for the day. The scene showcases Mia’s kindness, which she has always possessed, whether she was royal or not.
It also demonstrates the qualities of a true leader. Someone who is not afraid to share their spotlight and genuinely wants to help others instead of thriving in a position of power because it makes them feel important and superior. No one whose goal as a leader is to assert their dominance over others should ever be let into a position of power.
Later, Mia decides to give her vacation home, the Winter Castle, to the orphans as she works on building them a new home to live in. Mia expresses feelings of guilt for having two homes while the orphans have none. Mia displays true compassion for others, and while she was always a kind person, in the first film, Mia didn’t have the confidence to stand up to a group of people and make such powerful decisions. This is more evidence of how much she has evolved since we last saw her.
“I stand here ready to take my place as your queen without a husband,”-Mia, The Princess Diaries.
Though, the biggest proof of Mia’s evolution comes at the end of the film. After realizing she doesn’t love Andrew, the man she was set to marry, she calls off her wedding and convinces parliament to eliminate the law that a woman must be married in order to be queen. Mia goes on to serve as queen as a single woman, which feels very appropriate for The Princess Diaries franchise.
Girlhood has been a topic of conversation on social media lately and pretty much defined 2023. With Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour, The Summer I Turned Pretty becoming a massive hit on Amazon Prime, and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie hitting $1.4 billion dollars at the worldwide box office, girls ruled the world last year. This brought up a lot of nostalgia in young women, and several scenes in The Princess Diaries 2 perfectly represent this feeling. For Mia’s bachelorette party, she invited princesses from all over the world to celebrate with her at a slumber party at her castle.
During the party, Clarisse performs a song with Asana (played by Raven Symone), everyone dances in their pajamas, and most importantly, they slide down a ramp on mattresses. This is the most memorable scene in the movie for me, and what makes it so special is that when Clarisse catches the girls sliding down the ramp, she doesn’t get angry; she joins them. Typically, Clarisse would scold Mia for her un-princess behavior, but instead, she admits that she used to do the same thing when she was younger.
However, as Clarisse admitted in the first film, she doesn’t “slide;” instead, Clarisse stands on top of the mattress and rides it down the ramp like a surfboard. With this scene, we see that Mia is not being forced to give up the excitement of being a young woman in order to be queen, but she’s still allowed to have fun, which is what a lot of young women learned to do last year.
In my opinion, writing Michael Moscovitz out of The Princess Diaries 2 was a very poor decision. However, I understand in real life, actor Robert Schwartzman had to go on tour with his band Rooney. In the book series, Mia goes on to marry Michael, but in the movies, I’m not sure Michael would have been capable of marrying Mia and ruling Genovia with her. He was way too dedicated to his music career. It only seems like they should have ended up together because they had such a perfect ending in the first film, especially as the whole cast danced to “Miracles Happen” at the end.
I’m unsure about Mia’s relationship with Nicholas Devereaux, as the foundation was built on dishonesty and manipulation. Nicholas was helping his uncle sabotage Mia so she couldn’t become queen, but the two end up falling in love instead. I get a lot of people find the enemies-to-lovers trope appealing, but I can’t help but feel like Mia deserves better than someone who was initially trying to ruin her life. Especially since in the first film, Mia’s crush on Josh Bryant ended fast after she realized he was fame-hungry. Why didn’t she feel this way when Nicholas was power-hungry and wanted the throne?
“Being married is about being yourself, only with someone else,”-Helen, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
On the other hand, I do believe Nicholas changed throughout the film, and his real motivation was never to hurt Mia but to take orders from his uncle, who was the real villain after all. The scene that slightly changed my mind was when Mia sneaks out to go on a date with Nicholas, and they stay out all night. The scene was set up to look like a real fairytale. Everything from the lighting to the dialogue felt more Disney-esque than anything else that’s been in either film. While Mia ends up not getting married, allowing Clarisse and Joseph to get married instead, she does decide to be with Nicholas. If there ever is a third installment, we’ll find out if the couple lasted.
While Nicholas and his uncle have a toxic dynamic built on ill intentions, Mia and Clarisse’s bond is much more pure and empowering. We saw the start of the relationship form in The Princess Diaries, but by the second film, the two have a connection stronger than ever. This seems to be connected to the fact that Mia’s mother is barely in the film, so instead, she’s grown closer to Clarisse. While her grandmother scolds her a lot for her behavior and mistakes, in the end, Clarisse is always there for Mia. She never allows her to feel down for long. She’s always there to pick her back up again and remind her just how capable she is.
“My grandmother has ruled without a man by her side for quite some time, and I think she rocks at it, so as the granddaughter of Queen Clarisse and King Rupert, I ask the members of parliament to think about your daughters, your nieces, sisters, and granddaughters and ask yourselves would you force them to do what you’re trying to make me do?”-Mia, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
At the core of both The Princess Diaries films is a story of female empowerment, and it’s important that the relationship between Clarisse and Mia exists. Their dynamic is like that of Cinderella and her fairy godmother. Clarisse believed in Mia’s abilities long before Mia did because even though she was confused by Mia’s behavior upon meeting her, she saw herself in Mia, which allowed Mia to see herself in Clarisse.
While Clarisse spends the whole movie training Mia to be queen, she doesn’t try to force her into a marriage she’ll ultimately be unhappy in. Clarisse is willing to let someone else take over Genovia so that Mia can be happy, but she’s also more than willing to support Mia’s decision to be single as queen when Mia proposes the idea. After all, as Mia mentions, her grandmother had ruled Genovia for years as a widow, and she had done an excellent job.
While romcoms have been on the rise again, there have also been conversations about why they’re just not hitting like they used to. In my opinion, movies like The Princess Diaries worked so well because they were backed by the genius Garry Marshall. Movies don’t work when they are trying too hard to appeal to their audience. Garry Marshall was always coming from a genuine place and a deep understanding of what the audience wanted to see. The director is known for directing films like Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride, but he started as a writer on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Lucy Show (the I Love Lucy spinoff). He then went on to create Happy Days and its spinoff, Laverne & Shirley.
During the 2020 quarantine, ABC aired a special called The Happy Days Of Garry Marshall. The director sadly passed away in 2016, but so many joined together for the special to remember Garry and carry on his legacy. One thing I remember from the documentary was a story from Chris Pine, who played Nicholas in The Princess Diaries 2, where he was shocked to find the set of the film was empty. When he asked around, he learned everyone had gone to Garry’s parade, which he put on in the middle of shooting for pure entertainment purposes. I remember thinking, that’s the way every director should behave on set.
Before anything else, Garry Marshall wanted to make sure everyone was having a good time. I remember Anne Hathaway reciting a quote when Garry passed away, and it has always stuck with me. Before shooting The Princess Diaries, the director had told her, “You never know if a movie is going to be a hit or not. The only thing you can control is the memories you make when shooting it. So, let’s make some good memories.”
In my Home Alone 2 newsletter, I wrote that it’s one of the only times I felt a sequel was better than the original. With The Princess Diaries franchise, I still believe the first film was the best. It was the most magical, and the ending felt so perfect that it didn’t need to be continued. However, I do love that we were able to see more of Mia’s story in the sequel, and if they ever do make The Princess Diaries 3, you can count me in.
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