A Brilliant Conflict

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Ice Princess is a film in the tradition of The Cutting Edge franchise as it tells the story of a teen-ager who gives up a promising academic career to pursue a new found dream into becoming a champion figure skater.It stars Michelle Trachtenberg in the title role together with Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall and Hayden Panettiere.The screenplay was written by Meg Cabot,the author of The Princess Diaries, and Hadley Davis; and directed by Tim Fywell.Seventeen-year-old Casey Carlyle is a very smart and talented science student who plans to go to college on a scholarship at Harvard University. While working on a personal summer project about her favorite subject Physics,she gets to observe a figure skating competition with her friend Ann.Later,she realizes that figure skating has become her new found passion and it by applying the principles of Physics,she manages to improve herself in the sport faster than expected.She later becomes proficient and manages to become a champion and have a great future in it.While the use of the principles of Physics which made Casey's know- how of figure skating faster than expected somewhat ridiculous,young female teen-agers and those who love figure skating will find it enjoyable and entertaining.Also,the conflicts may have been treated somewhat light.But nevertheless,Casey gave it some serious thoughts and dealt with them like a responsible and mature teen-ager.This should give a good lesson to young viewers who are watching this film.Finally,Disney fans will not be disappointed for these are the type of films that they make.

Gotta say, I love this movie, the only U certificate film I own on DVD. Originally watched it because I was the world's biggest Buffy fan and adored Michelle Tractenberg but it's so much more than that. A sensitive tale of growing up and defying your parent's expectations whilst still loving them (both Michelle's and Hayden Pantierre's) it grows on you every time you watch it. What wins me over to it is the maturity of the story, there is no baddie, not even Zoe Bloch or Kim Cattrall's character, everyone's motivations and actions are totally understandable and at the end you don't have an unrealistic fairytale finale but a hopeful yet pragmatic realisation of Casey's future and the sacrifices the life of a professional figure-skater will entail. Some good plotting, a story well told and some decent dialogue and acting all round. This essentially marks the end of Michelle's 'adorable moppet' Harriet the Spy/Inspector Gadget/Dawn Summers phase and after this we have her playing more adult characters like pop princess Celeste on 'Six Feet Under' and uber-bitch Georgina on 'Gossip Girl'. In honesty she's a little too old for the part, both she and a pre-Heroes Hayden are already looking more 'Playmate of the Year' than teenage figure skaters in this film. From now on both actresses deliberately choose more mature, adult roles but this is a nice send-off for their teenage characters phase. Best line, Tiffany, concerning the advantages of not being a professional figure skater; "And you can eat bread, buckets and buckets and of bread!"So if you want a well acted, not too twee Disney film told with humour, sensitivity, realism and charm this is the film for you. After an arduous and trying day at work dealing with the strife and compromises of the adult world just put this on and I guarantee you'll feel better. And my six year old niece loves just as much as I do at 38 years old. A timeless classic whose reputation will only grow with repeated Christmas showings and no mistake.

Ice Princess was, in the barest of terms, a feel good family- perhaps with a more mother-daughter slant- movie.Actress Michelle Trachtenburg, perhaps better-known for her role in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Inspector Gadget", put on an excellent performance. She portrays the clumsiness, shyness, and insecurities of her character, Casey Carlyle, with incredible believability. The effort that she put into learning to skate for the movie really shows as well. Her movements were graceful and solid.Hayden Panitierre's performance was a solid one, as usual. She continues even today to display a talent beyond her years. Whilst many of the actors and actresses paying high schoolers in cinemas are actually in their early (or late) twenties, Hayden Panitierre was only around 14 years old during this movie. Yet she manages to fit in seamlessly with the more experienced Michelle and the respective actresses playing their mothers, Kim Cattrall and Joan Cusack.Panitierre's main weakness in the film is her skating. Her movements simply weren't very fluid and graceful, and when they were, they were always on the more simplistic moves. In fact, most of her skating was incredibly simplistic.The plot of the movie is quite simple. It follows the story of Casey Carlyle, a physics wiz kid who has to choose between going to Harvard or following her desire to skate. Her mother, a college English professor, holds a demeaning attitude towards skating, considering it neither a real sport nor a valid career option.On the flip side of the coin, there is Gen Harwood- the most popular girl in the school, and the daughter of former big-time skater Tina Harwood (Kim Cattrall). Her mother relentlessly pushes her towards skating, even though Gen has no real passion for it.The girls' paths crossed. Of course, the result is pretty easy to guess.The main faults of this movie are its goofs. Gen Harwood, even though she is slightly out of shape and not very passionate about skating, should after years of practice under her strict mother, have been at least a little better than Casey Carlyle. Even from the time the movie started, Hayden Panitierre was clearly a worst skater than Michelle Trachtenburg- so much worst, that it acted as a glitch in the storyline.Another goof would be the short time that it took Casey to become a truly accomplished skater. Even with "natural talent" and years beforehand of skating on her pond in the winter- as well as biking everywhere she went as an excuse for her good physical condition- it did not make sense. A friend of Gen's told her, "It took me 2 years to land my double." Guess how long it took Casey? Nonetheless, the movie seems to get away with it in a sense. The soundtrack is beautiful, and Michelle Trachtenburg was wonderful to watch.In a way though, the movie seems a little insulting to real life skaters, who truly put years of effort into their sport. Yet even when the movie is insulting those skaters through Casey's under-earned brilliance, it points out the hardships of skating through the problems that Gen and her friends face. Gen's grade's suffered, and the father of one of her friends had to work two jobs to pay for his daughter's skating expenses. All of the girls were on a strict diet.Although Tina Harwood helps the movie by her many lines talking about the difficulties and hardships of skating, and even though we know Casey did train, so little of the training was shown. Emphasis on training, to me, is a must for a truly superb sports movie.Along with Tina, another character who seemed to bring the movie a little more down to earth was Nikki, a.k.a "the Jumping Shrimp" played by Kirsten Olsen. She was the youngest, but the most brilliant of the skaters, in reality and in the movie- more than likely because Kirsten is an actual figure skater.In summary, the film has its good and bad points. As noted before, though, the movie doesn't focus a lot on the training and doesn't seem to be about keeping things real or accurate in that sense. It focuses more on Casey's relationship with her mother and her following her dream, and the fears and insecurities surrounding that. Those are the times when the film is truly brilliant, and gives it an almost magical feeling despite its flaws.If you are a fan of ice skating you will either love this or hate this movie. I cheated and decided to take the middle ground. In a way, you could call this a guilty pleasure for me. I enjoyed it and could see myself watching it again, but I feel that it failed on many levels.7/10.

It's hard to find a movie that ain't got all that is in movies today.And might I add that Ice Princess is a wonderful movie from Disney.The movie was made with nothing but heart.I have nothing bad to say about Ice Princess because it's just a fun and enjoyable movie to watch.It's not violent nor a lot of words that would be wrong to say in a film.The music is very beautiful too. A nice collection of music if I might say.You have a nice cast with some new stars.Ice Princess is just one of the best movies to ever come out.I kind of wish I saw it at the movies.Overall if you want a movie that good and fresh, then Ice Princess is the movie for you.I give Ice Princess 8 out of 10 A wonderful movie is Ice Princess