Ice Princess

Review by Clint Morris

They say the best things in life are free. Mind you, they said that in 1985 – and since then, things have taken a slightly more pricey turn.

A hotel’s in-house movie system will now cost you, a kid’s ride at the supermarket is no longer twenty cents, plastic bags at the supermarket are being written into your bill, free-to-air footy is now costly-cable footy, and the Sunday night 'Wonderful World of Disney' film is near extinct – replaced by the analogous $10 Disney multiplex offering.

Is the in-house movie any different? No. Is the kid’s ride any better? No. Are the plastic bags sturdier? No. Is the footy-game any more exciting? No. Is the Disney movie that you have to travel to and pay for any different than the one you’d sit down and watch post-Sunday night dinner and watch on the tube? For the most part, No.

Headlined by rising newcomer Michelle Trachtenberg – she’ll probably be best known as Dawn from TV’s Buffy, the Vampire Slayer for a couple more films yet – Ice Princess is as cute as a button, as lively as a cricket, and jam-packed with the welcome, atypical family film elements: rivalry, go-getting, boys, beats and a rousing ending that pushes all the right buttons.

Casey Carlyle (Trachtenberg) is a brain. While most of her fellow students are off playing sport or carousing, she’s usually studying somewhere. Her latest physics experiment takes her to the ice-skating rink, where she ultimately begins to fall head over heels for the sport itself – and as a result, starts shying away from her love of everything geometric.

When Casey unleashes a helluva gift on the rink – she glimpses a window of opportunity, and with the assistance of a dishonoured former skating champ turned coach (Kim Cattrall), and her skate-star daughter (Hayden Panettiere), goes out of her way – near stealing a line from the poster – to prove that a mathlete can become an athlete.

Most of the cutesy family films that Disney has made over the past few years are no dissimilar, and no more exciting than some of the clever offerings that used to premiere on the Sunday night television favourite. Sure, they might be able to pull a more bankable cast now that they’re being rolled out on a bigger platform, might be able to afford some trendy songs for their soundtrack, and have a significantly bigger budget to boot – but as far as entertainment goes, they’re still attending the same grade.

You can’t cover up a broken-down weatherboard with a pretty tarp though – and you can’t spruce up something that audiences know would’ve been a telemovie a decade ago, and for that reason, kids – or families – seem to becoming a bit more picky and choose with what film they spend their pocket money on.

Ice Princess, based on a story by Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries) may very well have been produced for television had it been made in the Reagan era too – but it’s 2005, and the money’s in cinema. Also, this isn’t the “Bride of Boogedy” or “Tower of Terror”, this is family Disney at the top of their game, and whilst it mightn’t feel as gratifying as a Hank's blockbuster, or as much as a treat as even a Sandler comedy, it’ll truly satisfy you.

The film is formula, sure, but it’s welcome formula. You laugh when you’re supposed to laugh, you’re in suspense when it’s tension-time, and you even – dare I admit it – get a bit of a lump in the throat in the soft and gooey bits.

It’s full of the usual clichés but it’s also immersed with a sort of freshness – helped considerably by the dependable cast – including more substance than films like this tend to offer, and some truly amazing stunt sequences (a lot performed by the lead herself).

It mightn’t be worth splitting Piggy down the middle for, but kids, if you’ve made a couple of bucks mowing the lawns recently – this’ll probably fill your hole more than some of the other feeble flicks on the ‘adults at children’s’ prices route.

If we’ve got to keep shelling out the Benjamin’s for family films that might’ve aired on Disney - for-free - once upon a time, let it be for genuinely good films like Ice Princess.

3 out of 5

Ice Princess
Australian release: Thursday the 23rd of June, 2005
Cast: Michelle Trachtenberg, Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall, Hayden Panettiere, Trevor Blumas.
Director: Tim Fywell.
Website: Click here.

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