The Lizzie McGuire Movie

The Lizzie McGuire Movie is a 2003 American live-action/animated children's comedy movie based on the Disney Channel television series of the same name, directed by Jim Fall. The movie was produced by Stan Rogow Productions, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on May 2, 2003. The film stars Hilary Duff, LaLaine, Adam Lamberg, Robert Carradine, Hallie Todd and Jake Thomas. The film is both a combination of live-action filmmaking, 2D traditional hand-drawn animation and computer-generated imagery (CGI). At its release, the film peaked at number two at the domestic box office behind X2: X-Men United. The Lizzie McGuire Movie was released on August 12, 2003 on VHS and DVD and a video game adaptation was released on December 8, 2003 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PC and Game Boy Advance.

The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jim Fall
Written by	Susan Estelle Jansen Ed Decter John J. Strauss
Based on	Lizzie McGuire by Terri Minsky
Produced by	Stan Rogow Co-Producer Savage Steve Holland
Starring	Hilary Duff Adam Lamberg Robert Carradine Hallie Todd Jake Thomas
Cinematography	Jerzy Zieliński
Edited by	Margie Goodspeed
Music by	Guy Moon (score) Cliff Eidelman (additional music)
Animation by	Animated Lizzie Sequences by Tapehouse Toons (traditional animation)
Color process	Color
Production companies	Walt Disney Pictures Stan Rogow Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date	May 2, 2003 (2003-05-02) (United States)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million[1]
Box office	$55.5 million[2]

Plot

Lizzie and her class travel to Rome. There Lizzie meets at the Trevi Fountain Paolo Valisari, an Italian singer. He tells Lizzie that he should sing with Isabella Parigi, a popular singer. But Isabella don't wants to sing with him, so he asks Lizzie to sing playback for her. Lizzie looks exactly like Isabella, only the hair is different. She says yes. At the airport, Gordo meets the real Isabella, she knows Paolo's plan: He doesn't want to use Lizzie's playback so it will seem like Isabella can't sing. In the end Isabella came and sang for Lizzie and Lizzie sang, too. Lizzie is a good singer, but Paolo is a bad singer, he always sings playback.

Cast

• Hilary Duff as Lizzie McGuire
• LaLaine as Miranda Sanchez
• Adam Lamberg as David Gordon
• Jake Thomas as Matt McGuire
• Hallie Todd as Jo McGuire
• Robert Carradine as Sam McGuire
• Ashlie Brillault as Kate Sanders
• Clayton Snyder as Ethan Craft
• Haylie Duff as Isabella Parigi
• Yani Gellman as Paolo Valisari
• Alex Borstein as Miss Ungermeyer
• Carly Schroeder as Melina Bianco
• Christian Copelin as Lanny Onasis
• Kyle Downes as Larry Tudgeman
• Davida Williams as Claire Miller
• Brendan Kelly as Sergei

Production

Development

The film, produced by Stan Rogow, co-produced by Savage Steve Holland, was directed by Jim Fall from a screenplay by Susan Estelle Jansen, Ed Decter and John J. Strauss. It was filmed on location in Rome, Italy in the fall of 2002.

Cast

The main cast of Lizzie McGuire reprised their roles.

Animation

New York's Tapehouse Toons again handled the animation sequences involving Lizzie's cartoon alter ego, just like in the television show. This marked their first time working on a feature film, after being approached by Disney, who normally handled these type of projects at their in-house animation studio. Tapehouse had to hire 15 additional people for the task of completing the film, thus expanding their "core group" of five employees.

Music

The music score for the film was composed by Guy Moon from Nickelodeon's animated series The Fairly OddParents, and the additional music was conducted by Cliff Eidelman.

Sound

The post-production sound services for the film was provided by Advantage Audio, Inc. in Burbank, California. Robert Duran, the sound designer and sound effects editor at Advantage Audio from The Fairly OddParents. He used the many sound effects for many cartoony sounds in the Lizzie McGuire feature movie. Some effects are cartoony, while others are sound a bit more realistic.^[3]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 40% based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critics consensus calls the film: "A harmless piece of fluff that ought to satisfy fans of the TV show." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Scott Brown of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+: "Let's face it: Lizzie McGuire (Hilary Duff) is just too darn polished to be a junior-high underdog, even by the standards of her 'luxe suburban environs'. But that hasn't tarnished her comeback-kid cred among the six-and-ups who faithfully follow her Disney Channel show—and it doesn't make The Lizzie McGuire Movie, a clever, agreeably weightless theatrical outing, any less enjoyable." Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, but praised Borstein's performance, calling her work "the only really delightful element in the movie; everything else is simply slick and professional."

Box office

In its opening weekend the film grossed $17.3 million in 2,825 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking second behind X2: X-Men United. The Lizzie McGuire Movie grossed $42.7 million domestically and $12.8 million internationally for a worldwide total of $55.5 million.

Awards

• 2003 (won): Kids' Choice Award for Movie Breakout Star, Female (Hilary Duff)
• 2003 (won): Teen Choice Award for Movie Breakout Star, Female (Hilary Duff)
• 2003 (nominated): Teen Choice Awards for Movie Comedy, Movie Comedy Actress (Hilary Duff)
• 2004 (nominated): Leo Award for Feature-Length Drama: Best Visual Effects (Gary Gutierrez, Jayne Craig, Bruce Woloshyn, Simon Ager and Wes Sargent)