A socially awkward but very bright 15-year-old girl being raised by a single mom discovers that she is the princess of a small European country because of the recent death of her long-absent father, who, unknown to her, was the crown prince of Genovia. She must make a choice between continuing the life of a San Francisco teen or stepping up to the throne.
A modest, enjoyable fairy tale that easily outcharms its animated stablemates of the past decade.
– Ed Park,
Village Voice,
7 Aug 2001
rotten:
Screenwriter Gina Wendkos, working from Meg Cabot's novel, resorts to monotonous movie cliches: almost uniformly cruel classmates and a callous, cacophonous mob of media jackals.
– Bruce Westbrook,
Houston Chronicle,
21 Jul 2005
rotten:
Notions of responsibility, surrogacy, rites of passage and the value of friendship are gone through, but the highlighting of modern tropes merely serves to emphasise the film's conventionality.