When it comes to the Hollywood Chrises discourse, my allegiances have long aligned with Mr. Chris Pine. The man helped revitalize Star Trek with his amazing Captain Kirk, was an A+ love interest for Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and proved to be an all-around movie star with his career decisions over the years. I mean, we have a singing Spider-Man thanks to him and he’a sure to be a great bard in the Dungeons & Dragons movie. Somehow I forget I’ve been watching his movies just about all my life, starting with Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which I recently rewatched for the first time in forever.
So, when I was in kindergarten, I got invited to see the first Princess Diaries movie during a friends’ birthday party, where us kids were taken to the El Capitan in Los Angeles to see it. It was the fanciest experience to me of all time. Little me was awestruck by seeing the costumes in person before seeing Mary Poppins’ Julie Andrews play opposite newcomer Anne Hathaway in a story about an everyday teen who learns she is a princess. As someone who was really big into Disney Princesses at the time, seeing a non-animated young girl in contemporary times becoming a princess was the best thing ever. Three years later came the sequel, 2004’s Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which I watched a ton as a kid, but recently revisited with some friends. We were living for it, and here are some of my thoughts about it now.
