With the help of her coach, her mom, and the boy who drives the Zamboni machine, nothing can stop Casey from realizing her dream to be a champion figure skater.With the help of her coach, her mom, and the boy who drives the Zamboni machine, nothing can stop Casey from realizing her dream to be a champion figure skater.With the help of her coach, her mom, and the boy who drives the Zamboni machine, nothing can stop Casey from realizing her dream to be a champion figure skater.
Featured reviews
Michelle Trachtenberg delivers a strong performance, carrying the movie with ease. She makes the character relatable, and her acting adds depth to the story. The supporting cast does a good job as well, though no one really steals the spotlight from her. The script is decent, with natural dialogue that fits the tone of the film. The music and sound design complement the skating sequences, adding energy where needed. Overall, it is an enjoyable and well-put-together movie that makes for a great watch, especially for a casual family night. Michelle Trachtenberg's presence, both on and off screen, was exceptional. She will be deeply missed.
This being a Disney movie shows us the humble beginnings and also the struggles of its main protagonist. In this case, Casey, struggling to please everyone but herself and paying the price for it. She's an excellent student, she leads by example but is she following her hearts desires?
Her relationship with her mother Joan (Joan Cusack) is non-existent and also a bit abusing to an extend. The same applies for her coach, Tina (Kim Cattrall). At least she has friends that she can count on like Ann (Amy Stewart), Gen, who is Tina's daughter (Hayden Panettiere) and Nikki (Kirsten Olson). She also meets her prince charming and also son of Tina, Teddy (Trevor Blumas).
The teachings of this movie are indeed powerful and the magic of the protagonist's determination to see her future through is actually aspiring and wonderful to see. Life doesn't start till you decide what's best for yourself. And then the magic starts to happen.
The plot is simple and "age worn" - a teen named Casey (Michelle Trachtenberg) is torn between fulfilling the dreams of her parent or following her own dreams. Nothing new here. Yet, the supporting characters of Gen Harwood (Hayden Panettiere) and her mother Tina (Kim Cattrall) also have the same situation. Tina, a skating coach, wants her daughter to become a skating champion, an achievement Tina was unable to fulfill in her own skating career. Thus, both Gen and Casey have something in common: pleasing mom or pleasing themselves.
Yet, Gen and Casey were dramatically different. Casey was a brilliant student with her eyes on Harvard while being gifted at skating, too. Meanwhile, Gen excelled only by becoming a slave to skating and sacrificing her schoolwork.
And it is with that difference that I believe Disney missed the potential. The "Casey's" of the world are few and far between, and it is difficult to relate to them: "Oh, gee. Will I go to Harvard because I'm brilliant at school? Or will I become a skating champion because I'm brilliant on the ice?" Because she is so distant from the vast majority of people, she never truly grabbed my empathy.
Gen, on the other hand, is very, very real. She is being pushed into a sport by a parent, and her social life and academics are suffering. She faces a real dilemma. Plus, she has no hope of excelling at either academics or skating. Her social life is her only escape from this vise. And Gen is endearing because she seems to have a "good heart" despite the difficulty. And how often we see kids with "good hearts" trapped by situations.
I believe that most of us can relate much better to Gen than to Casey. I would have preferred the character of Gen to be the focus of the story with Casey's character in the supporting role. It would be tougher, grittier, and more meaningful to the audience.
Yeah, we all cheered for Casey, but I was cheering for Gen even more.
My only big gripe is with what is presented as Casey's incredible physics discoveries. Some of the statements are downright wrong (pulling in your arms while spinning DECREASES, not increases, your moment of inertia), and all the equations shown in the movie are nothing but basic laws of Newtonian mechanics. While the target pre-teen audience will be fooled, anyone older who's ever taken a physics class will not. Come on, Hollywood...with all the recent publicity about whether women are suited for math and science, please don't insult our intelligence by assuming that scientific details are unimportant in a movie marketed to young girls.
Did you know
- TriviaMichelle Trachtenberg had never skated before. She learned professional skating for this movie in 10 months.
- GoofsVelocity times momentum does not equal acceleration.
- Quotes
Casey Carlyle: [upon learning the truth] Are you happy about my feet?
Gen Harwood: What?
Tina Harwood: I'm sorry, Casey, but your old skates were a mess.
Gen Harwood: You bought her new skates?
Casey Carlyle: Please, like you didn't know.
Gen Harwood: Casey, I didn't!
Casey Carlyle: How can you lie to my face? You're just as bad as she is.
Teddy Harwood: [defensively] Hey, ease up, Casey.
Casey Carlyle: Oh, just defend her! Like you weren't part of it.
Teddy Harwood: How could you think that?
Casey Carlyle: Because it's true. You set me up. All of you.
[a beat]
Casey Carlyle: What kind of people are you?
- ConnectionsEdited into Ice Princess: Deleted Scenes (2005)
- SoundtracksReach
Written by Matthew Gerrard and Kara DioGuardi
Performed by Caleigh Peters
Courtesy of Hollywood Records
- How long is Ice Princess?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Sueños Sobre Hielo
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $24,402,491
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $6,807,471
- Mar 20, 2005
- Gross worldwide
- $27,645,491
- Runtime
- 1h 38m(98 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1