The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Directed by Garry Marshall
Produced by Whitney Houston
Debra Martin Chase
Written by Meg Cabot (characters)
Shonda Rhimes
Starring Anne Hathaway
Julie Andrews
John Rhys-Davies
Chris Pine
Heather Matarazzo
Raven
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s) August 11, 2004 (USA)
Running time 113 min.
Language English
Budget US$40,000,000
Preceded by The Princess Diaries
(2001)
Followed by 'The Princess Diaries 3
(2009)
IMDb profile

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is the 2004 sequel to 2001's The Princess Diaries.

Anne Hathaway, Julie Andrews, Hector Elizondo, and Heather Matarazzo return to portray their characters from the first Princess Diaries film, Princess Mia Thermopolis, Queen Clarisse Renaldi, Joe (Mia's bodyguard) and Lilly Moscovitz, respectively. Garry Marshall returned to direct and Debra Martin Chase to produce the sequel.

New characters include Viscount Mabrey (John Rhys-Davies), Lord Nicholas Devereaux (Chris Pine, in his film debut) and Andrew Jacoby (Callum Blue).

Taglines:

  • R.S.V.P. This Summer
  • You are cordially invited to the royal event of the season.
  • She needs the rock to rule.
  • The throne is all hers...but there's a little hitch.
  • It can take a lifetime to find true love; she's got 30 days!
  • To get the kingdom of Genovia... There's just a little hitch.
  • Those are pears in the popcorn.

Contents

[edit] Plot

In the film, Mia Thermopolis, now twenty-one and a college graduate, journeys to Genovia to take her grandmother's place as Queen. She continues her lessons in the ways of royalty and prepares herself to take the throne. However, the Viscount Mabrey, who wants his nephew Nicholas, Lord Devereaux to rule as king, brings up a little known--and rarely enforced--law that an unmarried woman may not ascend the throne. He also makes a point that his nephew was Genovian-born and was schooled in the country, while Mia is a foreigner and did not learn of her royal heritage until she was in high school. Siding with Viscount Mabrey, the Genovian Parliament gives Mia thirty days to find a husband.

Mia, with her romantic fantasies of true love, is aghast to discover the only way to prevent Genovia from falling into the hands of Nicholas is an arranged marriage. After seeing a list of choices, Mia chooses Andrew Jacoby, Duke of Kenilworth; a twenty-five-year-old British pilot with a love for photography.

Mabrey is furious and decides to have his nephew Nicholas seduce Mia, so she falls in love with him and doesn't marry Andrew. At first, Nicholas goes along with the plan, flirting with and appearing in front of Mia when she least expects it. However, Nicholas starts to have second thoughts about his uncle's deceitful plans. He and Mia accidentally do fall in love after their first meeting at her birthday ball. Even after the engagement is officially announced, ring and all, Nicholas still continues to pursue Mia. After a romantic evening on a lake, Nicholas and Mia awake to a photographer shooting their secret getaway, which is broadcast on nationwide television. Believing that Nicholas set her up, Mia rushes back to the safety of the palace. When Clarisse (and eventually Andrew) confront her about the issue, Mia still chooses to marry him because she believes it is her duty to her country. On the day of the wedding, Mia has second thoughts as she heads down the aisle, and politely excuses herself to the palace gardens. Clarisse finds her there and Mia confesses that she cannot marry Andrew because she does not love him. Clarisse, understanding as she is, agrees and tells Mia to follow her heart.

Meanwhile, Nicholas, having learned from his maid that the photographer on the lake had been arranged by his uncle, travels to the wedding on a Penny-farthing in order to stop his uncle from seizing the throne. Mia changes her mind about marrying Andrew at the last minute and presents a speech broadcast throughout Genovia, and makes a motion to abolish the prohibition on unmarried Queens Regnant, enabling her to inherit the throne. Mabrey takes advantage of the fact Mia has been highly unorthodox and claims she has no respect for Genovian laws and traditions. Nicholas arrives and denounces his uncle's claims and acknowledges Mia's right to the throne. The Parliament agrees to abolish the prohibition, and the wedding is canceled.

Rather than letting all the wedding preparations go to waste, Queen Clarisse and Joe, who have been having a sort-of romance since the death of Clarisse's husband, King Rupert, decide to marry. This is often seen as an example of fan service, since the pairing of Clarisse and Joe was extremely popular among fans of the first film.

On the morning of Mia's coronation, she questions if she would be a capable ruler. Nicholas appears before her to reassure her. He admits his feelings for her and inquires if she feels the same, to which she responds that she does. The two then share a kiss. The story ends with Mia's coronation as Queen of Genovia and scenes of a slowly changing Genovia under her rule.

[edit] Box-office

Though not as successful as the original, Princess Diaries 2 still made $134,734,481 worldwide.

  • Sequel: The Princess Diaries 3 (2009)

[edit] Cast

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Princess Diaries (album)

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Anne Hathaway's mother and director Garry Marshall have brief appearances in the film. Hathaway's mother was the leader of the chorus singing at Mia's wedding while Marshall was the middle drummer (the one on the left) in the coronation scene.[dubious – discuss]
  • The jewelry worn by Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews was all real. A guard was on set at all times.
  • When Queen Clarisse reacts to Princess Mia's claim to the crown being contested, the line she says is exactly the same as the one Mia says when Mia finds out she's a princess.
  • Julie Andrews's granddaughter, Hannah Schneider is in this movie, her character being called 'Dancing Princess Hannah.'
  • Joseph says to Viscount Mabrey that he has "diplomatic immunities in 46 countries, including Puerto Rico." The joke is that actor Hector Elizondo (Joseph) is a Puerto Rican.
  • The Genovian motto, "Totus corpus laborat," is improper Latin. Since "corpus" is neuter, the motto, which means "the entire body works," should read: "totum corpus laborat."
  • Writer and creator of The Princess Diaries series, Meg Cabot, was initially enthusiastic about the second film [1] but later came to dislike the sequel and repeatedly mentioned all of the liberties the movie took, in the sixth Princess Diaries book Princess in Training.
  • Marvel comic book creator, Stan Lee, makes an appearance in the movie as the "Three Stooges Wedding Guest".
  • At the start of the film, when Mia is explaining how her mother surprised her by marrying her teacher, the footage that's seen is from a scene that was deleted from the first film (the teacher got paint on his shirt sleeve, and in the scene that follows, he takes his shirt off just as Mia walks in after her makeover and catches him shirtless).
  • After Clarisse's talk with Parliament, she speaks with Mia in the throne room. In the numerous hall of portraits of the Renaldi line, Martha Custis Washington's portrait is present.
  • Genovia was filmed partially at Universal Studios in California.
  • Director Garry Marshall's youngest grandchild, Sam Marshall (child of Garry's son Scott) can be seen in the DVD bloopers.
  • When Mia has a party and the music starts a guard is seen dancing outside the room where the party is taking place but in the next shot he is in the back of the room standing perfectly still. (The guards are twins, according to the DVD's special features.)
  • When Julie Andrews says to Mia, "I've done enough flying in my time," she is referring to her part in Mary Poppins.
  • Anne Hathaway's commitment to starring in the movie meant that she could not play Christine in the 2004 movie adaptation of Phantom of the Opera

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Garry Marshall

Young Doctors in Love (1982) • The Flamingo Kid (1984) • Nothing in Common (1986) • Overboard (1987) • Beaches (1988) • The Lottery (1989) • Pretty Woman (1990) • Frankie and Johnny (1991) • Exit to Eden (1994) • Dear God (1996) • The Other Sister (1999) • Runaway Bride (1999) • The Princess Diaries (2001) • Raising Helen (2004) • The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) • Georgia Rule (2007)
v • d • e
The Princess Diaries
Crew
Garry Marshall (director) · Debra Martin Chase (producer) · Whitney Houston (producer) · Gina Wendkos (screenwriter)
Cast
Julie Andrews as Clarisse Renaldi · Anne Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis · Hector Elizondo as Joe · Heather Matarazzo as Lilly Moscovitz · Mandy Moore as Lana Thomas · Caroline Goodall as Helen Thermopolis · Robert Schwartzman as Michael Moscovitz · Erik von Detten as Josh Bryant
Novels
Films
The Princess Diaries · The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement