Ice Princess

Ice Princess
Theatrical film poster
Directed by	Tim Fywell
Produced by	Bridget Johnson
Screenplay by	Hadley Davis
Story by	Meg Cabot Hadley Davis
Starring	Joan Cusack Kim Cattrall Michelle Trachtenberg Hayden Panettiere
Music by	Christophe Beck
Cinematography	David Hennings
Editing by	Janice Hampton
Studio	Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates	March 18, 2005 (2005-03-18)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million [1]
Box office	$27,645,491

Ice Princess is a 2005 American figure-skating film directed by Tim Fywell, written by Meg Cabot and Hadley Davis, and starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall and Hayden Panettiere. The film focuses on Casey Carlyle, a normal teenager who gives up a promising future academic life in order to pursue her new-found dream of being a professional figure skater. The film was released on March 18, 2005. Ice Princess had a successful performance at the box office, grossing $24 million in the United States during its theatrical run.

Plot

Seventeen-year-old Casey Carlyle (Michelle Trachtenberg), a very smart and talented bookworm and physics geek plans to use her newly advanced academic skills to pursue a scholarship to Harvard University. For the scholarship, Casey must present a personal summer project about physics. While watching a figure skating competition with her math geek friend Ann, Casey realizes that her favorite childhood hobby, which is ice skating on the pond outside her house, would make a perfect project for getting her scholarship. At first, she watches other skaters at the local ice rink, but decides to try to improve her own skating by applying the physics and what she has discovered from watching other skaters.

She becomes a proficient skater, even skipping two levels to become a junior skater. She also helps junior skaters Jennifer Harwood (Hayden Panettiere), Tiffany Lai, and Nikki Fletcher (Kirsten Olson) improve in their skating. Unsure of what she really wants, Casey has a difficult time juggling schoolwork, skating, and a job at a food stand in the ice rink to pay for her skating lessons. Her mother, Joan (Joan Cusack), realizes that Casey's constant skating is affecting her schoolwork and tells her to stop, but Casey refuses. Meanwhile, there is increasing tension between Casey's coach Tina Harwood (Kim Cattrall), a disgraced former skater, and her seventeen-year old daughter Jennifer.

Tina, who manages the ice skating rink where Casey is training for competition, is putting her daughter into a strict training program and an even stricter diet. Angered by the situation, Jennifer quits skating after her mother attempts to sabotage Casey by buying Casey new skates, causing Casey to injure her feet during a skating competition. At Casey's behest, Tina becomes Casey's personal coach and helps her train for Sectionals after Casey turns down the Harvard scholarship to keep skating, with help from Jen and Jen's brother Teddy (Trevor Blumas). At Sectionals, Casey performs well.

In a triple salchow, she slips and falls, but then the sight of her mother in the spectator stands boosts her confidence, and she gives a highly-rated artistic performance. By the end of Sectionals, Casey has come in second place behind Nikki, and is going to the nationals. Casey and Joan reconcile after two months, and she finally gains her mother's support. Teddy gives Casey flowers to congratulate her, and the two share a passionate kiss. The film ends with Joan and Tina playfully arguing about how many college courses Casey should take, discussing Teddy's and Casey's budding romantic relationship, Casey's sponsors, and about Casey's future in figure skating.

Cast

• Michelle Trachtenberg as Casey Carlyle
• Joan Cusack as Joan Carlyle
• Kim Cattrall as Tina Harwood
• Trevor Blumas as Teddy Harwood
• Juliana Cannarozzo as Zoey Bloch
• Erik King as Chip Healey
• Diego Klattenhoff as Kyle Dayton
• Jocelyn Lai as Tiffany Lai
• Shanique Ollivierre-Lake as Chantal DeGroat
• Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Mr. Lai
• Martha MacIsaac as Mean Party Girl
• Kirsten Olson as Nikki Fletcher
• Hayden Panettiere as Jennifer "Jen" Harwood
• Connie Ray as Mrs. Fletcher
• Signe Ronka as Emma Flanders
• Amy Stewart as Ann
• Kristina Whitcomb as Ms. Fisher Lee

Production

Blumas said that he had been put on hold for two months during the audition process, and that there had been “a lot of switch-overs with the directors”.^[2] Blumas ended up playing the role of Teddy as someone who has taken on the role of a father figure.^[2] He began training on how to drive a Zamboni soon after arriving in Toronto; according to him, he later ended up smoothing the ice on some mornings at the rink where they were shooting.^[2] Panettiere did much of her own skating, including a fast spin seen at the end of the film.^[3] Trachtenberg trained for eight months, including the time they were filming (during which time she says she worked twenty-hour days).^[4] She had to be on the ice longer than most of the other actors as she was one of the few adults on the film.^[5] She had stunt doubles to handle the falls and some of the complex moves,^[6] although Trachtenberg did learn a specific move that could not be done by a stunt double as the differences in their build would be apparent. She sustained some injuries while working on the film.^[5] According to Trachtenberg, a mistake was made in one of the physics formulas her character recites, which was later fixed; a shot of the back of her head was used and the correct term was looped in.^[6] Trachtenberg described the film as “not a Disney kitschy movie” and was somewhat apprehensive of the idea of a sequel for fear of belittling the original.^[7] Cusack noted that the relationship between Casey and her mother had already been well-developed in the script, but said that it generated a good deal of discussion during the production, and Cusack ultimately described her role as "meaningful" in terms of the acting and also how it related to her personally.^[8]

The film was shot from May 3 to July 23, 2004^[9] at several locations in Toronto, including George Bell Arena, Western Technical-Commercial School, Christie Mansion and De La Salle College.^[10]

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $6,807,471 million in 2,501 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #4 at the box office, behind The Ring Two, Robots and The Pacifier. By the end of its run, Ice Princess grossed $24,402,491 domestically and $3,243,000 internationally, totaling $27,645,491 worldwide.^[11]

Critical reception

Film critic Roger Ebert gives Ice Princess three out of four stars and commended the film for its entertaining nature and ability to overcome cliche and "formula".^[12] Reactions from other critics have been mixed, as 52% of the T-meter critics on Rotten Tomatoes reviewed the film positively.^[13] Todd Gilchrist of IGN questioned the speed at which Casey becomes adept at skating and pointed out some other improbabilities and clichés, but strongly praised Cusack’s and Cattrall’s performances as emotionally powerful and fully human.^[14] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting rated the film A-I (suitable for general patronage) and provided the film a modest praise as a good family film.^[15] Oppenheim Toy Portfolio awarded the film their platinum award.^[16] It is rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America.^[17]

Soundtrack

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[18]

The Ice Princess Original Soundtrack was released on March 15, 2005 in the United States by label Walt Disney Records, features tracks by Natasha Bedingfield, Emma Roberts, co-star Hayden Panettiere, Grammy-winner Michelle Branch, the Disney Channel stars Aly & AJ, Jesse McCartney, and Raven-Symoné, and various other artists. It peaked at number 53 on the Billboard 200 and at number 2 on Top Soundtracks.

Track listing

1. Reach - Caleigh Peters
2. If I Had It My Way - Emma Roberts
3. Get Your Shine On - Jesse McCartney
4. You Set Me Free - Michelle Branch
5. Reachin' for Heaven - Diana DeGarmo
6. No One - Aly & AJ
7. It's Oh So Quiet - Lucy Woodward
8. Get Up - Superchick
9. I Fly - Hayden Panettiere
10. Just a Dream - Jump5
11. Bump - Raven-Symoné
12. There Is No Alternative - Tina Sugandh
13. Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield

Not included on the soundtrack.

• "Ray of Light" by Madonna appears in the background of the Casey Carlyle's scene of the regional competition, but is not included on the soundtrack.
• "Freak Out" by Avril Lavigne appears in the official trailer, but is not included on the soundtrack.
• "Toxic" by Britney Spears was included in the ice skating scene from Zoe, but wasn't included on the soundtrack.

Awards and nominations

At the 2nd Annual Teen Film/TV Series International Awards Awards ceremony, the film won 20 awards from 20 nominations, getting the record for film which won the most awards in history with 20 awards in total.

References

External links

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