Princess Protection Program: Pleasantly Surprised?

As I stumbled upon my DVD collection, urgent to find something to watch on a very rainy day to snuggle up on my couch with tons of blankets on me, I found none other than the movie "Princess Protection Program" which is, in fact, a Disney "tween" movie. And I have to say, all bashing aside please, I'm a fan of the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez and even sometimes Miley Cyrus, but when it comes to their movies like "Camp Rock" or "The Hannah Montana Movie", I cringe at how corny and horrible the acting is. I may be a big fan of them, I have to confess, but the moment my hands held the DVD in my hand, I smiled at how I would laugh at this little tween movie and its corny concepts of movie plots.

However, I was very pleasantly surprised.

The movie starts off with your typical American girl, Carter (Selena Gomez) who is sixteen, sarcastic and very much the tomboy in this movie who you can tell is hiding in a shell because of her low self esteem. She lives with her father in Lousiana who owns a fish shop and you can see no more three minutes into the movie that Carter and her father are incredibly close. In my mind, I thought, bring on the bubble gum plot, but then you find out, however, that Carter's father is not who he claims to be. Actually, he is a very important secret agent, helping to save princesses all around the world who are in trouble and works for none other than a an undercover corporation called "Princess Protection Progam".

You can tell Carter admires her dad for this, but when he is gone saving princess, she does rather miss him, but this leads us into Demi Lovato's character, Rosie, a sixteen year old princess whose father, when deceased, left her an entire country to rule. Carter's father saves Rosie from a horrible dictator who wants to take over the make-believe country of Costa Luna, where Rosie and her mother hope to rule. He whisks her away, having to leave her mother there, and Carter's father takes to this undercover corporation, The Princess Protection Program, and changes her identity, her look and clothes and tells her by doing this, she is protecting her country, her mother who is held at hostage at Costa Luna and most importantly, herself.

They do not, however, change her princess personality.

Rosie is forced to Lousiana, where Carter and her father live, and be a typical American teenager until they find some way to remove the man who wishes to take over Costa Luna. This means, Rosie and Carter would have to live together in the same house, even if their personalities clash; Rosie always being outgoing, friendly and sweet and Carter wanting to blend in and stay who she is. This means, however, Rosie must learn to blend in like Carter and this results in many endeavors, such as popular girls making fun of Rosie and putting her in sticky situations, Carter having to come out of her shell and stand out and overall, the girls find friendship in the end and it is, of course, a happily ever after once Rosie goes back to rule Costa Luna and Carter is by her side, best friends and all.

Now, I have to say, this movie was very interesting. It wasn't like "Camp Rock" where you wanted to blow your brains out and it wasn't like "The Hannah Montana Movie" where you felt like you were at a six year old's party. The plot was real, very well thought out, and the actors within the movie very much surprised me.

I've seen Selena Gomez in "Wizards of Waverly Place" and I always admired her real talent. I believe her talent isn't a "Disney teen talent" because when I watch her, I see a real girl, just like every other aspiring actress or teenage girl out there, playing a part very realistically and it gives not only me, but every aspiring actress hope to look at her and say, "Hey, that can still happen to me one day."

With Demi Lovato, to be honest, I've always thought she should stick to singing because her acting abilities leave something to be desired. In "Camp Rock", she played Mitchie Torres, a girl who aspired to sing at a rock camp and learned to find her true voice. As much as I love the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, I have to say, she pretty much was awful in the movie. However, in this one, I was able to see how much she truly grew in acting. She was able to conquer, in my eyes, very emotional scenes, such as telling Carter how hard it is to hold responsibilities like being a princess and how much she wants to change the world.

There were a couple moments where I actually even felt bad for her character, like when the means girls Chelsea and Brooke decided to humiliate her in front of everyone by tricking her into working at a yogurt shop, knowing full well she had no idea how to work at one with that being her first job and when they purposely wreck the yogurt machine, making it go everywhere, including on Rosie, they invite everyone from school to watch and laugh at her. This made you feel very bad with Rosie's character, especially when Carter comes to help her and Rosie is teary-eyed once she realizes she had been set up. Demi Lovato certainly grew with this movie and perhaps it was because she was working with her real life best friend, but I really loved her performance, along with Selena Gomez's as well.

All in all, you might prejudge the movie, like me, in the beginning and say, "Oh, it's going to be an awful, corny movie with basically no real plot!" and even if this movie had spies and uncover agencies and princesses in trouble, the real concept and message was clearly there: Always be yourself, stand out and make a difference. Yes, while these messages are constantly throw out in every movie, I do think this one made the message very entertaining while at the same time being clear and touching.

So I give this movie three and a half stars for the surprising good acting performances from Gomez and Lovato, the interesting plotine and the sarcastic humor hidden in it! And I sincerely hope, you the readers, know not to judge a movie by its cover!