The Lizzie Mcguire Movie (2003)

🎙️ Episode 5 – The Lizzie McGuire Movie: This Is What Dreams Are Made Of
This time, Lauren makes Jeremy watch The Lizzie McGuire Movie — where Hilary Duff goes to Rome, impersonates a pop star, and somehow headlines a stadium concert. Jeremy is baffled by the plot, skeptical of Paolo, but very into the finale banger.

Transcript

[Speaker 1]

I made Jeremy watch the Lizzie McGuire movie. This is So I Married a Millennial.

[Speaker 2]

So I'm married a millennial. Now I'm watching all the things he knows. So I'm married a

millennial.

I'm married a millennial.

[Speaker 1]

Welcome back to this week's episode of So I Married a Millennial podcast. Now this is episode

five. Thank you to everyone that has been listening or watching.

If you have been, Jeremy has been sharing his wonderful movies with me, but we decided to do

a little Uno reverse. And for this week, I showed Jeremy the 2003 classic, the Lizzie McGuire

movie. I am going to start us off with a little Rotten Tomatoes synopsis.

Hit us, baby. Scores and budget. During summer break, if you haven't seen this, which I'm sure

everyone has.

Yeah, everyone has seen the Lizzie McGuire movie, especially if you're a 44 year old man in

2025. And if not, time to get with the times. During summer break, Lizzie McGuire, Hilary Duff,

of course, and her closest pals head off on a school-sponsored journey to Rome.

Before long, she makes the acquaintance of Paolo Valazari, Yani Gellman, a local music

sensation whose duet partner looks almost exactly like Lizzie. Since Paolo and his collaborator

recently feuded, Lizzie agrees to stand in for the girl at a massive concert and pretend to sing

while a recording plays. But when things don't go as planned, she must rely on her own vocal

chops.

For the scores, I'm not going to lie to you, they're a little low. They're lower than I would have

thought. Yeah, okay.

[Speaker 2]

Really?

[Speaker 1]

Sorry. Genuinely. Sorry, I'm not bad.Apparently, maybe. You don't know what they are yet. Yeah, okay.

41%. Yeah, that's about right. 41% critics score, 49% audience score.

Thought that the audience score would be higher. I'm not super surprised that the critics

maybe didn't love it, but I am a little surprised that audiences were not higher. I think it was

rigged, babe.

I agree. I think it was rigged. Budget of 13 million, box office, 55.5 million. Wow. Powerful.

That's not that much money.

For a Disney Channel original movie? For a Disney Channel original, yes. I don't know what the

numbers are there.

I'll have to look, but that seems very high for a Disney Channel original movie. We'll give it to

you contextually, sure. Which brings us into segment two, which I'm a little concerned about,

which is your thoughts.

Would you like to take it away, my love? First of all, let me just say this movie is clearly not

meant for me. I understand fully that I am not the intended demographic for this movie.

That said, I'm about to drag a bunch of treatments. So you have a pop star pretending to be a

quirky girl who's not a pop star, who is trying to find... She wasn't really a pop star at this point.

She was not? No, not in the way that you're like... Her music career was just starting.

She is not full on pop star at this point. She has music, but she's doing it on the Disney Channel.

She's not into her full...

It was after Lizzie McGuire that she really went full music. Sure, but she is very clearly not the

quirky girl that she is. Not that she has to play herself.

I found it very hard to buy her as this quirky girl. She's like, I'm so quirky and weird. I was like,

you have movie star looks.

You are the best, most poised person. She acts like Superman acting like Clark Kent. She's

trying not to be found out that she is actually a pop star.

She is finding her way into young womanhood one giggle at a time. So this was... Keep in mind

also for all of this.

So they are supposed to be graduating from middle school. Not high school. They are supposed

to be like 13, 14 years old.

Yeah, I buy it. Really? No.

Okay, continue. I was actually amazed at how much she giggles in the movie. And I needsomeone to do a Lizzie McGuire movie giggle supercut.

And I have to believe it would probably be half the movie because she and her quirky best

friend, everyone is like, they're giggling. They're pre-teens. Pre-teens giggle.

Yeah, it's a Disney channel. That is very much which I think you missed a lot of these Disney

channel shows. Yeah, they're all giggles.

That is very in keeping with we are portraying like... I'm not saying it's good. I'm not saying it's

bad either.

[Speaker 2]

No, I guess so.

[Speaker 1]

But I feel like that was very in keeping with the tone of these shows, which they are supposed

to be tweens. Got it. And like, it's fun.

It is fun. But sometimes... Again, I am not the intended demographic.

Sometimes I did. I even I was like, well, lay it on a little thick. It is and like, and I don't actually

want to be here dragging pre-teens because that is very mean to be an adult man who fancies

himself an actor to poke holes into the acting chops of like some young kids.

But some of these kids were much better than others, like much better than others. I don't

think I'm holding them to a ridiculous standard because this was also the time of Lindsay Lohan

and Lohan. And she was always great.

She was always great, like in absolutely everything I saw. That said, of all of the child actors,

Hilary Duff was the worst. She was the worst one up there.

She honestly what? Like the best friend was great. Gordo was like, he was out there.

He was living in the moment. Even Ian, like the blonde sort of nip himbo word at one point.

Even I was like, this guy understood the assignment.

I buy him. She was nigh intolerable. This is a titular character, Jeremy.

I gather. I will say this about it. I loved all the Rome stuff.

There were great shots of Rome. There was some great cinematography. We had Alex Borstein

out here.

Playing Mrs. Ungermeyer. A hit, a classic. She is great.

Phenomenal. The plot was shockingly complicated. Yeah.100%. Shockingly complicated. But there were huge leaps of logic here, which may surprise

you.

Okay. So we saw that, you know, twist, you know, the budding Italian romance ends up being,

he's the villain, which of course, of course was going to happen. My man Gordo was on it.

He was setting this up the whole time. It was earned from a story perspective. It was absolutely

earned.

But the whole plots, and maybe you can help me through this. I bet I can. So the plot was he

wanted to get Lizzie McGuire on stage because she looked like the person that he's feuding

with.

And he had a sort of a thin story of they were going to get sued. And Lizzie McGuire is like, oh, I

don't want you to get sued. Saying nothing for it.

Maybe this girl doesn't want someone pretending to be her. She was swept up. Unlike national

Italian TV.

That's Amore, baby. I don't know what to tell you. So he wanted her and they were supposed to

lip sync because he said that she.

Well, he was going to sing. He was going to sing live. She was going to lip sync.

Right. Is what he told her. He always sings live.

He's amazing. And then twist. We find out he is the one that lip syncs.

And he thought that Lizzie McGuire was going to be fit. So he was going to turn off the track

and let Lizzie McGuire suck and embarrass his this. This is a long complicated, but you are you

are nailing the details.

I feel like it's like the spider the web of like with the board with Charlie Day. Yes, it was it was

complicated. This felt needlessly complicated.

How else was he going to get her on the stage? I don't know. I also don't understand that like

when they figured out that he was trying to take down his partner, that this was all a sham and

that she was she was set up to be embarrassed.

They were like, well, now we have to go on there and get him. We have to we have to take our

revenge on him. And she's like, sure.

Not like, hey, man, I have nothing to do with. I'm 14. I don't know.

This is a lot. I don't even know you. She's already missed the whole Italy trip at this point.

She might as well get some revenge. No, but good news. She becomes she becomes the popstar.

She was always meant to be. Yes, she did. What the fuck was up with her little brother?

I was actually I was going to ask you about that in my section. So that is also. That's just like

how he is in the show.

It was very like, oh, no, my pesky brother. But I do feel like the black male aspect of it really took

it to like a new level in this in this movie in this. It was like budding serial killer.

No, it really and I did not remember the very opening before she does her whole fabulous

singing into the hairbrush early 2000s lip sync. Bob. That the opening it's meant to be like we're

like in the military like it's a spy and then it's just like her little brother like is trying to spy on

her.

Yeah. So he fashions a camera to a car and he is he's placing. Which she does not see.

He is he's placing a camera in his sister's room. Yeah. No, it comes off pretty creepy.

It is real creepy. It's real creepy. He is in his room.

So she's dancing in the hairbrush. Yeah. And she's having a good old time.

Yeah. And he is laughing maniacally. No, the little brother really.

They really upped. It went from just like normal like, oh, my little brother to like, oh, I'm afraid

of him. Like he's trying to like revenge porn her.

One hundred percent is the energy that it is giving. I don't know. We didn't have the verbiage or

even the understanding of what that was when this was out.

But no. And then retrospect, it comes off real weird. And his like little who you've never seen

the little friend, but his little like bestie like girlfriend.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Well, like she was in the movie. Right.

[Speaker 1]

So like when she comes in. But like, yeah, it's it's it gets. It's a little weird.

I did not remember it. I mean, I feel like that's just not the takeaway that I had when I watched

this movie as a kid.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.[Speaker 1]

But in retrospect is a dull. And I was like, oh, this storyline. They really made it weird.

No. It was weird. There there was no there was not a whole lot of set up for the uninitiated like

if you hadn't watched the show and I went in completely cold.

I know. And I did actually think about that. I wasn't sure if I was going to make you watch a

couple episodes because to be clear, this was also sort of the show did not end after this.

It did air for a while after. But this was meant to sort of like be a wrap up of sorts. This was

supposed to be sort of a conclusion.

That's also like her and Gordo had never kissed before. Like all of this had been building up like

in the seasons. So it was still like continuing to air.

I feel like I think I have that in trivia, but I think it aired for a little longer. But this was meant to

honestly like kind of wrap it up in a lot of ways. I mean, this feels like a good way to wrap up.

I mean, like, you know, you missed a lot of context. It I mean, it had a set up. It had a payoff.

I all of the pieces were most certainly there. Also, as soon as I saw her family, I got very excited.

Yeah, you did.

Why did you because her father plays Louis Skolnick in Revenge of the Nerds, which is another

movie that we should watch from the 80s. You got very excited about Lizzie. Yeah, it was it was

Louis Skolnick is her father.

I don't think I've ever seen him in another movie. He was doing two seasons and a movie of

this.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

I understand that. Like, I can't hold it to to a Scorsese, but there were I think we should. But OK,

I mean, you know, Rome is like the smallest city in the world.

And she keeps running into her her school. She's trying to sneak away from her school so she

can hang out with her Italian stallion and she keeps running into her school in Rome. One of

the biggest cities in the world.

And there's this one part where she is on a motorcycle with Paolo.

[Speaker 2]Sorry. She's 14.

[Speaker 1]

It's a Vespa. Please. It's a Vespa, babe.

Don't get it twisted. So she's on the Vespa with the random man. She doesn't have much more

responsible than the motorcycle and her back is to her school bus with Alex Borstein and all of

her friends.

And Gordo is making up. He's trying to cover for her because justice for Gordo, which he knew

you would love. I knew as someone that spent a lot of time in the friend zone, you are you are

really going to feel for the for the guy that friend character.

I knew it. Gordo is my spirit animal. He really he makes up this crazy distraction.

But like her back is to the bus and she knows the buses that just don't turn around. You don't

think they would recognize that sleigh outfit and her sleigh hair. I'm just it just looks like a

blonde girl.

Any blonde girl on the back. Where would the stakes be? Hillary Duff is upping the stakes.

She's like the dramatic actor that she is. But I have a note here. Turns out everyone is just one

night's rehearsal away from being a pop star.

Yeah. I did. I did not know that.

At the Coliseum, no less. At the Coliseum.

[Speaker 2]

One night's rehearsal.

[Speaker 1]

She got over that stage fright. So middle school graduation sends her into a tail. She learned

how to dance.

She went from not the rehearsal. Yeah. One night.

I told you the one night rehearsal. I know. Everyone is one night's rehearsal away.

[Speaker 2]

You don't know how long that night was.

[Speaker 1]It's a good boy. Oh, what was up with the animated version of her? Is that like a movie?

[Speaker 2]

Is that a show convention?

[Speaker 1]

I'm so glad you talked about that. Little animated Lizzie. So that was a convention of the show.

Okay. I was putting that together. But that was also because she is like shy and doesn't stand

up for herself.

Animated Lizzie says all of the things that she wishes she could say out loud. She's confident

like that's the verb or she's not, but it's like demonstrating where she's freaking out. There's

something where she's like, is that okay?

And she, her little animated thing is like, no, but she's like, like so often it's, it's that, but it was

just like, it was a cute convention of the show to my thoughts. One of the things that I wanted

to share the, the Kate, like the bully girl who they're like on a better page. They get, they get

there, but the Lizzie McGuire you are an outfit repeater.

Yeah. Is one of the most like, which I have said, I definitely heard you say that. I have definitely

said that that is very pop culturally relevant.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

Let me just say maybe more than anything. I don't know. That might be like, that was what I

had to check.

I was like, was that ever referenced in an episode? No, that is just from the movie. That is

prolific or maybe it's only prolific in my circles, but it's certainly prolific in my world.

I mean, you, I don't know. Yeah. You have uttered it.

I didn't know where it came from, but I've always enjoyed it. And I worked in, and it worked in

context here too. I always thought that was a very funny idea and phrase.

And I love that her little alter ego is like, yeah, but you're an outfit remember, and that's even

worse. Like that's funny.

[Speaker 2]

It's pretty good.[Speaker 1]

That's funny.

[Speaker 2]

That's funny.

[Speaker 1]

But that's, that is like, I was like, I didn't remember that that was specifically from the movie.

Phenomenal. All the early, just have to give a shout out to the music in this, all of the early

2000s bops, which I have been playing the soundtrack all day in our apartment.

[Speaker 2]

What did we, what did we discover?

[Speaker 1]

We'll get there, we'll get there. But there are, there are so, so many, it's like all of those groups

that we're all very like on. There used to be these Disney channel CDs where it wasn't even, it

was kind of like kids bop, but it was like Disney channel specific.

And it would be like mixes of like popular songs. So many groups, atomic kitten, jump five,

vitamin C, element, I've heard of vitamin C and Haley dove. They had, they had everyone on the

soundtrack.

Oh wow. It was phenomenal. Now, now you may share.

I think almost at least three songs are remakes and covers. So Lauren, this is news to me. So

when they started playing the tide is high in the beginning, I was like, oh, she's, she's covering,

she's covering Blondie.

Oh, that's, that's fun. And Lauren is singing along. She's having a great time.

And then as you didn't say this out loud while you're watching it, you didn't say that. You

noticed this though, that I was singing along. I knew.

Absolutely. And I was like, well, I would like to clarify. You kept that thought in your head.

Cause we do. We try not to discuss until we're here. Right.

So you didn't say this to me out loud. Yes. And then as we're setting up, Lauren asked our AI

staff to play the tide is high.

And she said the tide is high by Blondie. And Lauren was very taken aback by this. And she like

very disappointed.Goes, no, atomic kitten. No, standing on the shoulders of giants. Shout out to Blondie.

However, the only Blondie I want to be talking about is Hilary Duff. It's fair. And atomic kittens

version just slaps.

I played them back to back. I think they, they, they improved on it. I kind of agree.

I'm going to give that to you.

[Speaker 2]

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]

I was like, this one's got it. It's fun.

[Speaker 2]

It's so fun.

[Speaker 1]

It's so early 2000s. Thank you. Thank you.

But yes, the music. Absolutely. Absolutely phenomenal in this.

Um, and then one more I just had, I really loved. Um, I got to tell you Yanni Yellen. I hope you're

having a great career after this, but ain't no way.

I was like, ain't no way. This man is Italian. Oh yeah.

Wait, he's Paolo. Yeah. Oh yeah.

I was like, ain't no way. This man is Italian. And also so many of his, I was like, I, is it a language

bear?

I don't know what's going on, but it was very stilted. Shout out to that man. Apologies.

But one of my favorite things, they just goes, la, la, la, see, so I can go solo. Like that was his,

he'd literally said, la, la, la. Yeah.

As proof that he could sing.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]I can go solo. Um, yeah, I have a note in here that says this man went to the Tommy Wiseau

school of acting. He has some very Tommy Wiseau deliveries to his lines.

There was, there was a lot of like, so high, 100%. Um, but that also reminds me is that so in this

plot, Lizzie McGuire is supposed to be pretending to be this Italian pop star. And everyone just

believes it because she looks exactly like her.

But no one is thrown by the fact that she speaks with an American accent. that Island she was

on that she was doing intensive American English boot camp. Apparently is what we're going

with.

Is that that's that was their cover for it. Oh, there's no cover. They just say she was on the

Island, but she was just like, she has no Italian accent.

But then Hilary Duff comes in at the end playing this girl doing an Italian accent. Well, yeah,

because she was Isabela. So we, so we know that Hilary Duff can do it.

Well, do it. I'm going to put that back in. She can all respect.

She can hazard. She could hazard an Italian accent. Um, but yeah, like no one bats an eyelash

that this person, despite the fact that like, you know, that is like a popular movie trope.

You know, two people look exactly the same and they swap them out. And somehow, you know,

they do it like the Ivan Reitman movie, which we have not seen, which is a great movie, Dave,

where he, uh, a schlub sort of doubles as the president, not schlub, like a regular guy. And the

first lady, it does not even know immediately that it is not her husband.

I'm like, pretty sure I would know if a, if a girl who looked a lot like you, suddenly show it up in

her house. I'd be like, who the fuck are you? You look like my wife a little bit, but like, who the

fuck are you?

Well, thanks, babe. I appreciate that. Yeah, thanks.

That's love. To be loved is to be seen. So thank you so much.

But yeah, I mean, no one even, but on top of all of that, she doesn't even speak with an Italian

accent or whatever. Just like, Isabella's acting sort of strange. And you know what?

Isabella was acting a little strange. We got to go with it.

[Speaker 2]

We got to go with it.

[Speaker 1]

It's Disney magic. A hundred percent. Yeah.Which brings us to be clear. I could literally talk about this forever in a day, but I'll keep it

moving. I did find...

We're going to have to walk the dog soon.

[Speaker 2]

I know.

[Speaker 1]

Thank God. In that case, we'll be sitting here while I complete my thesis in the Lizzie McGuire

movie. I have been getting very into letterboxed, as I feel like literally everyone in the world has.

But some of the reviews on letterboxed, just in general, I've been loving reviews that people are

writing. Like, I sometimes think that I'm funny until I see these reviews for different things on

letterboxed. And I'm like, this is the funniest thing I've ever read.

Like, I'm going to cry.

[Speaker 2]

I'm laughing so hard.

[Speaker 1]

So, a few... This section, which we'll be incorporating into the show moving forward, just a

smattering of the top letterboxed reviews. Okay.

I'm ready. Jacob said, classic... Classic piece of Italian cinema.

I truly love foreign film. It's good. It's good.

That is very... It's good. Oh, I think, yes.

I think I had a... Oh, yes. My last note about this movie.

Supplanted Roman Holiday as the quintessential movie that takes place in Rome. Yes. Okay.

Now you're going to put on your letterboxed account. That's going to be your... You're going to

give this like a one star though, which I don't even want to talk about, but that's a good review.

Marion said, I stopped caring about the Oscars in 2003 when this soundtrack didn't even get a

nomination. And agreed. Robbed.

You can say a lot of things about this movie, but I think it's a perfect movie, first of all. Not

perfect. Close to perfect.And I think the soundtrack is a national treasure. Yes. In fact, I wrote down my favorite lyric

here.

Take a crazy chance. Do a crazy dance. Yeah, no one's doing it like that.

And my final letterbox review before I move into trivia and fun facts. Lindsay said, is there any

line from any movie more savage than sing to me Paolo? No, there is not.

That was so funny. She really came for him. She really came for him.

She was mad. Sing to me, Paolo. I got to tell you, most of them were still like, they were like two

to three stars, but the sentiments remain.

Are we sure everyone remembers this movie as fondly as you do? Like was this actually a

generational thing or is this just you? Absolutely.

This is a generational thing. I know. Actually, I know that it's true because several of your

friends.

When they asked what the next episode would be and I said, Lauren's going to make me watch

the Lizzie McGuire movie, they would all like light up. 100%. Always their hand over their heart.

And I told you, which I had not mentioned yet, but when we talked about doing an Uno reverse

card, this was the first movie. This was immediately when I was. And we should do ones where

you make me when you're like, I had waiting our whole marriage for this.

Honestly, shouldn't have even needed a podcast. This was all a ruse. All of this was a very

elaborate ruse to get me to watch the Lizzie McGuire.

You have been playing the long game since you friendzoned me when we first met. It's all part

of the plan. It's all part of this.

That is a more complicated plan than the plan in the Lizzie McGuire movie, which is saying a lot.

You're a mastermind. I contain multitudes.

Moving into some trivia and fun facts. So Isabella's singing voice is actually Hayley Duff, Hilary

Duff's sister. Clearly when she's speaking, it's Hilary.

But the singing, they sort of apparently did like a sort of layering situation so that it didn't

sound exactly like her. Because her sister also, they were both singers. They both have songs

on the album.

So I thought, I didn't know that. And that I thought was very smart. That is very interesting.

Speaking of that fabulous end song, which... Dude, take a crazy chance, do a crazy dance.

[Speaker 2]Yes.

[Speaker 1]

Is that the one? Yeah, that's the one. What dreams are made of.

What dreams are made of. Do a crazy dance. That's part of it.

Do a crazy dance song. What dreams are made of. Please use its proper name.

If you listen towards the end of the performance of what dreams are made of, another woman

completely takes over the vocals, which I do not remember, but was Jard seeing it this time. It's

when she's doing like the full dance break. And she sounds truly nothing like Hilary Duff.

The woman is named Angie Jarry, who sings the theme song of the Lizzie McGuire show. So

they brought her in. So it was like an Easter egg?

Who knows? But it's a fact that I enjoy. But I was like, that is someone different singing at the

end of this song.

Who knows? Lizzie McGuire, they got to keep you on your toes. It is a movie that, you know, you

can't just watch it once.

You won't catch it all. I had VHS of the, it was, it was fire. Fascinating.

And this, I kind of said this earlier, but despite serving as the canonical ending of the Lizzie

McGuire series with the main characters graduating middle school, new episodes of the series

continue to air for almost a year after the release of this film. But my favorite fun fact, which is

the thing that I found very interesting, you maybe not growing up with Disney Channel as

much, will not be as interesting as I am. But the reason why the show was canceled was

because back in 1998, Disney Channel enforced a 65 episode rule on its shows, where no show,

no matter how popular, could go over 65 episodes, which is like about three seasons.

Or for Lizzie McGuire, it's like two seasons in a movie. Disney stars have quick expiration dates.

The Disney Channel can't follow them through high school.

The shows had to be shot fast, which is usually within two and a half years, before key actors

outgrew their roles, and it becomes harder for young viewers to relate to the characters. Makes

sense. They said the Disney Channel programs are typically geared towards nine to 12 year

olds, otherwise known as tweens.

So you were right in there. I know. So I think that's also, I was the ideal demographic.

Disney is so good at what they do.

[Speaker 2]I know.

[Speaker 1]

Gosh, that's so nice of them to say. Surgical. So nice of them to time it around my childhood.

So they start watching the show at age nine, and then the show ends by the time...

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