The Princess Diaries Book 1 vs The Princess Diaries Movie

By: Dee

I’ve seen the movie The Princess Diaries many times. I haven’t read the book until now. I know that books and movies are different, but I don’t understand why they changed so many details for this movie.

Yes, there are similarities too. The main character’s name, which is Mia Thermopolis (Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldi), does not change. Her best friend Lilly Moscovitz stays the same. Mia lives with her single mother. Mia goes from this average teenage girl who might not be the most attractive or popular girl in her school to becoming a princess.

Despite the similarities, there are also many differences. For example, in the story, Mia lives in New York with her mother. In the film, she lives in San Francisco. Mia was 14 years old in the book. They decided Mia could be 15 and be learning how to drive. In the book, the father is the one who reaches out to Mia about how she is the heir to Genovia. The father dies in the movie. Her grandmother or grandmère, who she called grandma in the movie, was known as the Dowager Princess of Genovia. That was also disregarded, and she was known as the Queen. There are many more differences that I was confused about.

I personally enjoyed the book more than the movie for a few reasons. First, I don’t love Anne Hathaway as an actress and I don’t think she really portrayed Mia Thermopolis. Secondly, I don’t see a reason to change the plot of a story when it was already pretty good.