Watching these four childhood favorites gave you some unrealistic expectations about visiting the countries they took place in. Good thing HCND is here to set the record straight.
1. Italy
Expectations: The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Lizzie McGuire goes on a class trip to Rome. While there, she gets mistaken for missing Italian pop star, Isabella.
Lizzie sneaks away from her classmates and poses as Isabella with Isabella’s singing partner Paulo. She gives a spectacular concert performance in front of her friends, family, and all of Rome.
Reality: The Lizzie McGuire Movie II: This is What Dreams AREN’T Made Of
Lizzie goes back to Rome on a mission to take a selfie with the popular new Pope. She runs into Paulo smoking cigs by the Trevi Fountain. He asks her to stop by for dinner, and she goes to his apartment only to find that it’s actually his mom’s apartment. Paulo still lives with his mom, has no job, and is a total bum.
Paulo walks Lizzie back home after dinner and they bump into a group of Asian tourists with Go-Pros on a stick taking selfies by the Colosseum. Paulo makes a casual rascist joke, and Lizzie, sick of his s**t, walks herself home the rest of the way. She realizes she needs tampons but there are no Walmarts in sight.
“On an Evening in Roma” by Dean Martin plays as the credits role in.
2. Australia
Expectations: Our Lips Are Sealed
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen star as twins Maddie and Abbey Parker, who get placed into the Witness Protection Program after witnessing a mob crime.
After several relocations, they end up in Australia, where they meet adorable Aussie love interests Pete and Avery. They sightsee and get stalked by bumbling mob assassins, but ultimately end up coming out on top.
Reality: Our Ju-V Records Are Sealed
Maddie and Abby become small-time drug dealers in an OxyContin ring at their college because they can’t afford tuition. When they get caught, they name names of major players in the operation to get off the hook.
They get sent back to Australia through the Witness Protection Program. They reconnect with Pete and Avery via Tinder. They meet up with the boys only to find that they’re now bogans and work in the mines two weeks a month.
The boys are xenophobics with bad hair cuts, but are fabulously wealthy, so the twins stay with them. They go to yacht parties, the hottest clubs, sky diving, and do all sorts of wild things.
While the boys are at work, Maddie and Abby live in Bali. It’s cheaper there, even though Abby gets Bali Belly. She made the mistake of getting ice in her cocktail.
As the twins sip Strawberry Fantas poolside at their villa, “Land Down Under” by Men at Work plays in the background and credits role.
3. Spain
Expectation: The Cheetah Girls 2: When in Spain
The Cheetah Girls–Galleria, Aquanette, Dorinda, and Chanel–decide to enter a music festival in Barcelona, Spain. One of them is focused on the concert, two of them find love interests in the forms of a Spanish count and a musician, and one of them befriends a Spanish popstar whose mother is bent on breaking up the Cheetah Girls.
After a series of misunderstandings, the group ultimately bands together and delivers a sensational performance at the festival.
Reality: The Cheetah Girls 2: When in Socialism
The Cheetah Girls arrive at a music festival in Spain where they promptly get pickpocketed. With no iPhones, the Cheetahs quickly become separated and can’t Snapchat their way back together again.
In a sign of defeat, Galleria bums a cigarette off of a cute musician and they share several bottles of two euro wine. But, when things get steamy and he takes her home for the evening, she finds that he still lives with his parents, has no job or plans for college, and is disrespectful to his mother.
Galleria can’t handle the male dominated culture. So not #grrrlpower. Or cheetah-licious.
The other Cheetah Girls got lost in the Spanish train system. They presumably got deported to Morocco.
Credits roll while Shakira’s “Te Dejo Madrid” plays in the background.
4. England
Expectation: What A Girl Wants
This heatwarming tale features Amanda Bynes as Daphne, a 17 year old New Yorker who goes to London to find her father. Her father ends up being the prominent Lord Henry Dashwood, who is running for Prime Minister.
Daphne causes an uproar in English society with her wild Yankee ways. She has a love interest named Ian–he’s a musician with a motorcycle. Daphne must choose between being true to herself or living the way society expects her to. She chooses to be herself and returns home to New York.
Ultimately, Henry realizes how much he loves his daughter and goes back to New York where the whole family is reunited.
Reality: What a Girl Wants is a Slightly Larger Pint Because These Wankers Are Giving Me a Headache
Ian takes Daphne on a date to a street art exhibit. Ian is disappointed when Daphne fails to appreciate the exhibit’s unique perspective, but chalks it up to the fact that she’s American and they just don’t appreciate the arts like the Brits do. After the exhibit, Ian and Daphne go out to the pubs and the run into scads of drunk Americans clad in University of Notre Dame gear.
Coming home after the pubs, Daphne gets frustrated because there are basically no close Domino’s Pizzas in London and it costs a small fortune to get it delivered. She doesn’t want fish’n’chips, she wants some good old-fashioned American pizza to satisfy her drunchies.
Did these movie expectations meet your study abroad reality? Tell us on HCND Twitter and Instagram (@hercampusnotredame)!