It must be pretty galling for monarch-in-waiting Princess Mia (Hathaway) to watch her grandmother as played by Julie Andrews get younger rather than older.

What's Mary Poppins' secret? Can she now afford the best plastic surgeons that Los Angeles can offer...or does she merely bathe in choirboys' blood.

However, despite her eternal youth, Queen Clarisse decides that a perfect complexion isn't reason enough to remain on the throne.

It's a shoe-in - Mia takes the crown and everybody in the Disneyfied take on the European kingdom of Genovia lives happily ever after.

What she doesn't factor in is a rival challenge to the throne from Viscount Mabrey (Rhys-Davies), who puts forward his nephew Lord Nicholas (Pine) as rightful heir.

He cites an ancient Genovian law that states that princesses must be married before being crowned queen of the kingdom.

So the race is on for Mia to take her pick from a blueblooded list of aristocratic hopefuls, including our own Prince William. Bless.

The original movie at least had the interesting device of plucking Mia from a regular San Francisco college and grooming her for royalty.

Here the plot's contrived, although that's not really going to make an iota of difference to the teenage girl audience at whom it's pitched.

Nevertheless, you do wonder how well this will play to a customer profile that appears to have leap-frogged the age of adolescent innocence.

Certain scenes - particularly Mia''s adoption of the town's orphans and her corny courtship - will have them retching over their designer trainers.

On the bright side, it is spiritedly played while mums and dads will be either repelled or bizarrely attracted to Andrew's defiance of the laws of time...and gravity.

Hathaway, whose spirit is supposed to represent youthful American rebellion, is more Britney Spears (pre-marriage) than Courtney Love.

At the end of the day, everything pans out pretty much as you'd expect until the CIA destabilisies the left-leaning democratically-elected Genovian government. Joke.

Tim Evans