FROM the director of Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride comes one of those Cinderella and Pygmalion make-over movies that always pop up in the Christmas holiday season.

It is made by Walt Disney; directed by fairytale specialist Garry Marshall; carries a U certificate; stars Julie Andrews as a European aristo; and has its young heroine lose her thick glasses in her transformation from gawky duckling to teen swan.

Without even seeing The Princess Diaries, you can picture the movie. Been there, done that before, this time with an undeniable, typically Disney proficiency.

The 15-year-old 'princess' of the title is Mia, an awkward, self-conscious, micro-scooter-riding San Francisco schoolgirl whose pseudo-hippy life with her artist mother at their former fire station home suddenly undergoes an alarming change.

Mia (Anne Hathaway) is told that her absentee father was the crown prince of Genovia, one of those old-fashioned, tiny principalities in far-off Europe known only to Disney, and she is next in line to the throne. It befalls one Queen Clarisse Renaldi to put her through a microwave-fast finishing school in princess skills. Who better than the regal Julie Andrews - still a class act - to guide her through matters of deportment with a combination of hauteur, grandmother-kindly advice and dry wit, alongside Hector Elizondo's caustic but caring chauffeur.

Out must go the Dr Martens boots (also the footwear of choice of Thora Birch's disaffected teenager in Ghost World); the aforementioned glasses; the Crystal Tips hair; the slouching gait; and probably her fellow misfit best friend, and the first boy to show an interest in her, shy Michael (Robert Schwatzman). Will it be LA or la-di-da? The choice is hers.

Director Marshall has worked the transformation trick before with Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, but that had a superior script and a fully-formed actress grasping the opportunity to make the big time. Anne Hathaway, younger and still on a learning curve, has big teeth in common with Roberts but that's all. She lacks her gift for self-deprecating comedy and she needs to loosen up on screen but she has an engaging manner.

What The Princess Diaries lacks is individual personality. The movie itself has undergone classes in correct manners, stripping it of such essential Clueless ingredients as cynicism, sharpness and irony. One for soppy rather than sassy young girls and the Julie Andrews fan club.