Their other best friend, Miranda Sanchez, has chosen to skip the graduation ceremony in favor of a trip to Mexico City to visit her relatives.

During the ceremony, Lizzie trips onstage and accidentally brings the curtain down on her fellow graduates; this causes her to be teased by her younger brother Matt and her former best friend Kate Sanders.

After graduation, Lizzie and her classmates embark on a trip to Rome, chaperoned by their future strict high school principal, Angela Ungermeyer.

Their class visits the Trevi Fountain, where Lizzie is approached by an Italian pop star named Paolo Valisari, who mistakes her for his singing partner, Isabella Parigi.

Gordo's roommate Ethan Craft reveals that she is performing at the International Music Video Awards, and Lizzie's family and the class also rush to the ceremony.

During the performance, Isabella and Gordo expose Paolo, who is actually the one who lip syncs, by turning on his microphone, revealing his real mediocre singing voice.

The film, produced by Stan Rogow, was directed by Jim Fall from a screenplay by Susan Estelle Jansen, Ed Decter and John J. Strauss.

Fall, an openly gay filmmaker, had previously directed the R-rated film Trick, after which he began pitching and searching gay-related projects in Hollywood.

Disney wanted the film to feel and look different from the show it is based on, and supported many of Fall's ideas, including the suggestion to shoot in widescreen.

[7] New York's Tapehouse Toons again handled the animation sequences involving Lizzie's cartoon alter ego, just like in the television show.

This marked their first time working on a feature film, after being approached by Disney, who normally handled these type of projects at their in-house animation studio.

[11] Scott Brown of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+: "Let's face it: Lizzie McGuire (Hilary Duff) is just too darn polished to be a junior-high underdog, even by the standards of her 'luxe suburban environs'.

"[12] Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, but praised Borstein's performance, calling her work "the only really delightful element in the movie; everything else is simply slick and professional.

[15] In August 2019, it was announced that a Lizzie McGuire revival would be entering production for Disney+, with Duff reprising her role and Minsky returning as showrunner.