The film begins with a teenage girl, Casey Carlyle, skating on a frozen pond near her yard. Her mom then has her come inside to work on math.

At school, Casey’s science teacher tells her that Harvard has offered her a scholarship. What she needs to do is present a personal summer project related to physics.

Later she goes to a skating rink and analyzes their movements using physics. She also films the skaters, which angers the coach, Tina Harwood. But Casey discovers that ice skating would make a good hobby for her. So, she enrolls in a class there.

After participating in a recital, Casey gets to skip two levels and become a junior skater. The biggest rule is to never be late for class. The other girls are also mean to Casey at times. But that does not prompt her to give up.

Casey trains 3 other girls: Gen Harwood (Tina’s daughter), Tiffany Lai, and Nikki Fletcher. She also struggles to balance schoolwork, skating, and working part-time as a concession worker. Unfortunately, she also gets into arguments with her mom over her dropping scores at school along with skating, which her mother does not approve of.

At some point, Casey goes on a trip with her skating class to a competition. While there, Casey is forced to wear new skates that were provided by Tina. Sadly, they negatively interfere with her skating techniques. Casey tearfully calls her mom and asks her to come pick her up. Casey’s mother gets mad at Tina for “brainwashing” her daughter.

I was surprised how much this film kept me engaged all the way through. This was actually not my first time seeing this movie. The last time I saw it was around the late 2010s. And for some reason, it did not engage me as much as it did when I rewatched it recently (2025).

But I think the pacing being quick enough kept my attention. There was also enough tension in the story – especially since I would constantly worry about Casey getting in trouble for displeasing her mom.

Their relationship was somewhat nice in the beginning. It was certainly better than how so many of the other characters were. They were quite mean to Casey. I disliked that a lot.

However, I appreciated how Casey remained calm and resilient with those people. She, herself, was very likable and also smart. That made her a strong female lead.

The math and physics content was not overdone, and I admire that. There was just enough necessary to the story, but not enough to make the movie overly educational and detract from from the plot.

I enjoyed watching the characters skate, as well. It was fun and showed how much talent they had, even with that one boy in the skating class. The fact that there was only one boy added some realism and likely made the situation more relatable.

As with any good film, Ice Princess had a lot of twists and turns. It makes a fun watch for people of all ages.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Oh, and R.I.P. Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Casey and died before her 40th birthday.