‘Lizzie McGuire’ Debuts With Lively Effects, Familiar Dilemma

The Disney Channel’s new series “Lizzie McGuire,” about the trials and tribulations of a 13-year-old middle-schooler, is chockablock with kicky design elements: live action heavily punctuated with digital stills, rewinds, split-screen effects, mood music, flashbacks and animated segments for Lizzie’s cartoon alter ego to give voice to Lizzie’s thoughts.

The episode that launches the series tonight, though, is familiar, inch-deep territory: a dash of “Clueless” and diluted bits of “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Clarissa Explains It All.”

The crisis: It’s school picture day and Lizzie’s in a tizzy about what to wear. She imagines herself--and we see her--dressed as various movie and pop stars, ending with Britney Spears, but nerdy dad (Robert Carradine) puts his foot down. Spears is “the one who got all [pause] developed, right?” he asks Mom (Hallie Todd).

They insist that Lizzie (Hilary Duff) wear a cutesy-pie sweater that her grandmother knitted for her (we see a still of “Gammy” wind-surfing, and then flash to Lizzie’s cartoon persona to hear her thoughts on the subject.)

Lizzie and best friend Miranda (Lalaine) agree that how they look will influence what everybody in school thinks of them (flash to stills of Lizzie’s parents’ geeky school photos, with a swell of horror-movie organ music in the background). Friend and smart kid Gordo (Adam Lamberg) argues against peer pressure, even after doing a double-take (sound of screeching brakes) at the sight of the sweater’s beribboned unicorn applique.

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He, though, is being pressured by a big kid (“Psycho” shower scene music) to make a face when the camera clicks, because “everybody’s” going to do it.

Meanwhile, Lizzie’s younger brother Matt (Jake Thomas), who calls a friend who didn’t do his homework for him a “Muggle” a la Harry Potter, stays home pretending to be sick. Mom’s wise to his tricks and feeds him hated beet soup, turns off the TV, makes him sweat in an itchy wool blanket and has him wind yarn all day.

Will Gordo succumb to the desire to fit in by not smiling at photo time? Will Lizzie learn that “if I’m a good person, it’s OK if I want to look pretty?” and will the sweater wind up in the photo after all?

The peppery multimedia effects are fast and fun, but they don’t do more than spice up a bland likability that seems to be at the show’s core, unless future episodes dig a tad deeper into real-life teen territory.

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“Lizzie McGuire” premieres tonight at 6 on the Disney Channel, moving to its regular schedule next Friday: Fridays-Sundays at 3, 6 and 11 p.m. The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages).