Even non-tweeners may warm up to ‘Ice Princess’

The TV trailers for Disney’s new film “Ice Princess” give the impression that it’s just a piece of fluff for tweeners about a girl attempting to become a championship skater. But the family drama, which opens Friday, deals with the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, peer pressure and the importance of following one’s dream.

Michelle Trachtenberg, in a role light years removed from her turn in last year’s raunchy “Eurotrip,” plays Casey Carlyle, a high school physics geek who has the opportunity to receive a scholarship to Harvard if she can create an engaging science project.

A fan of figure skating -- Casey skates for fun on a local frozen pond -- she decides to do the project on the physics of the sport and heads to the local skating rink to study three elite teenage skaters. Though Casey takes lessons just to help her with the project, she soon discovers she has the grace, style and skill to become a champion. But her feminist, serious-minded mother (Joan Cusack) has her heart set on Casey attending Harvard.

Kim Cattrall, in her first post-”Sex and the City” role, plays the hard-nosed former championship skater who runs the rink and dreams that her own teen daughter, Gen (Hayden Panettiere), will become an Olympic medal winner in the sport. But Gen just dreams of going out on Saturday nights with her boyfriend and passing math class so she can go to college.

Directing the G-rated “Ice Princess” is Britain’s acclaimed Tim Fywell, who made his feature debut two years ago with “I Capture the Castle,” a family drama based on Dodie Smith’s novel about an eccentric British family residing in a crumbling castle. Fywell also has amassed an impressive resume as a TV director, helming episodes of the award-winning British detective series “Cracker” as well as HBO’s “Norma Jean & Marilyn” with Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino.