<Li> Claude Knowlton as the stage manager </Li> <P> Credits adapted from The New York Times . </P> <P> The film, produced by Stan Rogow, was directed by Jim Fall from a screenplay by Susan Estelle Jansen, Ed Decter and John J. Strauss and filmed on location in Rome, Italy in the fall of 2002 . All the series characters reprised their roles except for Lalaine (Miranda Sanchez), who left the series late in the second season to film the Disney Channel original movie You Wish! Her character was said to be on vacation with her family in Mexico City . </P> <P> The film had a mixed critical reception based on 96 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, giving a 40% overall approval rating . The site's consensus stated it was a "harmless piece of fluff that ought to satisfy fans of the TV show". 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' . But that hasn't tarnished her comeback - kid cred among the six - and - ups who faithfully follow her Disney Channel show--and it doesn't make The Lizzie McGuire Movie, a clever, agreeably weightless theatrical outing, any less enjoyable ." Conversely, 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 ." </P>

Did they film the lizzie mcguire movie in rome