They are- as portrayed by Disney alumni Kay Panabaker and Amy Bruckner.
I’d say Veronica Mars is a better Nancy Drew than any other movie or TV adaptation. Haven 't seen 'em all, but I read some of the original series, and Veronica Mars has that combination of tough/plucky/feminine and a warm relationship with an understanding father that I remember from the books. The Nancy Drew movies I’ve seen and the TV series have been almost uniformly, unwatchably dull.
I can just see it in high schools across America:
Like OMG, Ashley, you are such a Nancy Drew.
The Modern Nancy Drew is named Kim Possible.
Call me wrong.
CNN.com gave it (mostly) a thumbs-up: Review: 'Nancy Drew' true but slight - CNN.com
Would Veronica Mars been more or less successful if it were titled Nancy Drew?
Took the girls to see it this afternoon.
One sentence review: I am astonished at how entertaining this movie is.
My daughter and I saw the movie this afternoon and we both thought it was enjoyable and entertaining. I read many of the original Nancy Drew books when I was in grade school, some of them from my Mom’s collection (she had the Judy Bolton books too). George, Bess, and Ned were indeed in the movie, although not for very long; most of the action took place in LA, although Ned did come for a visit.
I kinda hope that they’ll make more movies, and use Bess and George (and Ned) as well. Emma Roberts makes a good Nancy, although she’s not quite how Nancy is originally described–the original Nancy seemed more sophisticated and “older,” if that makes any sense. That may have been the trend in those days, though; I’ve seen some pics from HS yearbooks in the 30s and 40s where the jr. & sr. girls have almost looked like they were the ages of their mothers!
At any rate, it was a fairly enjoyable movie. 
Whole family went tonight. We all liked it. Two forty something adults a nearly 10 year old girl and a 7 year old boy.
It was well done and fun.
Jim
I doubt it. Because she didn’t have the whole “Nancy Drew” thing going, Veronica Mars was able to deal with some pretty heavy topics, i.e., rape, which I don’t think TPTB would ever allow Nancy to deal with, so the show would have been kind of insipid. The thing that made Veronica Mars better was that she dealt with real issues, unlike Nancy and her smugglers and so forth.
You’re wrong.
Now that we have that out of the way, if you’d like to discuss why you’re wrong, we can head to a new thread and not hijack this one.
Don’t be silly, this is the SDMB. Of course we hijack. 
Several other posters (at least one, I’m too lazy to review) made the connection.
Teen girl solves mysteries, fights crime.
With Nancy, it was writtten in an era where girls were encouraged to be frail & “feminine”.
With Kim, the message is “girls can do anything”.
Nancy Drew, Shelby Woo, Who’s the Sleuth, Get a Clue!
I didn’t even know they were doing a Nancy Drew movie.
• Is it cast in the 1930s? It really really needs to be.
• Does she tote a revolver? She should; she did, you know, at least some of the time.
• She should be nice but kind of unconsciously class-snooty. The kind who makes individual exceptions with a moment of personal surprise while continuing to harbor some class prejudices.
• Did they do The Secret of the Old Clock? That’s so totally the one to do. Either that or The Hidden Staircase. Save the rest for sequels.
I myself did not read the books in the 1930s, but the books I read when I read the books were the books that were published in the 1940s, contained the “original and unedited” text of the 1930s releases. Dark blue exteriors, crumbling wartime-quality yellowish-orange pages, genuine saddle-stitched whatchamacallems (the little pamphlet-like sections several of which make up a book), the works backed by brown paper and gauze.
Roadsters with running boards and some elegant but older houses lacking electricity.
Some of the later books were of course not written until the 1950s or even the 1960s (I don’t acknowledge anything beyond The Invisible Intruder). I still have them all, the old ones in dark blue, the middle series in a pale greyish-blue crosshatch, and the most modern ones with yellow backs and colorful illustrations on the front.
Yeah, and they even use the same *Kids in America * song.
Yes. The fat surly housekeeper in The Hidden Staircase, accomplice to Nathan Gombet. The lazy ineffective security guard (or whatever they called him) watching the Topham cottage on the river. Both black. Lots of “swarthy” immigrant sneaky creepy folks who invariably turned out to be criminals.
Quite good on gender though, just pretty bad on race and ethnicity.
Zebra - sorry - I never saw your question.
Actually, not really - or maybe it’s that I’ve got thicker skin than most people. Keeping in mind these ARE kind of cheesy to begin with they do at times play to stereotypes, but that’s about it.
On preview, after reading AHunter’s remarks, maybe some of that kind of stuff went over my head - I never gave it much thought.
I just saw the movie–it’s surprisingly engaging, and surprisingly true to the spirit of Nancy Drew. It doesn’t quite meet my ‘Nancy is cool’ expectations, but the ultimate message is that Nancy is cool, so I can live with that.
Plus, the dress she wears to the party is astoundingly awesome.
I just downloaded this off Amazon and watched it today - I have the flu and anything requiring any kind of mental or physical effort was right out, and I figured this movie wouldn’t be asking much of either.
It was cute. Not at all like the books I remember, but in general it was so over-the-top that I had to laugh.
I liked Nancy’s dresses. That weird plaid raincoat thing she wore near the beginning was fugly, though.