It’s frequent to listen to Disney followers complain in regards to the studio’s onslaught of remakes and reboots, with the time period “IP Film” going from business jargon to a derogatory label. However whereas The Lion King and The Little Mermaid could also be getting all the eye, this isn’t a brand new apply. Twenty years in the past, one other wave of live-action reboots swept over the Disney catalog. And whereas many are greatest left forgotten, one turned a style that was the stuff of hokey B-movies right into a powerhouse.
Within the ‘90s and ‘00s, Disney refurbished all kinds of lesser-known live-action motion pictures: The Mother or father Lure, The Love Bug, and Freaky Friday had been all remade, and people had been simply those that starred Lindsay Lohan. Much less-than-stellar duds got a facelift with new stars, like The Pc Wore Tennis Sneakers with Kirk Cameron and The Shaggy Canine with Tim Allen.
However 2003’s Freaky Friday simply outshone all of them. Primarily based on the comedic novel by Broadway Mary Rodgers, the story was then greatest recognized for a 1976 film starring Jodie Foster. Although it’s been tailored a number of occasions, no different model has caught within the collective consciousness like this one, and it’s straightforward to see why.
Freaky Friday follows punk rock teenager Anna (Lohan), who’s consistently at odds together with her mom, Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis), particularly since Tess is making ready to remarry after being widowed. When Anna’s band will get a once-in-a-lifetime audition on the evening of her mother’s marriage ceremony rehearsal, the 2 get into an enormous struggle in the course of a Chinese language restaurant. A useful waitress provides them a fortune cookie that sparks an earthquake and swaps their our bodies.
Now Tess has to cope with imply lecturers and teenage crushes in school, and Anna has to cope with exhausting purchasers. Solely by means of understanding one another can they swap again.
It’s the right plot for a feel-good household comedy, however there’s quite a lot of ingenious sci-fi storytelling at work right here. Whereas different physique swap tales like Your Identify borrow this trope, Freaky Friday is the purest instance. The swap is easy and inexplicable, and when preliminary efforts to swap again (like working into one another) don’t work, the 2 start to know one another and are available to phrases with their new lives.
Odds are good {that a} 25 to 30-year-old in your life can do a spot-on impression of Anna in Tess’ physique saying, “I’m just like the Crypt Keeper!”
Walt Disney Photos
In contrast to in lots of Disney remakes, the performing right here elevates a easy premise and simple script into one thing nice. Lindsay Lohan is in peak Imply Ladies mode, and Jamie Lee Curtis managed to nab a Golden Globe nomination. Not dangerous for an IP film.
It’s additionally very of its time, which is definitely a plus right here. From Anna’s storage band, to Tess’ hardcore makeover when Anna takes over her physique, to Anna’s crush Jake (performed by quintessential 2000s heartthrob Chad Michael Murray) singing Britney Spears, it’s the right time capsule of millennial tradition. For some time it seemed cheesy and dated. However now throwbacks to its time are all the fashion, a lot so {that a} sequel is in growth with Lohan and Curtis hooked up.
Calling Freaky Friday a sci-fi film could seem to be a stretch, but it surely’s the archetypal physique swap film. Any story that tries to place somebody in one other particular person’s mind is paying homage to it in a technique or one other. Sure, even Face/Off.
