Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

WiseRatFlames An unexpected masterpiece

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

David Brailsford To this day the opening song for the movie still can reduce me to tears of happiness. This movie is part of a collection of films Disney Treasures enough to remake multiple times (2 so far) yet is too ashamed to widely rerelease for it shows it's age... which is so much of its charm. Disney treats this like it's something to be embarrassed about... something that wouldn't be cool enough for today's kids.... That's one of the major tradgedys of modern Disney. The story follows a Tomboy who switches places with her mother for a day and the two are forced into better understanding each other by experiencing things through the other eyes. This in turn is treated with light hearted comedy and there are some real laugh out loud moments as well as some heart warming moments. By the end of it the two get back into there right bodies and have both learned something from the experience and grown.

dougdoepke With their vibrant turns, Harris and Foster make the movie. The idea of body reversals may not be a new one but it's never been done better than here. Mom (Harris) snipes at daughter (Foster) who still does her own thing anyway. So what would each do if they had role reversals for a day. What would Mom do if she were suddenly in daughter's body and vice-versa. So it's a 30-year old in a teenager's body and a teenager in a wife-mother's body. The concept's loaded with funny potential without much trying. Mom learns what it's like to be in school again, especially when grappling with a new-fangled typewriter, while daughter cooks for Dad's (Astin) big business buffet, with something called an "oven".The material, of course, makes the laughs easy to come by. Still, the two leads shine in their respective roles. Some of the material can get touchy as when daughter uses Mom's mature figure to tempt neighbor boy. Nonetheless, it's humorously finessed. Hard to believe Foster really is only 13 given her abilities. Good to see such movie vets as Marie Windsor, Patsy Kelly, and Iris Adrian picking up paydays. I had to check the cast list twice to make sure it really was noir vamp Windsor playing a teacher, of all things. Anyway, except for the overdone madcap of the finale, the movie's a delight, even for non-Disney viewers like myself.

Jackson Booth-Millard I don't think it really matters if you see the Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsay Lohan remake before this, but this original from Disney did pretty much start the body-swap concept. Basically Annabel Andrews (young Golden Globe nominated Jodie Foster) feels hassled by her mother, and her mother Ellen (Family Plot's Golden Globe nominated Barbara Harris) is annoyed with her daughter, they both feel like each other live an easy life. One Friday both wish they could be each other just for one day, so Annabel goes into the body Ellen, and vice versa. For a little while there are a few good points to having each other's bodies, but it soon becomes apparent that the lives they thought were easy actually aren't. In the end, both come to a point where they have to wish themselves back to their own bodies, and it does happen, but both bodies swap places, so Annabel is in the car, and Ellen on eater skis. Also starring John Astin as William Waring Andrews, Patsy Kelly as maid Mrs. Schmauss, Dick Van Patten as Harold Jennings, Vicki Schreck as Virginia and Sorrell Booke as Principal Charles Dilk. Young Foster proves herself a growing (literally) talent, and Harris is good at being youthful, there are some giggles to be had, but I preferred the remake really showing comedic complexities of each other's lives, but you may as well see it for Foster and Harris. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for "I'd Like to Be You for a Day". Okay!

moonspinner55 If you changed personalities with your kid--actually found yourself in his or her body--would you spend the rest of the day in school? If you found yourself in your mother's body, would you bother cooking a meal for your husband's corporate buffet? Disney's "Freaky Friday", adapted by Mary Rodgers from her popular young adult novel, doesn't quite work; there's no awe in the circumstance involved--just lessons to be learned. Mom Barbara Harris earns points for daughter Jodie Foster at school, while Foster (in Harris' body) gets closer to the guy next door. Both leads are very good however, and Harris is wonderful calling her husband "Daddy" (with a quick switch to "Bill, Dear") and later playing a hot game of softball with a group of boys (while chewing bubblegum AND smoking a cigarette). Foster has some funny outbursts but generally has less to work with (she screws up a typing class, a photography class, band practice and field hockey, but does great in social studies). The movie is far too long, with inertia setting in right about the time Harris is called to the principal's office to discuss her daughter's schoolwork. The slapstick finale, a painful "Love Bug" flashback, is pure juvenalia (complete with a magic twist that makes no sense--not even in this movie's universe), yet the picture was a blockbuster anyway. **1/2 from ****