Life-Size is a 2000 made-for-TV film directed by Mark Rosman and originally premiered on ABC. It was released to DVD and VHS in the same year. The film is a family comic fantasy starring Lindsay Lohan and Tyra Banks in a tale of a young girl's Eve Doll (a Barbie-type fashion doll) that is transformed into a living Perfect Woman.
The tagline for the film was "She was a perfect doll. Now she's the real thing."
It premiered as part of The Wonderful World of Disney on ABC and made its debut on Disney Channel in 2001.
Plot[]
Casey Stuart (Lindsay Lohan), is a tomboy who is the quarterback of her school's 7th-grade football team. Since her mother died, she has been avoiding her old friends and arguing with a boy on her team. Wanting to bring her mother back to life, Casey finds a book of magic with a section on resurrecting the dead. A successful resurrection will become permanent unless it is undone before sunset on the fourth day after it begins.
Following the book's instructions, Casey collects artifacts from her mother's life, including strands of hair in her hairbrush. However, the resurrection is unwittingly sabotaged when Drew Mitchell (Loder), a woman who works with and is romantically interested in Casey's father Ben (Burns), gives Casey an Eve doll. Eve is a plastic doll in the form of a beautiful young woman, manufactured by Marathon Toys. She has lots of accessories, including outfits appropriate to challenging careers such as law enforcement, medicine, and aerospace, and lives in Sunnyvale, "in the middle of America".
As Casey is preparing to resurrect her mother, Drew stops by to give her the doll for her birthday and uses the hairbrush to brush the doll's hair. With strands from the doll remaining on the brush as Casey utters the incantation, the magic acts on the doll rather than Casey's mother, and Casey wakes up the next morning to find Eve in bed with her in full-size human form (Tyra Banks). Casey is upset by this, but Eve is excited about being human. Over the next few days, Eve buys clothes at the local shopping mall, uses her police training to stop a truck that almost runs Casey over, smells and eats for the first time, tries to do secretarial work, sings her theme song, and almost sets the Stuarts's kitchen on fire. She also helps Casey cope with the loss of her mother. Meanwhile, Casey discovers that she needs the second volume of the magic book to reverse Eve's spell.
During this time, tension builds between Casey and her father, who has been missing her football games while trying to secure a promotion in his law firm. The tension is further increased by Ben's attraction to Eve, which Casey resents as a betrayal of her mother.
As the film proceeds, Casey and Eve gradually make friends. Eve displays insight and sensitivity in talking with Casey about her mother, and she helps Casey with her self-confidence. In exchange, Casey gives Eve tips on how to be a popular doll and a good role model. By the time the magic book arrives at the local bookstore, Casey has decided she likes Eve. Unfortunately, Eve has been getting homesick. Discouraged by her difficulties in being human and worried about being discontinued by Marathon, Eve decides to undo the spell herself. After buying the book and saying good-bye to Ben at Casey's championship game, she goes to Sunnyvale, a specially decorated room at Marathon headquarters, and recites the incantation. When Casey and Ben arrive, she tearfully bids them farewell and turns back into a doll. Sometime later, with the lessons learned from her experiences in the human world, she becomes a popular toy again. Casey resumes her old friendships, Ben is promoted at work, and Drew takes him to lunch. The films ends as the cast dances to Eve's theme song.
Cast[]
- Lindsay Lohan as Casey Stuart
- Tyra Banks as Eve
- Jere Burns as Ben Stuart
- Anne Marie Loder as Drew Mitchell
- Garwin Sanford as Richie
- Tom Butler as Phil
- Jillian Fargey as Ellen
- Dee Jay Jackson as Coach
- Kerry Sandomirsky as Phyllis Weiner
- Corrine Koslo as Toy store owner
- Alfred Humphreys as Bookstore owner
- Kerry Sandomirsky as Ms. Weiner
- Sam MacMillan as Sam
- Katelyn Wallace as Sarah
- Shaina Tianne Unger as Jessica
- Jessica Lee Owens as Shannon
- Chantal Strandas Sara's sister
- Laurie Murdoch as Mr. Boring
- Candice Connelly as Mrs. Boring
- Alvin Sanders as Guard
- Ryan de Boer as Weiner
- Lesley Ewen as Francine
- Kaitlyn Burke as Girl with doll
- George Blondheim as Bandleader
- Joanna Piros as Newscaster
- Stephanie Moore as Woman in mink
- Campbell Lane as Judge Peterman
- Kasper Michaels as Litter man
- Monika Lisowska and Rosa Zavaglia as Mall extras
- Garvin Cross as Truck driver
- Ali Lohan as Girl at Football Stands (uncredited)
Production[]
Casting[]
Since the film was a television movie, Lohan didn't have to audition for the role of Casey Stuart, the girl whose doll comes to life. The producers of the film offered her the role as a part of a three-picture contract with The Walt Disney Company. She had to learn how to play football for the role and found it to be "hard." In the film, her character's mother has died. Lohan found it challenging to act like her mother was dead since she could not relate.
Banks was given the role of Eve, the doll that is magically transformed into a live woman during Casey's attempt to bring her mother back to life. Costume designer Maya Mani said, "It was a joy to work with Tyra because she knows how to wear clothes. No matter what we put on her, she could carry it off."
Burns, known for his past annoying and obnoxious characters, was cast for his sympathetic acting ability. His character, Casey's father, is too caught up with law practice to pay much close attention to Casey since his wife died of cancer.
Lindsay Lohan's siblings have small parts in the film. At Casey's football game, her siblings Michael, Ali, and Dakota can be seen sitting in the stands, cheering for the team.
Filming[]
Stephanie Moore came up with the idea of a doll coming to life. She collaborated with the director, Mark Rosman, on the teleplay for the film. Pre-production began in the summer of 1999 and filming began in October.
The beginning of the film starts with a commercial that promotes buying Eve dolls. For the doll commercial, production designer David Fischer deliberately went for a retro-1950s look, similar to The Jetsons. "It had to look dated but fun and inviting" stated director Mark Rosman.
Filming took place for three weeks. For the location, the producers thought Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada would be a good location for the film. The toy store used in the film is named Kaboodles. This is the actual toy store's name. It wasn't changed in production. It is located in Point Grey in Vancouver.
There are British Columbia flags on Ben's license plate indicating that it is set in Canada. However, also on the license plate, it says: Evergreen State. The Evergreen State is Washington.
The film was originally going to premiere as a part of The Wonderful World of Disney on February 27, 2000. It was delayed and later released on March 5.
Music[]
George Blondheim and Mark Rosman wrote a song titled "Be a Star" that Tyra Banks sings at a business party. The song is the theme song for the film and was also reprised at the end of the film.
Two songs by the group B*Witched were also used in the film: "C'est la Vie" and "Rollercoaster". A song from Nobody's Angel's debut album, "Keep Me Away", was used near the end of the film.
Sequel[]
A sequel to the film was first confirmed by Disney in an interview with Entertainment Weekly on November 11, 2012, under the tenative title Life-Size 2. Along with the announcement, it was confirmed that Tyra Banks would reprise her role as Eve, and a new version of the film's iconic song "Be a Star" will be featured.
On January 19, 2014, Tyra Banks re-confirmed both the film and her involvement in it in an interview with Digital Spy:
- “I'm under contract with Disney and I can't talk about it at all, except that it's coming. But it will be different, very different. Very modern - a modern take.”
- ―{{{2}}}
In addition to this statement, Banks said that she theorizes that the film will be released between late 2014 and early 2015.
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