Disney has announced the release of a long-forgotten 2000s fantasy movie on Disney+. While the Disney-owned streamer has become the official home of mega-hits from the House of Mouse, such as Marvel and Star Wars, it has also been a place where fans can explore some of the studio's lesser-known titles. From Disney Channel original movies to big-screen classics from Disney's early days, Disney+'s catalog has become fairly extensive, with only a few outliers still evading subscribers at this point.
Another long-lost Disney movie is finally making its way to Disney+, as confirmed by Disney. The 2000s TV movie Life-Size was announced to be joining the services starting Friday, November 7. The Disney-produced fantasy movie has been one of the most glaring omissions from the studio's catalog, still absent from the Disney+ offering. But no more!
Life-Size was released in March 2000 on ABC as a part of the network's classic "The Wonderful World of Disney" block. It centers on a young girl, Casey, played by Freaky Friday star Lindsay Lohan, who accidentally brings her toy doll, Eve, to life after trying to resurrect her deceased mother with a magic spell.
Lohan leads the film, with modeling superstar Tyra Banks portraying the movie's central doll, as Casey attempts to keep Eve at bay, who creates havoc in the human world.
Over the years, Life-Size has developed something of a cult following among Disney fans, with many considering it the first live-action Barbie movie (long before Greta Gerwig brought her vision of the iconic toy to life in 2023's Barbie).
Despite its large fanbase, the TV movie remained off streaming for years, with no official way for audiences to watch the film, outside of a fairly limited DVD release from shortly after its TV debut.
The movie received a 2018 Freeform sequel, once again featuring Banks, titled Life-Size 2: A Christmas Eve. This sparked fan speculation at the time that the original film might also be headed to streaming, but that never came to pass. In 2020, Banks teased that a third movie in the Life-Size franchise was in the works; however, five years later, updates on that project have gone silent.
Why Is Life-Size Coming to Streaming Now?
After years of waiting, Life-Size is finally coming to streaming. This will surely have longtime fans of the film giddy, after decades of the movie being fairly hard to watch.
There are a few likely reasons for Disney blowing the dust off the turn-of-the-century sleepover classic. The first, and most obvious, of these is simply Disney filling in holes in its streaming catalog.
The Disney+ library is now quite expansive. There are only a few titles ever released by the studio that are not a part of the Disney+ library. So, bringing Life-Size to the streamer plugs another hole for the studio.
Another likely reason it is happening now is thanks to the return of the movie's central star, Lindsay Lohan, to the screen. After years away from the spotlight, the former child star is back, starring in titles like this summer's Fraky Friday sequel, Freakier Friday.
With Lohan back in the public consciousness, why not capitalize on that by bringing one of the actress's cult classics to streaming?
Perhaps this could also spell a future for the Life-Size franchise. There is an early 2000s revival happening as we speak, with films like Lilo & Stitch, Freaky Friday, and The Princess Diaries emerging from cinematic cryosleep for new entries in their respective franchises.
Perhaps putting the first Life-Size on streaming could be Disney testing the waters for the third movie that Tyra Banks hinted at all those years ago.
