“Freakier Friday” feels like old Disney.

In an age where Disney’s live action arm focuses on big budget Marvel and Star Wars films, as well as remakes of animated classics, “Freakier Friday” is a callback to the days when the studio developed heartfelt, family friendly comedies with moderate budgets. From 1961’s original “Parent Trap” through “George of the Jungle,” “The Princess Diaries,” and the 2003 “Freaky Friday,” this type of film used to be the norm for Disney Studios.

As a sequel to a film from that age, “Freakier Friday” naturally is a high-concept comedy – a movie based on a funny “what if?” scenario. Instead of two people switching places, though, we get four.

To my surprise, the hijinks that ensue are just as funny and engaging as the first movie. It admittedly takes time to get straight whose consciousness is in whose body, but once that clears up the movie generally works. Confusion, chaos, and miscommunication abound and, at least in my theater, so do the laughs.

The biggest surprise to me, however, isn’t that the movie is actually funny, but that the point of the movie – the message it wants people to believe – is a good one.

Like the first film, “Freakier Friday” pushes the idea of “walking in another person’s shoes” to the extreme. At the beginning of the film, we see four individuals – a mom (Lindsay Lohan), a grandmother (Jamie Lee Curtis), a daughter, and a potential new stepsister – all trying to figure out what life might look like when Lohan’s character gets married. At risk is a potential move from Los Angeles to London, and none of the characters seem to understand each other’s perspectives.

When their bodies and consciousnesses switch, the first impulse isn’t understanding – it’s revenge. The teenagers, now equipped with adult bodies and decision-making power, are intent on canceling the move by ruining Lohan’s relationship with her British fiancé. Meanwhile, the adults in teen bodies are forced to spend the day at school, helpless to stop them.

As the film progresses, however, the slow drip of understanding begins, especially for the teenagers, as their attempts to break the engagement fail. As they live adult lives, the teenagers see some of the difficulties of adulthood and the harder aspects of being a parent. The change of heart isn’t sudden, and the characters still trip over old misconceptions every once in a while, but little by little, the teenagers learn that the adults could actually be right.

The teenagers also begin grasping that they don’t usually see the whole picture. They come to realize that, even though it hasn’t felt like it recently, their parents both love them genuinely and make them their first priority. Additionally, they grow to understand each other – eventually daring to call each other “sister.” In a real moment of growth, we even get an apology from a teenager to her father. “I was very selfish, I was, and I know it,” she says. “I need to find my dad and apologize.”

Of course, the understanding goes both ways, with the adults understanding the teenagers better, too. The heft of the messaging, however, falls to kids and teenagers.

Maybe, just maybe, “Freakier Friday” tells us, parents are trustworthy.

That’s not the only message, though. At the end of the movie, in a very 2000s-esque musical moment, Lohan’s daughter tells us “Family isn’t always easy, but family is everything.”

I don’t know about you, but those aren’t the objectionable messages I was told I’d find in a 2025 Disney movie.

And yes, some aspects of “Freakier Friday” feel particularly like 2025. We see a rainbow flag fly during a food fight. We hear talk of cultural appropriation, pickleball, and side hustles. Lohan, we hear in the opening minutes, “chose” to be a single parent (we don’t get any answer on what this means).

Thankfully, however, such overdone timestamping fades after the first 40 minutes, and by the time the credits roll, the main message is clear: “Love your family and trust your parents, because they love and care for you.”

If this is the new “old Disney,” here’s to hoping there’s more to come.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image Credit: Disney/YouTube