Life-Size is a 2000 Wonderful World of Disney TV Movie starring Lindsay Lohan and Tyra Banks as Casey Stuart and Eve the Doll, respectively.
Casey Stuart is a seventh grade tomboy who lives with her recently widowed father Ben. Distraught over her mother's death, Casey discovers a book of magical spells meant to bring back the dead. Following the book's instructions, Casey collects artifacts from her mother's life, including strands of hair in her hairbrush. As Casey is preparing to resurrect her mother, her father's co-worker Drew stops by to give her an Eve doll for her birthday. Tomboy Casey is unimpressed with the doll, and harshly throws her on a shelf. When the doll later falls off, Drew uses the hairbrush to fix Eve'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. Hilarity Ensues.
In 2018, a sequel, Life-Size 2: A Christmas Eve, aired on Freeform, with Tyra Banks reprising her role as Eve. In the film, Eve helps out a young CEO of a toy company, who is juggling her job and a quarter-life crisis.
''Life-Size' provides examples of:
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Inverted when Eve informs Richard that she is anatomically correct. Considering this is a Disney TV movie aimed at families, this is obviously only mentioned.
- Bragging Theme Tune: The lyrics to "Be A Star" are about how great Eve is.Eve walks the walk, and she does it right. She takes a stance. Eve shines so bright.
- Cassandra Truth: Casey tries to tell her father that Eve is actually a doll. Of course, he doesn't believe her.
- Catchphrase: Eve, being a talking doll, has plenty of these.
- "Hi! I'm Eve, and you're my special friend."
- "Eve can handle anything."
- "Let’s catch a wave!"
- "Remember, don’t pollute our oceans."
- "It's fun to dress up. I look awesome."
- "Love animals, don't wear them."
- "Let's go the mall."
- "Hi! I'm Eve, show me your 100-watt smile," after Eve becomes a doll again.
- Company Cross References: The Eve doll commercials show her dating Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid (1989).
- Contrived Coincidence: Hair from the Eve doll gets on Casey’s mother’s hairbrush after Drew brushes it, making the magic work on the doll instead, which kicks off the plot of the film.
- Do Well, But Not Perfect: Casey tells Eve that one of the reasons the doll is not successful is because Eve is perfect at everything.Eve: I'm a doll! Dolls are supposed to be perfect.
Casey: Perfect is BORING! - Gift for an Outgrown Interest: Discussed when Casey gets a gift from her dad's new girlfriend Drew, which turns out to be the Eve doll. The rather tomboyish Casey is instantly disappointed; Drew tries to salvage the situation by pointing out that even though she's too old to play with dolls, maybe she could keep it as a collector's item.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Eve's very brief stint as a secretary. She deletes all the files from the desktop computer, she can only type gibberish, she causes papers to come flying out of the copier while other papers are going through a shredder, and on top of everything, she breaks a nail.
- It Only Works Once: The resurrection spell Casey finds only resurrects one person of decision.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Casey. Following her mom's death, she gave the cold shoulder to all of her old friends, often fights with one of her football teammates, and turns to stealing when she cannot afford the magic book from the store. She becomes less of a jerk as the film progresses.
- Living Toys: Eve is a doll turned into a human.
- Magical Incantation: Following the altar preparations for the resurrection spell, the magic is initiated by repeatedly chanting “Zomba, tarka, ishtu, nebarim.“
- The Makeover: Even though most of Eve's skills as a doll don't translate to her human self, one thing she does know is how to give a makeover, which she does for Ellen. This causes Ellen to go from hating Eve to loving her.
- Missing Mom: A main plot point is Casey trying to resurrect her mother who has died.
- Oh, Crap!: Casey has this moment when she sees the doll's hair in the hairbrush, realizing the spell brought Eve to life instead of her mom.
- Only One Name: Eve. Lampshaded during the office scene.Ellen: I need some information for our employee database. Last name?
Eve: I don't have one. - Remaster: HD prints expand the picture from 4:3 to 16:9, eliminating any need to crop the top and bottom to fill an HDTV.
- Sense Freak: Eve's most endearing trait is that she's absolutely 'delighted' to be alive.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Casey is the tomboy who hates dolls and loves to play football, Eve is nominally a Girly Girl who loves to dress up and go shopping (but of course there's some toughness to her).
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Casey's dad constantly misses her football games due to being at work. He reveals to Casey later that he always found it hard to go to her football games after her mother's death, which likely contributed to him becoming a workaholic.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Sunnyvale. Described by Eve (to Ben and Casey) as "right smack-dab in the middle of America," without actually saying a state name. Later, when Ellen specifically asks what state Sunnyvale is in, Eve replies "The Sunshine State". Ellen takes this to mean Florida, however, that is not likely the case as Florida is not in the middle of America. It is also unknown what city or state the actual story takes place in.
Life-Size 2 provides examples of:
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
- This Eve is ditzier than the one from the first film.
- Casey was a young teen girl depressed after the death of her mom. Gracie is an adult CEO of a toy company.
- Villain Has a Point: Even if it was because he wanted to control the company, Devin Drake was right that Gracie was too young and inexperienced to run the company.
