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Life Size (2000) premiered on the Wonderful World of Disney nearly 20 years ago and fans fell in love with the movie.

Freeform just aired Life Size 2: A Christmas Eve with many callbacks to the original including Eve’s love of butter, the Holcroft’s Book of the Dead: volume I, The Eve doll Casey had, and her famous “Dress me” line.

When the movie started, it seemed like they forgot the premise of the movie was about a doll that came to life, then it got good again.

It opens with Grace Manning (Francia Raisa) hosting a party with her friends. Perez Hilton makes an appearance and it just all seems out of place.

Grace is the daughter of Eleanor Manning, the CEO of Marathon Toys and the creator of the Eve Doll. She has a strained relationship with her mother, who is now in jail. For what? We don’t know.

Marathon Toys is failing due to the influx of digital toy sales and Grace must figure out how to save the company. They decide to discontinue many toys, including Eve.

Lex, (Alison Fernandez) Grace’s 12-year-old neighbor, is a huge fan of the doll and wants to try to save it. After Grace’s finds a box of her old things, including Holcroft’s Book of the Dead, which Casey left to her mom quite some time ago. Lex tries to convince Grace that magic is real and that they should cast the spell for Eve to come to life. They have a seance and at first, nothing happens.

The next morning, Grace wakes up and Eve (Tyra Banks) is in her bed staring at her. Grace asks if they slept together and Eve says ‘yes!’ Clearly, Grace and Eve have different definitions of sleep. Eve tries coffee and spits it out because she didn’t think it would be that hot. Grace does not believe that Eve is actually her doll. Sound familiar?

They go to a restaurant for brunch to meet Grace’s friends, Tahlia and Butler. Eve orders almost everything on the menu, including liquid butter, her favorite. Suddenly, she can read when the first movie had Eve not being able to read or type. The chef comes out to thank Eve and starts flirting with Eve. Eve finds out that Grace is discontinuing the doll and goes outside to call Casey’s Eve, who seems to be the leader of the Eve’s in Sunnyvale.

Eve tells her she only has four days and she needs to try to save all Eve dolls.

They all leave the restaurant and give Eve a new haircut. She goes on a shopping spree and tries on the funkiest outfits out there. Sound familiar again?

Grace still doesn’t believe Eve is actually a doll and asks her to prove it. Eve takes off her shoe and shows her the bottom of her foot which has the serial number A4114 on it, the same number Grace’s doll had as a child. Slowly, Grace starts to believe.

The board at Marathon Toys, well mostly one man, Devin, decides they should fire Grace as CEO and elect him. Yeah, that doesn’t sound suspicious at all…. As a unamomous decision, they decide Grace should leave the company.

Eve and Grace attend a Christmas village at the mall where they run into the hot guy who was at her party with her friend, Jen. Calum (Gavin Stenhouse) reassures her that he and Jen are not dating. Grace meets Calum’s sister, Emma, who hears she’s getting rid of Eve and needs some reassurance. Grace tells her that all eve dolls are special and magical.

Emma and Eve, who is dressed in a candy cane patterned jumpsuit, go on the search for hot chocolate. They stumble upon the chef from the restaurant, Hyde, and Eve starts blatantly flirting. he says he has never met a woman like her.

Back inside, Calum and Grace get close and almost kiss under the mistletoe but Grace freaks out and goes home with Eve. They put up a Christmas tree and her friends get her to reminisce on the old times. They start talking about the Eve doll again and Lex has the idea to reinvent her.

Grace says she should gather up her friends and they will throw a slumber party where they can come up with new ideas to save the doll. Emma winds up coming too, Eve called her, and Grace and Calum are awkward and flirting once more.

Another board member, Carter, overhears Devin making a phone call about how he framed Grace’s mom and now convinced Grace to step down and he will run the company.

The next day Grace hears Eve talking to Casey’s Eve (Confusing right?) on the phone and overheard her say “mission accomplished.” She gets mad and recites the spell that made Eve come to life and suddenly Eve disappears.

Grace finds out the company is firing her and goes to visit her mom in jail. They have a heart-to-heart and her mom convinces her to try to save the company and the doll and to always believe in magic and her dreams.

In the end, Grace and Eve deliver a song and dance to a remixed version of “Be a Star!” They showcase the new dolls which include “Love is Love Eve,” “Woke Eve,” “CEO Eve,” “Curvy Eve,” and “Quarterback Eve,” for Casey and many more.

In honor of #LifeSize2 premiering tonight at 9pm/8c on @FreeformTV, we bring you “Be a Star 2” by @TyraBanks ft. New Fear's Eve.

Find out what channel #Freeform is where you live: https://t.co/P46XzxMNsv pic.twitter.com/yYbvxHF7zY

— Freeform (@FreeformTV) November 30, 2018

Devin is fired and arrested for providing false evidence, security fraud, and insider trading, which he framed Eleanor for. The FBI will release her mom.

Eve tells Grace she saved the doll and the store and that she would do anything for her best friend but she has to go back to Sunnyvale. (Again. Sound familiar? Just as she becomes friends with Eve, Eve has to go back home.) Eve and Hyde go back to Sunnyvale.

Grace celebrates Christmas with her mom, friends, and Calum, and they finally kiss. She gives Lex the Holcroft’s Book of the Dead.

Eve and Hyde try to eat food but discover the food is plastic because they are in the doll world. So he just left his world, family, and life to become a doll…. and he is ok with it? Sure….

The sequel was definitely aimed towards the now adults who grew up with the original. There are adult references including partying, drinking, romance, and talk of hookups.

It stuck true to the original while putting a modern day twist on it. You can see children flossing, characters twerking, characters from the LGBT+ community, phrases like Thot and “sorry not sorry,” and digital sales closing down physical stores. It relates to real-time events while still throwing it back to that early 2000’s vibe with Eve’s clothes and her fake phone, money, and credit card.

Overall, Eve shone brighter and farther, but the rest of the cast was just mediocre. It was fun to see what happened to the doll and bring her back to life. The first 10 minutes wasn’t the best but it slowly picked up with Eve’s antics and we were hooked again. One thing that could have made this movie better: a cameo from Lindsay Lohan, who played Casey in the original.

All we know is “Be a Star” is now stuck in our heads again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=156q2w_ca1U

Rating: B-

Did you watch the TV movie? What were your thoughts? Let us know on Twitter at @Celebmix. 

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