Lizzie McGuire Movie Humor – Reboots, Remakes or Rehashes?
There are so many reboots, remakes and re-imagining of movies and TV shows out there these days, sometimes it feels like there’s a dearth of people in the entertainment business who have an original idea to offer. Worse, when studios and networks pump out their reboots, they all too often are rehashes, too. Same jokes, similar situations and themes, just updated to seem ‘current’ and up with the times.
Looking at the questionable future of the Lizzie McGuire reboot planned for Disney+, Calico can’t help but think Disney is stuck in the past with the original titular character — a thought that seems to be bothering Hillary Duff, who is on board to reprise the Lizzie character, but would prefer for the adult Lizzie to feel as authentic to her age as the adolescent and teenage Lizzie were to theirs.
As always, Calico is full of helpful suggestions about how Duff and Disney can come to compromise here. What does she have in mind? Read her new post, “Reboot, Remake or Rehash?” to find out.
– Calico Rudasill, Sssh.com Adult Entertainment for Women and Couples
I know this will come as a shock to all who read it, but never once have I watched an episode of Lizzie McGuire.
The closest I ever came to watching the Disney show was having a neighbor back in 2002 whose kids watched it with the volume so high, I could have followed the dialogue, no problem – had I not gotten in the habit of cranking up my stereo to drown out the noise from next door every afternoon, as soon as I heard the little rug rats arriving home from school.
Liberate Lizzie! (Or Something!)
My complete Lizzie McGuire ignorance doesn’t prevent me from understanding where Hillary Duff is coming from when she complains about the planned Lizzie McGuire reboot having its more “adult” themes toned down to suit a family-friendly audience, despite the fact the character (still played by Duff) will be presented as a 30-something.
“I’d be doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30 year old’s journey to live under the ceiling of a PG-13 rating,” Duff wrote in a recent Instagram post. “It’s important to me that just as her experiences as a preteen/teenager navigating life were authentic, her next chapters are equally as real and relatable.”
The upshot of Duff’s post is that it would be “a dream if Disney would let us move the show to Hulu, if they were interested, and I could bring this beloved character to life again.”
Would Time Stand Still for Urkel?
Granted, I don’t know much about Disney, but everything I know about Disney suggests they be about as receptive to the idea of letting Lizzie go to Hulu as they have been to the idea of Mickey Mouse entering the public domain.
Hillary makes a good point, though. Regardless of Disney executives’ (quite understandable, given the nature of the brand) desire for family-friendly programming, if part of the goal is to present Lizzie as a grown woman, limiting the show’s themes and storylines so they conform to a PG rating doesn’t seem like a particularly good way to achieve that goal.
Let’s suppose they made a reboot of The Wonder Years with Fred Savage reprising his role as Kevin Arnold; would it make sense if Kevin was constantly talking to himself about the prospect of kissing a girl for the first time, or stressing out for his upcoming Algebra test, or needing to get ALF groomed by a hesitant veterinarian, or whatever it was that character did with his time? (As you may have astutely deduced by now, I’ve never watched an episode of The Wonder Years, either.)
Now that I think about it, the characters involved in a hit TV show reboot needn’t have been children on the original for things to change in a way that reflects reality.
If they were to remake Friends 15 years from now, it might be nice for some of them to have a few non-white acquaintances, for example. In a Seinfeld reboot, maybe Jerry could move to the suburbs to indicate his comedy career had finally taken off – although I suppose if he did so, he’d have to buy Kramer a house nearby, or we’d all be left wondering what sort of bus pass Kramer has that enables him to constantly drop in like that.
“Adult Themes” Does Not Necessarily Mean Blowjobs on Screen… But It Could!
I also think a Lizzie McGuire reboot could have “adult themes” without treading into territory that would alienate Disney viewers. I mean, there are adult characters on Agent Carter, but it’s not like they depict Peggy Carter and Edwin Jarvis constantly boning on-screen, right? (Seriously, I’m asking; I’ve never watched this one, either.)
Maybe the answer here isn’t doing a Lizzie McGuire reboot/remake to begin with. Maybe the answer is in having Lizzie appear, as an adult, in the context of a different show already on Disney+. She could be baby Yoda’s nanny maybe, or they could have her make cameo appearances in which she offers cups of hot tea to some of those poor souls stuck on Life Below Zero.
See, Disney and Duff? You have all kinds of room for compromise here, without anyone having to sell any franchises to Hulu.
And if these ideas don’t appeal, there’s always the option of contracting with an adult entertainment studio to create a porn parody version! Three cheers for the prospect of Lezzie McGuire, anyone?
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