Wish Upon a Star

Wish Upon a Star (1996)

--Blair Treu

This is an old disney movie (back when disney channel was kinda good sometimes) that I just had to watch again. Thank you netflix for helping me to relive my childhood through film and tv, I really appreciate it.

The film is one of those "Freaky Friday" movies. Two sisters are in high school. One is older, "prettier," popular, and wants to go to a certain college but doesn't really have the grades to do so (played by Katherine Heigl). The other is younger, very smart, admires her older sisters popularity and is into grunge. One night they both see a shooting star and make a wish that they could be the other sister. Then they wake up in each other's body the next morning. At first they are more concerned with mitigating the damage that this could potentially cause and then they try to all-out ruin the other's reputation, which pretty fun times. The younger sister in her older sister's body has to deal with running for winter dance queen, dealing with creepy superficial friends, and a boyfriend that her friends are pressuring her to dumb. The older sister in her younger sister's body has to deal with a science test, a science fair project (about turning bio waste--like old fruits and veggies--into energy), and being pretty unpopular. Yeah, obviously this is disney and I don't want to give anything away, but... they work it out and learn from each other. It's beautiful really.

Like "The Craft," this is another one of those films that when I go back and watch now I can sort of see how impacted by it I was. Especially through the beginning of the film, it was literally like looking back on my past dreams and wishes and fears, it was really interesting. I just connected with this film and these characters so much when I was younger, which is kinda scary I guess, but it's nice that I got to watch it again. Also, the whole vibe of this film seems very mid-nineties, from the hair, make-up, and dress of the characters to the way that they talk, "smell much?" Ohhh, early Buffy years, how I miss thee.

The music in this film is horrible! Seriously, except for one song that the band at the dance played, it's really hard to listen to. I think it's supposed to reflect the older sister's taste in music. I'm not really sure what to call it. Just lame rock music I guess? And I'm actually aging as I say this, all of the instruments just sort of blend together in a cacophony of rockishness. I didn't like it so much.

Also, the actress who played the younger sister did really well. Even though she looked more what would correspond to someone unpopular and grungy, etc, she totally acted better as the catty (meow), slightly arrogant, older sister. I'm sort of sad that she's pretty much only big in horror films now (especially compared to where Heigl is now), I think she could do better, but maybe she's happy with that, so I'll be happy for her happiness. Ahh, I just read on imdb that she dated Omri Katz back in the day. The dude from "Eerie, Indiana" and "Hocus Pocus" (that I'm about to review!). Awesome. Best couple ever? So sad they aren't together now. Haha.

That's it. Kinda cute film. Much better than the crap being made today (don't I always say that though?), especially with the dumbing down of disney (no, that alliteration wasn't planned! it just came out so naturally, thank you). So, if like me you saw this back in the day, it's definitely worth another look.