The Big Picture
- Family Switch is a Netflix comedy that draws inspiration from movies like 13 Going On 30 and 21 Jump Street, offering a meta deconstruction of the body switch subgenre.
- Jennifer Garner, who starred in 13 Going On 30, plays a different character named Jess Walker in Family Switch, navigating the challenges of family dynamics and a body switch scenario.
- The movie centers around the Walker family, who must deal with swapping bodies on a day filled with important events and high stakes, putting pressure on everyone involved.
Netflix will attempt to bring its own voice to a classical comedy trope with Family Switch, their upcoming comedy about a family that switches bodies on the worst day imaginable. The movie took inspiration from other stories that followed similar premises, with some of the most notable examples being 13 Going On 30 and 21 Jump Street. During a recent interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub for Pain Hustlers, producer Lawrence Grey spoke about how other movies paved the way for the story of Family Switch to come to life:
“I thought about movies like 21 Jump Street, where there’s a real meta deconstruction of the subgenre you know. So, very early on, I worked with the writer, and we scripted the scene where the family is completely aghast and incredulous that this is happening, and they even say, ‘This is the first time in history it’s ever happened.’ The mom says something like, ‘Yeah, I’m 13 going on 30,’ the dad says, ‘I’m 17 again!’ The characters invariably reference every classic body switch movie you’ve ever seen, but it’s as if they’ve never seen it before.”
13 Going On 30 would be an obvious inspiration for the Netflix comedy, given how Jennifer Garner starred in that story as Jenna Rink, the young woman who wished nothing more than to become popular at school. Her wish came through in its own way when she woke up decades later as a thirty-year-old, with no memory of what happened after she initially made the wish. While that movie didn’t feature switching bodies with another person, the concept of a 13-year-old brain in a 30-year-old body is present in both films.
When it comes to Family Switch, Garner was tasked with playing a very different character named Jess Walker. Alongside her husband, Bill (Ed Helms), Garner’s character fears her family is growing apart from each other due to the passage of time. After visiting an astrological reader, they all happen to switch bodies, setting the stage for the main conflict of the movie. And if dealing with that hypothetical situation as an adult sounds hard, it’s bound to be even more complicated to deal with it as a teenager ahead of a big day at school.
Body Swapping With the Young Walkers
C.C. (Emma Myers) and Wyatt (Brady Noon) are already having a hard time growing up, considering how fast things change at school and when it comes to their friendships. And the fact that their entire family switches bodies one day only makes things worse. Together the family will have to tackle a college interview, a football tryout, the chance to get a promotion at work, and a possible record deal all on the same day which will put pressure on everyone’s shoulders to try and revert the process.
Family Switch premieres on Netflix on November 30.
