{"id":198,"date":"2010-12-01T19:57:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T02:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2010\/12\/01\/%e2%80%98opposite-day%e2%80%99-available-on-dvd\/"},"modified":"2010-12-01T19:57:10","modified_gmt":"2010-12-02T02:57:10","slug":"%e2%80%98opposite-day%e2%80%99-available-on-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2010\/%e2%80%98opposite-day%e2%80%99-available-on-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Opposite Day\u2019 available on DVD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OppositeDay.JPG\"<\/a>A bad experiment gone worse releases a mist over a small town, and \u2026 viola! A kid\u2019s wish comes true and parents and kids do a switcheroo: Parents act like little kids and kids take on the attitudes and behaviors of their parents. How this works with adults who aren\u2019t parents is one of many questions that severely test the standards of cinematic \u201csuspension of disbelief.\u201d However, the thesis of Opposite Day<\/em>, released by Anchor Bay for home entertainment on DVD, is sure to enchant kids eight to 13, who typically feel their parents give them too many rules and too little of their time. The good news for parents is that this fantasy ride comes with a moral: It\u2019s tough being a grown-up and kids should appreciate their parents.<\/p>\n

Opening scenes in an experimental laboratory introduce the viewer to a harried scientist (French Stewart) and a device with the potential to make an adult regress to childishness. With an abrupt change, the camera then swings through a small town, giving a quick visual overview of the people \u2014 and their personalities \u2014 who populate it, finally coming to rest in a schoolyard. \u201cIf kids ran the world, it would be so much better,\u201d says one boy.<\/p>\n

Sammy Benson (Billy Unger), the boy who speaks these prophetic words, and his sister Carla (Ariel Winter) leave town for a vacation with their grandparents. Tucking the children into bed, Grandma Benson (Ren\u00e9e Taylor) points to a night sky ablaze with twinkling lights and says of one of them, \u201cOh look, it\u2019s the first star\u201d (another test of the viewer\u2019s ability to suspend disbelief \u2014 but, to be fair, there is one star considerably larger than the others that she might be pointing to, and, of course, there needs to be a wishing star to move the plot forward).<\/p>\n

Sammy jumps on the opportunity. \u201cI wish that kids ruled the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the harried scientist has been goaded by the lab\u2019s director to show breakthroughs of some sort that could be used to make a buck, and he puts his own son into a device he\u2019s been working on to enable parents to understand their babies\u2019 talk. But uh oh \u2014 that\u2019s the device we already saw turn a mature chimp infantile.<\/p>\n

Understandably upset at his father for putting him at risk, Chaz (Dylan Cash), the scientist\u2019s son, rampages through the lab, pulling wires to disable the device, which then malfunctions and releases the malignant mist that turns things \u201copposite\u201d throughout the town.<\/p>\n

When Grandma and Grandpa Benson (Dick Van Patten) bring Sammy and Carla home, they are mystified to see kids in their parents\u2019 work clothes (resized to perfectly fit their smaller bodies \u2014 a seeming anomaly that is addressed in short order) doing their jobs and mouthing their sayings, while the adults (who, fortunately, get to stay in clothes that fit) play hopscotch and act out childishly. Of the predictable sight gags that fill the bulk of the movie\u2019s 81 minutes, some are funny, some start funny but drag on too long, and some \u2014 like one kid ad exec who too perfectly mimics her adult counterpart \u2014 are simply disturbing.<\/p>\n

To Sammy, the situation is perfect \u2014 or would be if only a kid-cop hadn\u2019t arrested his grandparents for infractions that began with Grandpa Benson being \u201ctoo young\u201d to drive a car. And then, it doesn\u2019t stay fun for long. \u201cBeing in charge is hard work,\u201d Sammy admits after a day of taking care of his childish parents (Pauly Shore and Colleen Crabtree).<\/p>\n

Sammy and Carla learn about what happened at the lab, realize it wasn\u2019t Sammy\u2019s wish upon the star that caused the madness, and head over to the lab to make everything back to \u201cright\u201d again. Chase scenes and fight scenes ensue, with the two youngsters taking on the lab\u2019s security forces (Carla) and a gang of Ninjas (Sammy) set on them by friend-turned-evil Chaz.<\/p>\n

But Sammy and Carla can\u2019t make things normal again without scientific know-how. Will Chaz agree to help them? \u201cWe can take care of our parents better than they could take care of us,\u201d Chaz tells them. To which Carla argues, \u201cParents look after us unconditionally.\u201d Chaz, of course, has recent reason to question that, but the writers instead hark back to an early scene in which Chaz tells of his dad\u2019s love and expresses only a wish that they had more time together. Sammy throws in the clincher: \u201cWhy rush growing up?\u201d<\/p>\n

With only seconds to go, they try to stop the attack Chaz had set in motion that would take the phenomenon global, and also try to undo the effect in their own town.<\/p>\n

Outtakes during the closing credits share some of the silly moments on set during filming, giving a glimpse into the playful \u201cchild\u201d in cast members old and young.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bad experiment gone worse releases a mist over a small town, and \u2026 viola! A kid\u2019s wish comes true and parents and kids do a switcheroo: Parents act like little kids and kids take on the attitudes and behaviors of their parents. How this works with adults who aren\u2019t parents is one of many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvds-released","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS5I2-3c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}