Friends are also given similar treatment in that Alexia’s friends are more frenemies who don’t actually care about her, while Hayley’s one friend is more interested in fitting in. The teachers all have their own baggage and quirks that all lead them to ignore the obvious problems the girls are facing. Why do the adults not intervene in any of the girls’ hijinks? The adult Wheatons are psychologists who are trying to teach the girls valuable lessons about adulthood and maturity. It also sort of addresses some plot points that often bother me in similar body switching movies.
I don’t have sisters, so I believe this is pretty much how sister friendships evolve. Through their super PG attempts to ruin each other’s lives (“Alexia Hayley Wheaton is a wench!”) they learn about each other and grow closer, as TV tells me sisters do. Hayley wishes she was as pretty and socially adept as Alexia. Alexia wishes she was as smart and talented as Hayley.
They have nothing in common, but also probably everything. As with all good body swaps, the sisters are contentious rivals who never understand each other but who also both secretly desire what the other has. Katherine Heigl played popular Winter Princess sister, Alexia Wheaton, bitchy to and snarling at her younger sister Hayley (played by burgeoning scream queen and child star Danielle Harris) who was of course grungy and nerdy and who also secretly idolized her older sister. It featured body switching hijinks and sibling rivalry, which are pretty solid plot points in the kid movie genre. They were everything to the pre-Internet kid.įor girls who had cable and were in their early teens in the late 90s, Wish Upon a Star was a quintessential 90s teen TV movie. These Disney movies recycled plots, wardrobes, movie sets, and supporting casts. It capitalized on slightly lower tier teen stars, the Andrew Keegans and Katherine Heigls, not the JTTs and Christina Riccis who were dominating the kid-oriented box office.
Wish Upon a Star was one of the Disney movies that were deemed family friendly enough to play incessantly throughout the late 90s. Remember when Katherine Heigl wasn’t an often maligned TV star/rom-com maven? Remember when the Disney Channel had TV movies with budgets and plots that befit their low quality, limited audience reach, and very targeted appeal?
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