<\/p>\n
Tyra Banks<\/a> is everywhere in the cultural conversation right now. Netflix<\/a>‘sReality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model<\/em><\/a> pulled 14.2 million viewers in its first week after dropping in February, becoming the streamer’s most-watched show and reigniting debate about the competition series Banks created in 2003. But long before she coined the term “smize” and told aspiring models to smile<\/a> with their eyes, the supermodel took on a very different kind of role. And exactly 26 years ago today, it became one of Disney’s most beloved cult classics.<\/p>\n On March 5, 2000, ABC<\/a>‘s The Wonderful World of Disney<\/em> aired the made-for-TV film Life-Size<\/em><\/a>. The movie follows Casey, a young girl played by Lindsay Lohan<\/a> fresh off The Parent Trap<\/em>, who attempts a spell to resurrect her late mother. The magic goes sideways. Instead of bringing back her mom, it accidentally brings her fashion doll, Eve, to life. Banks plays Eve, the cheerful and hopelessly curious doll suddenly trying to navigate the real world as a full-sized human being.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac <\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfac <\/strong><\/p>\n It was Banks’ first major starring role<\/a>. She’d done guest spots on shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/em>, but Life-Size<\/em> was the first time she carried an entire project. And the performance proved she could do far more than walk a runway. Her portrayal of Eve leaned into physical comedy and exaggerated innocence, from typing gibberish at a desk to appear productive, to eating entire sticks of butter at a restaurant without flinching.<\/p>\n Despite being a TV movie, Life-Size<\/em> steadily built a loyal following. For an entire generation of kids who grew up in the early 2000s, it was a sleepover staple and a defining piece of Disney Channel-era nostalgia. Fans have long called it “the first live-action Barbie movie<\/a>” because of the obvious parallels between Eve and the iconic doll, even though Disney never had the rights to the official character.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcaa <\/strong>SIGN UP for tips to stay healthy & fit with the top moves, clean eats, health trends & more delivered right to your inbox twice a week<\/strong><\/a> \ud83d\udcaa<\/strong><\/p>\n The film’s message also resonated with young viewers in a way that holds up. Through Eve’s influence, Lohan’s character Casey learns that she can play football and enjoy feeling pretty if she wants to. Strength and femininity aren’t presented as opposites, which felt genuinely refreshing for a children’s movie in 2000.<\/p>\n For years, though, Life-Size<\/em> was nearly impossible to rewatch. It was never available on any digital platform for purchase or rental. That finally changed in late 2025 when Disney+ added the film with a new HD widescreen remaster on November 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n A sequel, Life-Size 2: A Christmas Eve<\/em>, aired on Freeform in 2018 with Banks returning as Eve<\/a>. Lindsay Lohan didn\u2019t appear due to scheduling conflicts with her MTV reality series Lindsay Lohan\u2019s Beach Club<\/em>, but the two reunited in August 2025 at the premiere of Lohan\u2019s Disney sequel Freakier Friday<\/a><\/em> as fans celebrated the original film\u2019s 25th anniversary.<\/p>\n Related: Read Next<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Mar 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tyra Banks is everywhere in the cultural conversation right now. Netflix‘sReality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model pulled 14.2 million viewers in its first week after dropping in February, becoming the streamer’s most-watched show and reigniting debate about the competition series Banks created in 2003. But long before she coined the term “smize” and told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2315161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":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,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[368436,23301,448532,23209,415418,318808],"class_list":["post-2315160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-christmas-eve","tag-disney","tag-life-size","tag-lindsay-lohan","tag-the-wonderful-world-of-disney","tag-tyra-banks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/26-Years-Ago-Today-Tyra-Banks-Starred-in-Disneys-\u2018Life-Size.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2315160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2315162,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315160\/revisions\/2315162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2315160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2315160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2315160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}