SummaryA mother (Barbara Harris) and daughter (Jodie Foster) find their personalities switched and have to live each other's lives on one strange Friday.
Directed By:Gary Nelson
Written By:Mary Rodgers
Freaky Friday
Metascore
Mixed or Average
51
User score
Generally Favorable
6.5
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
44% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
56% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
80
Mary Rodgers's screenplay, based on her novel, supplies enough faintly Freudian undertones to pique a grownup's interest even further. Try to imagine how Annabel Andrews, a 13-year-old tomboy, must feel when she finds herself with a mature figure and a husband she suddenly starts calling "Daddy," and you begin to get the idea. [28 Feb 1977, p.72]
75
The film is filled with sight gags and features a wonderful performance by Harris.
User score
Generally Favorable
40% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
55% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Jun 8, 2025
8
I only knew the remake with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, so it’s great to see that this ’70s version is just as fun, but also completely different and well suited to its time.
Aug 18, 2017
8
This one was a classic of my childhood. In fact, we named our dog Sparky after the actor Sparky Marcus in this film. Jodie Foster is great - and no, don't do what the other critics have done and read in some subtle Freudian sexuality into this film. It's just good stuff.
63
The problems resulting from the switch of identities are fairly predictable, but fun: This is one of the better recent Disney productions.
60
This being a Disney comedy, nothing too drastic happens; and attendant adults can rest assured that, because Dad is so dithering and ineffectual, awkward questions about potentially incestuous relations, sadly, do not arise. Good performances struggle gamely to overcome the increasingly predictable plot.
50
Freaky Friday is certainly one of the most offbeat films Walt Disney Productions has ever made, but it isn't one of the best. A promising concept - quarreling mother and teenage daughter switch personalities for a day - has been bungled by a talky, repetitive screenplay and overbroad direction. Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster salvage some scenes through sheer behavioral charm.
40
Suffers from sluggish exposition mediocre direction and a one-closeup-after-another method of composition advertising the film's eventual retirement to the Disney TV series, but it probably salvages things with juvenile audiences by finishing fast. [5 Feb 1977, p.C5]
40
The situation—a mother and daughter switch personalities for a day—is rife with possibilities, but since this 1977 comedy is a Disney film, said possibilities are scrupulously squandered...Not so bad as Disney goes, but it's better left to the kiddies and other forgiving types.
May 6, 2020
3
Cette petite comédie à l'humour souvent balourd est assurément un tantinet niaise (mais ç'aurait pu être pire, cela dit) et a inspiré un remake en 2003 avec une brillante Jamie Lee Curtis dans le rôle de la maman... mais ici, c'est le rôle de la fille qui interpelle puisque une jeune star y fait ses débuts et se débrouille déjà fort bien : la petite Jodie ! petite mais déjà une grande ado en fait... et qui se double elle-même dans la VF, excusez du peu...! Le film démarre assez bien et s'avère plutôt comique durant son premier tiers (les voix off respectives sont une bonne idée) puis fatigue nettement par la suite, pour se déliter dangereusement et finir dans la bouffonnerie totale... De toute façon, passé la première heure, l'ennui et la répétition commencent à s'installer sévèrement, hélas... ce qui rend le film de 2003 bien plus intéressant, finalement. Bref, une excellente idée à la base mais pas traitée comme elle le mérite... A noter qu'un troisième film a été réalisé en 2018 il me semble et rien qu'à en voir un extrait, il s'agit d'une pure abomination débilos du vivre_enemble progressiste doublée (double peine) d'une abominable... comédie musicale !
Production Company:
- Walt Disney Productions
Release Date:Jan 21, 1977
Duration:1 h 35 m
Rating:G
Tagline:Annabel and her Mother are not quite themselves today- in fact, they're each other! [UK]
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 3 Nominations
