“Little” Looks Like “Big” Fun in Color

Hello Meltingpot Readers,

It’s Friday, so I have something fun to share. It’s a great new family film with Black characters coming out this spring. I just saw the trailer for Little, starring Issa Rae, Regina Hall and Marsai Martin. Martin plays Diane on Black-ish, she’s only 14-years-old and she executive produced the film. In fact, the film concept was her idea.

Like the movies, Big, Freaky Friday and 17 Again, the premise for Little is that an adult -Regina Hall playing an aggressive and hostile boss lady – gets put back into the body of her 13-year-old self played by Martin. Issa Rae plays Hall’s work assistant and from the trailer, it looks like she gets all of the laughs in the movie. Check it out.

Like Martin, growing up, I always wanted to see one of those body swapping films with a Black person in the staring role, but it never happened. As a parent, I’m always on the lookout for quality family films with Black characters. Or Brown characters. Or Asian characters. Basically characters that reflect the diversity of our own lived experiences. So, yes, you can expect me and all three of my kids to be front and center at the movie theater on April 12 when the film is released. Plus, I am a huge Issa Rae fan and want to support Martin’s first project.

While this isn’t a remake of any particular film, it clearly borrows some concepts from some of the adult-becomes-a-child- movies I mentioned above. And I’m cool with that. I’m not expecting to have my world view changed after watching this movie. I just want to laugh with my kids and see people who look like us on the big screen.

If you could remake a film with a new cast of color, what would it be? I’d remake The Sound of Music where the father and his kids were Black British and Maria was Afro-Latina.

Leave me your movie remake ideas in the comments. And go!