Jeremy Dick of MovieWeb has a point when he says that people are more accepting of a reboot when it has an actual connection to the original source material. If Look Who’s Talking is indeed thinking about heading into reboot territory there are definite arguments against and for it, but one of those that might be best used to argue for it would be that Kirstie Alley and John Travolta are primed and ready to star in it. If you’ll recall they played the roles of Mollie and James, the former a single mother trying to raise her son without the deadbeat dad that got her pregnant, the latter a cab driver that had the dubious pleasure of driving her to the hospital when she was in labor and stuck around as the two started to fall in love some time after. Eventually Mollie and James came together to become a married couple in the second movie, Look Who’s Talking Too, which brought back Bruce Willis as the inner voice of Mikey and brought on Roseanne Barr for the voice of Julie. In those days Olympia Dukakis had the honor of being the grandma, but in this new version it would be Kirstie and John that would take on the role of the grandparents.
That might be kind of interesting but just thinking about it the idea could be quite a bit different since Kirstie isn’t Olympia Dukakis in any way, she’s not quite as comedic no matter what people want to say and her expressions aren’t even close to being as funny as Olympia could be. In fact if they managed to bring Olympia back that would be amazing as she’s still very active in show business. Kirstie has her own style, that much is for certain, but it’s kind of hard to imagine her being as funny as she used to be since back in the day Kirstie could be hilarious. Nowadays it’s enough of a struggle to remember that she’s still around at times. John Travolta has had his ups and downs as well but he’s been far more prominent in the spotlight throughout the years since he’s taken on so many different projects that have put him in the public eye. Even if some of those projects weren’t all that great it’s still enough to say that he’s been around. He might actually be a very cool grandpa on screen, the guy that still remembers his glory days and is still a little more laid back when compared to Mollie since she was always the worrier and the type to prepare for everything that could go wrong ten miles down the road.
Fans are already trying to wrap their heads around this one since the idea isn’t horrible and despite the difference in their level of stardom, Kirstie and John worked well together and are both ready and willing to take up their roles again. There’s no denying that back in the day Look Who’s Talking was one of the more popular movies around, no matter how cheesy it was, but bringing it back for an updated version might be kind of amusing. The whole idea of babies being more aware of their surroundings and what’s going on than people tend to think is extremely funny since for anyone that’s been a parent there are times when you can look in your kids’ eyes and actually get the feeling that they’re understanding more than they’re letting on. It’s definitely something to debate about in real life but in terms of the movie worked in a big way since so many children are capable of acting in so many odd but somehow sensible ways that there are times when it’s easy to believe that kids pick up way more than adults think they do in the first few years of their lives. Plus, the idea that Mikey would look at James as his father by the end of the movie is something that’s kind of natural for some kids since many children will identify a caregiver quite readily if they see that person often enough and come to realize that their presence means that they’re safe, they’re being taken care of, and their needs will be fulfilled.
Now comes the kicker, and that’s the whole update of the story, as a lot of stuff has happened since 1989 and there are a lot of differences in how people handle children and how children are taught about various things, their sexuality being one of them. Yes that’s disturbing that anyone would bring that up with kids involved, but the whole ‘theybie’s’ trend and letting a child determine their own sexuality is something that many people might actually argue for in this day and age. Hopefully though, in light of the story, things would remain on the same course and this wouldn’t be brought up. The movie could be something funny and family-friendly if it’s done with enough respect to the original.
Follow Us
