Critics argue this is too heavy for the target demographic. Defenders argue that children of the original are now adults in their 30s, and the sequel rightly ages with them. However, the film is rated PG and aired on Freeform (formerly ABC Family) during the holidays. A scene where a magical doll stages an intervention for alcoholism is tonally schizophrenic—equal parts brilliant and bizarre.
Unfortunately, the lack of a Casey cameo feels like a betrayal of the source material. The original Life-Size ended with Eve leaving because Casey no longer needed her. The sequel implies that Casey "aged out" of the magic. It would have been powerful to see an adult Casey, perhaps now a therapist or a mother, guiding Grace. Instead, the film acts as if the first movie happened in a vacuum. Life-Size 2
Moreover, the movie tackles "adulting" in a way that few children’s movies dare. It says that being a grown-up is lonely, exhausting, and requires a literal magic spell to fix. For a millennial audience who grew up on the original and is now drowning in student debt and corporate jobs, Eve’s insistence on "Self-care is a corporate strategy" hits differently in 2025 than it did in 2018. Critics argue this is too heavy for the target demographic