“This is a completely unique and original situation that has literally never happened before,” CC (Emma Myers) says after waking up in her mother’s (Jennifer Garner) body in Family Switch. On the one hand, this is absolutely true: Never in human history have a mother and daughter swapped bodies — it’s unprecedented! A scientific miracle that defies everything we know about human biology and consciousness! But on the other hand, when it comes to body-swap movies, it’s a different story. It’s such a classic premise that it’s tough to pick a favorite — and for director McG, that was part of the appeal. “I enjoy them all,” the The Babysitter and Charlie’s Angels director tells Tudum of his favorite films in the genre. “Freaky Friday, 13 Going on 30, 17 Again, The Change-Up. They’re all fun, and they all make a contribution.”

For his own addition to the switcheroo pantheon, McG had some tricks that made sure things would stay fresh. The story of the Walker family (played by Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, and Brady Noon) is more than just a simple two-way swap. “It’s a six-way switch, so there’s a lot of fun to be had there,” McG says. Fun, Easter eggs, and maybe even a few life lessons — it’s all here in Family Switch.

Was Pickles the dog for real?

In short: yes. In Family Switch, father and son and mother and daughter swap bodies, respectively — but things don’t end there. The family’s French bulldog Pickles also winds up in the body of baby Miles (Lincoln and Theodore Sykes) — and vice versa. Soon the dog is running around on its hind legs and the baby is lapping up water from a doggie bowl. “I think it’s safe to say the dog and the baby swap are the cherry on top of our contribution to the genre,” McG says.

It’s a showbiz adage that nothing good comes from working with children or animals, but McG has nothing but good things to say about his canine performers. “That dog was a more disciplined and astute thespian than a great many actors I’ve worked with in the past,” he says sincerely. “Just hitting the marks, being taught on the spot, filling the set with unbelievably pungent gas, all of it.” 

Colleen Hayes

A shocking number of moments in the film that might initially appear to be visual effects were actually accomplished by Pickles himself. “They could really be trained to get up on their hind legs and walk like a person,” McG says. “They could hit a mark, bark, sit, pee, everything you could ever imagine. So much of that was in-camera.” 

Are there any body-swap Easter eggs?

Oh yeah. Soon after they get zapped into one another’s bodies, the remixed family gathers in the kitchen and trades meta bon mots about the genre they’ve suddenly found themselves in. “No kid has ever woken up Big!” Wyatt (Noon) says in his father’s (Helms) body, referring to the classic 1988 Tom Hanks romp. 

20th Century Fox/Everett Collection

“It’s so Freaky!” Bill adds in his son’s. That’s Freaky Friday, for the Jamie Lee Curtis fans in the audience. 

Walt Disney/Everett Collection

“You’re telling me I’m 17 Again?” Jess (Garner) says from CC’s (Myers) mouth, a nod to the Zac Efron/Matthew Perry comedy. 

New Line/Everett Collection

“I’m 13 Going on 30!” Wyatt says, referencing the all-grown-up fantasy starring Garner herself, which is now streaming on Netflix. 

Columbia/Everett Collection

Was that… Weezer?

Yes! Bill’s garage band Dad or Alive is filled out by the members of Weezer, including Rivers Cuomo, Brian Bell, Scott Shriner, and Patrick Wilson. “I grew up on Weezer,” McG says. “The Blue Album blew my mind.” McG proposed the idea of the bandmates playing a role in the film, and the rest is history. 

As it turns out, Helms and the Weezer crew got along famously. “He is a great musician,” Bell tells Tudum. “He can shred the banjo. He can play bluegrass-style guitar, which just takes a lot of skill. And he's a really good singer.”

McG recalls the band bringing a different kind of energy to set when it came time to shoot their scenes. “Rivers just came from a two-week silence retreat and is Harvard-educated,” the director adds. “He’s a terribly introspective man of few words. And I’m out there freaking out and jumping up and down and overextending my welcome at all times. We were sort of the fire and the ice, if you will. It made for a perfectly agreeable cup of water.” Sounds like a line that wouldn’t be out of place in a Dad or Alive song.

Working on Family Switch got the band thinking: what would it be like if they switched bodies? “I think we’d be a lot more successful,” Cuomo deadpans. “Somehow I ended up being the front man, but Brian’s way cooler looking.” Sounds like the Weezer body-swap comedy we’ve all been waiting for. 

Colleen Hayes/Netlfix

Are there any other cameos?

Quite a few! Internet personalities Anwar Jibawi and Hannah Stocking pop up as Thunder and Lightning, and actor and rapper Benjamin Flores Jr. shows up in a corporate role. Soccer stars Ryann Torrero, Alyssa Thompson, and Gisele Thompson appear as a referee and the Switchblade Sisters, respectively. Real-life US soccer referee Karen Callado plays another referee. 

That’s not all: McG’s childhood friend Mark McGrath (frontman of Sugar Ray) makes a vocal cameo as a radio DJ. “Mark has been my best friend since we were 8 years old,” McG says. “We’ve never gone a week without talking to each other. I’m the godfather of his children, he’s the godfather to mine. And it just seemed natural.”

Colleen Hayes/Netlfix

What’s it like directing actors to play other actors?

It’s easy to get mixed up along with the characters in a movie like Family Switch — just reading the excerpt above might leave you a little discombobulated. “It’s tremendously confounding,” McG says of directing that type of scene. “You’re tracking the emotional arc of the character, but the character is embodied by two different people at different points in the film.” 

At any given moment in Family Switch, one member of the Walker family may be learning something about another, all while taking a literal walk in their shoes. Garner, for example, has to play both Jess and CC and reflect their generational conflict from both ends of the spectrum. “It was a bit of a brain teaser that we all got wrong on occasion,” McG says. “It was confounding but challenging and interesting, and you really have to map out what the arc of the son is, what the arc of the daughter is, what mom is going through, what dad is going through. So that was fun and confusing and kept us all on our toes.”

But at the end of the day, the message of Family Switch is much simpler than its occasionally complicated script. “It’s really about empathy,” McG says. “Seek first to understand, then be understood. It’s rarely the wrong tack to take instead of trying to bang into your son or daughter or wife or mother or anybody. Take a deep breath and try to understand the person with whom you’re speaking, where they’re coming from. It’ll lead to a better outcome.” It certainly does for the Walkers.

Family Switch is streaming on Netflix now.