History YMMV / CheaperByTheDozen

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!!Book

!!2003 film
* AdaptationDisplacement: There's a book. That's right, there is a book called ''Cheaper By The Dozen''. And it actually got a film adaptation ''before'' the famous 2003 one.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Is Tom selfish for having accepted a job opportunity that required them to move to a new city and into a new house away from everything they have grown up with and away from their friends and neighbors? Or did he genuinely believe accepting the offer and the job would benefit not just himself, but their entire family for the better in the long run and received no thanks for it?
** Is the children's reckless behavior around the house after the move justified due to having been required to give up everything to support their dad's choice? Or are they a bunch of {{Ungrateful Bastard}}s who refused to make the best of it and instead elected to express their disapproval through selfish rebellion?
** Hank: is he just a silly guy who needs to bring his ego down several notches and understand kids aren't as bad as he thinks, or a fullout Jerkass who deserved what he got?
** Charles: just your typical teenager facing real issues such as bullies and separation from his girlfriend, or a moody Jerkass who is rude and ungrateful to his father (going as far as to go off about Tom's competitive relationship in high school with his boss, whom Charles is barely ever ''near'') does a poor job dealing with bullied, doesn't care about his siblings, and only apologizes once he knows his father will admit he was right?
* AngstWhatAngst: Dylan is ''much'' too peppy after just having his arm broken when his birthday party goes awry. And it's all PlayedForLaughs.
* DesignatedVillain: Nora's boyfriend Hank. He isn't fond of children, and appears to be quite awkward around them. This of course makes him a bad person, and we're supposed to find it funny when the kids play pranks on him that could seriously hurt him. In the film they trick him into tripping into a pool to make him take off his clothes to dry off, then soak his underwear in hamburger meat and sic their dog on him (which borders on sexual assault), and he claims that in the past they've ''set him on fire''. The parents make a show of disciplining the kids but otherwise don't seem to think too much of this, and even Nora brushes off how they set him on fire. While Hank ''is'' a self-absorbed {{Jerkass}}, he never actually treats the kids badly or does anything to warrant such cruelty from them other than being someone they dislike.
%%* DracoInLeatherPants: Hank.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: A meta example. Most of the cast [[https://youtu.be/O6GH2ETIrZc reunited]] in 2020 to do the "[[Music/SimplePlan I'm Just a Kid]]" challenge on [=TikTok=] for No Kid Hungry, reenacting scenes from the film.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** Given the overlap in demographics between ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' and ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the scene with Creator/JaredPadalecki and Creator/TomWelling can be quite funny to watch. Plus, given that Ackles was on ''Smallville'' at the time...
** This wouldn't be the last time Creator/LilianaMumy [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse would be part of a large family]] [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries or even had to deal with one]].
** The fact that ''Loud House'' regulars Liliana Mumy (Leni Loud) and Creator/AlysonStoner (Sam Sharp) are in the films is even funnier since Andre Robinson, Clyde's second voice actor from that same show, shows up in the 2022 film.
* InformedWrongness: Tom moved his entire family to Chicago to take his dream job as a leading football coach, and the crux of the film's plot is the difficulty of the kids adjusting to the change and wanting to go home. While it's understandable the kids would be upset having to deal with such a huge change to their lives, Tom has perfectly good reasons for how his decision will benefit all of them -- they move into a much larger house where everyone has their own room, he makes a lot more money so the kids won't need to wear each other's hand-me-downs anymore, they'll be able to save up for a new car, and as an employee of university the kids will all get free tuition if they choose to attend. Tom also mentions he's turned down numerous other jobs over the years because he didn't want to uproot the family, and he's doing it now because it's his dream job he's always wanted. Despite this the kids see him as a traitor who has ruined their lives.
* MoralEventHorizon: Hank refusing to help Nora search for Mark as he is too busy watching his latest commercial which just happens to be on TV. While he may not have been actively malicious towards any of her siblings, his selfishness in that moment understandably leads to the two breaking up.
* NauseaFuel: One of the twins puking on the floor, only for Henry to slip and fall into the mess before also throwing up in disgust.
* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/AlysonStoner and Creator/LilianaMumy played two of the younger children before going on to [[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb other]] [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse things]].
** Creator/JaredPadalecki plays Charlie's bully before playing Sam in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.
** Dax Shepard plays one of the technicians working for ''Series/TheOprahWinfreyShow'' in the film.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Bud [=McNulty=] in the sequel looks a lot like Hank, even if he's nicer.
* TastesLikeDiabetes: The ending of the first movie. So sugary sweet that you'll end up getting cavities.
* TearJerker: The treatment of Mark, as well as the death of his frog that no one really cares about.
** Kate mentioning growing up without her only sister who passed when she was still young.
** Two moments in one. Immediately after the ExiledToTheCouch moment between Kate and Tom, Jessica appears in her dressing gown and asks Tom if he and Kate are going to divorce, due to the arguing between them ever since Kate arrived home. Tom wordlessly picks her up and hugs her. Then Kate appears and reveals Mark has run away. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is Mark's note, which reads "Big families stink!!!" Shows just how unhappy and overshadowed Mark felt he was.
** Nora's relationship with Hank; Sure, he may have been a {{Jerkass}}, but there is a sad moment where Nora is finally forced to second-guess her relationship with him, when he finally admits he dreads the prospect of having children. On one end, [[JerkassHasAPoint he says this in plain view of the massive brawl going on among Nora's siblings during the filming of the Oprah segment]], but then he says to her "Honey you can't want this, that's why you're with me!" After her borderline obsession with Hank, the look Nora gives him at this remark shows that she's genuinely taken aback by this and already rethinking her relationship with him. The final straw comes when he refuses to help her in finding Mark after he runs away later that night.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Not a plot, per se, but after the movie theater scene in the second film, we're only shown how Sarah reacts to her father's embarrassment. One could wonder how Eliot felt about his father embarrassing him, since it is never shown.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The children (Save for Nora, Lorraine, Mark, and possibly Charlie), as we're supposed to feel sorry for the fact that they've been forced to move to a strange town away from everything they loved back in the country, but their aggressive antics have both their parents struggling to focus on their jobs and their father on the verge of being fired, with their expensive and enormous house frequently falling into disrepair because of their destructive acts while also sparking fights at school. Not once do they consider the needs of their parents or the good points about their new home, even humiliating them both by ruining a televised segment that was to star them all as one big family. The fact that their actions eventually forced their father to give up his dream job doesn't help their case.
** Tom himself, especially in the sequel. He comes off less as wanting to spend time with his kids and more as a helicopter parent who can't stand that his kids are trying to have their own lives (see: Him crashing Sarah's first date for literally no reason except for him being overprotective)
* ValuesDissonance:
** When the mother leaves the children with their father for the duration of a short work-related trip, everything goes to hell due to the father's [[BumblingDad inability to take care of his family]]. The ending has her realize her mistake and promise never to leave the children again. This is a bit jarring to viewers from cultures where women are expected to work and fathers are expected to participate in childcare. (It's also the exact opposite of the original book, where much of the entertainment value came from the father's many unique and amazing methods of organizing the family's life to make it run smoother. Which worked. Of course, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gilbreth him being a workplace management researcher and everything]].)
** In the sequel, Tom shows Jimmy "the move" when he notices Jimmy's son Elliot putting his arm around Tom's daughter Sarah when they are watching a movie. They promptly get MistakenForGay and several people make comments about them, often disapprovingly. In today's society, playing homosexuality for laughs would be completely unacceptable today.
%%* TheWoobie: [[RedHeadedStepchild Mark]] is portrayed this way.

!!2005 Sequel
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Who's that familiar-looking actor playing Eliot Murtagh? Why, it's a young Creator/TaylorLautner, about four years before he would become known as Jacob Black in ''[[Film/{{Twilight}} New Moon]]''.
** One of the Murtaghs is played by Creator/RobbieAmell.

** It can also clash with the values of some people that stereotype people with way too many kids as welfare-drains. While the Bakers don't seem to have any trouble providing for twelve kids, Tina does subscribe to the theory that no one should have twelve kids.

** The fact that ''Loud House'' regulars Liliana Mumy and Creator/AlysonStoner are even in these two films is even funnier since the 2022 film brings another former ''Loud House'' veteran: Andre Robinson. (Ironically, he voiced an only kid on that show who is best friends with a member of a huge family, and in this film he's playing a member of a huge family.)

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The children (Save for Nora, Lorraine and possibly Charlie), as we're supposed to feel sorry for the fact that they've been forced to move to a strange town away from everything they loved back in the country, but their aggressive antics have both their parents struggling to focus on their jobs and their father on the verge of being fired, with their expensive and enormous house frequently falling into disrepair because of their destructive acts while also sparking fights at school. Not once do they consider the needs of their parents or the good points about their new home, even humiliating them both by ruining a televised segment that was to star them all as one big family. The fact that their actions eventually forced their father to give up his dream job doesn't help their case.

* WhatAnIdiot: Tom, when he's looking for babysitters. At least three of the kids still at home (Charlie, Lorraine, and Henry) don't need a babysitter. He also forgets that Nora is living on her own. So he really should've been looking for someone to watch ''eight'' kids instead of 12.

** Nora's relationship with Hank; Sure, he may have been a {{Jerkass}}, but there is a sad moment where Nora is finally forced to secondguess her relationship with him, when he finally admits he dreads the prospect of having children. On one end, [[JerkassHasAPoint he says this in plain view of the massive brawl going on among Nora's siblings during the filming of the Oprah segment]], but then he says to her "Honey you can't want this, that's why you're with me!" After her borderline obsession with Hank, the look Nora gives him at this remark shows that she's genuinely taken aback by this and already rethinking her relationship with him. The final straw comes when he refuses to help her in finding Mark after he runs away later that night.

* MoralEventHorizon: Hank refusing to help Nora search for Mark as he is too busy watching his latest commercial which just happens to be on TV. While he may not have been actively malicious towards any of her siblings, his selfishness in that moment understandably leads to the two of them breaking up.

* DesignatedVillain:
** Nora's boyfriend Hank. He isn't fond of children, and appears to be quite awkward around them. This of course makes him a bad person, and we're supposed to find it funny when the kids play pranks on him that could seriously hurt him. In the film they trick him into tripping into a pool to make him take off his clothes to dry off, then soak his underwear in hamburger meat and sic their dog on him (which borders on sexual assault), and he claims that in the past they've ''set him on fire''. The parents make a show of disciplining the kids but otherwise don't seem to think too much of this, and even Nora brushes off how they set him on fire. While Hank ''is'' a self-absorbed {{Jerkass}}, he never actually treats the kids badly or does anything to warrant such cruelty from them other than being someone they dislike.

** Nora's boyfriend Hank. He isn't fond of children, and appears to be quite awkward around them. This of course makes him a bad person, and we're supposed to find it funny when the kids play pranks on him that could seriously hurt him. In the film they trick him into tripping into a pool to make him take off his clothes to dry off, then soak his underwear in hamburger meat and sic their dog on him, and he claims that in the past they've ''set him on fire''. The parents make a show of disciplining the kids but otherwise don't seem to think too much of this, and even Nora brushes off how they set him on fire. While Hank ''is'' a self-absorbed {{Jerkass}}, he never actually treats the kids badly or does anything to warrant such cruelty from them other than being someone they dislike.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Hank.

* TheWoobie: [[RedHeadedStepchild Mark]] is portrayed this way.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Who's that familiar-looking actor playing Eliot Murtagh? Why, it's a young Creator/TaylorLautner, about four years before he would become known as Jacob Black in ''[[Film/{{Twilight}} New Moon]]''.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: A meta example. Most of the cast [[https://youtu.be/O6GH2ETIrZc reunited]] in 2020 to do the "[[Music/SimplePlan I'm Just a Kid]]" challenge on TikTok for No Kid Hungry, reenacting scenes from the film.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: A meta example. Most of the cast [[https://youtu.be/O6GH2ETIrZc reunited]] in 2020 to do the "[[Music/SimplePlan I'm Just a Kid]]" challenge on Creator/{{TikTok}} for No Kid Hungry, renacting scenes from the film.

* HeartwarmingMoments: A meta example. Most of the cast [[https://youtu.be/O6GH2ETIrZc reunited]] in 2020 to do the "[[Music/SimplePlan I'm Just a Kid]]" challenge on Website/{{TikTok}} for No Kid Hungry, renacting scenes from the film.