Line #17 YMMV/MammaMia


1	* AccidentalInnuendo:
2	** After a round of fishing with Rosie, Bill tells her that he owns her published cookbook. Rosie responds, "Well then, you'll know how to pepper my snapper." This dialogue is only present in the stage musical, although it does appear in a deleted scene from the film, with the line slightly changed to "butter my snapper", making the innuendo even more obvious.
3	** In the stage musical, Harry tells Sam and Bill that he hopes to "get [his] tongue around a little Greek." After the two stare at him, he clarifies that he hopes to improve his Greek language skills. The licensed script makes no indication that Sam and Bill should react to the remark, and as a result, even many amateur productions don't notice the innuendo.
4	* AdaptationDisplacement: In a similar vein to ''Theatre/{{Grease}}'', the film is far more popular than the original stage musical, despite being in its seventh year on Broadway (and its tenth on the West End) at the time of its release, along with several international productions. The film is so much more popular that many people think the stage version is a ScreenToStageAdaptation, not the other way around. The stage version did gain some popularity following the 2017 Hollywood Bowl production and when licensing for amateur and school productions became available in 2018, but still not as much as the film. Unlike ''Grease'', the ''Mamma Mia!'' stage musical was never revised to incorporate differences or additional songs from the movie.
5	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
6	** Is Donna something of an AttentionWhore? For her daughter's hen night she arranges a performance by... herself.
7	** In the original West End production, Donna was played by Irish actress Siobhán [=McCarthy=]. When Donna's mother found out about Donna's pregnancy, was she simply engaging in some period-typical SlutShaming by disowning her daughter, or was she being CruelToBeKind by telling Donna not to come home because returning to Ireland as an unwed mother in the 1970s could have meant being coerced into giving Sophie up for adoption?
8	*** Or was it because, as we learn in the second film Donna's mother Ruby also had lost her lover and raised Donna on her own and didn't want to watch her struggle as she had?
9	* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail:
10	** Bjorn Ulvaeus was hesitant about bringing the musical to Broadway due to the embarrassing failure of his and Benny's previous musical venture, ''Theatre/{{Chess}}''. It ended up being an immediate hit with audiences, especially due to opening very shortly after 9/11.
11	** When starting work on the film, Judy Cramer was warned that a film would not rile up audiences the same way the stage show does. When the film opened, the majority of reviews were negative, which led to the creative team feeling disappointed... until they saw the box office results.
12	* AwardSnub:
13	** The musical was nominated for five Tonys and won zero. It was up against Broadway hits ''Theatre/ThoroughlyModernMillie'' and ''Theatre/{{Urinetown}}'', both of which beat ''Mamma Mia!'' in all five categories (''Millie'' in four, including Best Musical, and ''Urinetown'' for Best Book).
14	** At the Laurence Olivier Awards, ''Mamma Mia!'' lost Best New Musical to ''Honk!'', a show that hasn't seen nearly as much success compared to ''Mamma Mia!'' and fellow nominee ''Theatre/TheLionKing''. Jenny Galloway's performance as Rosie did manage to win the show one award out of its four nominations (one of which was in the same category for Louise Plowright's performance as Tanya).
15	** Neither the film nor its sequel received any Oscar nominations. This wasn't helped by the fact that none of the films' songs are eligible since they already exist as ABBA songs. Benny and Bjorn briefly considered adding an original song to the first film for this reason, but decided against it.
16	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
17	** The overture. Especially the version heard in actual performances, which includes an extended "Mamma Mia" melody shortly before the transition to the prologue. Almost all cast recordings cut this part.
18	** Creator/MerylStreep actually won an award for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN6ZMsnB_2E her rendition]] of "Mamma Mia".
19	** She also did "The Winner Takes It All" in one take.
20	** Current West End Donna's Mazz Murray's take on "Winner" has also been universally praised, and she has performed it in multiple revues. Murray also recorded an album of acoustic ''Mamma Mia!'' covers.
21	** Sophie singing "Honey, Honey" in the opening scene is quite fun and catchy.
22	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
23	** For many people, Skye, due to being probably the least entertaining personality in the movie. For others, he's a fine UnderstandingBoyfriend who does what the movie needs him to do.
24	** For others, Sophie, for her utter stupid plan in order to determine who her father is, so he can walk her down the aisle... which not only ends up going nowhere, but it's rendered useless TWICE by Sophie herself, first with her asking her mother to walk her instead and then by deciding not to get married at all. For those people, Skye's frustration with Sophie, who's shown herself to be an arrogant, self-involved dimwit, is perfectly understandable. For others, however, choose to interpret that many people who grow up without their dad can be desperate to have the knowledge of him, and to meet him, and also can be very indecisive. So, while people might find Sophie irritating, it is understandable why she's the way she is. The very fact that she ''does'' ask her mother to walk her down the aisle (since Donna was the parent who actually raised her), then realizes she's not ready to get married after all, ''and'' that she's content in the end not to know which man is her father, can be seen as positive CharacterDevelopment.
25	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The "Under Attack" number. It involves Sophie's bed being wheeled around the stage by Sam, Bill, and Harry in checkered tuxedos and top hats, backed by the ensemble dressed in neon-colored swimwear and gloves. Donna also appears in a black version of her Dynamos jumpsuit (with neon-colored trim to match the ensemble) and is caressed by the men as Sophie is forced to watch. The dads then walk Sky in a wedding dress across the stage while Sophie is grabbed, lifted, and jostled by the ensemble. Lord knows how this number would have looked if the film kept it.
26	* EndingFatigue:
27	** There are three musical numbers after the plot is wrapped up, plus the first portion of the end credits has two more songs. Amusingly, this opened in the U.S. the same day as ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', which also had trouble wrapping up.
28	** The stage version ends this way as well, but "Take a Chance On Me" occurs ''before'' the wedding, and "When All is Said and Done" doesn't occur at all.
29	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Epic Stick Lady during "Dancing Queen" in the film.
30	* FandomEnragingMisconception: Fans of the stage show will give you the stink eye if you imply that "the original ''Mamma Mia!''" is the movie, or if you say that "the original Sophie" is Amanda Seyfried, rather than Lisa Stokke (West End) or Tina Maddigan (North America), or comparing a stage Sophie's performance to Seyfried.
31	* FridgeBrilliance:
32	** Going off the genetics of hair colour, [[spoiler:Bill]] is most likely to be Sophie's father, as confirmed by WordOfGod, because he's the only blond of Sophie's three possible fathers[[note]]Stellan Skarsgård's hair is naturally brown but has lightened with age; in the film sequel, Josh Dylan as young Bill is the only blond of the three[[/note]]. Indeed, Donna [[spoiler:only shows signs of pregnancy in the flashbacks set after she sleeps with Bill]], which once again makes him the prime candidate to be Sophie's father.
33	** It's also implied that Donna might be lying about not knowing who Sophie's actual father was, since [[spoiler:Bill]] commented that he thought his great-aunt who Donna had taken care of before she died had left her money to family. [[spoiler:Because, of course, she ''did''.]] It seems rather unlikely that the great-aunt at least didn't figure it out eventually, though Donna might have been in denial. Of course, whether Donna would be in a situation to find out about the recessive trait of blonde hair is up for grabs as well.
34	** As far as the movie goes, if [[spoiler:Bill]] is Sophie’s father that means that she, just like the show itself, [[spoiler:is of Swedish descent]]. Somewhat hilariously though, [[spoiler:in the Swedish production of the show Bill is a Norwegian named Terje]].
35	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
36	** While the musical closed on Broadway in 2015, it is still continuing a successful run in London's West End today, and has a significant fan following among European theatre fans, compared to those in America, even when the Broadway production was running. Most Broadway fans deemed the show as tourist fodder that was only successful because of its opening shortly after 9/11, and criticized the show for its thin plot; even people who worked at the Winter Garden during the run have stated that they could not stand the show.
37	** While the film was a moderate success in the US, it did extremely well in Europe, and at the time of its release was the highest grossing movie ever in the United Kingdom, and is one of the top-selling [=DVDs=] of all time in that country. In 2008, 1 in every 4 UK households had a copy.
38	** It actually ''did'' outgross ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' in ABBA's native country, Sweden.
39	* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct:
40	** Creator/AmandaSeyfried surprised a lot of people by her ability to sing. In fact, one of the reasons she was cast was because she could pull off a high note during "I Have a Dream" ("I believe in angels..."). Her performance here would later be heavily credited for earning her the role of Cosette in the film adaptation of ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' four years later.
41	** Meryl Streep may have been nearing sixty at the time she filmed this movie, but she knocks ''"The Winner Takes It All"'' out of the park and into the stratosphere!
42	* HilariousInHindsight:
43	** An unauthorized French production of the stage musical in 2007 opted to cut "Our Last Summer" and replace it with "Waterloo", still sung by Harry and Donna as they recall when they met in Paris. 11 years later in ''Film/MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain'', they would end up singing this song together in a Paris restaurant on the day they met.
44	** Two out of three of Donna's exes/Sophie's possible fathers turned out to be TuxedoAndMartini agents. Pierce Brosnan was previously Film/JamesBond and Creator/ColinFirth would become one in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService''. While Stellan Skarsgard didn't play an agent, he played Dr. Erik Selvig in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, who works for the secret agency SHIELD in ''Film/{{The Avengers\|2012}}''.
45	* MemeticMutation: A soundbite from the scene in the film where Bill gasps at finding out that Sophie is 20 years old (meaning she was conceived around the time he met Donna) became a viral [=TikTok=] sound, being used in memes about age differences.
46	* {{Narm}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvTEvmhnAMk Pierce Brosnan's]] singing. Oh God, [[NeverLiveItDown Pierce Brosnan's singing]]. Creator/MarkKermode was not inaccurate in calling it the closest you'll ever get to seeing major Hollywood actors doing drunken karaoke.
47	* NarmCharm: The ladies in full getup after the movie's fully over? Alright, you can take that with a giggle or two, as the ladies ''do'' actually pull the getup off quite well. But when the GUYS come out in costume for "Waterloo"? Oh dear God.
48	** This is a hold over from the stage show, where the ladies playing Donna, Rosie and Tanya come onto the stage at the end in the full get up and perform "Dancing Queen." The guys playing Bill, Harry and Sam then come on in the same full get up as well for a rendition of "Waterloo" for everyone's final bows. Then the [[EndingFatigue show finally ends.]]
49	* QuestionableCasting:
50	** So, what is Creator/MerylStreep doing in a musical? [[SoMyKidsCanWatch She went to see the stage show with her daughter for her eleventh birthday and got kinda hooked on the idea.]] Also, one critic commented once on how she keeps touching her face and using her expressions mostly for acting, which makes it seem as if she's just a head. One journalist in Israel asked her if she was trying to prove she has a body as well, and Streep replied this might have been the case. She had also starred in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Y15Crljk4 a stage musical of "Alice in Wonderland"]] years earlier.
51	** A better example would be Creator/PierceBrosnan, who is clearly out of his depth in the musical sections. Clearly he was cast to be swooned over rather than listened to.
52	* RetroactiveRecognition:
53	** Lisa Stokke, London's original Sophie, would later be known for voicing Elsa in the Norwegian dub of ''Franchise/{{Frozen}}''.
54	** The movie was made before Creator/DominicCooper became well known for playing [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Howard Stark]].
55	** Juan Pablo di Pace, better known as Kimmy Gibbler's ex-husband Fernando in ''Series/FullerHouse'', is the man who Harry falls in love with.
56	* SugarWiki/RuleOfSeanConnery: For many viewers, Meryl Streep's presence -- and acting skills - transform the movie from merely barely tolerable to actually quite enjoyable, provided much WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is applied.
57	* SoBadItsGood:
58	** Creator/PierceBrosnan's singing, which led to one of two reactions in the cinema - either people laughing their heads off, or putting their fingers in their ears, and a lot of jokes afterwards.
59	** Stellan Skarsgård's isn't much better, but at least there's far less of it, and Skarsgård plays his (musical) performance mostly for laughs rather than drama.
60	** "Lay All Your Love on Me" and "Does Your Mother Know?" are also entertainingly cheesy scenes.
61	** Creator/MarkKermode highlighted this in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61UolzFTVPI his review]]. He claimed that it was so utterly 'head-between-the-knees' terrible that he actually ''enjoyed'' it.
62	* TearJerker: ''Two'' moments right in succession: Donna singing "Slipping Through My Fingers" while getting Sophie ready for the wedding and "The Winner Takes It All" sung by Donna to Sam a few moments later.

Context YMMV / MammaMia