* AllStarCast: Creator/ElijahWood, Creator/BruceWillis, Creator/JasonAlexander, Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus, Creator/JonLovitz, Creator/DanAykroyd, Music/RebaMcEntire, Creator/KathyBates...
* BillingDisplacement: Creator/JonLovitz gets second billing despite having more of a lesser supporting role.
* BoxOfficeBomb: The film only earned $7,182,747 against a $40 million budget, being dwarfed by ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', ''Film/ForrestGump'', and Jim Carrey's own comedy ''Film/TheMask'' (which was released the week after ''North'' and distributed by that movie's production company New Line Cinema), among others.
* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
** ''The Perfect Child'' (Denmark)
** ''Parents Wanted'' (Italy/Greece)
** ''Home, Sweet Home'' (Israel)
** ''The Guardian Angel'' (Brazil)
** ''Talk About Mischief'' (Sweden)
* ColbertBump: Outside of Creator/RogerEbert's famous review of the film ([[BeamMeUpScotty "I hated hated hated this movie"]]), the movie probably would not as be as well-known today had WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic not reviewed it.
* CreatorKiller: Surprisingly, Creator/RobReiner's career as a director recovered from this cinematic fiasco the following year with ''Film/TheAmericanPresident''; that said, the film derailed Reiner's critical hot streak that he'd had since ''Film/ThisIsSpinalTap'', and he has not had a critical hit since ''President'' (and only one box office hit with ''Film/TheBucketList''). The only careers this film might have permanently destroyed are that of writers Alan Zweibel ([[https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/roger-and-me who had some words on the matter]]) and Andrew Scheinman, the former of whom also did not do another film until the end of the 90's (in Scheinman's case, it didn't help that 1994 also saw his directorial debut, the even bigger flop ''Film/LittleBigLeague'').
* CrossDressingVoices: In the Japanese dub, the titular protagonist is voiced by Creator/MayumiTanaka, while Winchel is voiced by Creator/AkikoYajima.
* FakeAmerican: Canadian Creator/DanAykroyd plays Pa Tex, who is (as his name implies) Texan.
* InspirationForTheWork:
** [[https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/roger-and-me Alan Zweibel said]] that by seeing his son "looking across the dinner table at my wife, Robin, and me, and from the expression on his face you could tell he was thinking, 'I can do better than these two.'" he decided to write a book about a boy wanting to get new parents.
** Reiner wanted to create a touching, personal fable; his very own ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: This movie's notoriety convinced Sony to try everything in its power to [[BuryYourArt keep it from getting released on DVD]]. This meant that one had to rely on the VHS release and the occasional television broadcasts just to get their hands on the movie. After almost two decades, Sony finally relented to pleas from preservationists and released it on DVD as part of the Sony Pictures Choice Collection manufacture-on-demand (MOD) line in 2012, followed five years later by a MOD Blu-ray.
* MagnumOpusDissonance: Reiner considered this to be his SpiritualSuccessor to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' while it was in production. However, many fans thought that Reiner had already made such a movie [[Film/ThePrincessBride several years earlier]].
* SelfAdaptation: Alan Zweibel, the author of the book the movie is based on, also wrote the screenplay.
* ShootTheMoney: Creator/DanAykroyd and Music/RebaMcEntire appear as the [[EverythingIsBigInTexas stereotypical Texan family]], and sing the film's only song, a parody of the ''{{Series/Bonanza}}'' theme song, despite ''North'' not being a musical (and despite ''Bonanza'' actually being set in '''Nevada'''). [[spoiler:And it's also possibly {{foreshadowing}} since the movie's AllJustADream.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/JohnCandy was originally signed on to play as Pa Tex, but had to drop out for scheduling reasons.
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