YMMV / The Parent Trap (1961)

• Adaptation Displacement: Most viewers aren’t aware this film was based on Lottie and Lisa, a German novel published in 1949.
• Broken Base: Viewers are split over the twins' plan. Numerous parodies and deconstructions find it unrealistic and that the majority of divorced couples don't usually get back together. On the other hand, some fans point out that some do get back together and the movie leaves plenty of Foreshadowing that the parents still feel something for each other.
• Common Knowledge: A lot of fans forget that the twins' plan isn't initially to get their parents back together. They just want to get to know the respective parent they've never lived with. The plan also doesn't come into action until after the twins have a discussion about how neither of their parents ever came close to getting married again. So the twins are aware from the start that there's a possibility they wouldn't get back together.
• Designated Villain: While Vicki may be an unsympathetic character, at the same time she is only viewed as a "villain" by the girls, simply because she gets in the way of their plan to reunite their parents. Plus, she really didn't deserve the last prank the girls pulled on her (by covering her feet in honey), which really could have killed her — which makes her understandably furious. And while much is made of Vicki being a gold digger, no one ever seems to call out Mitch for being a much older man marrying a younger woman, or for failing to mention to the woman he intends to marry that he was previously married and has another daughter; Vicki is justifiably not pleased when she finds out the truth. On the other hand the film does establish early on that she only wants to marry Mitch for his money and she remarks to her own mother about her plans to ship Sharon and Susan off to boarding school.
• First Installment Wins:
  • The Hayley Mills version had three made-for-Disney Channel sequels, the last one coming just nine years before the Lindsay Lohan version. Anyone remember them? Today, they're relics of when the Disney Channel was intended more to cash in on classic Disney nostalgia; it was only over time that it morphed into a source of original kid-friendly content. The third and fourth Parent Trap movies seem especially obscure now; The Parent Trap II at least has a DVD bundle with the original.
  • On the other hand, whether you're more familiar with the Hayley Mills version or the Lindsay Lohan version will probably depend a lot on how old you are. The first VHS and DVD of the latter explicitly called it a remake on the back cover, while the newer DVD case does not.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the Animated Credits Opening, the father reads a newspaper with the Celebrity Paradox headline, "Walt Disney Named Manager of the Angels". From 1997-2005, the Disney company indeed owned the baseball team with the same name.
• Love to Hate: Joanna Barnes makes the evil girlfriend so hilariously over the top that she's usually some of the highlights of the movie.
• Retroactive Recognition: A young Dave Goelz appears as an extra.
• Signature Song: "Let's Get Together" has proven more iconic than the other two songs, to the extent that it became the only one reprised in the remake.
• Special Effects Failure: When Susan and Maggie are walking after their picnic, it's extremely obvious that they're walking in place in front of a sodium vapor screen.
• Squick: When Sharon and Susan are looking through the latter's scrapbook, they come to a portrait of an older man and Sharon asks who it is. Susan's response? "That's my dad. Isn't he dreamy?" Yeah, that's not disturbing at all!
• Values Dissonance: The idea that parents who broke up in a divorce should get back together, no matter how much they fight, is odd to 21st century society (but quite familiar to mid-20th century American one). The relationship between the parents in the Hayley Mills version seems a little abusive by modern standards.

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