History Film / MrsDoubtfire

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Daniel and Miranda remain divorced, but he is able to get unsupervised visitation rights. This was substituted for the original ending where they do get back together, which was opposed by Chris Columbus, Robin Williams, and Sally Field (all divorcees) who thought it would give false hope to children of divorced couples.]]

* IdiotBall: Miranda divorced her husband, whom she supposedly was well aware of his skill with voices and fast talking. Yet all these strange, surreal nannies responding to her ads never sets off an internal flag that her husband could be behind them.

* RuleOfFunny, HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: Daniel eventually gets the job as nanny using the voice of an elderly British woman after terrifying his ex-wife with a series of comically inept "applications". Yet, when he goes to be disguised as a woman, he then tries out several different looks (which call for quite different voices, including a Cuban woman and a Russian woman) first. This makes no sense and only happens due to Rule of Funny.
** Creator/RogerEbert even chides the film in his review that it stops in its tracks multiple times just to let Robin Williams do voices: five times (the opening scene, the job application, the nanny calls, the makeup chair, and the empty studio scene with the dinosaur models).
** However, most of the scenes are justified -- the nanny calls consist of Daniel impersonating various outlandish clients to make sure Miranda will take Mrs. Doubtfire after a string of weirdos, the make-up chair has him trying to match a voice to the make-up he's being given as they try to "create" Mrs. Doubtfire, and the studio scene demonstrates to his boss watching that he is an entertaining and energetic person and gets him a dinner meeting.
*** Daniel crank calling Miranda was taken from the original novel. However, without that Patented Robin Williams Wackiness (tm), the calls in the book aren't really all that funny. It pretty much boils down to, "I have two girls and a boy." "I don't like girls." Click. Second call, "I have two girls and a boy." "I don't like boys." Click.
*** The job application one is also semi-justified in that, well, it's what Daniel's character ''does'' for a living (or at least wants to do), and he's at an employment agency. He's basically trying to prove his chops as a voice actor. Yes, it might have been written in just to let Williams be funny, but it's supported by the character's entire background.

* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding: Daniel and Miranda remain divorced, but he is able to get unsupervised visitation rights. This was substituted for the original ending where they do get back together, which was opposed by Chris Columbus, Robin Williams, and Sally Field (all divorcees) who thought it would give false hope to children of divorced couples.]]

* [[spoiler: [[SecretKeeper Secret Keepers:]] Lydia and Chris become this to their father after Chris [[UnsettlingGenderReveal accidentally walks in on Mrs. Doubtfire in the bathroom.]]]]

* TheUnfairSex: Daniel is thrown out by Miranda after losing his job and forced to support himself at an entry position at a production company, while Miranda enjoys a large home, a successful job, and is ''dating'' only a couple months after the divorce. Miranda also brushes off Daniel's suggestions to help alleviate her stress, including marriage counselling, and mocks Daniel's initial suggestion that he be the housekeeper she's looking for, since he wants to spend more time with the kids. Despite this, both the film and the characters act as though the failed marriage was Daniel's fault, as due to the film focusing on his CharacterDevelopment, aside from his immaturity his many flaws come off as {{Informed Attribute}}s.

* TwoTimerDate

*** It wouldn't be that hard to get out of the dinner. All he had to do was call up Miranda the day of and say, "Oh I'm sorry my Dear, but the doctor says I've got a touch of duodenitis! Just a wee bacterial infection. No need to worry. Some bed rest and antibiotics and I'll be as good as new. Unfortunately I'm afraid I'll have to skip the dinner since it's quite contagious. Wouldn't want the little ones vomiting up blood, now would we?"

** Possibly justified though, since Miranda would probably not be very glowing about Daniel in talking about her divorce to Stu, making him feel like Daniel did wrong by her. It's less of a personal attack on Daniel but more of being upset that someone broke Miranda's heart. He also appears to be careful about ''not'' badmouthing Daniel in front of Miranda or the children

* IncrediblyLamePun: When the kids refuse to stop watching TV in favor of doing homework, Mrs. Doubtfire tosses the remote into a fish tank and remarks, "The only thing you'll be watching is 'Deep [[CNN Sea-N-N]]'."

* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Daniel when his fake breast gets on fire during the cooking scene.

* [[spoiler: SecretKeeper: Lydia and Chris become this to their father after Chris [[UnSettlingGenderReveal accidentally walks in on Mrs. Doubtfire in the bathroom.]]]]

* YouRemindMeOfX: Mrs. Doubtfire's humor reminds Miranda Hillard of her ex-husband's and for good reason.

** RogerEbert even chides the film in his review that it stops in its tracks multiple times just to let Robin Williams do voices: five times (the opening scene, the job application, the nanny calls, the makeup chair, and the empty studio scene with the dinosaur models).

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: It stars RobinWilliams, what did you expect?

''Mrs. Doubtfire'' is a 1993 family movie wherein RobinWilliams, after separating from his wife, [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdresses]] as an elderly British woman in order to see his kids again. It co-stars Sally Field, PierceBrosnan, Matthew Lawrence, and MaraWilson. It was directed by ChrisColumbus.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: [[TheHub The Hub's]] showing of the film takes scissors to everything from snippets of dialog to entire scenes. This trope understands it's a network aimed at kids but some of these edits make no sense. Dubbing over Frank saying "Bitch"? Perfectly understandable. Cutting the scene when Mrs. Doubtfire asserts her authority and makes the kids do chores because they won't do their homework? Hurts the film and makes the kids feel like props rather than characters. Oh and Miranda can't say "Hell" but "Lotsa luck, Smart Ass" was fine. [[SarcasmMode Makes perfect sense.]].

* Bowdlerise: [[TheHub The Hub's]] showing of the film takes scissors to everything from snippets of dialog to entire scenes. This trope understands it's a network aimed at kids but some of these edits make no sense. Dubbing over Frank saying "Bitch"? Perfectly understandable. Cutting the scene when Mrs. Doubtfire asserts her authority and makes the kids do chores because they won't do their homework? Hurts the film and makes the kids feel like props rather than characters. Oh and Miranda can't say "Hell" but "Lotsa luck, Smart Ass" was fine. [[SarcasmMode Makes perfect sense.]].

* Bowdlerise: [[TheHub The Hub's]] showing of the film takes scissors to everything from snippets of dialog to entire scenes. This trope understands it's a network aimed at kids but some of these edits make no sense. Dubbing over Frank saying "Bitch"? Perfectly understandable. when Mrs. Doubtfire asserts her authority and makes the kids do chores because they won't do their homework? Hurts the film and makes the kids feel like props rather than characters. Oh and Miranda can't say "Hell" but "Lotsa luck, Smart Ass" was fine. [[SarcasmMode Makes perfect sense.]].

Daniel Hillard (Williams) is a recently out of work actor, struggling to maintain his rocky marriage. One day, after going behind his wife's back and throwing a birthday party for his son, his wife, Miranda (Field), has had enough of his antics and divorces him. Only allowed to see his three kids once a week, Daniel tries to get a new job and shape up his life so that he may receive joint custody. However, he soon learns that Miranda is looking for a nanny to take care of the kids after school. Going to his make up artist brother, Daniel creates a disguise and takes on the persona of Mrs. Doubtfire, an elderly, strict English woman. He is quickly hired by his ex-wife and uses the opportunity to secretly spend time with his children. Things get more complicated, though, as Miranda starts dating an old friend, Stu (Brosnan).

* RealityEnsues: When Daniel is finally caught and forced to come before the judge, the judge tells him that if you want to prove yourself a competent, capable parent figure, dressing up like an elderly English nanny and posing as a housekeeper to defy court orders isn't going to help. Daniel ''did'' meet the judge's demands, ahead of schedule as he points out, but his behavior as Mrs Doubtfire did far more damage to his case than any of the good he did for it.

* YouFailFilmSchoolForever: The opening scene features Daniel recording for a cartoon. For the most part in the West voice recording for animation is done before the actual animating (Japan however animates then records). ChrisColumbus DID acknowledge this in his commentary and figured it could be taken as Daniel dubbing a foreign cartoon.
** Which doesn't make sense either as the lip-synch in the cartoon (produced by ChuckJones) is clearly English. Daniel is more than likely just doing post-production looping, either to just do touch ups on certain lines, or maybe [[TheOtherMarty Daniel replaced another actor,]] and is recording over the previous actor's work. Which makes sense from his conversation with the producer who complains that this session is already costing the studio and they're on a deadline.
** Also, you don't typically have a censor board overseeing the actual dubbing/recording of a cartoon... that would waste far too much of their time. (Maybe they were just there to hotbox inside the booth?)

* FakeBrit: [[invoked]] Daniel when in his Mrs. Doubtfire status.
** Which is {{Lampshaded}} by not-really Brit Pierce Brosnan (his character is, while Brosnan is Irish) when he first meets Mrs. Doubtfire. He immediately spots that "her" accent is a bit muddled. Mrs. Doubtfire {{Handwave}}s this by claiming to have moved around a lot.

* PlayingAgainstType: In-universe example: Daniel, the happy-go-lucky life of the party, has to play a strict, crotchety old disciplinarian.

* TheUnfairSex: Daniel is thrown out by Miranda after losing his job and forced to support himself at an entry position at a production company, while Miranda enjoys a large home, a successful job, and is ''dating'' only a couple months after the divorce. Miranda also brushes off Daniel's suggestions to help alleviate her stress, including marriage counselling, and mocks Daniel's initial suggestion that he be the housekeeper she's looking for, since he wants to spend more time with the kids. Despite this, both the film and the characters act as though the failed marriage was Daniel's fault.

* TheUnfairSex: Daniel is thrown out by Miranda after losing his job and forced to support himself at an entry position at a production company, while Miranda enjoys a large home, a successful job, and is ''dating'' only a couple months after the divorce. Miranda also brushes off Daniel's suggestions to help alleviate her stress, including marriage counselling, and mocks Daniel's initial suggestion that he be the housekeeper she's looking for, since he wants to spend more time with the kids. Despite this, both the film and the characters act as though the failed marriage was Daniel's fault.

* TheUnfairSex: While Daniel wants to work through their marital troubles, suggesting a vacation and ''marriage counseling'', and is shown to be willing to change and mature in order to please Miranda, by contrast she brushes his suggestions to help their marriage aside and declares it over. Then, in what is likely two months or less in the film's stated timeframe, she's already dating again while Daniel has to struggle and scrape at a low-end job and a small apartment and gets to spend far less time with their children than she does. However, all the characters and to some extent the story itself blame Daniel for the marriage's failure and a word is never said to Miranda.
** There is a moment where Daniel (as Mrs. Doubtfire) asks Miranda ''why'' she never explained to her husband why she was unhappy when she tells "Mrs. Doubtfire" about their troubles, possibly setting up a WhatTheHellHero speech, only for Miranda to brush it off saying that Daniel would never bother to take such things seriously. This scene is played as if the WhatTheHellHero has thusly been delivered to ''Daniel''... the guy who wanted to get counseling and seriously discuss the problems in their marriage.
** Considering Miranda's claim that Daniel never took such matters seriously, and considering Daniel's immaturity at the start of the film, it is possible Miranda and Daniel had tried to patch things up before, including counselling, but never found a long-term fix, which would make her behavior make more sense.
** She's played by Sally Field, queen of the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek. Doubtfire is just told from the husband's point of view.