History Film / TheParentTrap

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/03_11_8324.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:It's Creator/HayleyMills... and Creator/HayleyMills!]]

->''"Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah!"''

''The Parent Trap'' is a 1961 Creator/{{Disney}} live-action film that starred Creator/HayleyMills. It yielded three sequels which are hard to fit into one continuity (and are [[FirstInstallmentWins pretty much forgotten about]]) and also a [[Film/TheParentTrap1998 1998 remake]] that starred Creator/LindsayLohan in her feature film debut.

Twin sisters Sharon and Susan have been separated nearly at birth when their parents, Mitch and Maggie, divorced. The year their father is considering remarrying, the sisters meet each other at summer camp. On meeting, they plot to get their parents back together, a plot that involves each pretending to be the other. HilarityEnsues.

The movie is based on a 1949 book, ''[[Literature/LottieAndLisa Das doppelte Lottchen]]''.

In the 1980s, Hayley Mills played Sharon and Susan as adults in three made-for-TV sequels. In ''The Parent Trap II'', Sharon was the parent entrapped by her own daughter; in ''Parent Trap III'', it was Susan's turn. ''Parent Trap: Hawaiian Honeymoon'' was a direct sequel to ''III'' featuring Susan and her new family (including identical triplet daughters).
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!! ''The Parent Trap'' provides examples of:

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the original book, the father's fiancée is clearly an unsympathetic antagonist, but hardly a villain -- she seemed to genuinely like the girls' father (even if attracted to his fame as well), wanted to have her own children with him and only planned to get rid of his daughter (by sending her to boarding school) after the latter came to her house to openly object to their marriage. The fiancée didn't actually get to do anything villainous. However, in the movie she's portrayed as ChildHater and GoldDigger (in the original, she's in fact much richer than her would-be husband) who WouldHurtAChild.
* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The girls being identical twins is what allows them to pull the switch off.
* AllJustADream: At the end, when Mitch and Margaret rekindle their romance, Sharon wakes up from her sleep claiming to her sister Susan that she had a crazy dream about their parents getting married and the twins were the bridesmaids dressed in matching clothes. It's then all revealed to be a premonition as the twins do attend their parent's wedding dressed as matching bridesmaids before the end credits roll.
* AnimatedCreditsOpening: With stop-motion.
* ArmorPiercingSlap:
** The twins give one to each other just before grabbing each other and escalating into a physical fight at the summer camp.
** Having had enough of Mitch and his twins, Vicky slaps one of the twins across her face telling her to give her sister the other half. This makes Mitch call Vicky out for her actions just before she breaks up with him.
* ArtisticLicenseMusic: Hayley Mills is not moving her fingers when playing guitar Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Then on "Let's Get Together" her strumming does not match the music (in addition to not moving her fingers).
* BelligerentSexualTension: Mitch and Margaret when they're reunited by the twins.
* BettyAndVeronica: Margaret is the Betty to Vicky's Veronica over the Archie, Margaret's ex and Vicky's fiancé Mitch.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: The step-mom-to-be is a sheep to the dad, and a bitch to everyone else.
* BondingOverMissingParents: Leads to Susan and Sharon realizing that they each have the other's missing parent and that they're sisters.
* BookEnds: The film opens with the song "Togetherness" and ends with the song playing at film's end during the twins parent's wedding.
* ButtMonkey: The fiancée Vicky who gets easily tricked by the twins into thinking there's mountain lions and scaring them away with sticks would help, has her bug spray swapped with sugar and water to attract mosquitoes, has her backpack filled with heavy rocks, tricked into taking a drink of water where a lizard is, accidentally falls into deep water and wakes up to find bear cubs licking honey from her feet. The last of which really sets her off.
* TheCameo: The father's golf caddy is played by Creator/JohnMills, Hayley Mills's real-life father.
* CelebrityCrush: Susan reveals to Sharon that her celebrity crush is Ricky Nelson after she helps her with her room posters.
* ChildHater: Vicky, the father's new fiancée.
* CityMouse: Vicky, who's really out of her element on the family camping trip.
* ColonelBogeyMarch: The other girls at the camp whistle this as the twins are escorted to the Isolation Cabin.
* ComedyOfRemarriage: To a large extent, due to {{Disneyfication}}.
* CoolOldGuy: The grandfather. To the characters who need it the most, he's supportive and easy to talk to. He ensures others get the support and space they need, and it's partly because of this that things turn out all right in the end.
%%* CoolOldGuy: Dr. Mosby, the preacher. He is utterly charmed by Maggie. %%ZCE -- how is he cool?
* CoordinatedClothes: The twins wear matching outfits several times, sometimes to confuse the others about which twin is which.
* CouldSayItBut: The Evers' housekeeper, a flagrant busybody, often concludes her gossip with "But I'm not saying a word, not one single word".
* CoversAlwaysLie: The [[http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:5193MGB6N8L.jpg case]] of the Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo[=/=]Vault Disney Collection DVD seems to place ''too'' much emphasis on the parents, to the extent that the movie seems more like an oddly-titled adult romance than a kid-centric comedy.
* DisappearedDad: Sharon has been growing up without a father.
* {{Disneyfication}}: The original story was far more serious -- the father was distant, the mother was a wreck, and one twin falls ill.
* DisposableFiancee: Vicky is, unusually for the female version of this trope, the kind who can be discarded without regret after being revealed to have been Evil All Along.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Susan manages to very much overreact and initiate all the fights.
* DivorceIsTemporary: The twins actively invoke this. Mitch and Margaret are divorced and bitter toward one another but thanks to their twins and time, eventually the two rekindle their love for one another and remarry.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Maggie mostly walks barefooted in the house of her ex-husband.
* DontSplitUsUp: The twins' plan is to get their parents back together so they can be together as well.
* DoomedNewClothes: Susan's new dress is ruined by Sharon as part of their prank war.
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Mom punches Dad [[EyeScream in the eye]]. What he says after being punched suggests she'd done stuff like that to him when they were married: "[[MenUseViolenceWomenUseCommunication Why do you have to get so physical? Can't even talk to you about anything, you're always trying to pelt me with something]]."
* DoubleVision: Used in places to have the twins interact.
* EscalatingWar: The twins start off hostile to each other, and a prank war ensues. This results in them getting put in the Isolation Cabin and forced to spend time together.
* EvilDetectingDog: Sharon isn't exactly evil, but Susan's dog still figured out that she's an impostor much earlier than the father and the maid do.
* FieryRedhead: [[Creator/MaureenOHara Maggie]] and Sharon's camp friend, Ursula.
* FirstFatherWins: Gender Flipped. Maggie gets back the guy, while the GoldDigger runs off in defeat.
* ForegoneConclusion: The opening credits tell us the story in clay animation.
* FriendshipSong: "Let's Get Together" celebrates Susan and Sharon's companionship and their potential for accomplishing great things together.
* GoldDigger: Mitch's young, opportunistic fiancée Vicki, who is only interested in Mitch's money.
* GoodLuckGesture: They cross fingers (for luck) on both hands, with arms crossed (symbolizing the girls' Twin Switch).
* GuessWhoImMarrying: The twins discover their father about to marry a new woman who's nasty.
* HardWorkMontage: The twins use this to give each other information and mannerisms they'll need to remember when visiting the other parent.
%%* HilarityEnsues
* HisAndHers: Discussed trope. Once they discover each other, neither twin is happy that in the original divorce, the twins were treated as "his and hers", as if they were a set of matched towels.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The father toward his gold digger fiancée. She is extremely rude -- to not only the girls, but also his ''housekeeper.''
* HumanLadder: Sharon and Susan do this while they're in the lake to try to fool Vicky into thinking the water is shallow.
* IdenticalTwinIDTag: The twins start off easily identifiable by their hairstyles, clothing and accents. Throughout the course of camp, they alter their appearances so that they are identical.
* ImportantHaircut: Susan gives one to Sharon.
* {{Infodump}}: For everyone who is involved in the main plot.
* ItsASmallWorldAfterAll: Twin sisters, separated and living in different states, end up at the same camp one summer. This gets lampshaded more than once.
* KarmaHoudini: The parents, who pay for willingly denying their children the chance to know about one another and having multiple family members and friends lie to them for years by being reunited as a couple and a family.
* KidsPlayMatchmaker: The sisters initially just want to get to know their respective other parent. Then they decide to try getting them back together.
* LongHairIsFeminine: The tomboyish twin has shorter hair than the girly girl.
* LongLostRelative: Susan and Sharon.
* LoveTriangle: Margaret/Mitch/Vicky.
* MealTicket: Mitch for Vicky.
* MissingMom: Susan has been growing up without a mother.
* NoSympathy: Susan and her bunkmates slip into Sharon's cabin and trash the place while Sharon and her bunkmates are asleep. Even though the damage is clearly the work of saboteurs, Sharon and her bunkmates are punished for having a messy cabin.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: When Mitch and Margaret get into another argument, she punches him in the eye and he falls onto the couch as she attempts to check his bruised eye. The minister walks in and, since she's wearing a robe and lying atop of him, assumes he's intruding on them having an intimate moment.
* NowYouTellMe: A lot of characters find things out the hard way.
* OffToBoardingSchool: What would have happened if the fiancée married the father.
* OneTruePairing: Established in-universe, between Maggie [=McKendrick=] and Mitch Evers -- the daughters' reason for the trap.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Creator/HayleyMills plays two Americans from vastly different regions of the United States. From character to character and scene to scene, her accent veers from flat-voweled generic American to vaguely British and back again.
* PantyShot: From one of the pranks during the dance, when Sharon surreptitiously cuts the back off the skirt of Susan's party dress.
* ParentWithNewParamour: The father has just started dating a new girlfriend - who is a GoldDigger.
* PosterGalleryBedroom: Susan's bed at camp has photos and magazine clippings of 1960s teen heartthrobs. Sharon isn't so cool, so she has no idea who Ricky Nelson is. "Oh, your boyfriend." Susan gasps in disbelief. "I wish he was! You mean you never heard of him? Where do you come from, outer space?"
* RichBitch: The fiancée. It may be more accurate to call her an ''aspiring'' Rich Bitch, as her GoldDigger plot falls through and so she never actually qualifies for the rich part.
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: The father falls in love with another woman and fails to notice that the target of his affections is a GoldDigger who doesn't care about him or his daughters.
* RuleOfPool: A pool serves as an aid to dramatic emphasis. The father falls into a nearby pool when he sees his ex-wife from afar.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Vicky when she's had enough of camping with Mitch and the twins and leaves in an angry fit.
* SeparatedAtBirth: The twins were separated at some point when they were both babies.
* SettingUpdate: The film moves the setting to contemporary America (from 1940s Germany in the book).
* ShoutOut: The title sequence references Creator/StanFreberg's "John and Marsha" skit twice.
* SiblingTeam: Once the girls discover they're sisters.
* SignatureScent: Susan (posing as Sharon) smells her grandfather:
-->'''Charles:''' What are you doing?\\
'''Susan:''' Making a memory.\\
'''Charles:''' Making a memory?\\
'''Susan:''' All my life, when I'm quite grown-up I will always remember my grandfather and how he smelled of tobacco and peppermint.\\
'''Charles:''' Tobacco and peppermint. Well, I'll tell you what. I take the peppermint for my indigestion and as for the tobacco...to make your grandmother mad.
* SolomonDivorce: The parents of a pair of infant twin girls each take one with them after they divorce, and the children only find out about it after meeting each other by chance when they're teenagers.
* TakeThat:
** A subtle one to Boston when Susan finds out that Sharon knows nothing about TeenIdol Ricky Nelson and asks if she's from outer space, Sharon replies where she's from and then Sharon snootily replies as though that explains everything; likely more to the Boston elite being very out-of-touch with social changes and fashion.
** Another one when Mitch is trying to explain that Maggie isn't a threat to the upcoming wedding -- the first quality of hers that he mentions is that she's from Boston.
* TheTalk:
** Maggie cancels a very important meeting with the Red Cross because she's afraid her daughter might want to have sex, and takes her for a picnic to have that woman-to-woman talk.
** Mitch decides to have the Talk with Sharon (disguised as Susan) on a golf course, assuming that's why she's wanting to know about her mother all of a sudden. After a few minutes of awkward explanation, Sharon tells him she's known about ''that'' for ages.
* TitleThemeTune:
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Sharon is a girly girl, having been raised as a child of Boston high society; Susan is the tomboy.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Susan, the tomboy sister, remarks she feels just "naked" without her lipstick, and doesn't usually dress any more boyish than Sharon; she is also adept in homemade haircuts.
* TwinSwitch: The girls swap places to get to know their parents. Later they do the same just to fool them.
* WellIntentionedReplacement: The girls (with the assistance of Hickey and Verbina) recreate the restaurant from their parent's first date as part of an attempt to get their parents back together. Everything is quite homemade and primitive, but it's touching, nonetheless.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Wondered by the housekeeper about the GoldDigger dating the Father, not that the Father is ugly, but he's usually a Regular Joe and isn't very witty or "one of those charm fellows".
* TheVamp: Vicky.
* VinylShatters: When the girls upset the table with the records while fighting at the camp dance.
* ZanyScheme

!!The sequels contain examples of:

* HistoryRepeats: ''The Parent Trap II'' and ''Parent Trap III'' have Sharon and Susan respectively finding themselves at the other end of a KidsPlayMatchmaker scenario.
* KidsPlayMatchmaker:
** In ''The Parent Trap II'', Sharon's daughter Nikki and Nikki's friend Mary scheme to hook Sharon up with Mary's father.
** ''Parent Trap III'' features identical triplet teens who bring Susan and their father together.
* SameSexTriplets: In ''Parent Trap III'', adult Susan falls in love with a man who has identical triplet daughters, Lisa, Jessie and Megan Wyatt. Interestingly, while the Susan and Sharon were played by the same actress (Creator/HayleyMills), the triplets were played by real-life triplets Leanna, Monica and Joy Creel.
* SequelEscalation: ''Parent Trap III'' adds identical ''triplets''.
* ShoutOut: In ''The Parent Trap II'', the two girls are named Nikki Ferris and Mary Grand; Hayley Mills's other child roles for Disney included Nikky Ferris in ''The Moon-Spinners'' and Mary Grant in ''In Search of the Castaways''. And Sharon's boss is named [[Creator/WaltDisney Walter Elias]].

* TheTalk: Maggie cancels a very important meeting with the Red Cross because she's afraid her daughter might want to have sex, and takes her for a picnic to have that woman-to-woman talk.

* VinylShatters: When the girls upset the table with the records while fighting.

* RichBitch: The fiancée. She serves in the role of GoldDigger and ChildHater.

* SolomonDivorce: One of the best-known examples.

%%* ButtMonkey: The fiancée %%ZCE -- how?

* DivorceIsTemporary: The twins actively invoke this.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: The twins give one to each other just before grabbing each other and escalating into a physical fight at the summer camp.
** Having had enough of Mitch and his twins, Vicky slaps one of the twins across her face telling her to give her sister the other half. This makes Mitch call Vicky out for her actions just before she breaks up with him.

* BettyAndVeronica: Margaret is the Betty to Vicky's Veronica over the Archie, Margaret's ex and Vicky's fiancée Mitch.
%%* ButtMonkey: The fiancée Vicky who gets easily tricked by the twins into thinking there's mountain lions and scaring them away with sticks would help, has her bug spray swapped with sugar and water to attract mosquitoes, has her backpack filled with heavy rocks, tricked into taking a drink of water where a lizard is, accidentally falls into deep water and wakes up to find bear cubs licking honey from her sleep. The last of which really sets her off. %%ZCE

* DivorceIsOnlyTemporary: Mitch and Margaret are divorced and bitter toward one another but thanks to their twins and time, eventually the two rekindle their love for one another and remarry.

* LoveTriangle: Margaret/Mitch/Vicky.

%%* ButtMonkey: The fiancée %%ZCE -- how?

''The Parent Trap'' is a Creator/{{Disney}} live-action film that has been filmed twice. The 1961 original starred Creator/HayleyMills and yielded three sequels which are hard to fit into one continuity (and are [[FirstInstallmentWins pretty much forgotten about]]). The 1998 remake starred Creator/DennisQuaid, Creator/NatashaRichardson, and a young Creator/LindsayLohan in her feature film debut.

Twin sisters have been separated nearly at birth when their parents divorced. The year their father is considering remarrying, the sisters meet each other at summer camp. On meeting, they plot to get their parents back together, a plot that involves each pretending to be the other. HilarityEnsues.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Both Movies]]
* AdaptationalVillainy: In the original book, the father's fiancée is clearly an unsympathetic antagonist, but hardly a villain -- she seemed to genuinely like the girls' father (even if attracted to his fame as well), wanted to have her own children with him and only planned to get rid of his daughter (by sending her to boarding school) after the latter came to her house to openly object to their marriage. The fiancée didn't actually get to do anything villainous. However, in both movies she's portrayed as ChildHater and GoldDigger (in the original, she's in fact much richer than her would-be husband) who WouldHurtAChild.

%%* ButtMonkey: The fiancée in both versions.%%ZCE -- how?

* CoolOldGuy: The grandfathers in both films. To the characters who need it the most, they're supportive and easy to talk to. They ensure others get the support and space they need, and it's partly because of this that things turn out all right in the end, particularly in the remake, where Grandfather takes it upon himself to get to the bottom of things.
* CoordinatedClothes: The twins wear matching outfits several times, sometimes to confuse the others about which twin is which. In the 1998 version, when the girls refuse to be separated and tell their parents which of them is which, they wear matching outfits in different colors reflecting a combination of both their tastes.
* {{Disneyfication}}: The original story (and original German adaptation) was far more serious than the Disney movies -- the father was distant, the mother was a wreck, and one twin falls ill.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Hallie/Susan manages to very much overreact and initiate all the fights in their respective films.
* DivorceIsTemporary: The twins actively invoke this. A line in the remake notes that neither parent has ever come close to remarrying.

* EscalatingWar: In both versions, the twins start off hostile to each other, and a prank war ensues. This results in them getting put in the Isolation Cabin and forced to spend time together.
* EvilDetectingDog: Sharon isn't exactly evil, but Susan's dog still figured out that she's an impostor much earlier than the father and the maid do. The same happens in the remake.
* FieryRedhead: The first movie has [[Creator/MaureenOHara Maggie]] and Sharon's camp friend, Ursula. The second movie has both Annie and Hallie, especially at camp.
* FirstFatherWins: Gender Flipped. Both Creator/MaureenOHara and Creator/NatashaRichardson get back the guy, while the GoldDigger runs off in defeat.
* GoodLuckGesture: Both versions of have a special gesture. They cross fingers (for luck) on both hands, with arms crossed (symbolizing the girls' Twin Switch). It was used much more in the original Hayley Mills film.
* GuessWhoImMarrying: In both films, the twins discover their father about to marry a new woman who's nasty.

--> '''Hallie:''' His and Hers kids. No offense, mom, but this arrangement totally sucks."
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The father in both versions toward his gold digger fiancée. She is extremely rude -- to not only the girls, but also his ''housekeeper.''
* IdenticalTwinIDTag: The twins start off easily identifiable by their hairstyles, clothing and accents. Throughout the course of camp, they alter their appearances so that they are identical. In the remake, the only way to tell them apart in the third act is by the accents, and they're able to fake those convincingly enough that not even the girls' father can be completely sure he knows which is which.
* ImportantHaircut: Susan gives one to Sharon in the 1961 version and Hallie does the same to Annie in the 1998 version.

* ItsASmallWorldAfterAll: Twin sisters, separated and living in different states (different continents in the remake) end up at the same camp one summer. This gets lampshaded more than once.
* KarmaHoudini: The parents in both versions, who pay for willingly denying their children the chance to know about one another and having multiple family members and friends lie to them for years by being reunited as a couple and a family.

* NoSympathy: In the 1961 version, Susan and her bunkmates slip into Sharon's cabin and trash the place while Sharon and her bunkmates are asleep. Even though the damage is clearly the work of saboteurs, Sharon and her bunkmates are punished for having a messy cabin. The 1998 version makes more sense, with the cabin sabotage being the climax of the prank war that gets them both in trouble, and Annie being responsible for inviting Marva inside to get caught in Hallie's trap rather than warning her from the window.

* OffToBoardingSchool: What would have happened if the fiancée married the father in each film.
* OneTruePairing: Established in-universe, between Maggie [=McKendrick=] and Mitch Evers in the original, and Elizabeth James and Nick Parker in the remake-the daughters' reason for the trap.
* ParentWithNewParamour: In both versions the father has just started dating a new girlfriend - who is a GoldDigger.
* RemakeCameo: Joanna Barnes played Vicki Robinson (the fiancée) in the Hayley Mills version and Vicki Blake (the fiancée's mother) in the Lindsay Lohan version.
* RichBitch: The fiancée in both versions. She serves in the role of GoldDigger and ChildHater.
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: In both versions, the father falls in love with another woman and fails to notice that the target of his affections is a GoldDigger who doesn't care about him or his daughters.
* RuleOfPool: In both versions, a pool serves as an aid to dramatic emphasis. In each, the father falls into a nearby pool when he sees his ex-wife from afar.

* SettingUpdate: Both films move the setting to contemporary America.

* TheTalk: The first movie has Maggie cancel a very important meeting with the Red Cross because she's afraid her daughter might want to have sex, and takes her for a picnic to have that woman-to-woman talk. Meredith gives one to Annie (as Hallie), albeit about using sex appeal.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Sharon is a girly girl, having been raised as a child of Boston high society; Susan is the tomboy. In the remake, there's the determined American, Hallie Parker, and the proper Brit, Annie James.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Susan, the tomboy sister in the original, remarks she feels just "naked" without her lipstick, and doesn't usually dress any more boyish than Sharon; in the 1998 version, Hallie has pierced ears and nail polish; both are adept in homemade haircuts.

* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Wondered by both housekeepers about the GoldDigger dating the Father, not that the Father is ugly, but he's usually a Regular Joe and isn't very witty or "one of those charm fellows", think [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Leonard Hofstadder]] if he was a wealthy rancher.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Original Version]]
* AnimatedCreditsOpening: With stop-motion.
* ArtisticLicenseMusic: Hayley Mills is not moving her fingers when playing guitar Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Then on "Let's Get Together" her strumming does not match the music (in addition to not moving her fingers).
* BelligerentSexualTension: Mitch and Margaret when they're reunited by the twins.
* CelebrityCrush: Susan reveals to Sharon that her celebrity crush is Ricky Nelson after she helps her with her room posters.
* ColonelBogeyMarch: The other girls at the camp whistle this as the twins are escorted to the Isolation Cabin.
%%* CoolOldGuy: Dr. Mosby, the preacher. He is utterly charmed by Maggie. %%ZCE -- how?
* CoversAlwaysLie: The [[http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:5193MGB6N8L.jpg case]] of the WaltDisneyHomeVideo/VaultDisneyCollection DVD seems to place ''too'' much emphasis on the parents, to the extent that the movie seems more like an oddly-titled adult romance than a kid-centric comedy.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Maggie mostly walks barefooted in the house of her ex-husband. In what is probably a ShoutOut, the remake has Lizzie walk barefooted outdoors, but only a few steps.
* DoomedNewClothes: Susan's new dress is ruined by Sharon as part of their prank war.
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Mom punches Dad [[EyeScream in the eye]]. What he says after being punched suggests she'd done stuff like that to him when they were married: "[[MenUseViolenceWomenUseCommunication Why do you have to get so physical? Can't even talk to you about anything, you're always trying to pelt me with something]]."
* FieryRedhead: Maggie
* ForegoneConclusion: The opening credits tell us the story in clay animation.
* FriendshipSong: "Let's Get Together" is this for the original film, as it celebrates Susan and Sharon's companionship and their potential for accomplishing great things together.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: When Mitch and Margaret get into another argument, she punches him in the eye and he falls onto the couch as she attempts to check his bruised eye. The minister walks in and, since she's wearing a robe and lying atop of him, assumes he's intruding on them having an intimate moment.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Creator/HayleyMills plays two Americans from vastly different regions of the United States. From character to character and scene to scene, her accent veers from flat-voweled generic American to vaguely British and back again.
* PantyShot: From one of the pranks during the dance, when Sharon surreptitiously cuts the back off the skirt of Susan's party dress.
* TheRemake: The third adaptation of the same book, Erich Kästner's ''Das doppelte Lottchen'', and thus can itself legitimately be described as a ForeignRemake.
* ShoutOut: The title sequence references Creator/StanFreberg's "John and Marsha" skit twice.
* TakeThat:
** A subtle one to Boston when Susan finds out that Sharon knows nothing about TeenIdol Ricky Nelson and asks if she's from outer space, Sharon replies where she's from and then Sharon snootily replies as though that explains everything; likely more to the Boston elite being very out-of-touch with social changes and fashion.
** Another one when Mitch is trying to explain that Maggie isn't a threat to the upcoming wedding -- the first quality of hers that he mentions is that she's from Boston.
* VinylShatters: When the girls upset the table with the records while fighting.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The 1998 Remake]]

* EightiesHair: The wedding photo from 1986 shows Elizabeth sporting a thick fringe in the style of the decade.
* AbbeyRoadCrossing: A second-long freeze frame as "Here Comes The Sun" plays in the background.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: The parents are more civil towards each other in this adaptation, even boarding on AmicableExes.
* AdaptationExpansion: The original movie ended with Mitch and Maggie falling back in love.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Making one of the twins British throws a huge wrench into the main plot. American summer holidays usually last about three months. British students, on the other hand, don't get theirs until July, and only for six weeks. So unless Annie is home-schooled with a very lenient tutor, it's unlikely she'd even be able to go to Camp Walden in the first place (it's mentioned that the girls were at camp for eight weeks). In the original both twins were Americans, so it was no big deal.
* AdaptationalNationality: The original film had both twins as Americans (though ironically played by a British girl), while the remake makes one twin British.
* AdultsAreUseless: The Marvas are strangely absent for a lot of scenes where their discipline would be required -- especially with the stunt where Hallie and friends had their beds put on the cabin roof. There's also a rather suspicious lack of other counsellors around.
* AuthorAppeal: As in many Nancy Meyers movies, the setting is California. Notable because in the original, the story alternated between Boston and California -- and Boston is replaced with London in the remake. It also deals with middle-aged people falling in love, as a lot of her films do.
* AuthorAvatar: Annie and Hallie were named after director Nancy Meyers and producer Chuck Shyer's daughters.
* BigEater: Hallie, but not Annie. [[spoiler: This, (along with Sammy the dog barking and growling at "Hallie") makes Chessy realize the truth.]]
* BilingualBonus: Annie takes news of her father remarrying so harshly, she rants in French. Elizabeth is also seen speaking French in a phone call just before Hallie reveals her identity to her.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: The soon-to-be-[[WickedStepmother step-mom]] for Hallie.
* BlatantLies: The twins convince Meredith that there are mountain lions in the area where they are camping (there aren't) and that the best way to keep them away is to loudly tap two sticks together.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Elizabeth and Meredith act as the blondes, depending on the scene. Chessy is the brunette, while the twins are the redheads.
* BookEnds: As part of Music/AlanSilvestri's score, short, dramatic instrumentals of "Let's get together, yeah, yeah, yeah," accompany both the opening Walt Disney Pictures logo and the last few seconds of the end credits.
* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Justified since Elizabeth is a successful fashion designer and would naturally be based in London.
* BritishStuffiness: One of the twins is American and the other is British. Guess which is the proper one and which is the spunky one. But Annie is an outdoorsy girl too who has no problem camping - in stark contrast to Meredith.
* CampStraight: If Martin doesn't qualify, we don't know who does. See LittleBlackDress below.
* CelebCrush: Hallie laments that a gust of wind damages her photo of "the beautiful Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio."
* ChekhovsSkill: During the poker game, Hallie mimics Annie's voice. This also acts as {{Foreshadowing}} that she's got a good ear for imitating voices.
* CostumeTestMontage: The wedding dress shoot that Hallie (as Annie) gets to watch.
* CountryMouse, CityMouse: Hallie is the Country Mouse coming from a vast vineyard in Northern California while Annie is the City Mouse coming from downtown London. Played with, though, in that Annie adjusts very well to camping in the forest. Meredith however is much more of a City Mouse, coming directly from San Francisco.
* TheDitz: Both Marvas are quite bubble brained.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Meredith is established as a BitchInSheepsClothing when Annie overhears her lying to a reverend, preventing Nick from taking part in a charity event.
* EvilDetectingDog: In addition to the example listed in the top folder, Hallie's dog barks at Meredith in the hotel.
* ForeignLanguageTirade: Annie rants in French when she discovers Nick and Meredith are engaged. As she's pretending to be Hallie at this point, she has to claim she learned it at camp.
* FourthDateMarriage: Elizabeth and Nick met while on an ocean cruise, and married while they were still on it. Judging by the end of the film, they don't spend too much time waiting the second time either.
* GilliganCut: After Elizabeth learns she has to get involved in switching the Hallie and Annie back.
--> '''Elizabeth:''' (to Hallie) You're not to worry, okay? \\
(cut) \\
(to Martin) I'm sorry! I can't handle this!
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: The blurb describes Annie as a "fair rose from London" and she is the more proper of the twins. But she's still an avid fencer and is happy to go hiking in the mountains on a camping trip.
* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: When Annie loses the poker game, she has to strip off and jump into the lake. Naturally Hallie steals her clothes afterwards.
* GoodTimesMontage: Hallie partakes in this when exploring London with either Martin or Elizabeth.
* GrayRainOfDepression: When it looks like the plan has failed and the two families part, it's pouring down rain in California when Elizabeth and Annie leave and in London when they arrive. [[spoiler: The rain lets up when they arrive home in London, where Nick and Hallie are waiting for them, having beat them by taking the Concorde.]]
* GroundedForever: "We've been grounded till the end of the century." Which would have been much more threatening if the movie wasn't released in the Summer of 1998, but then again, "grounded till the end of the century" was most likely an exaggeration.
* HairTodayGoneTomorrow: Elizabeth has short hair in the present but long hair in the wedding photo from eleven years ago.
* HateAtFirstSight: Hallie and Annie develop a rivalry from the moment they first see each other and see they look exactly alike. Said rivalry goes away when they're isolated, and even before they find out they're twins, they quickly become friends.
* HeavySleeper:
** Annie and her bunkmates. The girls from Hallie's cabin booby trap Annie's cabin while Annie and her cabinmates were asleep. This included pouring honey on one girl, shaving cream on another, stringing the entire cabin, placing water balloons to fall on the girls, and placing feathers on the top of the ceiling fan so that they would float down when the fan was turned on, which was also booby trapped by pulling on a certain string. That had to take hours and involve ladders moving around the cabin.
** Justified with Meredith on the camping trip. She stated she was going to take a sleeping pill.
* HideousHangoverCure: Elizabeth panicked during the flight and drank everything in sight, so this was necessary.
* HumiliatingWager: The loser of Annie and Hallie's poker game is required to jump [[NakedPeopleAreFunny naked]] into the lake at night. [[spoiler:Annie]] emerges only to find that [[spoiler:Hallie]] and her friends have [[GoneSwimmingClothesStolen taken her clothes with them]].
* ImAManICantHelpIt: Nick Parker. Annie lampshades this.
* InelegantBlubbering: Martin when Hallie reveals herself to Elizabeth.
* IntimateOpenShirt: Meredith suggests Nick wear his shirt with three buttons undone.
--> "I like it when I can see a little chest hair" *Cue* {{Sexophone}}.
* IntoxicationEnsues: Elizabeth may not drink much, but she's a total lightweight.
--> '''Annie:''' "She's never had more than one glass of wine in her entire life. And she chooses ''today'' to show up totally zonked!"
* ItTastesLikeFeet: The bartender's HideousHangoverCure tastes and looks like tar.
* TheJeeves: Martin.
* KindlyHousekeeper: Chessy, when she discovers the switch, wants to coddle Annie and tries to cook everything in the kitchen for her.
* LampshadeHanging: The last line of dialogue in the film is Hallie exclaiming, "I can't believe we actually did it!"
* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Elizabeth is the softer and nurturing Light Feminine, while Meredith is the harsher and brashier Dark Feminine. Notably, Elizabeth only wears dark colours once in the film (when she's at dinner with Nick) and likewise Meredith with white (when she first meets Annie).
* LittleBlackDress:
** Martin, Elizabeth's butler and friend, suggests she take one on the trip to see Nick and switch the girls back. She's actually wearing it when they all go out to dinner.
** Meredith is also wearing one when Nick meets her parents at the hotel, though she covers it with a coat later in the day.
* LogoJoke: The Walt Disney Pictures logo is accompanied by an orchestral version of an excerpt from "Let's Get Together" from the original movie.
* MadonnaWhoreComplex: Done subtly. Elizabeth -- the wholesome mother -- is given a more earthy look, with soft makeup and modest clothes. Meredith -- the vampy evil girlfriend -- is done up in sexier clothes, with more fashionable hair and makeup. Further underlining things is the colours they wear in the first scene they appear in together -- Elizabeth in [[WomanInWhite white]] and Meredith in black.
* TheMagicPokerEquation: When Annie and Hallie play poker, Annie gets straight in diamonds while Hallie gets a royal flush.
* ManInABikini: Elizabeth and the girls are appalled to see Martin dressed in his tiny, tight swim trunks. [[DistractedByTheSexy Chessy, on the other hand...]]
* MoodWhiplash: Meredith's attempts to be nice go out the window as soon as Annie insinuates she wants to marry Nick for his money. She actually snaps "Okay, puss!" - establishing herself as a villain.
* MythologyGag:
** A few sentences from "Let's Get Together" song (made famous in the Hayley Mills version) are hummed/spoken by Lindsay Lohan at one point.
** Meredith's mother is not only named Vicki, but played by the same actress as her from the original movie, Joanna Barnes.
** Mildred, Annie's pretend friend who is a cover for Hallie, is a possible reference to Hayley Mills.
** Meredith talks on the phone to a Reverend Moseby, a character from the original film.
* NiceToTheWaiter:
** Chessy and Martin are like family to their respective employers. Averted with Meredith who treats Chessy like a talking dog who would be summoned with a bell.
** Chessy is even treated nicely by Elizabeth who was intoxicated at the time of their meeting again after years apart.
--->''' Chessy:''' ''[upon seeing Elizabeth after so many years]'' Hi, you probably don't remember me. I...\\
'''Elizabeth:''' ''[gives her a kiss on the cheek]'' Chessy!\\
'''Chessy:''' I knew I always liked her.
* OffscreenTeleportation: Hallie, an energetic 11-year-old, is shown running several minutes through the streets of London in a series of {{JumpCut}}s to reach a phone booth away from the house to make her phone call. Her elderly grandfather shows up outside the phone booth less than a minute behind her and he's not even breathing hard.
* OldManMarryingAChild: Used as an indirect accusation, delivered with SugaryMalice. When Nick tells his daughter that Meredith is about to become part of the family, she surely understands right away that he's talking about marriage. However, she pretends to innocently misunderstand him and get all ecstatic about how he's finally getting one more daughter by adopting her. Annie (pretending to be Hallie) immediately asks Meredith her age and points out that she's only fifteen years older. A similar line happens in the original version ("I always wanted a sister!") but doesn't have the same insinuation as that version of the fiancée clearly looked like an adult.
* OneNoteCook: Pasta is the only thing Nick knows how to make.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Happens to both Hallie and Annie, more often to whoever has a British accent at the moment. Often it's the In-Character version of the trope. Lindsay Lohan had to play four accents -- American, British, American pretending to be British, and British pretending to be American. The latter two had accents slipping. Lohan does a remarkable job in the scene at the hotel where she's basically playing four characters at once -- Hallie, Annie, Hallie pretending to be Annie and Annie pretending to be Hallie. She switches up the accents just enough to do exactly what Hallie and Annie were after (confuse the heck out of Mom and Dad). Annie's accent slipping into American would probably be justified by spending eight weeks at an American camp with mostly American girls.
* ParentService: Meredith's outfits are usually tight, flattering and showing plenty of leg.
* ParentalSubstitute: Chessy acted like a second mother for Hallie and Martin acted like a father to Annie. Makes sense seeing as how they were certain that the girls would never meet their other parent.
* ParentsAsPeople: Nick and Elizabeth are shown as complicated people who admit they didn't make the best decision in splitting the girls up during their divorce.
* ParentsKnowTheirChildren: Sort of--the father looks each twin in the eye and declares which one is Hallie; however, it's not made clear if he's right, since the twins keep playing up the charade and make him question his own judgement.
* PetHomosexual: Meredith's sassy gay assistant: "Ooh, ice woman!"
* PhotoMontage: The end credits show Nick and Elizabeth's second wedding, with Martin proposing to Chessy.
* PickyEater: Meredith refuses to eat the freshly caught trout that Nick and the girls enjoy on the camping trip.
* PlotAllergy: We know Annie and Hallie have more in common than their appearances when they separately reveal to Marva Sr. that they are allergic to strawberries.
* PopculturalOsmosisFailure: When their father chides the twins to treat Meredith better as she isn't accustomed to camping and hiking, he tells them she's not Annie Oakley. Hallie responds, "Who's Annie Oakley?"
* TheRemake: Of the 1961 film (see above).
* TheReveal: In-universe, several times: first Hallie and Annie to each other (twice), then Annie to Chessy, then Hallie to her grandfather, then Hallie to her mother. And then Elizabeth dealing with the additional reveal of Nick's engagement to Meredith.
* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: When Elizabeth is getting emotional about the thought of meeting Nick for the first time after so many years, she spouts off several of these to Martin--as well as insisting him not to answer any of them.
* RiddleForTheAges:
** How ''did'' Annie get three sets of beds and dressers out of a cabin and ''onto the roof'' without any counselors noticing?
** Why did she pack a British flag to take to summer camp?
* SandInMyEyes: Elizabeth is pleased that Nick still remembers the wine from their first wedding.
* ScatterBrainedSenior: Marva Sr, though with a bit of lampshade hanging. She believes she's been talking to the same girl when she first meets both Annie and Hallie.
--> "First day of camp, you'll have to excuse the old girl."
* SceneryPorn: Hallie arriving in London is of course an excuse for plenty of shots of the various landmarks. To a lesser degree, Annie arriving in California.
* ScreamDiscretionShot: When Hallie pierces Annie's ears, and when the girls drag Meredith's mattress into a lake.
* ScrewYourUltimatum: Meredith throws an ultimatum at Nick, demanding that he chooses between his daughters and herself. Nick chooses the twins in a heartbeat.
* ServileSnarker: Nick's housekeeper, Chessy, and Elizabeth's butler, Martin. They also become attracted to each other [[LoveAtFirstSight at first sight]] and end up being the BetaCouple.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Nick has a reaction like this when Elizabeth gets dressed up for the dinner on the ship because he's only seen her half hungover, though of course the audience has seen her looking flawless before.
* ShesGotLegs: Discussed about both Elizabeth and Meredith:
** Martin suggests a LittleBlackDress for Elizabeth with her legs.
** A very drunk ("totally zonked!") Elizabeth attempts to get out of the cab at the hotel feet first, showing serious leg.
--> '''Martin''': Other end, Madam.
** After seeing Nick in the elevator, his arms wrapped around a young lady, Elizabeth refers to her as "leggy".
* ShipperOnDeck: Chessy and Martin are on board with the twins' plan and help them try to get the parents back together.
* ShoutOut:
** Meredith is called [[Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Cruella DeVil]] several times.
** "The man went completely ashen, like I was the bloody [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Ghost of Christmas Past]]!"
** "Is that my little girl? That tall, gangly thing?"
* ShutUpKiss: [[spoiler: Nick to Elizabeth as they get back together at the end]].
* SkinnyDipping: Hallie and Annie play a hand of Five Card Poker at summer camp, with the loser to skinny dip while the whole cabin watches. Hallie's Royal Flush beats Annie's Straight Flush. [[GoneSwimmingClothesStolen They steal Annie's clothes]].
* SophisticatedAsHell: Elizabeth might seem like a proper high class fashion designer, but when she finds out about the plan, intoxication ensues and you see just how loopy she really is.
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike:
** One of the first signs that something is funny about them is the fact that both of them like to eat Oreos topped with peanut butter, which everybody else seems to find disgusting for some odd reason; (try dipping Oreos in peanut butter yourself; they actually go quite nicely together. Yum!)
** More so because both Oreos and peanut butter are far less commonly sold in Britain than they are in America. So the fact that the English-raised Annie likes that particular combination would be rather unusual...
* SwordFight: Hallie and Annie's first meeting is through an absurdly over-the-top "fencing match" at camp. The girls have fencing masks on as a way to save on special effects, to cover the faces of the stunt people, and for the big reveal that they both look alike when they take the masks off and face each other.
* TakeAThirdOption: When Chessy welcomes Annie!Hallie home, Chessy asks her if she'd like to eat lunch after upacking, before unpacking, or-to Annie's surprise-''while'' unpacking.
** Doubles as BreadEggsBreadedEggs.
* TheTalk: Meredith tries to give it to Annie!Hallie, but she's more knowledgeable about it than she realises.
* [[TalkingToHimself Talking to Herself]]: Hallie, when we first meet her, as she tries to retrieve her duffel bag from a pile of other duffel bags.
* TemptingFate: Annie waking up at the cabin disaster dodges several water balloons. "Gosh she didn't get me." and smiles with satisfaction. Then a HUGE water balloon falls on top of her soaking her.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Hallie is sporty, outdoorsy and sassy, but also really likes her funky nail polish and accessories.
* TrueBlueFemininity: Annie, the more graceful and feminine of the twins, wears a blue dress for the dinner with the parents.
* VillainousBreakdown: Meredith has one after being pranked by the twins and Nick dumps her.
* WineIsClassy: Subverted in that Nick is more of a GoodOlBoy with some decidedly slobby habits.
* WiseBeyondHerYears: Annie is definitely more savvy than her eleven years would lead one to believe. She guesses right away that Meredith is a GoldDigger.
** To be fair, Chessy suggests it while she and Annie are unpacking, before Annie actually meets Meredith.
* YouAreGrounded: After the girls scare Meredith off.
--> [[GoToYourRoom Up to your room]]. Now.
* YouTalkinToMe: [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]]. When Hallie is addressed by Meredith (who she had never seen yet), she responds "You talkin' to me?" and gets an answer: "[[Film/TaxiDriver What are you, Robert De Niro?]] Yes, I'm talking to you."
* YouthfulFreckles: Annie and Hallie have these, Lindsay Lohan's own.
[[/folder]]

The movie is based on a 1949 book, ''[[Literature/LottieAndLisa Das doppelte Lottchen]]'', which has likewise been adapted as a film of the same name (a faithful-to-the-text version that retains author Erich Kästner as narrator and uses actual twins), ''Twice Upon a Time'' and ''Hibari’s Lullaby'' (a Japanese telling).

* SpoiledSweet: Both [[GirlyGirl Sharon and Annie]] has hints of this in the beginning, only for their pride to break after being punished for their prank wars.

* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: When Annie loses the poker game, she has to strip off and jump into the lake completely naked. Naturally Hallie steals her clothes afterwards.

* TakeThat: A subtle one to Boston when Susan finds out that Sharon knows nothing about TeenIdol Ricky Nelson and asks if she's from outer space, Sharon replies where she's from and then Sharon snootily replies as though that explains everything; likely more to the Boston elite being very out-of-touch with social changes and fashion.