History YMMV / North

* MemeticMutation: Being the film so infamous that Roger Ebert said he "hated" this movie ten times in his written review (and repeated again in [[Series/SiskelAndEbert his weekly show]] and Ebert latter turned into [[https://www.amazon.com/Hated-This-Movie/dp/0740706721 the title of one of his review collections]]), and him and Gene Siskel said it was ''the'' movie (at the time) that made them feel the most unclean at sitting in the theater watching it. A review many latter web hosts gleefully played back to showcase the BileFascination of this movie.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/TheFamilyJewels'', a smaller film by Creator/JerryLewis, which deals with the story of an orphan girl, heiress to a great fortune and whose parents, in life, did not have time for her, who must choose a guardian among her six uncles , all of them very stereotypical characters played by Lewis. There is great irony in this, as North explicitly mocks Lewis' comic style and his popularity in France.

* AntiClimax: [[spoiler:The fact that they dramatically-built-up North re-uniting with his parents before he is sent to an orphanage, and then had Winchell's henchman shoot at him could have made for an acceptable OneSceneWonder moment if Winchell somehow lost. Alas, all it does is deprive the film of any FridgeBrilliance recognition of it being AllJustADream and instead replaces it with a big cop-out that nullifies the whole plot and drama of the film, rendering the already tonally befuddled film little more than a waste of time for anyone unfortunate enough to have seen it.]]

* WTHCastingAgency: Most of the cast could fit into here.
** The most unexplainable is probably Creator/KathyBates and Creator/AbeVigoda with their faces painted brown playing Eskimos, which was criticized as racially insensitive and "an ugly piece of cinematic prostitution" by WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and labeled a "new low in bad taste" by Ebert at the end of the year the movie premiered (Bates also got a Razzie nomination for that appearance).
** Creator/AlanArkin as Judge Buckle may count as another, whose performance Ebert also panned in his review.
** Creator/JasonAlexander and Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus as North's parents are a little jarring, considering the two were co-starring in [[Series/{{Seinfeld}} one of the best-known sitcoms of all time]] when this movie was released, so it's a little hard not to imagine them as George Costanza and Elaine Benes.

** A young Music/JussieSmollett plays North's friend Adam.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To "The Family Jewels”, a smaller film by Creator/JerryLewis, which deals with the story of an orphan girl, heiress to a great fortune and whose parents, in life, did not have time for her, who must choose a guardian among her six uncles , all of them very stereotypical characters played by Lewis. There is great irony in this, as North explicitly mocks Lewis' comic style and his popularity in France.

* EthnicScrappy: The main reason why this movie is hated. Texans, Hawaiians, Amish, Zairians, Chinese, French. The Inuits in particular are the most reviled due to the use of {{Yellowface}} and their backwards tradition of leaving their old out to die in the sea. To make matters worse, the only potential family treated with any sympathy is the white suburban all-American family who looked like they stepped out of a 1950s sitcom like ''Series/FatherKnowsBest''.

* HarsherInHindsight: The movie's pedophilic subtext in general and the bit with North's butt crack on a billboard in particular become even more disturbing after Creator/ElijahWood [[https://variety.com/2016/film/news/elijah-wood-pedophilia-hollywood-problem-1201781021/ claimed that Hollywood has a pedophilia problem, and he himself only avoided being molested because of his mother]].

** And seeing as the Hawaii thing, [[{{Squick}} with the octopus and its tentacles]], [[spoiler: was AllJustADream from an 11 year old whose dad, in the real world, has some fascination [[FridgeHorror with loosening North's pants...]]]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Winchell using North's unique situation (''extremely'' unique -- pretty sure other parents that were forced to fight in court for their right to ''be'' parents wouldn't be rendered comatose beforehand) as leverage to create a "Children Supremacy" movement and when North decides to go back to his parents, [[spoiler: sending out a hit-man to kill him in order to keep his power]].

* HarsherInHindsight: The bit with North's butt crack on a billboard becomes even more disturbing after Creator/ElijahWood [[https://variety.com/2016/film/news/elijah-wood-pedophilia-hollywood-problem-1201781021/ claimed that Hollywood has a pedophilia problem, and he himself only avoided being molested because of his mother]].

** A young Jussie Smollett plays North's friend Adam.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Arguably, Creator/ElijahWood was the only one to actually do so, and despite the character he played and the fact he was in ''Film/TheGoodSon'', another film that wasn't too well received, with Macaulay Culkin only months prior, he was able to escape the StarDerailingRole trap (though he wouldn't be very visible until ''Film/DeepImpact''), and came back in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.

** The most unexplainable is probably [[Literature/{{Misery}} Kathy Bates]] and [[Film/TheGodfather Abe Vigoda]] with their faces painted brown playing Eskimos, which was criticized as racially insensitive and "an ugly piece of cinematic prostitution" by WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and labeled a "new low in bad taste" by Ebert at the end of the year the movie premiered (Bates also got a Razzie nomination for that appearance).

* HilariousInHindsight:
** [[Creator/KimKardashian North]] [[Music/KanyeWest West]], anyone?
** This was Creator/ScarlettJohansson's movie debut (in case you're wondering, she plays the daughter in the last family that North visits). ''Film/{{Lucy}}'', in which she starred, thrashed ''North'' director Creator/RobReiner's ''And So It Goes'' at the box office twenty years later (almost to the day, since ''North'' opened on July 22, 1994 and ''Lucy'' bowed on July 25, 2014).
** Elijah Wood's character has a nervous breakdown and starts seeing a man in an animal costume who claims to be his guardian angel. [[Series/{{Wilfred}} Where have we seen that before?]]

-->'''Nostalgia Critic''': Yeah, yeah, it does. Whatever you're about to say, being in a bunny suit pretty much destroys all credibility.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets:
** The Amish family. North doesn't even give them a chance.
** Creator/GeneSiskel admitted to have been offended by a joke about an Hasidic Jew reading scripture in the pants factory.
* AccidentalAesop: The ''intended'' aesop was "Home is where the heart is". However, [[spoiler:TheReveal that North's wildly caricatured interpretation of the world was AllJustADream]] lends itself to the more-fitting aesop "Just because you're a straight-A student, doesn't mean you have an accurate perception of the world".

** It's impossible to watch this movie now and not briefly think, "Wait, [[Series/{{Seinfeld}} George and Elaine]] got married?"[[note]]At the time the actors were already famous for ''{{Series/Seinfeld}}'' (made by Castle Rock Entertainment, which also produced this movie), also making it an example of WTHCastingAgency.[[/note]] And they gave birth to [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Frodo]], no less!

** North's friend Adam, who is the only child to come to his aid when North attempts to return home to his true parents, is played by a then-unknown Jussie Smollett. Yes, ''[[Series/{{Empire}} THAT]]'' Jussie Smollett.

*** It's allegedly a ShoutOut/spoof to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5qpZZBlrq8 one iconic gag]] from the movie ''Film/{{Airplane}}''. While it would be bad enough that [[RedundantParody it is from a different, much funnier movie,]] it has the gall to turn it into (and fail at being) an anti-joke by not showing the plane expectantly crashing through, essentially missing the point of the joke in the original while lacking any original context to fall back on. WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic didn't "get" the reference, either.

** The most unexplainable is probably [[Literature/{{Misery}} Kathy Bates]] and [[Film/TheGodfather Abe Vigoda]] with their faces painted brown playing Eskimos, which was criticized as racially insensitive and "an ugly piece of [[TheOldestProfession cinematic prostitution]]" by WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and labeled a "new low in bad taste" by Ebert at the end of the year the movie premiered (Bates also got a Razzie nomination for that appearance).

* EthnicScrappy: The main reason why this movie is hated. Texans, Hawaiians, Amish, French. The Inuits in particular are the most reviled due to the use of {{Yellowface}} and their backwards tradition of leaving their old out to die in the sea. To make matters worse, the only potential family treated with any sympathy is the white suburban all-American family who looked like they stepped out of a 1950s sitcom like ''Series/FatherKnowsBest''.

** North's panic attack; [[CriticalResearchFailure it's very unlike what a real panic attack typically looks like for those who've seen them]], but is still very unsettling.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To "The Family Jewels”, a smaller film by Creator/JerryLewis, which deals with the story of an orphan girl, heiress to a great fortune and whose parents, in life, did not have time for her, who must choose a guardian among her sixl uncles , all of them very stereotypical characters played by Lewis. There is great irony in this, as North explicitly mocks Lewis' comic style and his popularity in France.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To "The Family Jewels”, a smaller film by Jerry Lewis, which deals with the story of an orphan girl, heiress to a great fortune and whose parents, in life, did not have time for her, who must choose a guardian among her sixl uncles , all of them very stereotypical characters played by Lewis. There is great irony in this, as North explicitly mocks Lewis' comic style and his popularity in France.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Believe it or not, the [[spoiler:AllJustADream reveal]]. The film intended to use this as a DeusExMachina, except it goes beyond this by raising implications on North and his view of the world. While this seems to clash with his performance in school, the juxtaposition could have been used to highlight how little North knows of the world, despite being a straight-A student. Had this film focused more on this aspect, it could have been a highly effective {{satire}} on US public education, rather than a failed attempt at making the next ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Believe it or not, the [[spoiler:AllJustADream reveal]]. The film intended to use this as a DeusExMachina, except it goes beyond this by raising implications on North and his view of the world. While it seems to clash with his performance in school, this juxtaposition could have been used to highlight how little North knows of the world, despite being a straight-A student. Had this film focused more on this aspect, it could have been a highly effective {{satire}} on US public education, rather than a failed attempt at making the next ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''