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1* AdaptationDisplacement: Of the British young adult book ''Madame Doubtfire'' (Or ''Alias Madame Doubtfire'' in the US.). Notable differences include:
2** The parents are already divorced at the start of the story.
3** Miranda is a much meaner, bitchier character. Daniel is no saint either, though, as he fantasizes about ways to kill her...''in front of the kids''.
4** Daniel has a passion for gardening. In the end he becomes not the host of a kid's show but Miranda's new gardener.
5** All three kids see through the Mrs. Doubtfire disguise, even Christopher, though it takes him a little longer.
6** Mrs. Doubtfire doesn't wear a latex mask and padding. She wears a turban. This is apparently enough to fool Miranda.
7** Rather than learn housekeeping skills, Daniel forces the children to clean the house by threatening that they'll never see him again if he's found out.
8* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
9** Daniel Hillard -- loving father who desperately wants to raise his kids, or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3bgipCebuI creepily obsessed stalker]] that commits a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wfjywzrFP4 series of crimes]]? Even {{lampshaded}} a bit in-movie, both by Daniel himself ("What am I doing here? This is beyond obsession.") and by the judge, once the gig is up, as the reason for ordering supervision during Daniel's time with the kids. In a sweet monologue, he even says that he loves so much that he's crazy about them, and the idea of being away from them so much is truly painful.
10** In some ways, this also applies to Miranda. Is she a mature woman who has put up with Daniel's antics over the years and has finally reached her breaking point, or is she a cold detached woman more interested in her career than her family? Her apparent mooning over her old flame prior to telling Daniel it's over doesn't help her cause any.
11* BrokenBase: Daniel vs Miranda. Either this movie is about an immature ManChild losing his kids to a responsible wife who can't put up with him anymore, or it's about a loving father having his kids taken from him by an uptight workaholic. Then of course there's fans who think BothSidesHaveAPoint, and the film itself leans that direction: the kids don't get along with Miranda nearly as well as they do with Daniel and are upset when she comes to pick them up from his place, but they're also aware that Daniel has to grow up and get his act together.
12* DesignatedHero: Daniel faces plenty of deserved criticism, but there are some instances where you've got to wonder why he's the protagonist. He's introduced quitting a job despite having three children to care for. He's also openly hostile towards Stu, commiting acts such as vandalizing his car, attacking him in broad daylight and spiking his dinner with pepper after discovering he has a food allergy, the consequences of which occur in front of his own children, with Daniel giving no thought to how this might affect them.
13* FairForItsDay: Daniel's brother Frank and his boyfriend Jack. While they are unquestionably campy, their relationship is treated as perfectly normal and healthy and they are completely accepted by Daniel and their presumably elderly mother and both implied to be on good terms with Daniel's kids as well. While their portrayal can come across as dated now, it was a big deal in the 90s when gay relationships were largely unrepresented in mainstream media and casual homophobia was not uncommon to see gay characters treated as normal and likable characters.
14* HarsherInHindsight:
15** Daniel gets [[LineOfSightName his titular alias from a newspaper headline saying "Police Doubt Fire Was Accidental"]]. In January 2015, an arsonist attacked the house used for the Hillard home.
16** Daniel saying he "can't live without air" during his speech in court became this after Robin Williams’ suicide via hanging.
17** The ending scene where it is revealed that Daniel was promoted to host of a children's program in his Mrs. Doubtfire persona, with nobody making up a fuss... in contrast to the 2020s drama about "Drag Queen Story Hour" which faced threats and protests from anti-LGBT groups.
18* HeartwarmingInHindsight:
19** Many commenters who watched this movie as children but have since grown up noted that nobody, not the in-universe characters, the audience, or the MoralGuardians made a big fuss when Daniel mentioned his kids' "Uncle Frank and Aunt Jack", basically confirming they were an openly gay and married couple (and good guys, too) in a kids' movie.
20* HilariousInHindsight:
21** It won't be the last time Creator/PierceBrosnan played a man who was outsmarted by [[Film/JamesBond an elderly British lady]].
22*** On the same note, his getting so flustered by Mrs. Doubtfire's HurricaneOfEuphemisms, when he'd start dishing them out himself soon.
23** In ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' magazine's parody of this movie, there's a panel where the judge in the final hearing asks, "And now for the next case: Should the career of Creator/PierceBrosnan be declared legally dead?" Ummmm....[[Franchise/JamesBond no]].
24** In the "Pudgy and Grunge" cartoon that Daniel is recording for at the beginning of the film, Pudgy at one point says, "Eat your heart out, Creator/MerylStreep" after Grunge has taken him from his cage. And then later, when Grunge is planning on cooking Pudgy, he says "Eat your heart out, Creator/JuliaChild". Well, [[Film/JulieAndJulia guess who Meryl Streep went on to portray 16 years after this film's release]]?
25** Film/BillyMadison's two best friends are also named Jack and Frank, and they're very close.
26** The restaurant scene where Stu is choking on the hot cayenne pepper, which he's allergic to, that Mrs. Doubtfire put on his meal (but [[EveryoneHasStandards was so horrified by this, he ended up saving his life]]) becomes this once you learn that Creator/PierceBrosnan once worked as a professional fire eater.
27** The film features Robin Williams and Sally Field as a married couple. Williams went on to play three different Presidents of the United States (two real, one fictional) in ''Film/ManOfTheYear'', ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'', and ''Film/TheButler'', while Field went on to play the First Lady of the United States in ''Film/{{Lincoln}}''.
28** When Daniel puts on the "old Jewish woman" makeup, he and Frank sing a bit of "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof''. Harvey Fierstein would eventually [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EZ3p5Kywpo star in the musical]] a decade later.
29** Daniel ending up as a successful, wholesome kids' show host makes a quite amusing contrast to Williams playing a DepravedKidsShowHost in ''Film/DeathToSmoochy''.
30** In the ''Series/SuperhumanSamuraiSyberSquad'' episode "Starkey in Syberspace", the show’s protagonist Sam Collins (played by Matthew Lawrence) disguises himself as a girl just so he can get into a girl’s club. LikeFatherLikeSon perhaps?
31* ItWasHisSled: The back of the original book cover features a summary of the story's plot, but actually makes no mention about Daniel and Mrs. Doubtfire being the same person (only stating that Miranda has hired a peculiar nanny to watch over them). This suggests that Doubtfire really being Daniel was meant to be a surprise to the reader. However, most people are likely more familiar with the film adaptation, so very likely, anyone who reads the book will already know going in what's happening.
32* JerkassWoobie:
33** Daniel's predicament could have been avoided if he wasn't so immature. Despite that, he does genuinely live for his children and it does seem unfair from his point of view that they'd be with their career-obsessed mother more than him.
34** Likewise, Miranda. For all her flaws, she wants to provide for the family and raise her children well, and if she's harsh with Daniel, it's because she's understandably frustrated with his immaturity. She's fully aware of how she's changed for the worse over the course of her marriage, and is quite unhappy about it.
35* PopCultureUrbanLegends: In early 2021, several web articles [[https://ew.com/movies/mrs-doubtfire-director-chris-columbus-nc-17-cut/ claimed]] that there was an ''NC-17'' cut of the film featuring some extraordinary vulgar ad libs by Creator/RobinWilliams. Although extremely implausible in and of itself,[[note]]Films earn an NC-17 (adults only) rating due to graphic nudity and sexual content or particularly extreme violence. It's virtually impossible for a movie to earn that rating purely based on profanity.[[/note]] the claim briefly went viral on social media until Creator/ChrisColumbus and Creator/MaraWilson shut it down. Wilson noted that Williams, while certainly capable of creative profanity, was on his best behavior around the child actors which limited his opportunities for pushing the ratings limit. Columbus did say that Williams filmed enough outtakes to make an ''R'' rated version, but that an NC-17 rating was absurd.
36* StrawmanHasAPoint:
37** Even though he was saying it out of his jealousy over Miranda dating Stuart, Daniel (as Mrs. Doubtfire) had a perfectly legitimate point when he tells her it's too soon for her to start introducing her kids to a new man in their lives when they're still trying to deal with the divorce (which the film's timeline implies was just months ago).
38** The viewer is expected to see Lou as being in the wrong when it comes to Daniel's heroic stand against depicting cigarettes glamorously in children's media. However, Daniel's conduct in the scene is grossly unprofessional for an actor; the time to ascertain the content of the script and decide whether he was willing to perform it should have been before committing to the project, and there was no excuse for fundamentally protesting the script out of nowhere when already in the midst of the premium recording session.
39* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Miranda. Its shown throughout the film that BothSidesHaveAPoint regarding her workalchoic nature combined with Daniel's immaturity, is causing each other's marriage to breakdown, resulting in parental neglect. The film tries to show she's as much as a victim as he, when she reveals she'd [[FellAsleepCrying often cry herself]] asleep, because she was so unhappy with her married life. Though Daniel (as Mrs. Doubtfire) is shocked, meaning like her true feelings [[PoorCommunicationKills she hid this fact from him]] for years. She failed to speak up...until it was too late. Likewise in the climax, Daniel is unmasked and given stricter visitation rights. Miranda says nothing during the trial, and doesn't correct the judge that Daniel is many things, but he's ''never'' been a danger to the children. By purposefully keeping her mouth shut, she made him look ''insane'' to outsiders. Yes, she was justifiably angry at Daniel for his deception, but that doesn't excuse her refusal to defend Daniel's love for the kids. Daniel berates her, and it's the first time we see ''actual contempt'' in him for Miranda - for debasing him to make him look like a monster, brought down to the same level as sex offenders in front of overzealous social workers where he can't even hug his own kids without scrutiny.
40* ValuesDissonance:
41** One of Daniel's personas in his invoked TerribleIntervieweesMontage is a trans woman, and Miranda immediately hangs up in horror upon hearing it, which comes off as transphobic today. If they even attempted the setup today, the turnoff would likely be emphasized as the persona's extreme disassociation with males, instead of her background itself.
42** Similarly, the scene where the kids catch Daniel as Mrs. Doubtfire peeing standing up and freaking out, acting as if she is going to molest them. Some airings actually bleep Chris's use of the term "he-she" in this scene.
43** While the judge restricting Daniel's visitation rights over his stunt is understandable, referring to Daniel as a social deviant just because he dressed up as an old lady may raise some eyebrows today.
44* ValuesResonance:
45** Harvey Fierstein's character is depicted in a relatively positive light, if a bit camp. That he has a healthy relationship with his partner and their relationship is completely accepted by everyone else and treated by the film like any straight relationship is downright progressive for a movie from 1993.
46** Lundy not being bothered by Daniel's crossdressing and even giving him his own kids' show for Mrs. Doubtfire is also pretty progressive for the early 1990s.

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