Mrs. Doubtfire

Question: When Daniel is calling home to apply for the job of housekeeper, why did he use different accents instead of just using the British accent instantly?

Answer: Daniel was pretending to be different people that were just all very horrible, so he used different accents. This way, when the "British nanny" calls, he was hoping Miranda would instantly consider him. If he called pretending to be Ms. Doubtfire right away, she might not have basically given him the job right away. And if he used the charming British accent for all his characters, it would have lost its charm when he decided to be Ms. Doubtfire.

Bishop73

Basically this. He wanted Miranda to be frustrated by the other calls, so that Mrs. Doubtfire would seem like a refreshing change.

Azalea

Answer: He was just practising or trying it out, and took a while to think of it.

Answer: To get rid of the smell of alcohol, although it's pretty obvious Mrs Doubtfire is drunk anyway.

Sam Johnson

Question: When Daniel learns that Stu is allergic to pepper he sneaks into the kitchen and spikes his food. Later when Stu starts choking Daniel seems surprised. What did he think was going to happen?

Answer: Well when someone's allergies act up, typically people associate that with sneezing and coughing, etc. Daniel didn't think there'd be a much more serious reaction.

Quantom X

Answer: Likely especially since Daniel was drunk, he didn't think it through, and the fact that Stu could die from his "prank."

Answer: He acts surprised so that everyone thinks he wasn't in on it, and he is just another person scared for Stu. If he didn't have a surprised face, or just a straight face, the gig would've been easier to notice.

Answer: Maybe just faking it as Mrs. Doubtfire to avoid being caught smiling to himself?

Question: The first time Daniel goes to his brother Frank's place to get made up into Mrs. Doubtfire he asks "Can you make me a woman?" to which Frank excitedly says "Oh honey, I'm so happy!" What did he mean by that? I feel like there's a joke here I'm just not understanding.

Answer: Frank thinks his brother is coming out as transgender and is enthusiastically supportive.

Brian Katcher

Question: How could Daniel get jail time over this whole "Doubtfire" act? He told his kids if their mom found out he could only see them through plate glass (jail/prison). Is it really a crime to do what he did? (although it is creepy and awkward to do) He didn't physically harm anyone and didn't impersonate a real person. So why would he assume this?

Answer: To start, it's seems likely that they did mean to just show Daniel exaggerating. However, Daniel was assigned a case worker who checked up on him and made sure he had a job. This is not a common thing done in divorce/custody cases unless there's a perceived notion that Daniel is mentally unstable or unfit (the quitting of his job, the lavish birthday party), in which case Daniel may feel they'll commit him to a mental institution, rather than prison (where he thinks he'll have to see his kids while behind glass.) That being said, he did commit crimes that he could have been arrested for. Fraud being the major one, ranging from lying to his case worker to possible tax fraud; and his various actions against Stewart (vandalism and battery). However nothing in the film indicated he violated a restraining order or a supervised visitation order by being there, so he couldn't have been arrested for being there.

Bishop73

Question: When the monkey puppet on Mrs. Doubtfire's show says "Here's a monkey bite!", sometimes the monkey is shown on the TV screen next to Lundy and sometimes it's not shown and only zoomed in on Lundy watching (without the monkey at all seen). It seems TV or cable stations/DVD all have one of these versions or the other. Why is it different? Was something inappropriate about a puppet monkey "biting"?

Answer: When movies are shown on TV they are often edited using what is called a "pan and scan" format to fit the television screen. Movie screens are much wider, and when movies are shown on television as they were originally filmed, the image on the sides are cut off. Sometimes movies are shown on TV in a "letter box" format, where you see the black lines at the top and bottom of the TV screen. This shows the entire scene, but it is much smaller overall. "Pan and scan" is edited to cut back and forth between the scene to show the different characters, usually when it is their time to be speaking. Otherwise, one character may be talking, but the audience cannot see them, confusing the plot. The version of "Mrs Doubtfire" that you were watching is done in "pan and scan."

raywest

Question: Hypothetically speaking, how could have Miranda convinced a judge to discontinue the supervised visitations that were put in place because of Daniel's odd behavior?

Answer: By dropping the complaint on Daniel, and getting her lawyer to help remove the decision.

MasterOfAll

Question: Is it true that part of the scenes in which Mrs. Doubtfire are in is shot with a real english lady who looks like Mrs. Doubtfire?

Countryrunner

Chosen answer: No.

Tailkinker

Question: Did Stu suspect anything was wrong? Mrs Doubtfire insulted him saying his car was to compensate for his manhood and threw a lime at the back of his head, and he still invited her to the birthday dinner he booked? Was he not at all suspicious?

Answer: With the comment about the Mercedes badge, I think he just thought she was being a bit too blunt and direct. The comment she made is actually quite common and is still used today as to "insult" someone. When she threw the lemon at his head, I think he knew it was her due to all the laughing. When she said it was an angry member of the kitchen staff, Stu didn't alter his gaze and look for the member of staff so I think he knew or was at least very convinced it was her. In regards to the Birthday, Miranda and Natalie asked Mrs Doubtfire to go with them so she wasn't invited directly by Stu. Considering Mrs Doubtfire made Miranda and the kids happy, Stu probably just went along with it.

Answer: Stu may have bypassed the comment as it only looked like it may have bothered him for a few seconds, but he got past it quickly. As to the lime, Mrs. Doubtfire directly told him it was an angry member of the kitchen staff who threw it, so he wouldn't have got angry at her for that incident.

Continuity mistake: In the pool scene where Mrs. Doubtfire picks up and throws a lime at the back of Stu's head, when Stu walks away and the camera goes back to Mrs. Doubtfire at the bar, the lime that she threw is still on the top of the stack of fruit.

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Trivia: Adding to the 'carpe dentum' contribution, if you look at Pierce Brosnan when Mrs Doubtfire gets up from the table, he is moments away from bursting out laughing. According to the commentary track on the dvd, it was this reference to Dead Poets Society that tickled Brosnan but he managed to keep a straight face and so they didn't need to reshoot.

Sam Johnson

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