18 Reasons The Parent Trap Is Actually Really Messed Up

Updated September 25, 2019 266.3K views 18 items

When was the last time you watched The Parent Trap, the Disney film featuring double-trouble Lindsay Lohan and a deep current of subtext that provides an exhausting amount of confusing messages for young women? There are enough issues that actually cataloging all of the f*cked up things in The Parent Trap is almost impossible. It’s definitely one of the more disturbing kid's movies of the '90s, and the WTF Parent Trap plot devices are only the beginning of the proof that the film may impart some inappropriate lessons.

The disturbing things about The Parent Trap range from the inaccurate information that the film gives about medical procedures to its general lack of legal knowledge and classist underpinnings, which attempt to teach children to never reach for anything better than the life they’ve been handed. Out of all the dark films for children that exist, The Parent Trap may be one of the most nefarious films that’s ever been created. Where else can you find a movie that pits women against each other for the love of a creep, while having to fend off a butler who may or may not be trying to rope his boss into a particular sexual fetish?

You may love The Parent Trap, and that’s fine, but if you’re ever going to show this movie to children, you should probably know a thing or two about the messages you’re about to inundate them with.

That Custody Arrangement Is A Therapist's Dream
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Buena Vista Pictures
Who in their right mind believes that it's okay to split up a pair of twins before they're even born? Especially when both families involved are exorbitantly wealthy? This isn't a Lifetime movie where someone gives birth in a crack den and has to choose between a twin and a sweet sweet crack rock; this is a Disney movie.

How hard would it have been to work out an agreement that would allow the two girls to grow up together? Not only is their current arrangement Draconian, but it's also definitely going to instill a lifelong distrust of their parents.
The Parent Trap Introduced Hazing To An Entire Generation
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Buena Vista Pictures
If you grew up in the '90s, then you might remember a slew of hazing deaths that began to be more widely reported than they had been in the past. With that in mind, why in the world would Nancy Meyers and the rest of the screenwriting team think it was okay to make a film where an 11-year-old girl, after losing a high stakes poker game, is made to jump into a lake naked while the rest of the girls steal her clothes?

This hazing ritual is mostly harmless, but it normalizes this kind of behavior and tells its audience of young women that it's okay to put other people through the ringer without worrying about the repercussions of their actions. Yikes!
The Children Have No Actual Oversight
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Buena Vista Pictures
Even though these child millionaires have had a truly strange upbringing, for whatever reason, no one seems to care about what they do on a day-to-day basis. Whether they're at camp - where there seems to be no more than two counselors - or in London, where an 11-year-old girl can just run out of her posh home, down the street, and into a phone booth where she can make a collect call to America, there's no one around to tell these girls no.

In fact, there's so little oversight in their lives that they're able to SWAP LIVES without anyone noticing until the girls get bored of their ruse and give themselves up.
More So Than Anyone, Annie's Entire Life Has Been A Lie
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Buena Vista Pictures
There's no doubt that both girls have been given a raw deal in their parent's divorce. But Annie, who was sent to London to live with her mother, was sold a bag of BS from day one. Not only was she raised to believe that she was a proper English lass, but she's also been denied the freedom that a dual citizenship can bestow on someone.

Yes, she can travel internationally for camp, but by raising her as someone she's not, her entire sense of self gets fractured when she finds out the truth. If she doesn't end up in a mental institution by the time she's 15, it'll be a miracle.
No One Realizes That Sending English Lohan To Camp In A Limo Immediately Makes Her A Pariah
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Buena Vista Pictures
Who in Annie's family thought it would be a good idea to send an 11-year-old girl into a shark tank of pre-teens in a limo? It doesn't matter how good the camp is, that kind of introduction is a set-up on a Machiavellian scale. Either her mother (who presumably makes these kids of decisions) is so out of touch with normal society that she doesn't realize how much she's separating Annie from the rest of the campers (who showed up on a school bus for f*ck's sake), or she wants her daughter to be systematically broken down by girls of a lower class who have no other retribution against their sorry lot in life than to take Annie, the rich girl, down a peg.
The Girls Are Developing A Lowkey Gambling Addiction
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Buena Vista Pictures
There may only be two counselors at the camp where Annie and Hallie meet, so it makes sense that the two exhausted women who have to deal with a bunch of children are fine with letting a gambling ring slip through the cracks. In a way, it helps bolster the camp's economy, and no one's really getting hurt - except for the children who are learning how to be rewarded for gambling with money they don't have. If you like gambling, that's fine.

But you're probably not an 11-year-old girl who doesn't actually have any personal capital or really anything of your own to speak of. These girls are betting hundreds(!) of dollars on a clandestine poker game with other 11 year olds. If they haven't bankrupted their family by the time they're in their early 20s, it's going to be a miracle.
This Film Presupposes That Fencing Is Inherent Behavior
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Buena Vista Pictures
What is fencing anyway? Obviously, it's a hand-eye coordination exercise that involves swords, but it's not like being left handed or being born with an innate sense of direction; it's a learned exercise. But The Parent Trap tries to tell the audience that it's actually a talent that people are born with, and that's mind boggling.

This isn't to say that some people aren't born with better fencing abilities than others, but these girls are perfectly matched opponents, and that makes zero sense. Get it together Nancy Meyers.
The Camp Has A Prison Cabin
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Buena Vista Pictures
Does every camp have a prison cabin? After the twins are busted for their #epicprankwar, they're placed in semi-solitary confinement with each other in a cabin that's separated from everyone else. It's kind of like that scene from Addams Family Values but less good. First of all, it's bordering on Dickensian to lock children away in a wooden prison (albeit a very nice wooden prison), and secondly, is no one weirded out that these two identical children are trying to kill each other? Why would you put them in the same cabin? Why not send one of them into the woods to fend for herself while you place the other in a basket and send her downstream?
These Girls Have A Legitimately Terrible Plan
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Buena Vista Pictures
The crux of The Parent Trap is the ruse that each girl will pretend to be the other, go to their respective homes, and trick whichever parent they're trapping into coming together to switch them back. There's barely any more thought put into the plan than that. They don't have a backup in case one of the parents freaks out and decides to keep them.

They also clearly don't consider the possibility that the parents might just send someone else in their stead because they don't want to see their ex-lover.
The Film Teaches Improper Sterilization Techniques
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Buena Vista Pictures
This is a minor quibble with the film, but it's something that sticks with the audience long after the film ends. After coming up with their plan, the girls realize that they need to have identical hair and pierced ears in order to properly pull off the scam. Hallie pierces her sister's ears in a scene that invokes feelings similar to those brought on by Julia Ducournau's Raw. The most horrifying part of the scene is the fact that all Hallie does to sterilize the needle she uses to pierce her sister's ears is burn it for a second and say: "There, sterilized." It's not an incantation Hallie! Buy a new needle.
That Butler Is A-OK With Throwing Away Another Child's Toy
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Buena Vista Pictures
It's not a huge deal within the narrative of the film, but Annie's butler, Martin, might be a sociopath. Upon discovering Hallie's stuffed bunny in her luggage - which he doen't remember belonging to Annie - he decides that he should just throw it away. What? You're not going to contact the camp and try to return a child's stuffed animal to them? That's a bit of a red flag.
Liz Hates Love Yet Designs Wedding Dresses And Might Have A Drinking Problem
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Buena Vista Pictures
After having twins and divorcing Nick, Liz never remarried. In fact, she threw herself so wholeheartedly into her work that when she's faced with the possibility of speaking with her ex-husband, she gets close to blackout drunk on an international flight and continues to drink until the moment that she has a conversation with him. Despite Liz's total hatred for love in general, she works in the wedding industry, designing dresses for women to wear on what's supposed to be one of the happiest days of their lives.

What is Liz playing at? There's something deeply disturbing about this character that's being played for laughs.
Nick Is A Legit Hundred Millionaire And Denies One Of His Daughters
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Buena Vista Pictures
Dennis Quaid's Nick owns a vineyard in Napa; that's not a cheap enterprise to undertake, nor is it an inexpensive place to live. If he's been running a successful vineyard for at least a decade (with horses, a pool, a giant house, etc), then he's definitely a millionaire and probably a hundred millionaire. He has more money than he needs, and he still completely denies the fact that he has a second daughter who he hasn't seen since she had "diaper rash." Nick is a monster.
The Parent Trap Pits Women Against Each Other
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Buena Vista Pictures
It's hard to watch The Parent Trap multiple times without viewing it in the context of a film that puts women in competition against each other for the most trivial of pursuits. Not only are the film's protagonists, Annie and Hallie, immediately in competition with each other simply because they look alike, but their father's love interests also essentially become each other's arch enemies because they want to be with the same guy.

The audience is made to watch as Liz and Meredith (the scheming career woman - OH NO!) trade barbs before the twins eventually do away with her on a camping trip. But why? For Nick? He's just some guy, and women shouldn't be taught in a children's film that they should be in all-out war simply for a (not that great) man's attention.
Annie And Hallie Have No Grasp On Adult Relationships Yet Feel The Need To Play Matchmaker
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Buena Vista Pictures
It's fine that the twins want to put their family back together; they've been robbed of a childhood, and they want to fix it. But their parents divorced because they weren't compatible at all and were simply hypnotized by the majesty of the Queen Elizabeth II. Nick and Liz shouldn't be together. They're a bad couple, but they should want to give their daughters some semblance of a life together. They've put their children in a terrible position and, like the children of alcoholics, the girls want to fix everything. This film should have ended with everyone in therapy.
The Butler Should Be Fired
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Buena Vista Pictures
If you have a long list of fetishes, that's great, kudos. But if you work with children, you've got to keep your leather fetish and penchant for exhibitionism to yourself. Martin, Annie's butler, takes every chance he can to dress someone in leather (while sporting a fresh motorcycle jacket) and burst into rooms wearing nothing more than a Speedo. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us Martin? How about your safe word?
The Film Is Classist To A Disturbing Degree
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Buena Vista Pictures
The Parent Trap is not only a film that presents a world where wealthy people and their children can do whatever they want, including destroying a camp and zig zagging the globe for love, but it also makes sure to keep the help in its place. By the end of the film, Nick and Liz, the two wealthiest people in the narrative, have married, and their help has become engaged.

This isn't Downton Abbey; the help doesn't have to breed more help. This is an obvious message telling the audience to stay in their lane no matter their economic lifestyle.
The Parents Have A Toxic Relationship
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Buena Vista Pictures
This might be the most adult concept that The Parent Trap broaches, and it's an incredibly sad concept for a Disney film. It's brought up multiple times that Nick and Liz (the twins' parents) didn't really get along after their initial meeting on the Queen Elizabeth II, and even after Liz left for England - with a child in tow - Nick didn't give a second thought to chasing after her. So the fact that Nick and Liz do get married at the end of the film doesn't actually bode well for their relationship.

Yes they're in love now while everything's exciting and they're back aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, but what about when they have to pay bills or put a shopping list together?