History Film / NannyMcPhee

* PhraseCatcher: After several instances where Nanny [=McPhee=] justifies her mysterious entrances with "I ''did'' knock", Simon [[BorrowedCatchphrase finds himself saying the same]] to justify himself when he enters her room and she appears out of nowhere.

* WhatTheHellHero: Simon refuses to give Nanny [=McPhee=] any control in the kitchen scene... despite the fact that the curse they're under could cause his baby sibling to be hurled into a pot of boiling water against his siblings' will. Naturally, everyone is screaming at him to suck it up and apologize.

!!Tropes Specific to ''Nanny [=McPhee=] returns

* AdaptationNameChange: The main character Nanny [=McPhee=] was originally named Nurse Matilda. Emma Thompson said this was changed for a couple of reasons. For one, the term "Nurse" is no longer associated with "nanny", and only calls medical staff to mind. As for "Matilda", they didn't want to use it since it was [[OneMarioLimit likely to remind people]] of [[Literature/{{Matilda}} Roald Dahl's book]].

* RagsToRiches: [[spoiler:Evangeline, who gets taken in by Aunt Adelaide in place of one of the children.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** In his attempts to stop his children's pranks from harming Mrs. Quickly, Mr. Brown's tackling and diverting maneuvers look like bold sexual advances to her, which happens so many times, she leaves, not wanting to be used.
** When the children suggest Evangeline marry Mr. Brown at the wedding, Great-Aunt Adelaide is shocked, having believed Evangeline was his daughter, not his maid. In shock, she even cries out "Incest!" before she is corrected.

*BlanketTugOWar: The baby elephant and Vincent in the sequel.

* WireDilemma: In the sequel with an unexploded bomb.

* BeCarefulWhatYouSay:
** See PlayingSick below.

* CallingYourNausea: When Nanny McPhee's stick makes the children unable to stop what they're doing, one girl remarks, "I'm going to be sick!" She never throws up, though.

* ButNowIMustGo: See above.

* RemarryingForYourKids: A major plot is the first movie is Cedric Brown's necessity to get remarried after his wife's death, due to his aunt promising to cut off his financial support if he does not find another wife. [[spoiler: By the end of the movie, he marries Evangeline. ]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: In the sequel. The extent of Phil's wrongdoing is finally made known to Isabel, even as he tries to get the military police guy to cart him off - but the MP has to tend to a bomb threat, leaving Phil with a handcuff on him. Isabel takes the other end and ''cuffs him to the wall'', sealing his fate one way or another.

* BaitAndSwitch: When Celia refuses to go out to help catching piglets in the mud, at first it seems to her (and us) that Nanny [=McPhee=] is going to force her to go outside with magic...then she just holds up a pair of wellingtons.

* BaitAndSwitch: In the sequel, when Celia refuses to go out to help catching piglets in the mud, at first it seems to her (and us) that Nanny [=McPhee=] is going to force her to go outside with magic...then she just holds up a pair of wellingtons.

* BlanketTugOWar: The baby elephant and Vincent in the sequel.
* BlitzEvacuees: The cousins from London. [[spoiler:Though that wasn't the only reason they were sent to the countryside...]]

* CassandraTruth: In the second movie, when the kids talk about [[spoiler:the pigs' amazing abilities, like synchronized swimming and climbing trees,]] Isabel tells them to stop telling lies.
* ChekhovsSkill: From a ''bird'' of all things (in the sequel).

* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: In the sequel, Mrs. Docherty, the loopy general store owner played by Maggie Smith happens to [[spoiler:know Nanny [=McPhee=] personally]].
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Nanny [=McPhee=]'s prefered method of punishment. Play sick? She will make it real. Won't stop fighting? She will [[StopHittingYourself make you beat yourselves up]].
* ContinuityNod: In the sequel, [[spoiler: Mrs. Docherty turns out to be Aggie, the youngest Brown child from the previous movie]].

* CueTheFlyingPigs: ''Nanny [=McPhee=] Returns'' had flying pigs, referential of a similar gag in the first film in which "snow in August" was used as a phrase to describe something supposedly impossible and then did happen thanks to Nanny's magic.

* EurekaMoment: The kids in the second film have one when they realize it wasn't some military tech or gas that Nanny [=McPhee=] used on them, but ''magic''.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the sequel, a BritishRoyalGuard turns out to be one of Nanny [=McPhee's=] charges from the past. [[spoiler:So was old Mrs. Docherty-- known as Agatha/Aggie Brown before her marriage.]]

* {{Gasshole}}: Mr. Edelweiss the rook's habit of eating putty turns him into one. [[RunningGag Consistently.]]

* InjuredLimbEpisode: [[spoiler: Rory Green comes back at the end of the second film with his arm in a sling.]]

* KickingMyOwnButt: In the sequel, Nanny [=McPhee=] casts a spell on the Greens and their cousins, which causes them to fight themselves rather than each other. She promises to lift the spell if they apologize for hurting each other.

* LighterAndSofter: The second film has a lot more whimsical, extravagant, and perhaps frivolous uses of magic, and the scary vibe around Nanny [=McPhee=] herself is reduced.

* LeapOfFaith: In the sequel film, one of Nanny [=McPhee=]'s medals is for Leaps of Faith and, at the end of the film, she awards it to Isabel.

* MissingTrailerScene: Some of the trailers for the sequel film included quite a bit of material that didn't make into the final cut of the film, though some of it was included in deleted scenes.
* {{Novelization}}: There's one for ''Nanny [=McPhee=] Returns'' and it's written by Emma Thompson, who plays Nanny [=McPhee=] and was the writer for both films. It was her first ever children's book and it takes the form of a movie filming diary mixed in with the actual story.

* OverlyLongScream: Celia when faking seeing a mouse. She apparently had been screaming for ''half an hour straight''.

* TimeBomb: Of a sort, in the sequel.
* TitleDrop: In the sequel, a war veteran warns Isabel and family of the threat of bombings, calling it "the Big Bang". The American title averts this.
* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Why Phil is so desperate in convincing Isabel to sell the Greens' farm in the sequel. He gambled away his legal half of the farm at a casino, and two hit women eagerly want to either collect it, [[CruelAndUnusualDeath or his kidneys]].

* SocialClimber: In the first movie, Mrs. Quickly allows herself to become reconciled to Mr. Brown (after his disastrous first attempt at a proposal) when she finds out that his aunt is ''Lady'' Adelaide Stitch. When she finally meets Lady Adelaide, Mrs. Quickly goes into extreme ProfessionalButtKisser mode.

* SignatureInstrument: Aggie the baby is always seen with a rattle that's very special because her [[MissingMom now-dead mother]] gave it to her. At one point, the evil would-be stepmother Mrs. Quickly breaks it, but then it falls from the sky intact.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Half of the madness that the Brown children cause in the first film probably wouldn't have happened if Cedric had just been honest with them about their financial troubles, as the children didn't realize he had to marry to continue receiving money from Great-Aunt Adelaide, and sabotaged a tea with Mrs. Quickly, his awful potential bride, to drive her away. Once they learn from Cedric what they've really done, they return to Mrs. Quickly to apologize so she'll come back and marry their father. {[spoiler: In fairness to them, however, she really ''is'' as horrible as they first believed.]]

* ContinuityNod: In the sequel, [[spoiler:Mrs. Docherty was implied to be the youngest Brown child from the previous movie]].

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Half of the madness that the Brown children cause in the first film probably wouldn't have happened if Cedric had just been honest with them about their financial troubles, as the children didn't realize he had to marry to continue receiving money from Great-Aunt Adelaide, and sabotaged a tea with Mrs. Quickly, his awful potential bride, to drive her away. Once they learn from Cedric what they've really done, they return to Mrs. Quickly to apologize so she'll come back and marry their father.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Nanny [=McPhee=] may wear dark clothes and be a frightening woman with unsettling uses of magic, but said approach is always effective and she shows a true caring for the issues close to the families' hearts.

* MagicalNanny: Nanny [=McPhee=] shows up to help parents who are at their wits' end and teaches the kids to behave, whether they want to or not.

* ToughLove: Nanny[=McPhee=]’s tactics for teaching the children to be better is by being a little harsher than one expects. When the Brown children pretended to be sick, she casted a spell on them, which made them actually sick and she treated them as one would with sick children like giving them medicine and having them eat soup.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Nanny [=McPhee=] may be a frightening woman with unsettling uses of magic, but said approach is always effective and she shows a true caring for the issues close to the families' hearts.

* MissingMom: Mrs. Brown in the first movie is dead.

** Like Nanny [=McPhee=] in the above example, Cedric was tired of his children causing trouble with their pranks. However, he proved himself to be okay with their mischief during the wedding and acted as though there were bees buzzing around Mrs. Quickly’ hat.

** The children try this on Nanny [=McPhee=], but she doesn't buy it for a second. [[spoiler:And she punishes them for it by making them sick for real and physically unable to get out of their beds.]]