History Film / TheParentTrap1998

* ParentalSubstitute: Chessy acted like a second mother to Hallie and Martin was a male figure to Annie. It makes sense, seeing as how they were certain that the girls would never meet their other parent (and kept each girl from knowing about her other parent).

* ShipperOnDeck: Chessy and Martin are on board with the twins' plan and help them try to get their parents back together.

* TwinSwitch: The girls swap places to get to know their parents. Later the girls take this UpToEleven, constantly switching roles and rendering themselves completely indistinguishable from each other just to confuse their parents so much that they can't separate them without the risk of ending up with the wrong twin again.

* AdaptationalNationality: The original film had both twins as Americans (though ironically played by a British girl), while the remake makes one twin British.

** The parents are renamed from Mitch Evers and Margaret McKendrick to Nick Parker and Elizabeth James.

** When Meredith is, quite understandably, upset that Nick is taking his ex-wife whom he hasn't seen in over 11 years on his annual family camping trip (doubly so since she herself wasn't going), she argues, "What is this the Series/TheBradyBunch?"

* IdenticalTwinIDTag: At the start, the twins are easily distinguishable by their individual senses of style, including their respective hairdos, and clothing, as well as their accents. Throughout the course of their time at camp, they learn about each other's mannerisms, and toward the end of the session, they alter their appearances so that each can pose as the other. The only way to tell them apart in the third act is by the accents, and they're able to fake those convincingly enough that not even the girls' father can be completely sure he knows which is which. Notably, in scenes where the audience is supposed to know which is which (the Stafford Hotel, dinner on the ocean liner etc) one twin usually wears her hair back.

** Hallie camp friends who help get her duffel bag out of the huge pile notice her luggage tag says she's from California and start asking if she lives in Hollywood and knows anyone famous, leading Hallie to ask them "Who are you two, [[Series/ILoveLucy Lucy and Ethel]]?"

** Also, the fact that the twins being from two separate countries ending up at the same summer camp in the U.S. When the twins reveal the switch-up during the parents reunion, they mention that they [Nick and Elizabeth] must think alike to have had that happen.

** Mildred, Annie's pretend friend who is a cover for Hallie, is a possible reference to Hayley Mills.

** When caught on the phone, Annie claims she is speaking with "Mildred Plotka". This is a double-barrelled reference, to both the 1961 movie and to Carole Lombard's character in the 1934 film ''Twentieth Century''.

* OneNoteCook: Pasta is the only thing Nick knows how to make.

** To a lesser degree, Annie arriving in California.

* SommelierSpeak: Hallie almost blows her cover by asking to taste Elizabeth's wine at dinner and giving a detailed review of the taste based on the knowledge she picked up growing up on Nick's vineyard.

* SpotTheImposter: Chessy is the first to start figuring things out, since "Hallie" is suddenly cleaning up after herself, her appetite is different, her dog doesn't seem to recognize her and she says things like "gave me a fright." Realizing she's onto her, Annie confesses her true identity.

* WiseBeyondHerYears: Annie is definitely more savvy than her eleven years would lead one to believe. She guesses right away that Meredith is a GoldDigger. To be fair, though, Chessy suggests it while she and Annie are unpacking, before Annie actually meets Meredith.

* OnlyOneWhoLikesSpam: Both Annie and Hallie are the only ones who enjoy eating Oreo cookies with peanut butter; other people they've met find it disgusting. This is presented as a clue that they are twins rather than just lookalikes. (See Genius Bonus in Trivia)

* OnlyOneWhoLikesSpam: Both Annie and Hallie are the only ones who enjoy eating Oreo cookies with peanut butter; other people they've met find it disgusting. GeniusBonus, since identical twins have been observed to share certain genetically-predisposed tastes.

* OnlyOneWhoLikesSpam: Both Annie and Hallie are the only ones who enjoy eating Oreo cookies with peanut butter; other people would find it disgusting.

* CrazyConsumption: Both Annie and Hallie are the only ones who enjoy eating Oreo cookies with peanut butter; other people would find it disgusting.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Meredith in her engagement to Nick. When Annie "casually" drops this accusation during what Meredith initially passes off as an innocent heart-to-heart, she immediately drops all pretenses and warns Annie not to do anything to interfere with their upcoming marriage, kicking off the girls' desperate plans to reunite their parents before this can happen. Oh, and Meredith's parents are all in on the scheme too.

* NoSympathy: Zigzagged. When the Marva's finds Annie's cabin is trashed, and Hallie tried to stop her from going inside, they peg a few things: Annie's cabin was the victim of a prank, and a result of her and Hallie bickering. As they start to blame each other, the counselor gives them a BigShutUp. Rather than punishing everyone in Annie's cabin for something that wasn't their fault, she orders both cabins to march and forces Annie and Hallie to room together to settle their differences. Overall, that's a fair response considering in the original movie the trashed cabin failed to pass inpsection.

** Meredith's mother is not only named Vicki, like Meredith's equivalent in the original movie, but played by the same actress, Joanna Barnes. Meredith also wears a similar charm bracelet to Vicki, which was a deliberate ShoutOut by Elaine Hendrix.

* NowYouTellMe: A lot of characters find things out the hard way.

* PetPositiveIdentification: Inverted when Hallie's dog Sammy barks at Annie when she's disguised as Hallie, much to Hallie's father's confusion.

** Given that the twins' final prank on her was pulling her air mattress out while she's sleeping on it in the middle of the night onto the lake, which could have had lethal results (especially considering she had taken "one large sleeping pill" before going to bed), it's not hard to see why that one would be the final straw to her VillainousBreakdown.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The "11 years and 9 months later" cutaway reading seems merely comedic, but it also implies that the twins were conceived on Nick and Elizabeth's wedding night in a way that would fly over the heads of child viewers.

'''Elizabeth:''' [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar Oh, that f-word]]...