My Girl 2 is the 1994 sequel to My Girl. Anna Chlumsky, Dan Aykroyd, and Jamie Lee Curtis reprise their roles with Austin O'Brien (Last Action Hero) rounding out the cast.
Two years have passed since the first movie, and Vada is now thirteen. Her father Harry is married to Shelly, who is pregnant. Wanting to find out more about her real mother, Vada visits her Uncle Phil in Los Angeles, where she also meets Nick, her Second Love.
Tropes associated with this movie:
- The '70s: Set in 1974, two years after the setting of the first movie.
- A-Cup Angst: Vada asks her stepmother Shelly when she got breasts.Shelly: I was a very late developer, they used to call me "Shelly Two Backs". All my friends had real bras, not like the training ones I had.
- Advertised Extra: Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis are prominently featured in the advertising, disguising the fact that Harry and Shelley have been Demoted to Extra.
- Amicable Exes: Vada's mother's ex-husband is nothing but warm and friendly to Vada as well as having nothing but kind things to say about her mother despite them divorcing and her marrying Harry shortly after. He even says he would have loved to have been her father but she is indeed the daughter of Harry.
- Anachronism Stew:
- The movie is generally pretty sloppy about making 1990s Los Angeles looks like 1970s Los Angeles. At one point, we see a Blockbuster Video in the background, which is especially egregious because video rentals weren't even close to being a thing in The '70s.
- A boy in Vada's class mentions that he likes seeing Farrah Fawcett run, a reference to her role on Charlie's Angels. That show didn't debut until 1976, and Farrah Fawcett wasn't famous yet in 1974.
- A reference is made to China's one-child policy, which wasn't implemented until 1978.
- Artistic License – Law: Zigzagged and even lampshaded. When Vada reveals that she bought her own ticket to go to Los Angeles, Harry points out that selling airline tickets to minors is illegal... until Vada casts a guilty look at Shelly. Then, when Shelly mentions that an adult's signature is required, Harry brings up her "hormone surges".
- Ascended Extra: Vada's uncle Phil went from an extra in the first film to being one of the main characters in the sequel.
- Babies Ever After: Vada's baby brother is born at the end of the sequel.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Vada's grandmother has very recently died and her baby brother is born at the end of the film.
- Contrasting Sequel Setting: With the first film in Madison, Pennsylvania, you had a small town with a house; woods; nice neighborhood and more simple surroundings. With this film' in LA, you got a city with an apartment above a garage; urban neighborhoods; the Hollywood aesthetic and a more buzzing environment with a brief visit to the countryside too (and the movie's only got Madison as Bookends as well).
- Demoted to Extra: The sequel has everyone from the first film (besides Vada and her uncle) only in the film for the first 20 minutes (not counting her parents as they also appear in the ending).
- Deuteragonist: As much as we hear about Vada's story in trying to find out about her mother's story, we also get to hear about Phil coming to the realization that he wants to marry Rose and be a father to Nick.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: It's revealed that Harry proposed to Vada's mother on their second date and they were married two weeks later. Vada was born nine months later.
- Gene Hunting: The sequel is about Vada going to Los Angeles to find out more about her mother and a bit of the trope sneaks in there when she worries that she might not be Harry's daughter due to her mother having been married to someone else. Her mother's ex-husband assures her that while he would have been thrilled to be her father, Harry is definitely her father.
- Gilligan Cut: "No, I'm sorry, Vada is not going to Los Angeles. Now I have made my decision, and that is final." (Cut to Vada about to board a plane at the airport.)
- Green-Eyed Monster: Phil gets jealous when a customer keeps flirting with his girlfriend Rose. This jealousy eventually helps him realize that he wants to marry Rose and be a father to Nick.
- Grounded Forever: When Nick and Vada return late to Nick's place, his mom Rose says "you're grounded till you're fifty" to Nick, before then increasing it to "sixty" when he objects that she's overreacting and docking his allowance for two weeks.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Maggie left him for Harry, Jeffery says he was grateful for it, because he and Maggie had been having trouble agreeing on whether or not to have children. Therefore, he was glad that she found someone who could "give her the love she deserved" and give her the child "she always wanted".
- Kissing Cousins: Vada Sultenfuss and Nick Zsigmond have Belligerent Sexual Tension throughout the movie, but will become cousins soon when her Uncle Phil gets engaged to his mother Rose. That doesn't stop Vada and Nick from having a pretty dramatic First Kiss right before Vada leaves to go home.
- Lighter and Softer: The sequel tones down the drama from the first movie and becomes more of a heartwarming comedy. It's especially apparent in the ending where the first movie was quite bittersweet but the sequel is entirely happy: Vada finds out about her mother's past, Phil and Rose get engaged, Nick admits his feelings to Vada, Vada's baby brother is born, and Vada gets an A on her assignment.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Vada discovers that her mother was previously married to someone before her father and fears that he might actually be her father and not Harry. Harry most definitely is her father.
- M Issing Mom: The movie focuses on her visiting her maternal relatives to learn more about her mother, who passed away when she was a baby.
- Mysterious Parent: The sequel decides to make this the main focus of the plot with Vada learning more about her mother's life in California by meeting her friends, peers, teachers, and her first husband.
- Nice Guy: Jeffery Pomeroy, Maggie's ex-husband.
- Not Blood Siblings: Vada and Nick share The Big Damn Kiss near the conclusion of the film even though they're gonna soon be cousins and it seems implied that they'll continue to have a romantic interest even after that. That said, the former points out to Nick that they'd be more akin to "strangers who didn't know each other and were suddenly related."
- Oh, Crap!: Hilary when she realizes that she (accidentally) just revealed that Maggie had a first husband.
- Parent with New Paramour: The showing of the relationship between Vada and Shelley is beautiful, since they are close without Shelley trying to replace Vada's mother. Shelley steps in to talk to Vada's dad when she worries that Vada is going to feel neglected due to the new baby and reminds him to spend time with her, talks frankly to Vada about the changes in her body due to her pregnancy, is genuinely interested in Vada's life and in knowing about her dead mother. She is the one who encourages Vada to learn about her mom and go on a trip across the country to try and find out more about her. Their relationship is a wonderful example of somebody being a parent without trying to replace a missing parent.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: The title character shares her first kiss with her uncle's stepson just before she goes home from her visit. Afterwards, the boy walks through the airport looking completely blissed out and dazed.
- Practically Different Generations: Vada is thirteen when her half-brother is born.
- Second Love: Nick become Vada's by the end of the sequel.
- Sequel Goes Foreign: Downplayed. OK, so Madison, Pennsylvania and Los Angeles, California are in the same country, but it still fulfills the premise of the main character spending most of the sequel in a far-off famous city.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: At the start of the sequel, Vada's senile grandmother is revealed to have passed away. The actress had died in real life.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Nick is pretty much a replacement for Thomas J, who died in the first movie. Downplayed in that Nick has more of an attitude, but still, he's a blond boy filling that same role as Vada's male companion and possible love interest.
- Tragic Keepsake: Two years later, Vada still wears the mood ring as a reminder of her dead best friend.
- Tsundere: Nick gets a taste of it though he's more prone to egging her on intentionally than Thomas J. did.
