Freelancevoice actor Daniel Hillard lives inSan Francisco and is a loving and devoted father to his three children: 14-year-old Lydia, 12-year-old Chris, and five-year-old Natalie. However, his hardworking wife Miranda considers Daniel immature and unreliable. After quitting a gig following a disagreement over a morally questionable script, Daniel returns home to throw Chris a chaotic birthday party, despite Miranda's objections due to Chris's poor grades. Miranda arrives home from work early to break up the party after receiving a noise complaint from a neighbor, and in the ensuing argument, Miranda tells Daniel she wants a divorce. Due to Daniel's unemployed and homeless status, Miranda is granted sole custody of the children, with Daniel having visitation rights every Saturday; shared custody is contingent on Daniel finding a steady job and suitable residence within three months.
Daniel secures an apartment and a job as a shipping clerk at a television station. After learning that Miranda is looking to hire a housekeeper, Daniel secretly alters herclassified ad form and calls her using his voice acting skills to pose as various undesirable applicants before calling as "Euphegenia Doubtfire" (a name he derives from a newspaper headline), an elderly British nanny with strong credentials. Impressed, Miranda invites Mrs. Doubtfire for an interview. Daniel's brother Frank and Frank's husband Jack, both professional makeup and prosthetics artists, help Daniel appear as an old lady.
Miranda hires Mrs. Doubtfire following a successful interview. The children initially struggle under her authority, but eventually come around and thrive, while Miranda becomes more easygoing and closer with the kids. Daniel also further improves himself by becoming more responsible and learning several household skills, earning Miranda's respect. However, Miranda puts more trust in Mrs. Doubtfire than in Daniel and cannot bring herself to dismiss her. Miranda also begins dating an old friend, Stu Dunmeyer, to Daniel's chagrin. One night, Chris discovers Mrs. Doubtfire standing while urinating and frantically instructs Lydia to call the police. Daniel reveals the truth to them, and they agree to keep his secret so that they can continue spending time with Daniel.
One day, the station's CEO, Jonathan Lundy, sees Daniel playing with props on the set of a recently canceled children's show. Impressed by his voice acting, humor, and imagination, Lundy invites Daniel to dinner to discuss plans for a new show. The meeting turns out to be at the same place and time as a planned birthday dinner for Miranda, to which Mrs. Doubtfire is invited. Daniel spends the night changing in and out of the Mrs. Doubtfire costume to attend both events. Becoming intoxicated, Daniel accidentally returns to Lundy in costume, but explains himself by claiming Mrs. Doubtfire is his idea for the new show's host. After learning of Stu's pepper allergy, Daniel sneaks into the kitchen and seasons Stu'sjambalaya with powderedcayenne. When Stu begins choking, a regretful Daniel administers theHeimlich maneuver. This causes his prosthetic mask to slip off, exposing his identity. Horrified, Miranda leaves with the kids.
At their next custody hearing, Daniel points out that he has met the judge's requirements ahead of schedule, then explains that his actions were done out of love for his children and begs to be still allowed to see them. The judge dismisses Daniel's words as another ruse, grants Miranda full custody of the kids, and further restricts Daniel's rights to supervised Saturday visits. This devastates Daniel, the children, and even Miranda, who realizes her resentment and bitterness towards Daniel has been hurting the family. Without Mrs. Doubtfire, Miranda and the kids become miserable, acknowledging how much "she" improved their lives. They then discover that Daniel, as Mrs. Doubtfire, is hosting a new children's show,Euphegenia's House, which becomes a nationwide hit.
Miranda visits Daniel on set and admits that things were better when he was involved with the family. She arranges joint custody, allowing Daniel to take the kids daily after school. As Daniel leaves with the kids, Miranda watches an episode ofEuphegenia's House where Mrs. Doubtfire answers a letter from a young girl whose parents recently separated. Mrs. Doubtfire assures her that no matter what arrangements families have, love will prevail.
TheSan Francisco house used for exterior shots of the film, photographed in August 2014, several days afterRobin Williams' death; a fan-made tribute to Williams can be seen at its front steps.
Mrs. Doubtfire was filmed inSan Francisco. Various locations in the city were used during filming. Parts were filmed at the studios of television stationKTVU inOakland. Street signs for the intersection near the "Painted Lady" home, Steiner, and Broadway, were visible onscreen.
The exact address, 2640 Steiner Street, became a tourist attraction for some time after the film's release.[9] Following Robin Williams' death on August 11, 2014, the house became an impromptu memorial.[10] All interior filming for the home took place in a Bay Area warehouse, converted for soundstage usage. Williams' character, Daniel Hillard, lived upstairs from Danilo Bakery at 516 Green Street; his children attended a school at Filbert and Taylor.
The makeup for Mrs. Doubtfire's appearance took four hours to apply.[11][12] Williams later recounted how he used to walk through San Francisco dressed in full makeup and costume as Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire, and on one occasion, visiting a sex shop to buy a largedildo and othertoys.[13] DirectorChris Columbus stated in a 2015 interview that they shot with multiple cameras at once, like shooting a documentary, to capture the cast members' reaction to Williams's improvisation.[14] According to Columbus, they ran out of film after shooting too much of Williams' improvisation.[15] The restaurant scene was filmed at Bridges Restaurant & Bar inDanville, California.[16]
The score was composed, orchestrated and conducted byHoward Shore.[17]
ThePudgy and Grunge animated film segment in the opening scene was directed byChuck Jones. Though only one minute of the cartoon is shown during the film, Jones and his team animated five minutes of footage.[18]
When the film was released in theUnited Kingdom in January 1994, it received a certificate of12, which, at the time, completely refused access to children under age 12 at cinemas (the 12A certificate did not exist until 2002). This resulted in cinemas requesting their local authorities to override the decision of theBritish Board of Film Classification, after having to turn down disappointed families. In February 1994,The Independent reported that the censors refused to give the film a U or PG certificate, and gave it a 12 instead, which was due to20th Century Fox refusing to remove three controversial lines.[20] After the film's distributors requested the BBFC to reconsider, a compromise was reached, and the film was rerated PG, with just one of the proposed three cuts implemented, involving the removal of thirteen seconds featuring sexual innuendo (the other two cuts would have removed just some of the innuendo), and it was rereleased in May 1994.
Fox Video released the film onVHS in the United States on April 26, 1994, just five months after the film's theatrical release and while the film was still grossing over $1 million a weekend.[21] It would also debut on aTHX certifiedLaserDisc release that same month.[22]
In the United Kingdom, the rated PG version was used in the initial VHS andDVD releases. In November 2012, the distributors resubmitted the original version to the BBFC, and the 12 certificate was reinstated for home video, along with a12A certificate for cinema release in 2014.[23][24] On March 4, 2013, the original version was released onBlu-ray anddownloads in the United Kingdom.
Over 30 minutes of scenes were omitted from the final cut of the film, some of which were featured in the 2008 DVD release ofMrs. Doubtfire called the "Behind-the-Seams Edition".[25] If the scenes had been included, the film would have run for 157 minutes. These include an entiresubplot featuring Daniel's conflict with his nosy neighbor, Gloria Chaney (Polly Holliday), in which, after Daniel dresses as Mrs. Doubtfire, he fools Gloria into killing her flowers by spraying dog urine on them, and a final confrontation in which Gloria sees Daniel in his Mrs. Doubtfire bodycostume but without the face mask. There is also an extended scene at Bridges restaurant. In 2016, three scenes from the 2008 DVD release, which were also included in the 2013 Blu-ray release, gained media attention to much fanfare and praise forRobin Williams.[26] These included a scene in which Daniel and Miranda fight at Lydia'sspelling bee competition, and a confrontation scene with Miranda after Daniel's identity is revealed at the restaurant. He recovers and comes back home to the family.
In early 2021, several web articles claimed that there was an NC-17 cut of the film featuring extraordinarily vulgar ad libs by Robin Williams.[27][28] However, the claim was debunked by directorChris Columbus and starMara Wilson, with Columbus stating that Williams did film enough outtakes to make an R-rated version, but that an NC-17 rating was absurd.[29] Wilson previously denied the claims of an NC-17 version of the film in 2016 in her memoir,Where Are They Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame.[30]
Mrs. Doubtfire collected $20.4 million during its three-day opening weekend.[31] Within its first five days of release, it generated a total gross of $27.5 million.[32] Upon opening, it would go on to reach the number one spot at the box office, beating outAddams Family Values andA Perfect World.[32] This would be the last non-Disney film to win theThanksgiving weekend box office untilHow the Grinch Stole Christmas in 2000.[33] The film earned $219,195,243 in the United States and Canada, and $222,090,952 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $441,286,195,[2] making it Fox's highest-grossing film internationally at the time, and the highest-grossing cross-dressing film.[34][35] It became the second-highest-grossing film of 1993, behindJurassic Park.[36][37]Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 52.6 million tickets in the US.[38] It had a record opening for Fox in the United Kingdom, with $5.8 million in 6 days (and the third-best in the country, afterJurassic Park andBram Stoker's Dracula), and went on to gross $30.1 million, a Fox record.[39][34] It had the second-biggest opening in Italy, behindJurassic Park, with $2.9 million, and also grossed a record for Fox in Italy, with $15.6 million.[40][41][34] It had record openings for Fox in France (with an opening week gross of $4.8 million, and a total of $23 million), Belgium, Hungary and Denmark.[42][34] It grossed $29.6 million in Germany.[34] The film wasnumber one at the Australian box office andJapanese box office for nine consecutive weeks.[43][44]
Mrs. Doubtfire received mixed reviews from critics upon release.[45][46][47][48] At the time of its release, several critics comparedMrs. Doubtfire unfavorably withSome Like It Hot (1959), and others who viewed the film favorably noted its similarity toTootsie (1982).[49]
OnRotten Tomatoes,Mrs. Doubtfire has a rating of 71%, based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The site's critical reception reads: "On paper,Mrs. Doubtfire might seem excessively broad or sentimental, but Robin Williams shines so brightly in the title role that the end result is difficult to resist."[50] OnMetacritic, the film holds a score of 53 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[51] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on a scale of A+ to F.[52]
Roger Ebert ofThe Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of a possible four. He questioned if Williams' character could actually conceal his identity in makeup from his ex-wife and children, and also wrote "the film is not as amusing as the premise, and there were long stretches when I'd had quite enough of Mrs. Doubtfire." Ebert also noted comparisons toTootsie, which he described as "more believable, more intelligent and funnier" whileMrs. Doubtfire was essentially a televisionsitcom.[53]
In November 2018, the three sibling cast members (Lisa Jakub,Mara Wilson, andMatthew Lawrence) reunited withPierce Brosnan in 2018 for the film's 25th anniversary onToday.[60][61] They would later reunite in May 2024 for a joint podcast appearance on Lawrence'sBrotherly Love podcast.[62][63]
In 2001,Bonnie Hunt began to developMrs. Doubtfire 2.Anne Fine had not written a follow-up toAlias Madame Doubtfire, and writing for the sequel did not begin until 2003.[64]Robin Williams was set to return in disguise as the eponymous Mrs. Doubtfire. Rewriting began in 2006 because Williams was unhappy with the plot in the new script. The film had been anticipated for release in late 2007, but following further script problems, the sequel was scrapped in December 2006.[65]
In 2006, in aNewsday interview, Williams said that the sequel was indefinitely scrapped, stating his reasons:
The script they had just didn't work. The sequel's story involved Daniel as Mrs. Doubtfire moving close to Lydia's college, so he could keep an eye on her.[66]
Also, in December that year, during an interview onBBC Radio 1 by DJEdith Bowman, Williams said that if it was not going to be done right, then it was not worth doing, and that there would not be a sequel with him in it.
In August 2010, onAlan Carr: Chatty Man, Williams again brought up the topic of a sequel toMrs. Doubtfire. He blamed the script not being right as the reason why a sequel was not made. He claimed that the script had been written three times and failed, and there was no mention of any ongoing work on the project. Furthermore, in December 2011, during an interview byMoviehole, Williams again stated that the chances of a sequel are "highly unlikely".
In 2011, Williams said:
They could never write it. They kept trying and it doesn't work... because at the end of the first one they reveal who [Mrs. Doubtfire] is. So it ends up being her for five minutes and then she transitions into some old Russian woman. They so far can't crack it.[67]
We're talking about a sequel toMrs. Doubtfire. We've [he and Williams] talked about it, and the studio is interested in it. The thing that fascinates me about a sequel toMrs. Doubtfire is with most actors who create an iconic character like Mrs. Doubtfire, when you come back and do that character, well, you're twenty years older so, you're not going to look the same. The cool thing withMrs. Doubtfire is there's a character, there's a woman, who is actually going to look exactly as she did in 1993.
In April 2014, a sequel was announced to be in development at20th Century Fox. Williams and Columbus were expected to return, andElf screenwriter,David Berenbaum, was hired to write the script.[69] Initial reception to the announcement was mixed, with some people fearing that the sequel would revive certain misgivings about the transgender community and set theLGBTQ awareness progress back two and a half decades, especially after an image of the character was used to mock the trans community at a medical insurance coverage reform in 2013.[70][71][72][73]Matthew Lawrence,Lisa Jakub andPierce Brosnan had expressed interest in reprising their respective characters for the sequel.[74][75][76][77] However,Mara Wilson, who played Natalie Hillard in the original film, expressed no interest in returning for the sequel.[78] Following Williams's death in August 2014, plans for a sequel were put on hold, then again canceled.[79][80][81]
In August 2014, shortly after Williams's death, it was revealed that Williams had grown weary working on film sets because it tended to take him away from his family for extended periods of time, and he signed on for the sequel "purely out of necessity".[82] In August 2015, Columbus revealed that the sequel came to be after someone came up with a very interesting idea, and that his conversation with Williams about the subject was the last time he ever talked to the actor.[83] In December 2021, Columbus stated that a sequel is impossible without Robin Williams's involvement.[84] In November 2023, Columbus stated he would be very vocal about it ifDisney (who owns the rights to the film following their purchase of20th Century Fox in 2019) ever made it.[85]
Theatrical producerKevin McCollum spoke in 2013 about the film's musical prospects, noting that the plot was "tailored for Broadway audiences".[86] Following a 2015 plan going on hiatus,[87][88] McCollum assembled a different creative team in 2018:Karey andWayne Kirkpatrick composing the score, withJohn O'Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick writing the book, andTony Award-winner Jerry Zaks directing.[89] The musical,Mrs. Doubtfire, premiered inSeattle at the5th Avenue Theatre on December 13, 2019. The production transferred toBroadway, with previews beginning March 9, 2020, at theStephen Sondheim Theatre.[90] All Broadway productions were suspended three days later due to thecoronavirus pandemic.[91][92] Eventually,Mrs. Doubtfire resumed previews on October 21, 2021, and officially opened on December 5, 2021.[93]
In November 2023,Chris Columbus revealed in an interview withBusiness Insider commemorating the film's 30th anniversary that a documentary about the making of the film was in development, which will utilize outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage.[85]
