It’s doubles all around! To mark our milestone eleventh episode of the Film at 11 podcast, I have subjected both of my 11-year-old sons (yes, both of them!) to not one but two versions of the twin-swapping comedy classic The Parent Trap: the 1961 Hayley Mills original and the 1998 Lindsay Lohan remake. Who better than real identical twins can you trust to judge how absurd both of these movies are and how ridiculously wrong they get the twin experience?
A technical note: We recorded an entire episode devoted to these two movies and thought it went great, only to discover afterward that the camera had been knocked wildly out of focus and all the footage was unusable. We then had to reshoot the whole thing a couple days later, trying to hit the same discussion points. I’ll be honest, I think the original conversation felt fresher and the boys were frustrated at having to do it again. Unfortunately, watching the blurry footage gave me a big headache. So it goes. The episode ultimately turned out pretty well regardless.
| Titles: | – The Parent Trap – The Parent Trap |
| Years of Release: | – 1961 – 1998 |
| Directors: | – David Swift – Nancy Meyers |
| Watched On: | Disney+ |
| Also Available On: | Blu-ray Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
Video Streaming
Disney released both versions of The Parent Trap on Blu-ray in 2018. As far as I can tell, both discs were exclusive to the Disney Movie Club subscription program and have not been reissued. I own neither one. For this viewing, we streamed both movies from Disney+. I assume the streaming copies come from the same underlying sources as the Blu-rays.
Ironically, the older of the two movies looks much better than the newer one, likely because its high-def video master was created later. Frankly, the 1998 remake looks terrible. Its 1.85:1 video transfer obviously dates back to the early DVD era (the film was released on DVD in 1999) and is marred by heavy amounts of DNR and edge enhancement. It’s an eyesore.
Meanwhile, the 1961 original didn’t hit disc until a few years later in 2002. While that was still a problematic time for Disney home video transfers, this one seems to have come out a little better. The mildly pillarboxed 1.75:1 image is decently sharp, with light grain. Although its many optical process shots routinely soften the picture, I wasn’t bothered by any overt Digital Noise Reduction.
The soundtracks for both movies are only available on streaming in Dolby Digital 5.1 format. Obviously, that’s a remix for the 1961 film, which originated in mono, but it’s understated and remains mostly front-focused. To be honest, I didn’t notice any surround activity in the 1998 remake either. Neither movie does anything particularly creative for sound design. Both are dialogue-driven and sound adequate.
Related
- Lindsay Lohan
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