The Parent Trap II

Plot

The film takes place twenty-five years after the original film. Sharon Ferris is unhappily divorced and living as a single, somewhat jaded mother in Tampa, Florida. Her daughter, Nikki, is not happy about their impending move to New York City. While in summer school, Nikki makes enemies with Jessica Dintruff (Tannen), but befriends Mary Grand. Mary's father, Bill Grand, has been widowed for four years. To stop Nikki from moving to New York and to see their parents happily married, the girls scheme to set them up.

Nikki and Mary trick their parents into meeting each other by sending Sharon flowers that are supposedly from Bill, but they do not just fall madly in love with each other as the girls had hoped. So they contact Sharon's twin sister, Susan Carey. She is happily married and still living in California. She is convinced by the girls to fly to Tampa to help them by posing as Sharon and going on a few dates just to get things started.

"Sharon" "accidentally" bumps into Bill at a bar called the Press Box and watches a few innings of a baseball game with him. The real Sharon detests baseball, and is confused when Bill drops by her workplace the next day and mentions how much fun they had. "Sharon" and Bill cross paths a couple more times over the next few days. Florence (Cromwell), Bill and Mary's maid, begins to suspect that something is awry.

Sharon discovers the girls' scheme and decides to trick them instead. She contacts Brian Carey (Harvey), Susan's husband, who is a pilot for Trans World Airlines, and involves him in her scheme. While "Sharon" and Bill are on a date, the real Sharon and Brian pretend to also be on one, with Sharon dressed as a different woman.

"Sharon" becomes distracted and clumsy on her date while watching her husband. Finally having had enough, she announces to Bill that the man she is watching is her husband. She storms over to their table, but begins laughing when she sees her sister underneath a black wig.

Susan and Sharon clear up the situation for Bill, and Sharon says that she does not have romantic feelings for him, and would like it if they just remained friends. She is still determined to move to New York City.

A going away party is thrown for Sharon and Nikki on the boat of her boss, Mr. Elias. Sharon and Bill meet in the cabin while Nikki and Mary go get something from the car. The girls release the ropes from the boat and push it away from the dock. The guests begin arriving and watch helplessly as the boat drifts away.

Sharon and Bill are enjoying each other's company, but wonder where everyone is. They go to the deck, see how far out they are from the shore, and then, Bill kisses Sharon. The scene switches to the wedding. Mary and Nikki are finally stepsisters and Nikki doesn't have to move to New York.

Cast

Writing

The idea of a second film was announced in 1985. On her interview with Good Morning America that year, Mills wasn't sure about reprising her role as the twins. "I was astonished. I thought what they wanted to do was try to repeat the original film in some way. I wasn't too sure that was a very good idea. It was a good film, and it has passed the test of time," Mills said to the Chicago Sun-Times. The film was written by Stuart Krieger. In the original draft of the script, Sharon was originally going to have a son, instead of a daughter like she does in the finished product. This was changed when rewrites of the script were ordered. The names of Nikky Ferris and Mary Grand are the same names of the characters that Mills portrayed in the Disney films The Moon-Spinners and In Search of the Castaways. Director Ronald F. Maxwell revealed that this was an homage to Mills' films with the Walt Disney Company.

The characters of Walter and Lillian Elias are named after Walt Disney and his wife. (Disney's full name was Walter Elias Disney; Lillian was his wife's name.)

Filming

Ronald F. Maxwell was chosen to direct this sequel, taking over from the original's director David Swift. When the film premiered on the Disney Channel, a documentary titled On Location: Parent Trap II accompanied it. The documentary included footage of Mills as she describes the production of the film and her history with the Disney films. Filming took place for three weeks in the Tampa area. The exteriors of Robert E. Lee Elementary and the interiors of Mitchell Elementary were used as the summer school that Nicky and Mary both attend.

A local Publix was used as the grocery store where Susan and Sharon narrowly miss meeting each other. It has been remodeled drastically since filming had wrapped.

Music

The film's score was composed by Charles Fox. The theme song is "Let's Keep What We've Got," written by Hal David and performed by Marilyn McCoo. It appears in the opening credits while clips from The Parent Trap play, and is reprised in the closing credits when the scene where Nicky and Mary are the flower girls walking down the aisle is frozen.

Other songs in the film include "Nothin' At All," sung by Andrea Robinson, who would later voice Ariel's mother, Athena, in Disney's The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, and "Stand Back," sung by Phyllis St. James.