Most of us haven’t watched Mrs. Doubtfire since we were kids, but when you think of the movie today, what comes to mind? Cake to the face? Fake breasts on fire? Music montage to “Dude Looks Like a Lady?” Sure, at the movie’s heart there are some serious issues going on, like how a divorce can affect a family, but who remembers that stuff? Well, if these recently surfaced deleted scenes from Matthew Keys had been included, Mrs. Doubtfire may have been a significantly more depressing movie.
In the first one, Robin Williams’ character Daniel shows up to his daughter Lydie’s spelling bee, only to find out that some lady had taken the seat that his other kids had tried to save for him. (Side note: what kind of monster tells some kids they can’t save a seat for their father?) As such, Daniel proceeds to get in an argument with his estranged wife Miranda in the middle of the spelling bee, causing Lydie to bungle her word on stage while she looks on at her fighting parents, heartbroken.
As if that’s not bad enough, he later tries to make good with his daughter outside, who tells him, “Why can’t you just pretend? You pretend to be Mrs. Doubtfire. You pretend to be Pudgy the Bird, and all those other things. Why can’t you and mom just pretend to be happy?”
Okay. Seems a little heavy for a kid’s movie. Until the next scene that is, when Daniel shows up at the family home only to get in a screaming match with Miranda while the traumatized, crying kids listen on in the background. After each parent yells at the other that the kids love them more, the kids materialize behind them to tell them that they hate them both, as Robin Williams’ face crumples into despair.
So yeah. Having seen this, it’s pretty easy to understand why they went with more fake boobs on fire and not a version that might literally have put kids in therapy someday.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
