What's that? Me? Covering a beloved film from yesteryear? Amazing things can happen when I actually bother to write things.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a Disney movie that came out in the distant year of 1989. Directed by Joe Johnston (who would later go on to direct Captain America: The First Avenger), it starred Rick Moranis and was really, really good. It still is really, really good.
However, that'd be a short review, so let's get into it.
Our movie begins with scientist Wayne Szalinski (Moranis) who is trying to invent a machine to shrink objects. He has a strained relationship with his wife Diane (Marcia Strassman), his two children Nick and Amy (Robert Oliveri and Amy O'Neill), and their neighbors the Thompsons (Matt "Max Headroom" Frewer and Kristine "Yes, it's Buffy's mom" Sutherland) just think that they're all plain weird.
After a rogue baseball breaks into the attic where Wayne's keeping the shrink ray, it accidentally misfires and shrinks Nick and Amy as well as the two sons of the Thompsons - Russ Jr. and Ron (Thomas Wilson Brown and Jared Rushton). Wayne can't hear the children due to them being much, much too small for their yelling to carry to his ears and he accidentally sweeps them up and throws them into the trash. A jaunt through the backyard is a little more intimidating when you're a quarter of an inch tall!
So, first off, have to say it - Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a special effect bonanza, but not in the way you might be thinking. You have to remember, this was 1989. Jurassic Park hadn't come out yet, and so CGI technology wasn't really considered on par with where it was feasible to use. So what Disney did was make use of sets, puppets, and different camera tricks to give the illusion of children who were a quarter-inch tall. Them pulling it off so well makes a lot of sense when you realize the director is Joe Johnston, who got some of his first work as a visual effects artist on films like the original Star Wars trilogy and the first two Indiana Jones movies, so you know that he knows his stuff and it shows.
It's part of the reason why this film has aged as well as it has - the effects in the film look great. Everything from the "giant" LEGO brick the kids spend a night in to the various insects they encounter, to even so much as the floorboards of the Szalinski family attic looks - for lack of a better term - realistic, and that realism lends itself to immersing ourselves into it all the more.
This also lends itself to the characters as well. The kids are all actually pretty good by child actor standards, although I admit I wanted Ron to get eaten by one of the ants at several points. Rick Moranis is, as always, pretty awesome to see onscreen. Marcia Strassman does well as the put upon wife who is getting increasingly frustrated with the fruits of her husband's labors not paying off...and then complete and total exasperation when he drops the title drop for the film later on.
Oh, yes, they aren't just a pair of bumbling morons about it. The two actually put in a very strong, concerted effort to find their children, though it ultimately ends up being to no avail until the climax.
The Thompsons are pretty well developed as well with a believable dynamic between them all. Most of note is "Big Russ". As the father, he's a bit dim-witted. He doesn't understand why Russ Jr. isn't enthusiastic about the up and coming fishing trip or masculine pursuits in general, having a very specific view about what a man should be. His better nature shines through a few times, though, particular in the climax of the film when he volunteers to be a guinea pig for the shrink ray to make sure it's safe to return the kids to normal size.
The film puts a big emphasis on family. It is a Disney film, after all. This one does it more (and better) than most, though, and a lot of that has to do with the aforementioned believability of the characters in question. The tone is light-hearted as well, the entire thing is a homage to 1950s sci-fi film (in particular The Incredible Shrinking Man), and while I could get into the science behind it all, there's really not a massive reason to. It's a plot device that works well for the film. Plus, the prop looks really, really cool. So cool that they've used it for all three of the films.
It is something that was truly unique when it came out and there's really never been that much like it since. Things that have tried to imitate it, sure, but nothing pulls it off the same way, big...or small.
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