Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
You may have seen the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Planet of Giants’; you may also have seen the TV series ‘Land of the Giants’ produced by Irwin Allen. But have you seen the 1989 film ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’? I certainly have, both on DVD years ago and recently on Disney+. It was nice to revisit this film.
‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ stars Rick Moranis as scientist/inventor Wayne Szalinski who accidentally shrinks his children and the next door neighbours’ children down to the size of a quarter of an inch with his electromagnetic shrinking machine. The children end up thrown out with the ‘trash’ here. 😀
Once thrown out, the Szalinski children Amy and Nick and the Thompson children Russ and Ron have to venture into the Szalinski backyard to return home. But during their venture, they have to fend off giant-sized insects and other hazards. Will the four kids get restored to their normal size in the film?
What’s interesting about this film is that this happens to be the directorial debut of Joe Johnston, who would go on to direct ‘The Rocketeer’ and ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’. There’s an old-fashioned science-fiction quality about this film, especially in James Horner’s music, which I quite enjoyed in this.
This film became an unexpected box office success when released in 1989. So much so that it spawned two more films, a TV series and theme park attractions. There’s even a third film in development called ‘Shrunk’ which will feature Josh Gad and Rick Moranis, which is very fascinating.
As well as Rick Moranis, the film also features Marcia Strassman as his wife Diane. There’s Matt Frewer as Russell ‘Big Russ’ Thompson in the film, who can at times sound like Jim Carrey. 😀 There’s also Kristine Sutherland as Mae Thompson. The Thompsons are the Szalinskis’ next-door neighbours.
The four main children featured in this film include Amy O’Neill as Amy Szalinski, Robert Oliveri as Nick Szalinski, Thomas Wilson Brown as Russell ‘Little Russ’ Thompson Jr., and Jared Rushton as Ronald ‘Ron’ Thompson. Initially, the four kids are estranged from each other during this adventure.
I like how the kids gradually get on with each other. ‘Little Russ’ is more the heroic Thompson kid compared to ‘Ron’ who’s often a bully to Nick. This is especially when he rescues Nick from a giant bumblebee and when he saves Amy from drowning when the water sprinklers have been turned on.
Accidentally, I might add when Rick Moranis’ Wayne Szalinski is trying to look for the kids. I also like how a little romance is formed between ‘Little Russ’ and Amy as it’s rather sweet. It’s also funny and amusing when the four kids find a giant baby ant and they befriend it once they hitch a ride with it. 🙂
There are some amusing moments to be featured throughout the film. There are also some quite scary moments, especially when the kids are finding giant-sized versions of insects and everyday mundane things like water sprinklers and a lawnmower about to kill them, making the film gripping.
Another important character in this film is the dog Quark (not sure if that’s based on the elementary particle ‘quark’, the ‘Doctor Who’ robots called Quarks or the Ferengi in ‘Star Trek: DS9’ called Quark 😀 ). Quark is the one who saves the four kids and he stops Wayne from eating his son Nick. 😀
‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ is a fun Disney film to check out and I’m pleased to have seen it again on Disney+ lately. I’m currently curious about what the follow-ups are like, including the upcoming ‘Shrunk’ film. I’m not sure they match to the quality of this film as the original is an impressive spectacle.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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