Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Plot synopsis:
Eccentric scientist and inventor Wayne Szalinski lives in his suburban home attempting to perfect a ray gun capable of shrinking objects, but the apples he uses as test objects instead blow up. After an argument between Wayne and his wife Diane, she spent the night with her mother and is currently at work, worrying her teenaged daughter Amy, and their son Nick, who has inherited his father's inventive ingenuity and intelligence. Next door neighbors, the Thompsons, are getting ready for a fishing trip, but Russ' oldest son Little Russ is less than enthusiastic, as he and his father's interests often clash, resulting in his feeling belittled, and he is more interested in meeting Amy than spending the weekend camping. Younger son Ron, however, is enthusiastic, though his relationship with Russ Sr. is strained when he inadvertently sets off a booby trap in the yard.
Wayne instructs Amy and Nick to clean the house in preparation for Diane's return home before leaving for his conference. Nick is assigned to do the lawn, but he makes a deal to let his friend Tommy Pervis mow the lawn with the remote-controlled mower, but he (Tommy) has to leave and promises to do it later. Ron accidentally hits his baseball through the Szalinskis' attic window, which inadvertently activates the machine and blocks its targeting laser. Caught by little Russ, he is made to apologize to Nick and Amy, and Amy has her brother take Ron to retrieve his ball; the two encounter the machine and are hit by its beam, thus shrinking them. At his conference, Wayne is laughed at for failing to provide proof of his shrink ray and leaves in frustration, while at the house Amy and Russ go to check on their siblings and are shrunk by the ray. When Wayne returns home, they try to get his attention, but their voices are too small and he is unable to hear them. Frustrated by his day and the broken window he discovers, Wayne takes it out on the machine, damaging it and nearly crushing the children with the shrapnel of parts. He then sweeps the debris (and the children) into a dust pan and takes them out in a trash bag. They escape and enter the uncut yard's wilderness where Nick calculates over 3.2 miles at their size to get back to the house and they start walking. Meanwhile, Diane returns home and she and Wayne make up, but they soon grow concerned about Nick and Amy. While trying to summon their dog Quark, Nick falls into a flower and is picked up by a bee, and Russ jumps on it to help him. The bee flies around the backyard with the two stuck to its hair; as it attacks Wayne, he knocks it out of the air with a baseball bat, causing the bee to crash land. Wayne realizes that a baseball was what caused the window to break in the attic since Nick doesn't play sports. Once in the attic, he finds his shrunken couch and realizes what happened to the kids; afraid to step on the lawn he arranges a sling to hover over the grass and search for the children. Next door, Russ and Mae are forced to call off their trip because their boys haven't returned yet and they call the police to report them missing.
Having been separated from Amy and Ron, Nick and Russ go to search for them. Wayne, after a snafu with his sling, resorts to using stilts to search for the kids and accidentally activates the sprinklers which causes chaotic torrents to come down on them. Amy is nearly drowned when she is knocked into a pool of mud, but Russ saves her with CPR. Soon, their hunger is sated by one of Nick's oatmeal creme cookies, but their meal is interrupted by an ant scouting it. Ron decides to tame it in order to take them home, but soon they grow attached to "Antie" and try to set him free, but he instead decides to follow Ron like a loyal pet. After calling the police, Diane is told what happened to the kids and she joins in the search after a short panic attack, she convinces Wayne to tell the Thompsons, who are extremely skeptical and Russ threatens Wayne but leaves his porch light on just in case. The kids find a Lego block to camp for the night, and after a heart felt conversation about their feelings for each other, Russ and Amy kiss but are interrupted by an arrival of a scorpion which traps Ron in the Lego while the others escape. Antie comes to rescue Ron, but is mortally wounded as the kids unite and drive the scorpion off. Ron is heartbroken when Antie dies and they bury him. The next morning, Tommy returns to mow the lawn. Nick recognizes this and they run, seeking shelter in an earthworm burrow; Wayne and Diane stop Tommy just in time to save the kids who are blown out of the burrow by the mower's blades, but they despair when they still can't get the Szalinskis' attention. Riding Quark into the house, Nick loses his grip and falls into Wayne's bowl of Cheerios; he is nearly eaten before Quark bites Wayne, making him aware of Nick and the other kids' presence.
Back in the attic, Nick and the others manage to communicate that the baseball made the machine work and Wayne realizes the laser it blocked was giving it too much heat, causing things to blow up. He corrects the mistake and Russ Sr. volunteers as a test subject, which is almost successful (his hat no longer fits, but then again, Mae took the cigarettes he was hiding them in). The kids are then restored to their normal sizes and are reunited with their families. Months later, at Thanksgiving the Thompsons and Szalinskis, now close friends, are toasting over an enlarged turkey. Russ and Amy are apparently dating now while Ron and Nick are friends, while Quark is eating from an enlarged Milk-Bone treat. Nick finally gets a joke that Russ told him about learning CPR in "French" class. He laughs.

Tags: cult, comedy, psychedelic, entertaining, fantasy

Review:
Well, of course, it's ridiculous but the kids will love it and you can laugh right along with them.The absurd tale revolves around around a nutty scientist & dad named Wayne Szalinski who is working on a machine to miniaturize objects.
Not to mention the lawn mower!Avoid the TV series of the same name, but this movie has some good family messages involving the two sets of parents (the Szalinskis & the Thompsons) as well as the kids.
That's kinda like the premise of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", a group of neighborhood kids get shrunk to size by a weird machine crazy inventor Rick Moranis invented.
It's one of the best live-action Disney efforts and a fine fun for the entire family.This film is followed by a sequel "Honey, I Blew up the Kid", which is not quite as zany and imaginative as its predecessor.
It's a Disney movie, so it's most definitely kid orientated, which means that it doesn't have the most complicated script, drawn out characters, or other mind boggling elements but it more than serves its purpose.What is the most appealing aspect of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" are its adventures elements.
The most comical aspects of the movie mostly come from the adult cast, from actors such as Rick Moranis and Marcia Strassman as the parents and Matt Frewer and Kristine Sutherland as the neighbors.
The musical score by James Horner is also a perfectly fine one.About as good and entertaining as a kid's movie can get, though there is also plenty left to enjoy for adults.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" is a quite unusual adventure/comedy film, one of the most eccentric movies of all time.
It's one of those live-actions films produced by Disney's studios.The movie's title refers to Wayne Szalinski, a stereotypical nutty/mad scientist.
This character is portrayed by Rick Moranis, the perfect actor for a role like this (with his intellectual looks).Rick Moranis is funny as Wayne Szalinski, Matt Frewer is hilarious as the impatient and temperamental "Big" Russell Thompson.
There's also a certain 80's charm on it.The success of this movie inspired a very imaginative 3D film created as an amusement for Disneyland parks around the world called "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience"..
Leave it to Disney to give us a friendly mad scientist in the form of Rick Moranis, who plays an affable, amiable absent minded professor family man by name of Wayne who's latest invention, kept in the attic, is designed to shrink things down.
So while Wayne embarks on a series of unsuccessful attempts to find his kids without stepping on them, the kids must make a dangerous trek through the uncut back yard, encountering "giant" toys, food, bees, ants, lawnmowers and, strangely enough, a scorpion (someone's escaped pet?).Good fun, and a lot less cynical than a lot of today's youth oriented adventure films.
Anyway, it's by far a very enjoyable movie, with nice special effects (the giant insects) and a real play-fun spirit like the part where they eat a giant oreo cookie or slept in the lego block.
The movie doesn't also avoid certain clichés: Rick Moranis epitomizes the model crazy learned: he's wearing glasses, he invented a machine supposed to be revolutionary and his odd habits make the neighbours (the Thompsons) mistrustful and distant.
Rick Moranis is a nerd who...guess what....yes thats right shrinks the kids!Great special effects as the kids try and work there way through the jungle (the back garden) and must somehow find a way of returning to there normal size.Well worth a watch, especially if you have young children..
Matt Frewer had a great line, while observing Rick Moranis: "What a waste of skin!" The film had a nice ending.OVERALL - Nothing super, but overall was an enjoyable, lighthearted, non- offensive movie..
Whilst watching Honey I Shrunk The Kids on DVD, it occurred to me how much things have changed in the last twenty years: records and typewriters, which feature in the film's opening animated credits, no longer exist ('what are they?', asked my bemused 7-year-old daughter); spectacles have got a lot smaller (the one's sported by the youngest kid in this film are enormous!); computers are now everyday household appliancesnot just the play-things of crazy inventors; telephones are a lot easier to use now they don't have cords; Rick Moranis is no longer a box-office draw; and special effects look a whole lot different now we have CGI (not necessarily better, just different).One thing that hasn't changed, though, is this film's ability to entertain: Joe Johnston's directorial debut is just as enjoyable today as it was when I first saw it two decades ago.Rick Moranis stars as crazy inventor Wayne Szalinski, whose latest creation, a miniaturisation ray, has one major teething problem: it tends to make things explode.
After the machine is whacked by a stray baseball, it finally begins to function correctly, but accidentally shrinks Wayne's children, pretty blonde teen Amy (Amy O'Neill) and chip-off-the-old-block younger son Nick (Robert Oliveri), plus Russ and Ron, the neighbours' sons, to microscopic size.
Oblivious to the fact that his machine is now working, and that it has miniaturised his kids, Wayne destroys his machine, sweeps up the pieces (scooping up the four tiny children in the process) and takes the trash to the bottom of the yard.Now, if they are to have any chance of being returned to normal size, Amy, Nick, Russ and Ron must make a dangerous trek through their yard, facing a variety of dangers on the way.Utilising detailed oversize props and sets, plus an impressive (for the time) combination of blue screen technology, matte paintings, and stop-motion animation effects, director Johnston creates a string of spectacular set-pieces that sees the children being bombarded by giant water droplets from the garden sprinkler, taking a flight on the back of a bee, being attacked by a scorpion, and befriending a baby ant.
Johnston's younger cast members all give credible performances, whilst Moranis does what he does best: acts nerdy and looks worried a lot.Of course, this being a Disney movie, there is the obligatory happy ending, which sees Wayne finally perfecting his invention and returning the kids to full size.
Honey I Shrunk the Kids is by far, one of the best movies Disney has produced.
The special effects are incredible, the screeenplay is wild, and the directing is fabulous!When scientist Wayne Szalenski (Rick Moranis) fails to get his shrinking machine to work, he decides to retire from it.
But, when the kid next door known as Ron Thompson (Jared Rushton) accidently hits his baseball into the Szalenskis attic window, it ends up giving the machine power to work that it ends up shrinking Waynes furniture up there.
The face lawn sprinklers, a giant lawn mower, a big bee, a gigantic scorpian, and Cherrios cereal.I don't want to spoil the rest.Directed by the Academy Award-winning Joe Johnston (Jumanji, Jurassic Park III) and starring Rick Moranis (Ghostbusters I & II), Marcia Strassman (Another Stakeout), Jared Rushton (House Arrest, Big, Pet Semetary II), Thomas Brown (Pearl Harbor), Robert Oliveri (Edward Scissorhands), Kristine Sutherland (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Matt Frewer (Supergirl).Honey I Shrunk the Kids is absolutley fun and awsome and is a definitley a movie for kids and parents..
'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' plays like a typical Disney film with children as the heroes and a wacky inventor.
In this film, the children accidentally become as tiny as ants from the inventor's machine, and they travel their way through their front yard in attempt to get the inventor to see them to make them a normal size again.
This is a great family film about a scientist whose invention inadvertently miniaturises each of his two children and two neighbour kids to a quarter of an inch in height.
Having last seen the film at around eight or nine years old, I had fond memories of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
Have you ever just wanted to watch a fun, humorous, adventurous film that literally the entire family can enjoy?
Well, you've come to the right movie!For a basic plot summary, "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" begins with eccentric inventor Way Selinsky (Rick Moranis) crafting a machine to shrink objects to minuscule proportions.
The rest of the film focuses on their quest back home through a grass jungle, swarms of bees, giant ants, and the dreaded lawnmower.There are few movies that can be enjoyed by both old and young simultaneously.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)*** (out of 4) Scientist Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) is working on a machine that he hopes will shrink people but it just never works properly.
Soon the four kids find themselves in the backyard trying to make their way back to the house.HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS is a film that I thought played much better back when it was released.
The funnest parts of the movie deal with the four kids in the backyard where they must battle everything from ants to bees to even a sprinkler that's water is like bombs going off to them.
It's a grandiose adventure (had to be fun designing those giant sets), the cast is great and it's got that well-engineered family movie feel to it.
It was great family entertainment back in 1989, and it is still equally good today.The story in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" has something for everyone in the family.
And when his son and daughter along with the two neighbor boys are accidentally shrunk, they are on an adventure of big proportions in an attempt to cross their own backyard and get back to the lab.Taken into consideration that the movie is from 1989, then the effects are still okay for today.
He throws the kids out into the yards before he realizes too late.The silly title hides a fun little family movie.
Or maybe it would have been nice to see a more mature view, as there are obviously scary elements.) Roger Ebert is rarely flat-out wrong, but this is one of those times, as he wrote, "The special effects are all there, nicely in place, and the production values are sound, but the movie is dead in the water." Other critics and the audience disagreed, making this one of Disney's biggest successes and most memorable films.Besides the film itself, the score from James Horner is quite remarkable.
This is an adorable kid adventure that is fit for the entire audience; a story about absent-minded scientist Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) accidentally shrinking his kids and his neighbors' kids to microscopic sizes with his shrinking machine.
I've seen family films with more adventures and fun, but this is a typical, innocent and feel-food Disney movie that people should see at least once.Grade B-.
Honey I Shrunk the Kids is a highly entertaining family movie.
I still remember Moranis saying "Honey I Shrunk the Kids." The way he said it was so original and it instilled a sense of panic with 'oh no' what happens now?
The some very great funny moment for both Kids and adults to laugh at and I love the effect in this were a lot fun.
Honey,I Shrunk The Kids is a decent movie with a enjoyable story line and a good cast.The movie is nothing fantastic,buts its a really fun and for some reason very memorable family entertainment.Rick Moranis keeps the movie alive,as his characters are always funny and lively,and hes an actor I really miss,but I don't expect to see him acting again anytime soon.Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis),a scientist with two children,accidentally shrinks them and his neighbors children with his new experiment.They run off to their back garden,so its up to him to save them..
If you are looking for a daft but entertaining film, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids fits that criteria like a glove.
You could accuse this film of being manipulative, but I found it charming and amusing, because it isn't often a shrink machine is based in a film, and when it is, that particular film is often a horrible example of filmmaking (The Incredible Shrinking Woman).So if you feel like a good escapism comedy, watch Honey I Shrunk the Kids-the title alone causes you to emit a giggle.
The kids end up outside thanks to some house cleaning and there is where some stupid things occur such as befriending of an ant and the deadly scorpion...an insect that isn't all that common in the back yard of most homes unless this movie took place in Arizona or somewhere else west.
So, most of the movie has the kids traveling through the now giant front yard trying to get back to the house and having many adventures, ranging from fun to weird to scary.Yeah, I guess that it's hokey family stuff.
Like I've mentioned, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is such a fun movie for the family to see - you'll enjoy it to bits.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids belongs in the canon of classic live-action Disney movies.
In fact it's ridiculous in a good way.I've seen this movie a few times when i was a kid and i enjoyed it a lot.
I just watched this movie with my 8 year old son on TV."Honey I Shrunk The Kids" is Good old fashioned 80's family fun.
Matt Frewer and Kristine Sutherland are the neighbours whose kids are shrunk along with Morranis's kids.The story is filled with the standard elements, the feuding neighbours, the next door neighbour boy who has a crush on the daughter, the intelligent son who is bullied by the neighbours kid, the workaholic parents who learn the error of their ways and of course the happy ending but the movie is anything but standard.Some of the special effects are a bit dated, but that does not stop your enjoyment of it!!
Rick Moranis, a crazy inventor, accidentally shrinks his kids, who then have to try to make him realise what he's done.This movie adopts a straightforward action-adventure format in which a gang of children tackle a series of threats, mostly involving the family garden which turns into a gigantic, perilous jungle.
The title alone spells out everything you need to know about this squeaky clean Disney fantasy: nutty professor Rick Moranis accidentally shrinks his children and throws them out with the trash, forcing them on an epic journey across the backyard, battling insects, lawn mowers, and other giant perils.
While the kids are having their miniature adventures the film can be a lot of fun, but it spends too much time in the full-sized world and takes too many breaks from the action to peddle its message about parental neglect.
Rick Moranis has done some interesting roles during the path of his career, and this was another of those, but unfortunately, it's one of those feel-good kid's movies that fail to make you feel good after the first viewing.It was fine at first, and actually entertaining, but once the story has played itself through to the end, there is really no need to watch it again.
The one great thing about this work was Rick Moranis, but you got too little of him and too much of the stiff, cardboard-cut-out kids.I was disappointed.
Finally renting "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" the other day, I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, but was hoping for a mildly amusing film (at least mildly amusing thanks to Moranis in the starring role).
"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" is a very funny, wildly entertaining comedy/fantasy about a nutty professor who's working on a device to make objects shrink.
Nevertheless, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" is a movie for the whole family.
1989 science-fiction family film about inventor Moranis accidentally shrinking his and his neighbors' kids to the size of a quarter-inch.
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids was my favorite movie of all time.
As 4 kids accidentally get shrunk by their fathers' shrinking machine, get lifted out and thrown into the garbage bag, they must now try and make it back home by going through a terrifying route in their backyard.
I personally think Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is better than the sequels, and its fun.
This movie is a great family-friendly adventure film that deserves another big look.
Directed by Joe Johnston, this live-action Disney film tells the story of four kids, Nick Szalinski (Robert Oliveri), Amy Szalinski (Amy O'Neill), Russ Thompson (Thomas Wilson Brown) & Ron Thompson (Jared Rushton) whom, are accidentally shrunk to the size of bugs by Nick's father, Walter Szalinski (Rick Moranis)'s inventions.
One of Disney's very last of the 80s (and this screams 80s, too), the 1989 live action feature "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" stars Rick Moranis as that 1980s film geek who was working on a shrinking machine.
Every year sees a TON of films, and 1989 was no exception; but the one film that sticks in my mind is "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids".Rick Moranis ("Spaceballs", the "Ghostbusters" movies) stars as crazy scientist Wayne Szalinkski, who for the last 5 years has been working on his latest invention, a shrink ray.
Basically slightly mad, but completely lovable and clever father, Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) is trying to invent a shrinking machine, and so far he has failed in making it work right.
Eventually they make it to the house, and are back to normal size when the machine is fixed, so a good film with some good early development into what special effects can do, and Moranis is a lot of fun.
Wayne accidentally sweeps them up and puts them out with the garbage, so the kids then have to travel through the thick grass back to the house, while braving giant bugs, sprinklers and a lawn mower......This film is basically Jason and the Argonauts for little kiddies, and its a complete sell out that Moranis gets top billing, because he is nothing more than a special guest star in this event movie.And it really hasn't stood the test of time.