Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

**Honey, I Shrunk the Kids** is a 1989 film. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Silver Screen Partners III, and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. The film was written by Ed Naha, Tom Schulman, Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna, and released on June 23, 1989.

It is the first film in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Franchise.

## Plot

A scientist and inventor named Wayne Szalinski lives in a house in suburban Fresno, California, attempting to create a ray gun capable of shrinking objects, but cannot get it to work properly. His marriage to his wife, Diane, is strained, because she has to be the breadwinner, which worries their two children, teenage daughter Amy and preteen son Nick, who has inherited Wayne's inventive ingenuity and intelligence. One morning, their next-door neighbours, Mae, and Russ Thompson, are getting ready for a fishing trip, but their older son, Russ Jr. is less than enthusiastic, as his and his father's interests often clash. Russ Sr is also upset that his son was cut from the football team. However, their younger son, Ron is excited.

Shortly after Wayne leaves for a conference, Ron accidentally hits his baseball through the Szalinskis' attic window, which inadvertently activates the machine and blocks its targeting laser. Caught by Russ Jr., he is made to confess to Amy and Nick and pay for the damage to the window. Ron and Nick go upstairs to retrieve the ball and clean up the mess, only for the machine to shrink them.

At his conference, Wayne is dismissed for failing to provide proof of his shrinking machine and leaves in frustration, although he is given credit by Dr. Brainard, the only scientist at the conference who took Wayne and his idea seriously without wanting proof. Wayne appreciates Brainard's support and thanks him as they walk out together. Amy and Russ Jr. are shrunken when they go to check on Ron and Nick. 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, his thinking couch disappearing, and the broken window he discovers, he snaps and starts smashing the machine. He then sweeps the debris and the kids into a dustpan and takes them out in a trash bag. They escape from it but are forced to cross the unmowed yard's wilderness to get back to the house.

Meanwhile, Diane returns home from work and she and Wayne make up from an argument they had the previous evening, but they soon grow concerned about Amy and Nick. While trying to summon their dog, Quark, Nick falls into a flower and Russ Jr. are carried away by a pollen picking African bee. Wayne realizes that a baseball was what caused the attic window to break, since Nick does not play sports. Investigating, he discovers his thinking couch has been shrunk, and is happy that his machine finally works. But his happiness is only short lived when he realizes what happened to the kids and tries to find them, only to accidentally activate the sprinklers, causing chaotic torrents to come down on them. Amy nearly drowns when she is knocked into a pool of mud, but Russ Jr. saves her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

That evening, Russ and Mae are forced to call off their trip, because their sons haven't returned yet and they call the police to report them missing. Wayne tells Diane about what happened to the kids, and she joins in the search. Eventually, she convinces Wayne to tell Russ and Mae, who are extremely sceptical.

Meanwhile, the kids' hunger is saved by one of Nick's discarded oatmeal creme cookies, but their meal is interrupted by an ant scouting it. Ron decides to tame it in order to take them home and they quickly grow attached to "Antie" and try to set him free, but he instead decides to follow them like a pet. As night falls, the kids find a Lego block in which to camp for the night and Russ Jr. and Amy begin to make out after admitting their feelings for each other. However, they are interrupted by a scorpion, which traps Ron in the Lego. Antie comes to rescue Ron but is fatally stung before the kids unite and wound the scorpion, driving it off.

The next morning, Nick's friend, Tommy, returns to mow the lawn. The kids barely escape, seeking shelter in an earthworm burrow, and Wayne and Diane stop Tommy just in time to save them when they are blown out of the burrow by the lawnmower's blades. Quark chances upon them and while the kids are riding him into the house, Nick loses his grip and falls into Wayne's bowl of Cheerios. Wayne scoops Nick up in a spoonful of Cheerios and appears destined to unknowingly eat his own son for breakfast. As Wayne opens his mouth to eat Nick, Quark bites Wayne in the ankle, making him aware of Nick and the others' presence.

Back in the attic, the kids make Wayne realize that the laser was generating too much heat, causing things to explode, until it was blocked by the baseball. He corrects the mistake and Russ volunteers as a subject for a successful test. The kids are then returned to their normal sizes and reunited with their parents.

Months later, at Thanksgiving, the Szalinskis and Thompsons, now close friends, are toasting over an enlarged turkey. Russ Jr. and Amy are dating now, while Ron and Nick are friends, and Quark is eating from an enlarged Alpo bone. Nick finally gets a joke that Russ Jr. told him about learning CPR in "French" class, at which he laughs.

## Cast and Characters

* Rick Moranis as Wayne Szalinski
* Matt Frewer as Russell "Big Russ" Thompson
* Marcia Strassman as Diane Szalinski
* Kristine Sutherland as Mae Thompson
* Thomas Wilson Brown as Russell "Little Russ" Thompson Jr.
* Jared Rushton as Ronald "Ron" Thompson
* Amy O'Neill as Amy Szalinski
* Robert Oliveri as Nick Szalinski
* Carl Steven as Tommy Pervis
* Mark L. Taylor as Donald "Don" Forrester
* Kimmy Robertson as Gloria Forrester
* Lou Cutell as Dr. Brainard
* Laura Waterbury as Female Cop
* Trevor Galtress as Male Cop
* Martin Aylett as Harold Boorstein
* Craig Richard Nelson as Prof. Fredrickson
* Frank Welker as Special Vocal Effects

## Sequels

* Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)
* Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)

## Music

After going years unreleased, James Horner's soundtrack to the film was made available by Intrada Records on March 6, 2009. The song that Amy dances to in the kitchen is "Turn It Up" by Nick Kamen, written by Jeffrey Pescetto and Patrick DeRemer.

The soundtrack was limited to a 3,000-copy release. Horner's main title music incorporates cues from the score by Nino Rota from Federico Fellini's film Amarcord (1973) and Raymond Scott’s piece "Powerhouse B" (1937), the latter often referenced in Carl Stalling’s Warner Bros. cartoon scores. Scott's piece was used without payment or credit, leading his estate to threaten legal action against Disney. Disney paid an undisclosed sum in an out-of-court settlement and changed the film's cue sheets to credit Scott. Horner's main title music underscores all the major moments involving Szalinski's technology.

With 15 tracks, Horner produced the record with long-time engineer Simon Rhodes while it was originally performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

## Production

The project was originally brought to Disney Studios by Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna. Gordon was hired to direct the film and Yuzna to produce. The film was written as Teeny Weenies by Stuart Gordon, Ed Naha, and Brian Yuzna. Tom Schulman was later added as a screenwriter. Gordon originally prepped the film but had to drop out as director shortly before filming began due to illness. Joe Johnston was brought in to replace him and Penny Finkleman Cox replacing Yuzna as producer as well.

As Teeny Weenies seemed to appeal more to a child demographic, the name was changed to Grounded to appeal to a more mature audience. That name was later rejected in favour of The Big Backyard. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, based on a line of dialogue from the film, ultimately became its title.

The film was heavily influenced by 1950s fare, such as The Incredible Shrinking Man.

### Casting

Judy Taylor, Mike Fenton, and Lynda Gordon were the casting directors. Before Rick Moranis was cast as Wayne Szalinski, the script was written with Chevy Chase in mind because of his popularity in National Lampoon's Vacation. He was filming the second sequel, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and was too busy to portray Wayne.

John Candy was also considered for the role of Wayne. He declined, but suggested to director Joe Johnston that his friend, (and co-star of SCTV, Little Shop of Horrors and Spaceballs), Rick Moranis, would be a good choice. Marcia Strassman portrays Wayne's wife, Diane, who is having marital troubles with him.

Matt Frewer and Kristine Sutherland portray Russ and Mae Thompson, the Szalinskis' next door neighbours and parents of Russ Jr. and Ron. Russ is very demanding of Russ Jr. and can't understand why he isn't more interested in masculine things such as football and fishing (until the end of the film, when he learns to accept him for who he is). He is dim-witted and clumsy and secretly takes to cigarettes when he is nervous or scared. On the other hand, Mae is a very nice person and friendly with the Szalinskis.

The film needed four teenagers to play the leads. Russ Jr., portrayed by Thomas Wilson Brown seems to be interested in Amy, and less in football, while Ron, Jared Rushton, appears to be more straightforward and a bully toward Nick, although he warms towards him. Rushton has quoted that he took the role after thinking that the script was "appealing" and he thought his character had progressed throughout the film with his personality.

Amy O'Neill and Robert Oliveri were cast as Amy and Nick Szalinski, Wayne and Diane's kids. Oliveri commented that he was in awe about watching his stunt double do his stunts. He later starred as Kevin Boggs in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. O'Neill thought the film was a fun experience and that doing off-set activities, such as swimming or playing cards, was fun to do with the other younger cast members. She accepted the role because it was a "Disney movie."

### Direction

Joe Johnston was selected to direct the film for his directorial debut, having been mostly working on films as an effects illustrator and art director. It was filmed at the backlot of Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. Gregg Fonseca was the production designer and was in charge of managing several different sets for the scenes in it.

Some filming took place in the streets of Mexico City. In the scene where Diane walks out of the mall to the pay phone, a sign says "Beverly Hills Mall", but is in fact Plaza Inn a mall in Mexico City.

Special effects were heavily used for the film, such as the electronically controlled ants and bees. For the most part, the production team tried to use practical effects that would work in camera. For the scene where Wayne lands in the Thompsons' pool, Moranis jumped off a flying board in the form of a teeter-totter on a swing set. A stuntman pushed the board, sending him flying through the air and landing on a mat. Numerous storyboards were used for the film, particularly in the sprinkler and bee scenes. Scale models were also used for the bee scene, with miniature Russ Jr. and Nick plastic figures attached. Forced perspective was used in the giant cookie scene, to make it seem bigger. The child actors were strapped in for the scene with the broom. The bristles were actually pieces of foam that were carved and tied to a rig system.

## Release

### Box Office

The film opened on June 23, 1989, in 1,371 theatres. It opened at number 2 in the United States behind Batman, with a weekend gross of $14,262,961, Buena Vista's biggest 3-day weekend of all time. It earned $130,724,172 domestic and $92,000,000 in other territories, earning a grand total of $222,724,172. Attached to it was Disney and Amblin Entertainment's first Roger Rabbit short, Tummy Trouble, executively produced by Steven Spielberg, produced by Don Hahn, directed by Rob Minkoff, and also composed by James Horner.

## Reception

### Critical Response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 77% based on reviews from 35 critics, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The consensus reads, "Even as its special effects take centre stage, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids still offers a charming, high-spirited sense of adventure for the whole family." Metacritic gave the film a score of 63 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Caryn James, of The New York Times, gave a positive review, saying: "As sweet, funny, and straightforward as its title." Variety gave another positive review stating, "[It's] in the best tradition of Disney – and even better than that, because it is not so juvenile that adults won't be thoroughly entertained." A rare negative review came from Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, who stated: "The special effects are all there, nicely in place, and the production values are sound, but the movie is dead in the water."