Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) - Shrinking kids movie is less fun than you thought it was

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Bright family-oriented fun is promised on this poster for Joe Johnston's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

An inventor father's latest shrinking machine is recklessly stashed in the family's attic, so that a wayward basketball starts a fateful shrinking of both his and the neighbors' kids!

 

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is written by Ed Naha (Omega Doom (1996)) and Tom Schulman (What About Bob? (1991)), with Stuart Gordon (The Dentist (1996)) and Brian Yuzna (From Beyond (1986)) contributing story elements, and directed by debuting Joe Johnston (The Pagemaster (1994)).

An imaginative adventure especially for smaller children (ages up to 12), the film's great quality is its impressive special effects that are a mix of robotic animals, stop motion and green screen, among other techniques. Unfortunately the kid actors are not very good, nor very well-cast, - and neither are the adults!

The few fun moments arise when Rick Moranis (Big Bully (1996)) and his wife look for their spawn in the lawn. The story and style seems to be going for a Spielbergian brand of movie magic, but the adventure is too constricted, and the big emotions are blanked out, maybe also to hit an 'undisturbing' and 'safe' Disney tone for the movie. The result is sweet but also artificial, as when the parents are not too upset by their progeny's new ant-size state, and when the surrounding conflicts (the neighbor father has to accept his son, who also is tasked with romanticizing the neighboring daughter) are resolved in the end without any real reason being given, except for the fact that the kids have been shrunk, - and of course more importantly that the movie formula dictates it.

 

Related posts:

  

Joe Johnston: 2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

The Wolfman (2010) - Johnston's luxurious, effects-driven remake 

Hidalgo (2004) - More respectable than rousing

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 18 mil. $

Box office: 222.7 mil. $

=  Mega-hit (returned 12.37 times its cost)

[Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was released 23 June (North America) and runs 93 minutes. Gordon dropped out of directing due to illness. Shooting took place from January - July 1988 in Mexico City, Mexico. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Batman, to a 14.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 4 weekend in the top 5 (#2-#3-#3-#4), grossing 130.7 mil. $ (58.7 % of the total gross). The film's foreign gross figures have regrettably not been made public. The film won a BAFTA, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The film's success spun a theatrical sequel, Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992), a video sequel, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997), a Disney attraction and a TV-series. Johnston returned with The Rocketeer (1991). Moranis returned in Bobby Brown: On Our Own (1989, music video) and theatrically in Parenthood (1989). Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is fresh at 78 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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