Customer Reviews

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Who knew cheerios in milk could be so dangerous? This is a fun adventure of a film. I still enjoy watching this film. Rick Moranis plays the bungalking inventor who shrinks his children. The special effects in this film were good.

This is a nice kids movie...but pretty stereotypical story line. Clearly devised to show off the Disney special effects. Can be scary for a 5 year old. Kids characters are stereotypes. And of course, it is the one girl who needs rescuing!

At theatres In the summer of '89, "Honey I Shrunk the kids" more than held it's own against box office heavyweights such as "Do the Right thing", "Batman", and "Indiana Jones and the last crusade". Quite the feat, considering it's relatively obscure cast (well, compared to the afforementioned films.)

The movie starts out with a nice animation sequence that looks as good now as it did 13 years ago. The live action starts as a typical Saturday morning in suburbia at the Szalinski's house, except that Wayne (Rick Moranis) is a bumbling inventor who built a shrinking ray in his attic that he can't get to work, his son (Robert Oliveri) is a mirror-image. And the daughter (Amy O'Neill) is pretty much your typical Blond teenager [a good looking one at that ;)] who hopes she gets asked to the dance. The mother, Diane Szalinski, played by Marcia Strassman (of Welcome Back, Kotter fame) does a good job as well. Cork, the family dog also deserves mentioning.

Next door are the All-American Thompsons, who have big plans for a weekend fishing trip. Their oldest son Russ Jr. (Thomas Wilson Brown) is less than enthusiastic about those plans. He's a bit scrawny for his age and Big Russ has expectations to see him excel at High School football, which isn't Little Russ's Niche. Meanwhile younger son Ron Thompson (Jared Rushton) is the apple of Big Russ's eye, and can be quite mischievous at times, setting up a booby trap that his dad walks into.

The underrated Matt Frewer steals the show as Big Russ Thompson, Brash and Sarcastic (in a good way of course). And providing the perfect compliment is his wife, the calmer Mae Thompson (played by Kristine Sutherland).

The backstory is this:Ron Thompson hits a baseball into the Szalinskis attic, in turn setting off the shrinking machine (which hadn't worked until that point) and in their effort to retrieve the ball, Ron and Nick get zapped and are 1/4 inch tall, Amy and Russ Jr., who walk up to the attic wondering what happened to them, meet a similar fate. Wayne returns home from a dismal day at work, having been made a laughing stock because of his lack of proof for the shrinking machine. He takes his frustration out on the machine itself, severely damaging it in the process, he sweeps the broken parts (and the four kids) off the floor and into the trash bag. He then takes it out across the yard, and the kids are, as Nick eloquently says "We're now a quarter of an inch tall, and sixty four feet from the house. That's an equivalent of three-point-two miles. That's a long way. Even for a man of science." Even more of a trek considering the extra thick grass they must walk through.

En route the gang faces Swarms of bees and scorpions [among other obstacles that I won't give away;)]. There's decent use of special effects and, even if they may look a bit fake, it's still entertaining nonetheless. I'll end my description here, as anything more would spoil the film.

If this review doesn't entice you to check out "Honey, I shrunk the kids", I don't know what will. It's a classic in my opinion.

i whould have liked it better if it were widescreen i think fullscreen movies are a thing of the past please do away with full screen if possible but if the movie was only filmed in full screen then i dont mind but if the movie can be made for full screen then it should thank you yours truely a disturbed fan of disney movies.

At theatres In the summer of '89, "Honey I Shrunk the kids" more than held it's own against box office heavyweights such as "Do the Right thing", "Batman", and "Indiana Jones and the last crusade". Quite the feat, considering it's relatively obscure cast (well, compared to the afforementioned films.)

The movie starts out with a nice animation sequence that looks as good now as it did 13 years ago. The live action starts as a typical Saturday morning in suburbia at the Szalinski's house, except that Wayne (Rick Moranis) is a bumbling inventor who built a shrinking ray in his attic that he can't get to work, his son (Robert Oliveri) is a mirror-image. And the daughter (Amy O'Neill) is pretty much your typical Blond teenager [a good looking one at that ;)]
who hopes she gets asked to the dance. The mother, Diane Szalinski, played by Marcia Strassman (of Welcome Back, Kotter fame) does a good job as well. Cork, the family dog also deserves mentioning.

Next door are the All-American Thompsons, who have big plans for a weekend fishing trip. Their oldest son Russ Jr. (Thomas Wilson Brown) is less than enthusiastic about those plans. He's a bit scrawny for his age and Big Russ has expectations to see him excel at High School football, which isn't Little Russ's Niche. Meanwhile younger son Ron Thompson (Jared Rushton) is the apple of Big Russ's eye, and can be quite mischievous at times, setting up a booby trap that his dad walks into.

The underrated Matt Frewer steals the show as Big Russ Thompson, Brash and Sarcastic (in a good way of course). And providing the perfect compliment is his wife, the calmer Mae Thompson (played by Kristine Sutherland).

The backstory is this:Ron Thompson hits a baseball into the Szalinskis attic, in turn setting off the shrinking machine (which hadn't worked until that point) and in their effort to retrieve the ball, Ron and Nick get zapped and are 1/4 inch tall, Amy and Russ Jr., who walk up to the attic wondering what happened to them, meet a similar fate. Wayne returns home from a dismal day at work, having been made a laughing stock because of his lack of proof for the shrinking machine. He takes his frustration out on the machine itself, severely damaging it in the process, he sweeps the broken parts (and the four kids) off the floor and into the trash bag. He then takes it out across the yard, and the kids are, as Nick eloquently says "We're now a quarter of an inch tall, and sixty four feet from the house. That's an equivalent of three-point-two miles. That's a long way. Even for a man of science." Even more of a trek considering the extra thick grass they must walk through.

En route the gang faces Swarms of bees and scorpions [among other obstacles that I won't give away;)]. There's decent use of special effects and, even if they may look a bit fake, it's still entertaining nonetheless. I'll end my description here, as anything more would spoil the film.

If this review doesn't entice you to check out "Honey, I shrunk the kids", I don't know what will. It's a classic in my opinion.

As an added bonus, the hilarious Roger Rabbit short "Tummy Trouble" is included.

This is what an entertaining, funny, clean, family movie should be. Great special effect as well, without none of the CGI nonsense we see today. Awesome.

I dont know why, but I just feel like writing reviews for classic movies today. This was one of my first "real" movies(by real I mean like not kiddie), I was about... 6-7 when I first saw it, now I'm 18 & I still love it to this day. I always enjoy watching it when I need a good laugh:). But yea, everyone can agree, it's very behind-the-times- the kid says "Tubular!" for cryin out loud! But so what? Oldies are goodies. The actress who played Amy is pretty hot too :).

DO NOT see the sequels- they are both horrible- Shrunk Ourselves doesnt even have any of the original cast other than Rick Moranis!

Disney needs to stop giving the foreign market a better deal. Start concentrating on making the product more appealing domestically in the country where it was made! Widescreen somehow always gets put on the back burner for the US.

I just got the DVD after waiting years and was totally bummed when I opened it and it was in "Pan & Scan"....

If it were not such a great movie we never would have bought it. Why wouldn't Disney just offer a dual format like everyone else?

I had waited for quite some time for this film as well as Jungle 2 Jungle, Babes In Toyland, and White Fang to be released on DVD. I was only to be disapponted by Disney that it's awaited release was only available in the full-frame/pan and scan version. A benefit of owning a DVD player is the ability to own films widescreen and with extras (which these DVDs lack). If we are turning into a digital society... then make it worth our while. Disney's choice of the aspect ratio 1:33:1 release has cheated these films' directors in that the widescreen anamorphic format is how the director intended us to see it. Disney cheated us, the audience, as well leaving us with a full screen of plot rather than the wonderful vision of the films' crew.
P.S. Hey Disney give us a reason to buy your DVD's