It's a sobering thought that Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, a movie I fondly remember seeing in the theatre as a kid is now 25 years old and has since been introduced to a whole new generation of kids. I suppose it's just another sign that I'm getting older. Still, rewatching it through the eyes as a thirty-something young man, I was surprised how well it holds up as a film. Some of the effects are a little dated, but beyond that the film was still as much fun as ever.
The film has a simple enough plot that focuses on two families that live next door to each other. Both are equally eccentric in their own special ways. One family, the Szalinskis, is headed up by Wayne (played by Rick Moranis), an inventor who is struggling to get his shrink ray to work and as a result has been neglecting his family a bit. The kids, Nick (played by Robert Oliveri) and Amy (played by Amy O'Neil), don't seem to mind as much, but has been bothering their mother, Diane (played by Marcia Strassman) and it referenced a few times that there is more than a little trouble in the marriage.
The other family is The Thompsons, headed up by gung-ho, macho man's man Big Russ Thompson (played by Matt Frewer) who is planning to take the entire family on a fishing trip. One son, Ron (played by Jared Rushton), is equally enthusiastic about this while the quiet, sensitive Little Russ Thompson (played by Thomas Brown) is less excited. As the parents pack up the RV, Ron decides to play a little baseball, knocking a baseball through the Szalinski attic window (where Wayne has his lab set up) and the ricocheting ball accidently activates the machine. Seeing what he did, Little Russ takes Ron next door to confess. Ron is sent upstairs with Nick to retrieve the ball and clean up the mess. They are promptly shrunk once the laser's targeting system locks onto them. When they don't return, Little Russ and Amy go up to check on them and are shrunk as well.
Soon, Wayne returns home depressed after a failed pitch meeting to try and get a grant for his research only to have his audience literally walk out on him. He cleans up the mess in the attic, along with all four kids and accidently takes them out with the trash, which is promptly deposited in the alley behind the house on the other end of the backyard. The kids cut their way out of the plastic bag and are faced with a backyard that at their new size is more accurately miles and miles of treacherous jungle.
What I always loved about this movie was the way it completely changed the perspective of something as benign as the backyard. Ants are suddenly big enough they can all ride one comfortably, a stray Lego brick is big enough for them to sleep in for the night, discarded lit cigarette is as big as a car and a discarded sandwich cookie is as big and could provide a monumental amount of food for them. Of course, there is plenty of adventure as well, especially in their encounters with a honeybee and a scorpion. The latter has always been unnerving to me somehow, probably because the stop motion effects make it seem somehow even more horrific.
Rewatching the film recently (thanks Netflix!), I was struck how this film seemed a bit offbeat in a Joe Dante sort of way. The film was actually directed by Joe Johnston, but it had that feel to me of a movie that was really comfortable with all it's characters just being oddballs in their own distinct ways (especially both the fathers, Big Russ and Wayne) and I loved the film for it. It was something that was missing in the sequels that kept them from matching up to the original film.
Overall, I was surprised how well this film still holds up 25 years later. Some of the effects are a bit dated, but if you can get past that it's still an absolute blast.
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