Honey We Shrunk Ourselves

Image credit: Wikipedia

Taking full advantage of the fact that I now have access to all these movies from my childhood that I either deemed not worth having on DVD or just grew out of, yesterday after work I curled up and revisited Honey We Shrunk Ourselves. I don’t know how, but I completely missed the others of these films when I was growing up and only ever saw this one. I remember loving it, and I have to admit the wave of nostalgia that I rode on yesterday was great!

Following the events of Honey I Blew Up the Kid, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids, the film tells the story of eccentric scientist Wayne Szalinksi (Rick Moranis) who’s wife is getting ready to go on a much-needed vacation. As soon as his wife leaves, Wayne fires up his old shrinking machine to shrink a statue that his wife wants him to get rid of and he accidentally shrinks himself and his brother Gordon. The wives return to drop off something and they too end up shrunk. Now their only chance of getting big again is to get the attention of their pre-adolescent kids!

The fun of this movie really is the wonders of seeing the world from the perspective of a tiny thing, a la The Incredible Shrinking Man. The set design is super fun, ranging from the beautiful (grains in the hardwood floors) to the gross (roach turds).

On the surface it’s a fun little adventure movie with the adults trying to become big again, but more than that it’s a very cute film filled with poignant character development. The relationships that change and grow stronger throughout the movie are really lovely to watch, not just the ones between the adults themselves, but the ones between them and their children too. It’s as much a coming of age/growing up movie as it is family comedy, making it really good for all ages.

Image credit: Rotten Tomatoes

The characters are all ones that we know making them really relatable and grounded against the fantastic sci-fi adventure plot, and a lot of social attitudes around raising kids as well as adolescent romance and sex are still relevant (if not more so) to this day, giving the film a load of important messages for the kiddies to take away with them.

For me, Honey We Shrunk Ourselves really stands up and I enjoyed it just as much as a 30 year-old as I did when I was 10!

Director: Dean Cundey

Cast: Rich Moranis, Eve Gordon, Bug Hall, Robin Bartlett, Stuart Pankin, Allison Mack, Jake Richardson, JoJo Adams & Mila Kunis