Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Joe Johnston
Rick Moranis
Matt Frewer
Marcia Strassman
Kristine Sutherland
Kimmy Robertson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
During an experiment, an inventor accidentally miniaturizes his son and his son's friends.
Cast
Rick Moranis
Matt Frewer
Marcia Strassman
Kristine Sutherland
Kimmy Robertson
Trevor Galtress
Jared Rushton
Thomas Wilson Brown
Martin Aylett
Amy O'neill
Lou Cutell
Carl Steve
Ian Underwood
Janet Sunderland
Laura Waterbury
Mark L. Taylor
Robert Oliveri
Crew
Victor Abbene
Robert Ahmanson
David Allen
Sixto Alverez
Eric Roy Anderson
Del Armstrong
Carmen C Avila
Lisa Bailey
Marilyn Bailey
Claudia Becker
Corwin Bibb
John Boccaccio
G Spence Bovee
Kerri L Brodek
Carol Brolaski
Ann Bruice
C Mitchell Bryan
Neal R Buger
Fernando Camara
James Campana
David E Campbell
Jeannine Campi
Jo Carson
Mike Cassidy
Mike Cassidy
Peter Chesney
Mario Cisneros
Blair Clark
Robert Clark
Carola Coello
Charles Collum
Janice Convery
Dorree Cooper
Gustavo Covarrubias
Mark A Crawford
Robin D'arcy
Lenny Dalrymple
Craig Davies
Carole Lee Davis
Edgar Ladron Deguevara
Lynn Del Kail
Patrick Deremer
Robert Deschane
Mark Dornfeld
Bill Dotson
Roderic Duff
Sheila Duignan
Syd Dutton
Brad Einhorn
Phil Elins
Magdelena Eriz
Vicente Escriva
Bruce Evans
Juan Jose Exquival
Mike Fenton
Gunnar Ferdinandsen
Lynne Ferry
Rick Fichter
Rick Fichter
Penney Finkelman Cox
Gregg Fonseca
George Fredrick
Mark Freund
Linda Frobos
Mariano Garcia
Aquiles Garrido
John Gazdik
Paul Gentry
Scott Gershin
Raynold Gideon
Avram D Gold
Esperanza Gomez
Dennis Gordon
Lynda Gordon
Stuart Gordon
Stuart Gordon
John Grillo
Victor Grodecki
Hector Guillen
Gabriella Gurrola
Heriberto Gutierrez
Mark Gutterud
Per Hallberg
Bruce Hayes
Jurgen Heimann
Jim Henrikson
Ernesto Hermosa
Ellen Heuer
Jan M Heyneker
Lucy Hofert
Henner Hofmann
Henner Hofmann
Chris Hogan
James Horner
David Householter
John Iacovelli
Antonio Jara
Sergio Jara Sr.
Francisco Jaramillo
Cesar Jimenez
Mike Job
Jelani Jones
Carol Juk
James Kagel
Nick Kamen
Emmet Kane
Kyota Kawasaki
Steven King
Jacqueline Kinney
Debra Ann Klegman
Lou Kleinman
Martin A Kline
Pete Kozachik
Jim Kundig
Peter Kuran
Jon Landau
Mark Lapointe
Adolfo Lara
Michael Paul Lawler
Lynn Ledgerwood
Robin Lewis
Miguel Lima
Laine Liska
Victor Livingston
Daniel Lopez
David Lowery
Gloria Lozano
Paula Lucchesi
Betsy Magruder
Michael Maley
Gary Mallaber
Gary Mallaber
Richard Malzahn
Tamia Marg
Jesus Martinez
John Massaro
John Massaro
Antonio Mata
Steve Mathis
Greig Mcritchie
Abel Melo
David Mesloh
Daniel Miller
Cecilia Monterrubio
Caryn Montes Deoca
Enrique Morales
Bernardo Munoz
Shawn Murphy
Michael Muscal
Ed Naha
Ed Naha
Ed Naha
Hiro Narita
Hiro Narita
John Naulin
Robert S Neville
Phill Norwood
Juanita Oliver
Adriana Olvera
Fernando Olvera
Greg Orloff
Clint Palmer
Michele Panelli-venetis
Suzanne Pastor
Edgar Pavon
Bruce Pearson
Louis Perez
Jeff Pescetto
Denise Pizzini Robinson
Brad Plows
Carlos Puente
Brian Ralph
Alberto Ramirez
Enriquez Ramirez
Macedo'ia Ramos
Marianne Ray
John T Reitz
Xavier Rodriguez
John Roesch
Julie Roman
Hector Romero
Sergio Romero
Nino Rota
Gregg Rudloff
Jose Ruiz
Mark Sawicki
Stephen Scheutzow
Anthony Schmidt
Tom Schulman
Salvador Serrano
Sharon Simon
Garrison Singer
Thomas G Smith
David Sosalla
Tom St Amand
Wade Stallings
Wade Stallings
Wesley Staples
Kirk Arlo Starbird
Wylie Stateman
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Fans of the film might be surprised to find out that the key writer behind Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is best known for his work on horror films. Stuart Gordon is revered by terror buffs for his direction of H.P. Lovecraft's cult classic Re-Animator (1985). In interviews about Honey, however, he contends that even this film is a horror film! He explains, "Think about it. It's really the same story - mad scientist and experiments that go terribly wrong, with giant insects and all the elements of classic horror. The tone was a little different. Although, it was funny, when I was working on it, Disney was worried that I was going to kill all the kids [laughs], and I kept saying...'No, I don't really want to kill them, but I want the audience to think that they might die. There should be a lot of tension in that story.'" Understandably, the Mouse House had some reservations about a horror director writing a film geared towards children-but Gordon was ultimately successfully in convincing studio execs he was the man for the job. The director recalled this story years later about the giant-sized creatures in the film:
"It was funny, Disney was very worried about it when we were working on it. They kept saying, 'We want this to be more like The Absent-Minded Professor [1988] and less like The Fly [1986].' I had a big argument with them about what the ants should look like in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. They said to me, 'What is this ant going to look like?' and I said, 'Well, it's going to look like an ant.' They said, 'Isn't that going to scare the kids?' I said, 'What do you think it should look like?' They said, 'Well, we think it should have blue eyes [and] look sort of like E.T.' I said, 'Well, E.T. scared more kids than an ant does.' Finally, it came down to, I had to take the executives to the shop that was building this giant ant puppet, and I said, 'In a way, it's good that they think it's scary when they first see it, then it turns out that it's not scary, it's nice.' And when I said that, the ant, the guy that was puppeting it, had the ant come up and he put its antennae over my shoulders and sort of nuzzled me, like a horse would nuzzle somebody. Then all of a sudden it was OK. The Disney guys got it. They were very concerned about that movie."
The oversized creatures and features are some of the most popular aspects of the film. The ants were sculpted out of latex foam core and covered in horsehair. Giant grass blades were formed from optical fibers and urethane foam. And what about those massive Cheerios? Why, textured inner tubes, floating in thickened, colored water to resemble milk. Bluescreening was a technique widely used in the film. As Moranis points out, "For most of the film, I don't really play with the kids, I'm playing either with something added in blue screen later, or something that will be matted together." The ant-riding scene is an excellent example of stop-motion animation, done by one of the best animators in the business. David Allen began his career bringing characters like Gumby, David and Goliath, and the Pillsbury Doughboy to life; while most of his work was for sci-fi or horror flicks, he also produced sequences for films like *batteries not included (1987).
Honey was director Joe Johnston's first film; a long-time Lucasfilm employee, he was an effects technician on Star Wars (1977)-as well as an uncredited Storm Trooper - and won a shared Oscar® for the effects in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Johnston went on from Honey to helm films like Jumanji (1995), October Sky (1999), and most recently, Hidalgo (2004). The success of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids spawned a theatre sequel-Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992) as well as a direct-to-video offering Honey, We Shrank Ourselves (1997). It also inspired a popular ride attraction at both Disneyland and Disneyworld. Despite its distinctive title, the project's original name was known under a different moniker: the majestic "Teenie Weenies." It was changed in favor of a funnier title that would be more appealing to adult viewers.
Producer: Penney Finkelman Cox, Thomas G. Smith
Director: Joe Johnston
Screenplay: Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, Ed Naha, Tom Schulman
Cinematography: Hiro Narita
Film Editing: Michael A. Stevenson
Art Direction: Dorree Cooper, John Iacovelli
Music: James Horner
Cast: Rick Moranis (Wayne Szalinski), Matt Frewer (Russ Thompson, Sr.), Marcia Strassman (Diane Szalinski), Kristine Sutherland (Mae Thompson), Thomas Wilson Brown (Russ Thompson, Jr.), Jared Rushton (Ronald Thompson).
C-101m. Letterboxed.
by Eleanor Quin
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States Summer June 23, 1989
Released in United States on Video March 12, 1990
Released in United States January 1990
Shown at Avoriaz International Fantasy Film Festival, in France January 13-21, 1990.
Began shooting January 20, 1988.
As of 9/4/89, the box office gross for the USA $128,961,288.
Released in United States Summer June 23, 1989
Released in United States on Video March 12, 1990
Released in United States January 1990 (Shown at Avoriaz International Fantasy Film Festival, in France January 13-21, 1990.)