Sometimes the best family film discovery involves sitting down to rediscover a favorite with a new group of children.
I hadn’t seen “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” in years until last week, when my 10-year-old niece was over at our house and chose that chestnut from a pile. My older girls saw it long ago, while my 4-year-old son may be a bit young to follow the plot for 90 minutes.
For the 10-year-old and me, it was perfect.
A quick plot recap: Four bickering children live next door to one another. One dad, played by Rick Moranis, is an inventor who’s been frustrated in his attempts to perfect an object- shrinking device in the attic. The kids get hold of it and are shrunk in a hurry; for the rest of the film, they negotiate suddenly enormous obstacles like blades of grass and bowls of Cheerios, while the also-bickering parents search frantically for their flea-sized children.
What I’d forgotten is how well the special effects work, even 19 years after its release. Director Joe Johnston doesn’t just make the family lawn look like an overgrown jungle — he turns a lawn sprinkler into a deadly water hazard and a barking dog into an ear-splitter. When you’re the size of a flea, you face an entirely new set of dangers, and “Honey” makes us all rethink our position in the universe.
tells us that Chevy Chase and John Candy were both considered for the mad- dad-scientist role. Another case of casting problems that turned out lucky — Moranis is perfect as the nerdy, absent-minded dad with a heart of gold.
After another viewing of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” with your 7-year-old kids, you’ll never again eat a bowl of cereal without wondering who is swimming in the bowl.
“Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”
Rated: PG, for some mildly scary scenes after the kids are shrunk.
Best suited for: Kids age 5 to 9, parents who are nostalgic for the old “Wonderful World of Disney” plots.
