Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
There's a specific kind of feeling you get when a film pulls you back in time before the opening credits have even finished rolling. That's exactly what happened when I sat down to revisit this one. Within minutes, I was eight years old again, parked in front of the telly on a Saturday afternoon, completely lost in the kind of adventure that only a certain breed of late-80s and early-90s Disney live-action film could conjure. It's warm, a little silly, and entirely irresistible.
Rick Moranis is the heart of the whole thing as the scatterbrained inventor Wayne Szalinski, and he's absolutely perfect for it. This is not a film that needed a blockbuster leading man. It needed someone who could sell you a shrink ray in your attic with total conviction while being magnificently, lovably daft. Moranis does exactly that, leaning into the eccentricity with a hammy energy that somehow never tips into annoyance. He's the kind of screen presence that makes you smile just by walking into a room.
When you actually step back and look at it with grown-up eyes, the nuts and bolts are, honestly, pretty average. The dialogue is wonderfully over-the-top, the younger cast performances are very much products of their era, and the plot is about as straightforward as they come. Four kids get accidentally shrunk, they have to trek across a now-enormous back garden to get home, chaos ensues. That's your lot. There's no hidden depth here, no grand subtext to unpack over a post-film pint. It's a proper B-movie script dressed up in a Disney costume, and it knows it.
But here's the thing: that's precisely the charm. Joe Johnston directs the whole affair with a massive wink to the audience, never once pretending this is anything other than a romp. The practical effects work, particularly the giant lawn mower sequence and the oversized ant that becomes a surprisingly affecting presence in the story, still holds up with a tactile, handmade quality that a lot of modern family films have completely lost. There's something about miniature sets and physical creatures that CGI just can't replicate, no matter how far the technology has come. It's the same reason Jurassic Park III still has moments that land purely because you can feel the weight of what's on screen.
What Johnston gets absolutely right is tone. This film never takes itself seriously, and because of that, you never hold it to a standard it's not trying to meet. It's unapologetically fun, and that disarms you completely. Before you know it, you're genuinely invested in whether four shrunken suburban kids are going to make it across the lawn alive. On paper that sounds ridiculous. On screen, somehow, it works.
I'll be honest: watching it now, I kept thinking this would be a brilliant candidate for a modern remake. Not a reimagining, not a gritty reboot, just the same spirit and the same heart, with today's tools at its disposal. Imagine the practical creativity of the original blended with contemporary visual effects while keeping that same breezy, lovable energy intact. Done right, it could be something genuinely special for a new generation.
As it stands, though, what we've got is a film that sits comfortably in the two-and-a-half to three star zone. It's not high art, it's not trying to be, and I respect it enormously for that. It's a cracking bit of weekend entertainment with a genuine warmth running through it, the kind of film the whole family can actually watch together without anyone being bored or baffled. It earns its place in the Disney live-action catalogue not through ambition, but through sheer, unpretentious fun.
Two and a half stars, and not a single one of them given reluctantly.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 1989 | Watched: 2026-06-26
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Rakuten TV · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
