Honey, I Blew Up the Kid

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Randal Kleiser
Produced by	Dawn Steel Edward S. Feldman
Screenplay by	Garry Goodrow Thom Eberhardt Peter Elbling
Story by	Garry Goodrow
Based on	Characters by: Stuart Gordon Brian Yuzna Ed Naha
Starring	Rick Moranis Marcia Strassman Lloyd Bridges Robert Oliveri John Shea
Music by	Bruce Broughton
Cinematography	John Hora
Edited by	Harry Hitner
Production company	Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates	July 17, 1992 (1992-07-17)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Box office	$76 million

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid is a 1992 American comedy science fiction film and the sequel to the 1989 film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Directed by Randal Kleiser and released by Walt Disney Pictures, the film stars Rick Moranis, Marcia Strassman, Robert Oliveri and Amy O'Neill, who reprise their roles as Wayne, Diane, Nick, and Amy Szalinski respectively, as well as newcomer Keri Russell as Mandy Park, Nick's love interest and babysitter of Adam, the Szalinskis' new two-year-old son, whose accidental exposure to Wayne's new industrial-sized growth machine causes him to gradually grow to enormous size. Made only three years after Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, this film is set five years after the events depicted in the previous film. It was filmed in 1990.

The antagonist to the Szalinskis is Dr. Charles Hendrickson (John Shea), who wants the giant Adam stopped at all costs and would like to take over Wayne's invention that is now owned by the major corporation they work for, which is in turn owned by the kind Clifford Sterling (Lloyd Bridges).

This film would be followed by one last sequel in 1997, this time a direct-to-video film, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. A TV show would also follow the film in 1997, called Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Plot

In the years since Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) shrunk his kids, he and his family have moved to Nevada and have welcomed another son into the family, 2-year-old Adam (Daniel & Joshua Shalikar). His wife, Diane, (Marcia Strassman), is helping their daughter, Amy (Amy O'Neill) get settled in at college, for which she is departing. As she is gone, Wayne is supposed to look after Adam and their teenage son, Nick (Robert Oliveri).

Nick has an interest in guitars and has a liking for a girl he meets at his job, Mandy Park (Keri Russell), although she does not feel the same way about him. Wayne takes Adam and Nick to his job at Sterling Labs, where he is the head of a project, even though Dr. Charles Hendrickson (John Shea) is trying to take over for the position. Wayne begins to experiment with an idea on a machine that can make objects grow. He uses Adam's toy, Big Bunny, as the test subject. As a power surge distracts both Wayne and Nick, Adam gets out of his stroller, gets in the way of the machine, and is zapped. Suddenly, the machine breaks. Dismayed, Wayne and his sons go home. Deciding to spend some time with Nick, Wayne calls in Mandy to babysit Adam.

Later on, Adam begins to grow via electric waves from the microwave where Wayne is trying to make some lunch for him. Wayne and Nick try to take him back to the lab, but are stopped by Hendrickson. Diane comes back home and is shocked to find her son 7 feet (2.1 m) tall. She and Wayne drive to a warehouse to find his original shrink ray to shrink Adam back to normal size. While Nick watches him at the house, Mandy comes by and faints after seeing Adam. Having no choice, Nick then has her bound to a chair and gagged, to prevent her from running away and screaming. He unties and ungags her, only to find that Mandy goes hysterical, so he ties her up and gags her again. After Nick explains to her what happened and she finally calms down, Adam is then exposed to the television set, breaks through the walls of the house, and is loose on the streets, now 14 feet (4.3 m) tall. Nick then unties Mandy and convinces her to help him, promising that he'll pay her overtime. Mandy agrees, and the two go looking for Adam.

At the warehouse, Wayne and Diane search for the shrink ray through tons of crates. They finally find it and leave to return home; However, Hendrickson finds out about the "big baby" and reports it to his boss, Clifford Sterling (Lloyd Bridges). He then gets several law enforcers to put Adam in a truck after finding him and taking Nick and Mandy into custody. Wayne and Diane return home with the shrink ray, only to find the boys gone and facing legal action from Hendrickson, who wants them arrested on the charges of theft, malicious mischief, and child endangerment. Hendrickson also intends that the authorities get Adam to be put to immediate testing, much to Wayne's anger. In the meantime, Adam accidentally breaks free from the truck when he grows to 50 feet (15 m) tall due to high voltage lines the truck passes. Meanwhile, Sterling arrives to discuss the situation, and Wayne admits that he may be a flawed inventor but at least a good person, stating that all good inventors make mistakes all the time, and that he is willing to clean the mess up. Sterling agrees with him and gives his support to Wayne and Diane to shrink Adam back to normal size, but not before firing Hendrickson. Wayne suddenly discovers that Adam grows while he is near electricity, and Marshall Brooks tells him that Adam is headed straight for Las Vegas. After finding him, Nick and Mandy are mistaken for toys and he puts them in his pocket.

In the meantime, Hendrickson, angry at Sterling for giving his dismissal, gets one of Sterling Labs's board members to authorize an airstrike with the Nevada State Military with the usage of tranquilizer cartridges. Hendrickson manages to get the clearance for the strike from the board, despite the pilot's strong objections. Now 112 feet (34 m) tall, Adam begins roaming the streets of Las Vegas. The citizens and visitors are stunned to see the gigantic baby in a Godzillaesqe manner, but he seems to think that the likes of "Vegas Vic" and all the neon lights are some kind of playground for him. Wayne and Diane arrive in time with Sterling, but there is still a problem; Adam needs to stand still for twelve seconds for the shrink ray to work. In an effort to keep him away from the lights, Wayne gets Brooks to drive an ice cream truck to lure Adam out of Las Vegas and back to Vista Del Mar while Sterling gets all the casino lights to be turned off to ensure that the plan goes smoothly. The plan is a success, and Diane convinces Wayne to enlarge her with the shrink ray, stating that although Adam will listen to his parents, as he 'knows' that his mother is larger than him and will not register her at his current size.

In Las Vegas, Adam has approached a Hard Rock Cafe and rips off the guitar from its sign, hoping to play with it. Hendrickson arrives in the helicopter and proceeds to shoot him with tranquilizer cartridges. The first shot misses him (due to the pilot's intentional maneuver), but the second hits the guitar, giving Adam a painful electrocuting shock, forcing him to throw the guitar into the pavement before crying in pain. The once-panicked crowd below watches in sympathy for Adam's pain, realizing that he was not a menace, but merely an innocent baby. Before Hendrickson has a chance to fire again, Diane (now enlarged) grabs the helicopter and demands Hendrickson and the pilot to back off. As Diane holds him still, Wayne and Sterling shrink both of them back to normal size.

Afterwards, Hendrickson makes an excuse for shooting Adam, saying that the tranquillizer cartridges would not have hurt him, but Diane doesn't buy it and punches him, knocking him out. As the morning sun rises over the desert, Nick, now shrunk again by the ray along with Mandy and the car, finally wins Mandy's heart. Adam is excited to see that his Big Bunny is now over fifty feet tall. As Wayne and Diane kiss, the credits roll.

Cast

• Rick Moranis as Wayne Szalinski, a wacky inventor who always takes risks with pursuing machine experiments and at the same time is negligent prone when it comes to taking every precaution necessary in his achievement attempts.
• Marcia Strassman as Diane Szalinski, Wayne's wife.
• Amy O'Neill as Amy Szalinski, Wayne & Diane's eldest daughter.
• Robert Oliveri as Nick Szalinski, Wayne & Diane's teenage son.
• Daniel & Joshua Shalikar as Adam Szalinski, Wayne & Diane's two year old baby boy who is enlarged to over 100 feet tall.
• John Shea as Dr. Charles Hendrickson, Wayne's insolent boss hired under Clifford Sterling to be the head of Sterling labs.
• Lloyd Bridges as Clifford Sterling, the president of Sterling labs. He has a kind disposition unlike his hired head, Dr. Hendrickson.
• Keri Russell as Mandy Park, Adam's babysitter who also becomes Nick's girlfriend.
• Ron Canada as Marshall Brooks
• Gregory Sierra as Terence Wheeler
• Michael Milhoan as Captain Ed Myerson
• Leslie Neale as Constance Winters
• Julia Sweeney as a Nosey neighbor
• Linda Carlson as another Nosey neighbor

Production

The film was not originally written as a sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Originally titled Big Baby, it was about a toddler who grew to giant size by a freak accident involving a growth ray and eventually terrorized Las Vegas in a non-violent, yet Godzillaesque way. Disney saw the possibilities of making this into a sequel to Honey and rewrote the script. Whereas most of the characters from Big Baby were rewritten as characters from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, there was no character in the original that "Amy Szalinski" could replace, so she is seen going away to college in the beginning of the film.

Casting

Rick Moranis returns from the original film to portray "wacky" inventor Wayne Szalinski. Also returning is his wife, Diane, who is portrayed by Marcia Strassman. Amy O'Neill and Robert Oliveri return to portray the Szalinski children, Amy and Nick. Nick has matured in his personality and interests since the last film. He is still considered "nerdy", but has taken more interest in girls and guitars.

Casting director Renee Rousselot searched over 1,000 small children for someone to portray Adam, the newest addition to the Szalinski clan. She searched for mostly three- to four-year-old boys because a younger child was thought to be problematic. She came across twins Daniel and Joshua Shalikar, from New Jersey and immediately cast them in December 1990. One twin would act in the morning, while the other was eating lunch or taking a nap. Baby consultant Elaine Hall Katz and director Randal Kleiser would plan the twins' scenes a week in advance. Tom Smith reported that, "On his own, Dan was almost too adventuresome to repeat one move, and Josh seemed very cautious. Put them together and they could do anything." However, the film did have difficulties in working with such small children, and one crew member later remarked it was "like playing hopscotch on hot coals".^[1] At the time, the Shalikar twins were scheduled to appear in two more Honey films. They did appear once, but were recast in Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.

In the film, Nick has a crush on a girl named Mandy Park, played by Keri Russell in her first feature film. John Shea portrays Dr. Charles Hendrickson, who is scheming to get Wayne's control of the project, while Lloyd Bridges portrays Clifford Sterling, the owner of Sterling Labs.

Fred Rogers and Richard Simmons are also seen in videos in TV scenes in the film.

Direction

Randal Kleiser, of Grease and White Fang fame, was chosen to direct this film, replacing Joe Johnston. Kleiser would return to film with the cast in the 3D show, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, which was at several Disney parks until 2010. Like its predecessor, and Grease, Honey, I Blew Up the Kid had animated opening credits.

Production began on June 17, 1991. Filming took place in Simi Valley, California for the parts involving the Szalinskis' house. Also used extensively was well known places in Las Vegas such as the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, the Mirage Hotel, and Fremont Street.^[2] The water park where Nick worked and where Mandy is first introduced is Wet 'n Wild in Las Vegas. It closed in 2004, twelve years after the film.

Special effects were used heavily throughout the film, but some were not. When Adam knocks down his bedroom's door, production designer Leslie Dilley created a set with miniature furniture about four feet away from the camera, while the adult actors would be about fifteen feet away. Kleiser recalled, "Danny was generally better at improvising and fresh reactions. Josh was better at following directions, so we would alternate."^[3]

Lawsuit before release

Disney would later find itself the subject of a lawsuit as a result of the film. The suit was filed in 1991 by Mark Goodson Productions director Paul Alter, who claimed to have come up with the idea of an oversized toddler after babysitting his granddaughter and watching her topple over building blocks. He wrote a screenplay titled "Now, That's a Baby!", which had not been made into a film but had received some sort of treatment beforehand.^[4] Alter claimed there were several similarities between the movie and his script, which consisted of the baby daughter of two scientists falling victim to a genetic experiment gone wrong instead of an enlarging ray. The case went to trial in 1993, with the jury finding in Alter's favor. Disney was forced to pay $300,000 in damages.^[5]

Reception

Box office

The film opened on July 17, 1992 to 2,492 theatres, almost twice as many as the first film. It was No. 1 on opening weekend with $11,083,318, and grossed $58,662,452 in the U.S.^[6]

Critical

The film has received generally mixed reviews. It has a "rotten" rating of 41% at Rotten Tomatoes.^[7] Desson Thompson and Hal Hinson, both writers from the Washington Post, agreed that the film was "a one-joke film". Roger Ebert, from the Chicago Sun-Times, said that Adam "didn't participate in the real world but simply toddled around".^[8]

Soundtrack

Intrada Records released the record in 1992, in time for the film's release. The score was composed and conducted by Bruce Broughton, who would return to provide the score for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. "Stayin Alive" by the Bee Gees appears in the film. So does "Loco-Motion" by Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and "Ours If We Want It" written by Tom Snow and Mark Mueller. The soundtrack album consists of just the score.

Track listing

1. "Main Title" – 3:03
2. "To the Lab" – 1:53
3. "Adam Gets Zapped" – 0:35
4. "Putting on Weight?" – 1:19
5. "Macrowaved" – 3:15
6. "How'd She Take It?" – 3:11
7. "Sneaking Out" – 1:12
8. "Don't Touch That Switch!" – 0:26
9. "The Bunny Trick" – 2:41
10. "Get Big Bunny" – 4:11
11. "Clear the Streets!" – 3:00
12. "Car Flight" – 4:38
13. "Ice Cream!" – 3:47
14. "Look at That Mother!" – 2:26
15. "That's All, Folks!" – 4:20

Home media

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid was first released on VHS and Laserdisc on January 6, 1993. The film was released on a bare-bones DVD in 2002. While the VHS release contained no bonus material besides a music video, the laserdisc release contains the 1992 animated short film, Off His Rockers directed by Barry Cook, which accompanied the theatrical release. To date, Off His Rockers has only appeared on the laserdisc release of this film, making its availability rare, although the short can be viewed on YouTube.

The film was released on VHS in 1997, alongside its predecessor to coincide with the release of the third film in the series, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.

References

External links

• Official website
• Honey, I Blew Up the Kid at the Internet Movie Database
• Honey, I Blew Up the Kid at the TCM Movie Database
• Honey, I Blew Up the Kid at AllMovie
• Honey, I Blew Up the Kid at Rotten Tomatoes