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Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2015 9:48 pm    Post subject: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Reply with quote

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I liked this movie. My kids liked this movie. I liked watching this movie with my kids. So if you read anything here against this movie . . . it's a typo. Very Happy

First of all, the concept is brilliant: make an epic adventure out of four kids crossing their backyard.

Throw in a giant insect they befriend and ride on, a colossal battle between said insect and a huge red mutant scopiosaurus, and a wild ride on bubbloid bee creature.

Make the grown-up characters quirky and combative and obviously devoted to their children.

Get somebody like . . . oh, I don't know, James Horner to score it.

And then , twenty-six years later, refuse to release a decent DVD in 16:9 -- never mind a damn Blu-ray with extras -- despite the fact that Wikipedia says this:

The film became an unexpected box office success, grossing in excess of $222 million worldwide, and became the highest-grossing live-action Disney film ever, a record it held for five years.

Some folks say the Disney people will do anything for a buck. I more inclined to think they they couldn't find their own ass with both hands . . .

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Dec 05, 2022 1:54 pm; edited 5 times in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 9:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am also fond of this film, Bud.

Has to be one of the last films to utilize the terrific FX of stop-motion animation.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think you're right, and it was magnificent animation at that.

The drama was very effective, with the kids befriending an animated ant and then being threatened by an animated scorpion -- after which the friendly ant battled the nasty scorpion and sacrificed itself to save teeny tiny children who would have stepped on it the day before.

I think there's a lesson for us here.

Love has no logic. Bravery has no boundaries. Ants have no brains.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:36 am; edited 1 time in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ohhh, don't tell Ant-Man that ants don't have any brains.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________________________________

Well, okay, it works just as well this way.

Bravery has no boundaries. Ants have no logic. Love has no brains.
Cool
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Ants have no logic.

Ants collectively actually have a built-in logic.

Ants individually wander around looking for food, leaving a scent trail. Any ant finding food will take a chunk of it back to the nest, leaving a more intense trail. Other ants crossing this "Eureka!" trail will recognize its significance and turn either left or right to follow the trail. By simple odds, half those ants will end up at the food source. So they'll gather more food and head back to the nest, reinforcing the trail. The other 50% of the ants, the ones who turned the wrong way and ended up at the nest empty-mandibled, will simply turn around and follow the trail back to the food. So altogether, the operation appears very organized and it gets the job done.

What this has to do with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, I can't say (not having seen the movie).

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, then let's try this.

Bravery has no brains. Ant's have no boundaries. Wayne has no movie.

(Give up, Dude. I can keep this up all day long.)
Laughing
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I posted a fan-made trailer for The Last Starfighter (1984) on the thread for that movie, and the trailer had this amusing message at the beginning.






I wondered just how true the claim at the bottom was, so I made a list of 1980s science fiction films that I thought were good, just to see if that decade really did produce a significant number of “the best” sci-fi movies.

This movie is on the list I made. I know what I like about the film (and a few things I don’t like), but I’d like to hear the pros and cons from the rest of you folks.

So, what do you think, guys? Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2019 4:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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____________

_______ Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Trailer


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The premise takes the serious notion of The Incredible Shrinking Man (57) and Fantastic Voyage (66), and transforms it into an amusing kids movie.

And it is funny — Rick Moranis stars as a goofy, loser inventor named Szalinski who is indeed a genius. He has a family — a wife and two kids — whom he can barely support (the wife, played by Marcia Strassman, seems to be the bread winner), but he's working on some kind of gun-like apparatus in his attic and it looks impressive.

Then, the accident: a neighbor's kid pops a baseball through the attic window and hits the gizmo. Four kids go up to inspect the damage and are hit by a beam which shrinks them to ant-size. Szalinski comes home in a bad mood and unknowingly sweeps them up with the garbage, depositing them in a bag just outside his back fence. To get back to the house, they traverse the back lawn.

But, to them, it's about 3 miles of jungle.

Moranis was born to play this role and he is great in this. The movie was a big hit and made him a comedy star for a time.

This was like an eighties/nineties version of a Jerry Lewis sixties role or maybe Don Knotts. Matt Frewer co-stars as the neighbor; he's sort of a douchebag and annoying, but also has his amusing moments.

The kids encounter an ant — which improbably becomes their servant & pet for a little while — and then a scorpion, which is not so friendly. There are also bees.

The FX are very good.

The ending suggests that Szalinki's invention will rapidly change the world — for the better (large amounts of food as the gizmo can be reversed to enlarge things), but this is not followed up on. The sequel was Honey, I Blew Up the Kid in 1992.

Then there was a direct-to-video 2nd sequel, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, in 1997. At this point, there was a TV series without Moranis which lasted 3 years. The inventor (Peter Scolari) in this had various other inventions to propel the stories along.

BoG's Score: 7.5 out of 10

Shrunken Trivia: The story in this film also has an eerie similarity to the novel The Micronauts by Gordon Williams, in that the main characters in that 1977 sf book also had to traverse a standard garden, except that the older story was serious in tone.



BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
________________________________

Wayne Szalinski's remarkable device could actually be used by the military in quite a few ways. Here's one I just thought of.

~ A Question for the Members: Would it be possible for a country to load a large military aircraft with thousands of miniaturized troops, weapons, tanks, and helicopters, and then sneak the whole shebang into another country they wished to invade — after which they would restore the men and equipment and launch an invasion?

~ My Theory: The short answer is: You betcha! Very Happy

In fact, this strategy has some interesting variations. Such as:

~ The invading country could secretly hide miniaturized companies of soldiers inside all the major cities of the target nation. Portable miniaturized living quarters would house the troops (for weeks if necessary), hidden away in old warehouses — along with their weapons, equipment, and the miniaturization devices.

On the day of the invasion, all the hidden companies in the various cities would be enlarged. They could quickly swarm out of the warehouses and take control of the cities.

~ Perhaps a better strategy would be to hide all the miniaturized companies smack in the middle of the military bases around the country. Bases always have large supply depots, which are basically big warehouses in which the disguised mini-army could be hidden inside large storage containers.

The enlargement process would take place in quick stages, sending out squads who would be disguised in the uniforms of the country being invaded.

The strange appearance of a rapidly increasing number of "apparent traitors" on the base would be so shocking that the defending troops would be quickly overwhelmed, and the base would be taken over by the enemy.

~ In addition to either of the above scenarios, a fairly small number of miniaturized troops could be hidden in the nation's capital — in fact, right inside the building housing the president and the government personnel! This would mean the invading force could either kill or capture most of the top government officials in a very short time, with few-if-any casualties on their part.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2021 3:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I'm surprised that the none of All Sci-Fi's members have been inspired by my suggestion above to offer any comments concerning my post from August of last year.

I think the idea has real merit. I was hoping you guys would have a few comments on the subject.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2021 4:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, it's be a long time since I have seen the movie, or read the book, but that was one of the reasons given for wanting to control the time you could be miniaturized in "Fantastic Voyage". The General said that an entire army could be contained in a bottle cap. Smuggle them into a country, then after a certain time has passed, they regain their original size, occupying the enemy nation.

Of course transporting the miniaturized army without jostling them to death could be a problem. Laughing

David.
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PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2021 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A miniaturized army is what Edmund O'Brien seems to be alluding to in the Fantastic Voyage movie, Bud.

Sure, as we can see in FV, reducing humans to microscopic size would allow for all kinds of astonishing surgery that could not otherwise be performed.

But you just know what the Pentagon's goals are with such astounding science: invasions, covert operations, all out war.

How about a movie with just that premise?

A world war between two or more nations. Both sides possess the reducing technology. So suddenly an army appears from out of nowhere; and then the 'other side' is doing the same thing to them.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2021 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Here's an amusing notion! Very Happy

Let the two opposing armies fight each other . . . while they're miniaturized!

That way, no property is damaged, no civilians are killed, and the governments don't have to worry about their countries being ravaged by war!

After one army whips the other one, the winners are restored to full size, and the losing country is forced to surrender because their soldiers are either dead or still microscopic! Laughing

Naturally this is a silly idea . . . but is it any dumber than two countries making war on each the normal way? Shocked

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Today I ran across my post above from May of last year and read it again. A very funny idea, and I hope somebody else will comment on it. Laughing

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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