Leave it to Disney to give us a friendly mad scientist in the form of Rick Moranis, who plays an affable, amiable absent minded professor family man by name of Wayne who's latest invention, kept in the attic, is designed to shrink things down. Alas, he's not having much luck with it, as his initial test subject, an apple, gets blown up. Later, one of his neighbor's sons, Ron, hits a baseball through Wayne's window while he's out at giving a science presentation and when Ron's older brother Russ sends him to fetch it with Wayne's son Nick they get shrunk thanks to the baseball whacking the machine. When Russ goes up with Nick's older sister Amy they get shrunk too, along with a chair and Wayne's thinking couch. Unfortunately, a frustrated Wayne, unaware of what's happened, comes home and demolishes his machine and accidentally throws out his kids and his neighbor's (Matt Frewer of TV's Max Headrome fame) with the garbage. It is not until Wayne starts cleaning up the attic that he discovers the shrunken couch and chair (which he steps on) and realizes that his missing kids were shrunk by it and that he threw them out with the trash. So while Wayne embarks on a series of unsuccessful attempts to find his kids without stepping on them, the kids must make a dangerous trek through the uncut back yard, encountering "giant" toys, food, bees, ants, lawnmowers and, strangely enough, a scorpion (someone's escaped pet?).
Good fun, and a lot less cynical than a lot of today's youth oriented adventure films. And of course, the message of family values and how it's important for dads to understand their kids in addition to spending time with them, is also present, but never overly preachy.
Good fun, and a lot less cynical than a lot of today's youth oriented adventure films. And of course, the message of family values and how it's important for dads to understand their kids in addition to spending time with them, is also present, but never overly preachy.