Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a 1989 comedy film released through Walt Disney Pictures. It stars Rick Moranis, Matt Frewer, and Marcia Strassman.

Summary
Having problems at home with his wife Diane (Marcia Strassman), struggling inventor Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) has created an electro-magnetic shrink ray - unfortunately it only seems to make things explode. While at work, his neighbor's son, Ron Thompson (Jared Rushton), hits a baseball into the Szalinskis' attic window and starts the shrink ray.

Ron and his older brother Russell (Thomas Wilson Brown) and Wayne's children, Amy (Amy O'Neill) and Nick (Robert Oliveri), go up to the attic to retrieve the baseball. Luckily, the baseball gets stuck in the machine and blocks one of the laser components, resulting in it only releasing enough energy to shrink things instead of blowing them up, and the kids and a nearby couch are shrunk by the beam when it fires.

As Wayne comes home from a presentation at the lab, he notices his children gone and his "thinking couch" missing. Without an explanation for this occurrence, he begins to get angry at the machine for being joked about during work. He begins to destroy it as the kids, now 1/4 of an inch, try to get his attention, but to no avail. He begins to sweep up the mess and accidentally sweeps his children into the trash.

The kids escape the trash and find themselves at the far end of the back yard. Knowing that crossing the yard to get back to the house will take hours at their size, they begin to climb a flower to see how far the house is. While clinging to the flower, Nick and Russell are attacked by a bee. They cling to the bee for dear life and are separated from Ron and Amy.

Big Russ Thompson (Matt Frewer), Ron and Russel's bumbling father, is getting aggravated at his missing sons since he is planning a fishing trip with the family. Russell, who secretly likes Amy, often feels small compared to his dad's standards since he was cut from the football team (although it's revealed later on that he actually quit the team). While looking at the attic floor, Wayne finds his "thinking couch" in a miniature form. He soon concludes that he has shrunken the kids. His wife Diane comes home and he tells her this. She becomes infuriated with Wayne and tries to help search for the kids.

Meanwhile, Wayne accidentally turns on the sprinklers while searching for the kids in the backyard. Giant splashes of water soon surround the kids. Amy begins to drown in the muddy water near the flagstone while Wayne stops the sprinklers. Russell saves her before she dies and gives her CPR. The four children continue their journey. On their way, they find a cream cookie in the yard. They meet an ant who befriends the group, nicknamed "Antie" by Ron. Wayne and Diane decide to tell Big Russ and Mae (Kristine Sutherland) about the shrinking of their children.

They are not pleased, but Mae seems to understand more. At the end of the night, the children decide to sleep in a blue Lego of Nick's. During the night Amy and Little Russ admit their feelings for each other and share a kiss, but are interrupted by an attacking scorpion. Antie, trying to rescue them is fatally wounded by the scorpion's stinger, though the kids scare the scorpion off by bombarding it with stones and sharp sticks (Ron is able to put out two of the scorpion's eyes). They comfort Antie who in moments dies from the poison.

In the morning, Tommy, Nick's friend, comes to mow the lawn. The children hear the lawnmower and descend into a wormhole to escape. Wayne and Diane rush outside to make Tommy stop, but unfortunately he does just as the lawn mower is over the hole. It sucks Nick out of hole, but the group hold on to him. They are not killed, but do not get the attention of their parents. They realise that their voices are too high and quiet to be heard by their parents, but that they can be heard by the Szalinskis' dog, Quark. They hold on to the hairs of the dog and ride him back to the house.

While Wayne is eating a bowl of Cheerios, Nick accidentally lands in the bowl. The group try to get Wayne's attention as Nick is about to be eaten. Quark bites Wayne, who freezes with the spoon halfway to his mouth. Looking through a magnifying glass at the spoon, he sees his son. The kids communicate to their parents that the baseball went through the window and started the shrink ray. Armed with this information, Wayne pieces together how the accident made the shrink ray work and brings the kids up to normal size after using the shrink ray to shrink and regrow Big Russ.

A few months later, during Thanksgiving, the two families eat an enlarged turkey together and are happy. Big Russ has come to terms with his son quitting football, Wayne and Diane patch up their problems, Nick and Ron finally become friends, and Little Russ and Amy begin dating. The movie ends with the Szalinski's dog Quark eating a giant milk bone as a Thanksgiving treat. But as the movie begins to black out, it reopens suddenly to Nick, realizing a joke that Russel made earlier about learning CPR in French class. The movie closes with him laughing, getting the joke.

Cast

 * Rick Moranis as Wayne Szalinski
 * Marcia Strassman as Diane Szalinski
 * Amy O'Neill as Amy Szalinski
 * Robert Oliveri as Nick Szalinski
 * Matt Frewer as Russ Thompson, Sr.
 * Kristine Sutherland as Mae Thompson
 * Thomas Wilson Brown as Russ Thompson, Jr.
 * Jared Rushton as Ron Thompson
 * Frank Welker as Special Vocal Effects (voice only)