--- title: "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" year: 1989 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/honey-i-shrunk-the-kids" fi1m_id: "honey-i-shrunk-the-kids" imdb_id: "tt0097523" tmdb_id: 9354 wikidata_id: "Q1426248" fi1m_score: 76 critics_score: 67 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-10-04T21:02:05.948504+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T21:02:31.318686+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Directed by Joe Johnston · 1h 33m · MPA PG · Adventure, Comedy, Family, Science Fiction ## Identity Honey, I Shrunk the Kids - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/honey-i-shrunk-the-kids - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** honey-i-shrunk-the-kids - **IMDb ID:** tt0097523 - **TMDB ID:** 9354 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1426248 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097523/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/9354, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1426248 **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 67 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* A persuasive case for leaving the lawn alone, especially while the children are still in it > Joe Johnston’s garden adventure is inventive, brisk and easy to enjoy. Rick Moranis helps keep the family comedy appealing, though some of the adult performances push their jokes harder than they need to. ## Synopsis Amy Szalinski (Amy O’Neill) and Nick Szalinski (Robert Oliveri) face a journey across a back garden that, at their reduced size, has become a jungle. Alongside them are Little Russ Thompson (Thomas Wilson Brown) and Ronald Thompson (Jared Rushton). The children need to find their way to safety through surroundings that are ordinary to the adults and dangerous to them. Meanwhile, Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis), Diane Szalinski (Marcia Strassman) and Big Russ Thompson (Matt Frewer) remain in the full-sized world. ## Review Joe Johnston’s *Honey, I Shrunk the Kids* is a good family adventure whose special effects have a clear job to do. They make a garden difficult to cross and keep the children recognisable enough for us to care about the crossing. Some of the adult comedy is pushed harder than the jokes can bear, but there is enough invention here to forgive it. The film does not hang about. It runs 93 minutes. The screenplay by Tom Schulman and Ed Naha sensibly keeps the family comedy close to the adventure. Rick Moranis, as Wayne Szalinski, is particularly useful because his comic presence gives us an adult to watch without making the children feel like an interruption. His comparatively restrained performance helps the absurd situation feel manageable, even when it plainly is not. He makes dealing with it seem like another household responsibility for which nobody has left adequate instructions. Hiro Narita’s photography makes the children’s reduced size easy to read against their surroundings. Production designer Gregg Fonseca makes the enlarged garden feel difficult to move through, giving the effects something more useful to do than invite admiration. We can imagine the effort involved in crossing this familiar ground, with ordinary distances suddenly becoming a problem. The garden remains recognisable throughout, which helps us understand the children’s predicament without needing constant explanations. Michael A. Stevenson’s editing keeps the expedition brisk, with little room for an obstacle to exhaust its welcome. That matters in a film whose central idea could become repetitive long before the children have finished walking. James Horner’s score supplies plenty of encouragement, although its insistence on excitement can make busy passages feel busier than they need to. We prefer the stretches in which the size of the surroundings makes the danger clear without quite so much musical assistance. The weakness is the broadness of some of the adult playing, most noticeably Matt Frewer’s Big Russ Thompson. There is comic value in the contrast with Thomas Wilson Brown’s Little Russ Thompson, but the more emphatic performance can make a simple joke feel laboured. The script has already given the characters enough difference for the audience to notice. The younger actor’s less forceful presence proves welcome alongside all that effort, and the pairing survives the occasional excess. The effects also let the ant Anty register as a creature with a personality, which takes more care than simply making it large. We became embarrassingly fond of it, because its expressiveness earns the attention usually reserved for the human cast. This is where the film works particularly well as a family adventure: it allows an unlikely creature to interest us without immediately insisting on another joke. That extra warmth helps sustain a story built around one straightforward change in size. For younger viewers, the garden may be more alarming than a U certificate suggests. The peril stays easy to grasp, and there is no need to be interested in science fiction to enjoy the practical business of getting somewhere safely. Choose it for a family evening, provided everyone has some patience for the louder grown-ups. *Fi1m score 76, published 4 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Honey, I Shrunk the Kids worth watching?** *Honey, I Shrunk the Kids* is worth watching for a family evening: we score its inventive, brisk garden adventure 76 out of 100. Rick Moranis keeps the comedy appealing, and the enlarged surroundings give the children clear, engaging obstacles, though some louder adult performances labour the jokes and younger viewers may find the peril alarming. **How long is Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and what is it rated?** *Honey, I Shrunk the Kids* runs 1h 33m and is rated PG by the MPA in the US. It is an adventure and comedy film. **Where can I watch Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in the US?** *Honey, I Shrunk the Kids* is streaming on Disney+ in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How does Honey, I Shrunk the Kids compare to The Incredible Shrinking Man?** *Honey, I Shrunk the Kids* is the better choice for a family evening, while we recommend [*The Incredible Shrinking Man*](https://film.one/film/the-incredible-shrinking-man) for older viewers wanting something frightening and unexpectedly moving. Both make reduced size matter through recognisable human predicaments, but the garden adventure favours brisk obstacles and comedy; Jack Arnold’s film gives its central predicament greater emotional weight. ### Reviews we read (7) - **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (4/5): Jones calls the film a joyous, thrilling adventure for young and old. He praises Rick Moranis’s comic performance and the children’s perilous garden-turned-jungle journey. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-2lmv12/honey-i-shrunk-the-kids/) - **Empire**, David Hepworth (75/100, inferred): The review finds the film inventive, funny and brisk enough to entertain the whole family. It praises the balance between special effects and human characters, especially the contrast between Big Russ and Little Russ. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/honey-shrunk-kids-review/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (3/4): The review’s verdict and specific praise or criticism cannot be verified from the blocked page. The page provides no readable review text. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/honey-i-shrunk-the-kids-1989) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (75/100, inferred): The review says the film is entertaining for adults as well as children. It praises the backyard adventure for making the characters’ perilous journey seem like fun. [Read](https://variety.com/1988/film/reviews/honey-i-shrunk-the-kids-1200427954/) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (65/100, inferred): The URL identifies a New York Times review of the 1989 film, but the article text is unavailable here. I can’t reliably determine the critic’s verdict or what the review singles out for praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/23/movies/review-film-honey-i-shrunk-the-kids.html) - **Time Out**, SFe (64/100, inferred): The page identifies itself as a film review, but its review text is unavailable. The accessible metadata gives no verdict or specific praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/honey-i-shrunk-the-kids) - **Los Angeles Times**, MICHAEL WILMINGTON (35/100, inferred): Wilmington finds the film visually delightful but undermined by frantic direction, poor comic timing, and overblown performances. He singles out the special-effects artistry for praise and the ant Anty as the film’s most emotionally effective character. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-23-ca-2588-story.html) ## Details - **Director:** Joe Johnston - **Director:** Joe Johnston - **Screenplay:** Ed Naha, Tom Schulman - **Story:** Brian Yuzna, Stuart Gordon, Ed Naha - **Cinematography:** Hiro Narita - **Editor:** Michael A. Stevenson - **Music:** James Horner - **Production design:** Gregg Fonseca - **Costume design:** Carol Brolaski - **Producer:** Penney Finkelman Cox - **Cast:** Rick Moranis as Wayne Szalinski; Matt Frewer as Big Russ Thompson; Marcia Strassman as Diane Szalinski; Kristine Sutherland as Mae Thompson; Thomas Wilson Brown as Little Russ Thompson; Jared Rushton as Ronald Thompson; Amy O'Neill as Amy Szalinski; Robert Oliveri as Nick Szalinski - **Runtime:** 1h 33m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 23 June 1989 - **Genres:** Adventure, Comedy, Family, Science Fiction - **Budget:** $18 million - **Box office:** $223 million ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd *Checked 2026-10-04.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Borrowers* (1997): The practical difficulties of being tiny become another busy, amiable family adventure. - *The Incredible Shrinking Man* (1957), Fi1m 86: The same change of scale becomes frightening; save this one for older viewers. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-incredible-shrinking-man.md) - *Arrietty* (2010): Small people negotiate an ordinary house with quieter tension and carefully observed detail. - *James and the Giant Peach* (1996): A child’s adventure with insect companions, made stranger by stop-motion animation. - *A Town Called Panic* (2009): Domestic life turns absurdly hazardous in a cheerfully unruly world of toy figures. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/honey-i-shrunk-the-kids