Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 13, 2017

Disney's animation department rightly earns most of the recognition when it comes to the company's cinematic ventures, but don't forget about its live action films. Over the decades, the studio has released no shortage of great films, some of them classics and most of them enjoyable movies that have long withstood the test of time. One such film is Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, a 1989 picture that lives right on the border of "classic." A landmark visual effects film for its time, a creative story, and richly textured performances made it hit then and a favorite still today. Now, a featureless but technically impressive Blu-ray makes enjoying the film all over again feel like the first time viewers witnessed its shrunken protagonists venturing through the deadly obstacles of one suburban family's unkempt back yard.

It's a jungle out there...

Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) is a suburban scientist whose attic stands in for a proper science lab. His latest project has usurped all of his free time and pushed him further away from his family: wife Diane (Marcia Strassman), daughter Amy (Amy O'Neill), and son Nick (Robert Oliveri). But he's on the verge of perfecting a radical new invention that can shrink even the largest objects into nearly microscopic entities, a technology he hopes to sell with the promise of revolutionizing the world. Unfortunately, all the machine does is blow up apples. Things change when a next-door neighbor, a teenage boy named Ron (Jared Rushton), hits a baseball into the Szalinski family attic window, triggers the machine, and miraculously configures it to work as Wayne intended. But when Ron, his older brother Russ (Thomas Wilson Brown), and Amy and Nick go to the attic to retrieve the ball, the machine shrinks them to a microscopic size. Wayne inadvertently sweeps them into the garbage and sets them out by the curb where they have no choice but to traverse the suddenly dangerous and overgrown Szalinski backyard if they have any hope of returning home and somehow making the machine reverse the process.

What's so great about Honey, I Shrunk the Kids isn't its then-amazing and still impressive visual effects -- a nice blend of practical and optical -- but rather its roster of well-rounded characters, balanced humor, and clever use of ordinary things that suddenly become obstacles and perils as the quartet of teeny-tiny heroes ventures through the backyard. Suddenly, overgrown blades of grass are as big as water slides. A sprinkler sends drops of water raining down that may as well be bombs. Bees are like airplanes. Ants are like tanks. A discarded cigarette lava. There's no shortage of adventure from an amazing perspective. It's very well conceived and executed, inside the house and out of it, complimented by pitch-perfect humor and excellent performances all-around. Moranis shines as the brilliant, sometimes absentminded, but loving father, as does Matt Frewer as Russ and Ron's dad. The kids are great, and they go all-out for the movie, often caked in mud, their clothes torn, and still finding a bit of time for light romance and laughs in the midst of their unthinkable peril.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

From the first shot beyond the animated opening titles, fans will see that Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' Blu-ray means business. The image is gorgeous, firm and filmic, effortlessly detailed and richly colored. Grain is consistently light, even, and complimentary. Textural brilliance abounds, whether science equipment and worn wood in the attic or the many perils through the suddenly large backyard, including tall stems of grass and larger-than-life ants. Optical shots are a little less visually appealing, but the image proper looks superb. Colors are rich and dense, never too loud, never at all faded. Jungly greens, clothes, and accents are very impressive. Black levels hold deep and skin tones appear natural. The image shows very few flaws. Print wear is next to nonexistent, compression issues are essentially absent...this is another terrific DMC release.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack may not be the sonic equivalent of the companion 1080p transfer, but it's passably good. The sound design is a little dated and the track lacks serious depth or transparent, lifelike clarity, but for the most part everything is in good working order. Music flows out to the sides with plenty of space and satisfying instrumental detail. Musical surround implementation isn't prolific and the track often lacks the sort of aggression one might expect of a newer track. There are some positive, enjoyable swoops and whooshes during the bee sequence. Drops of water crash down with decent presence but not substantial thump. The lawnmower scene and its tornado-like sound design cannot offer the sort of full-on frenzy one might expect. Dialogue is clear and well defined from its front-center location.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Disney Movie Club Blu-ray exclusive release of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids contains no supplemental content.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids remains a hallmark family film and one some might even consider right there on the periphery of family classics. Strongly executed story, characters, humor, peril, and visual effects mean the film works in every way, and even approaching three decades in age it barely feels any worse for wear under the strains of the hands of time. In fact, Disney's Blu-ray looks fantastic, almost like the movie was made only recently. Audio is fine, though certainly not excellent. The only downside is the complete absence of any extra content, but this Disney Movie Club exclusive release nevertheless comes highly recommended.