Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with Jana Schmieding

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Bechdel Cast, the questions asked if movies have
women and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
or do they have individualism the patriarchy? Zeph and bast
start changing it with the Bechdel Cast.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Honey, I shrunk the cast, the pod, shrink the cast,
the podcast that is okay, I was gonna go with pot.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
I shrunk the cast. Oh but there's there's we'll we'll
keep finding it. I think we'll keep finding it. There's
so many. This is maybe one of the most iconic
movie titles of its generation.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Probably truly. It really is just want to know the
plot of the movie.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
And he's and he says it. I also, I came
to appreciate the title of this movie even more when
I learned what it could have been called. There was
a lot of weird uh, Like, this movie was originally
being shopped around under the title teeny weenie. Originally you're
like in a world where this movie was called teeny weenies.

(01:04):
I just don't think it's as successful teeny weenies. And
then they later were like, as the Wikipedia explains it,
teeny weenies seem to appeal to a more child demographic.
Which I don't necessarily think is the reason that title
doesn't work, but not at all teeny weenies, the name
was changed to grounded to appeal to a more mature audience,

(01:25):
also not seeing the logic. I mean that one makes.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
More sense because first of all, they're on the ground. Yeah,
they're so close to the ground. But grounded implies that
they've misbehaved and they're grounded, but that's not really what happens.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Well, then it changed again to the big backyard, which
sounds I think more childish than ever. Yes, and then
finally they were like, let's just take the line of
dialogue out of Rick Moranis's beautiful lips, those big juicy lips.
Rick moran I am going to be objectifying NAS's lips today,

(02:01):
buckle in.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I mean, what else is news?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
As with every other time we've discussed, he's got perfect lips.
Welcome to the Bechtel Cast. My name's Jamie.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Lofts Us talking about Rick Moranis's big, juicy lips does
pass the Bechdel test somehow?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, unless unless he who I'm sure as a listener, objects.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I will stop. But I Betty likes I think he's
into it. Yeah, anyway, my name's Caitlin Dernte.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
My name is Jamie Loftus, and this is our podcast
where we discuss your favorite movies, using the Bechdel Test
as a jumping off point and using an intersectional feminist lens.
But Caitlin, what is the Bechdel Test, because this movie's
gonna struggle with it?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
It really is. It is a media metric created by
a dear friend of ours, friend of the pod, Alison Bechdel.
There are many versions of it. The one that we
use is do two characters of a marginalized gender speak
to each other? Do those characters have names? And is
there conversation about something other than a man? Also, we

(03:10):
particularly like it when it is a narratively meaningful and
relevant conversation and not just throw away dialogue that could
be cut out of the movie and it would change
nothing to the narrative. And as you said, this movie's
gonna really struggle despite there being several characters who are

(03:32):
women and girls in this story, but.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
You won't catch them not being blonde, and you won't
catch them not being in relation to a weird guy.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
We have a wonderful guest with us to discuss this movie.
She's a comedian and writer. You've seen her on Reservation
Dogs and Rutherford Falls. You remember her from our episodes
on the Vivich and Never Ending Story. It's Janish meeting Welcome.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Back, Welcome back. I love hearing guests past episodes because
you're just like, what a journey we've been on. What
is a podcast if not a never ending story?

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Truly, truly, and this one just kind of continues the
story in such a weird way. I think maybe you
can see from the pattern of my choices in movies
to discuss with you. I love a practical effect of
any kind. I love sort of a puppetry vibe. I

(04:36):
love the films of the like the kind of creepy
films of the nineteen eighties that were geared towards children,
that were sort of adult themes. This one not so.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Much, but there's like scary imagery and yeah, there's.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
Like sci fi kind of fantasy vibes going on. And also,
you know, the creepiness of white people, which is something
I love to talk about, but yeah, this one is
sort of That's all it.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Is, in my opinion, creepy wait through creepy white people,
and its creepy.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Dads and it's creepy white people creepy each other out
and then deciding it's actually fine, which is we could
get into whatever that is supposed to be.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
But I we're so excited to have you back. What
is your history with Honey I Shrunk the Kids. And
because there's so much that the Honey I Shrunk the
Kids expanded universe.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
Oh, I'm so glad you asked, Jamie, because I was
sort of a child of the eighties. I was. I
was nine years old when Honey I Shrunk the Kids
came out in nineteen eighty nine, so I did sort
of have I was like marketed heavily too by Honey

(05:57):
I Shrunk the Kids and you know, the entire Disney
cinematic universe of the eighties. So I was like, I
was on that. I was on the fucking tip with
with Honey I Shrunk Choo Kids. I was like, I
can't wait for this shit to come out.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Your finger was on the pulse.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
I was really and you know what they released in
quick succession, so Honey I Shrunk the Kids. I feel
like it was like kind of a breakout Disney live
action in the eighties. It was kind of like, hey,
we're doing this theatrical release, made for TV movie. I
think I didn't get a theatrical release. I swear it did.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Oh it did, and it was it was. It made
the Yes, I think the current equivalent of half a
billion dollars.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
That's insane.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Made so much money. There was no person, it seems
on Earth who didn't. It's doing almost Avatar numbers.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Truly, and it kind of was in that that very
quick moment of nineteen eighties, like Disney History. It really
had a fucking moment and and it I watched the
making up, which I actually think I kind of like
more than the than the movie. They have a making
of that.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Is like I've seen it, or you can see how
the effects are done.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
You know, I bet it's somewhere on YouTube. I thought
about this last night while I was watching it. I
was like, I wonder if the YouTube, if YouTube has
the making of because the making of was fucking sick.
But we can get into that later. But yeah, I
didn't love the second Honey, I Shrunk the Kids or
any consecutive ones. I was really just sort of like

(07:30):
in that childhood like Disney watching moment where I was
like the target audience for Honey I shrunk the kids,
and you know my taste. I love. I love a stunt,
a practical effect, like any kind of slapstick bullshit, a giant,
a weird set like, and they showed it, they showed

(07:52):
how they made it all. It was so cool.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
That's so cool. Yeah, when I started watching this movie,
I was like, oh, no, I understand why Jenna was
this because it is. It makes sense and it's awesome.
I mean, it's wild. How I mean, I'm sure we
will get into it a lot today, but just the
lost art of practical effects, it is just such a
damn show.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
Aren't we doing it?

Speaker 3 (08:14):
And not lost? Disinvested, Yes, disinvested.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
We could easily have movies with this level of practical effects.
It's creepy. It's terrifying.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
It's terrifying.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Like everything was so slimy and goofy and like it
was giving sort of Nickelodeon. Also, like there was like
some elements of like kind of gross out elements in
the in the movie that I'm like these the eighties
was perfect for kids films because it scares kids and
it's always some sci fi weird thing that is like

(08:48):
completely like not scientifically, we are not able to do it,
but like we were just dreaming so big in the eighties.
We were just saying, whatever the weak do that.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
I miss movies like this. They just don't make them
like this too.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, where you're like, it's incredibly weird. But the scope,
the scope of it is both very large and very small.
It's really satisfying totally.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
I mean, the story is absolute trash. And my boyfriend
who watched it with me, did fall asleep half way through,
and I sort of had to smoke a lot of
weed to sort of keep the interest alive.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
I kept falling asleep during both watches of this, and
then I had to wake up and then be like, oh,
how how much did I miss?

Speaker 4 (09:34):
It?

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Was wind?

Speaker 3 (09:35):
I was wide awake. I'm like, I'm realizing walked in.
I'm realizing that I hadn't seen this movie before. I'm
pretty sure I should have texted my mom about it.
But there were certain things in movies that were just
total non starters from me when I was little, one
that I talk about on the shows all the time,
or the talking animals where it's a real animal and

(09:56):
the mouth is digitally manipulated, and then it's like Ja
Ja Gabor's voice. I can't do that. It scared me
so much. The non blinking animals, I didn't like that.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Yikes.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
The other thing was giant insects, which I learned when
one of the the first movie I remember seeing when
I was really little is James and the Giant Peach
couldn't do the bugs. And I have a feeling that's
why this movie was kept from me, because it was
it was it's really doing the bugs.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
It is.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Oh yes, yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
It's sort of like when when a Bug's Life came out.
I was like, you guys already did that. It's called
honey Trunk the kids.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
But I was. I was quite moved when I I
will say another thing that doesn't happen really in children's
movies that and I say this, I'm like, I don't
have kids. I don't know what I'm talking about, but
I don't think it happens as much. Is that characters
that we love die? Yeah, I was. I was moved
when the ant died. I was very sad.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
It's the low point of the movie.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yeah, yeah, it's like the big It's a fucking crisis
for these kids. I can't. Also, I don't want to
like break into the plot, but like, can you imagine
getting shrunked, getting shrunk that bad? Can you imagine getting
shrunk like that? How fucking traumatizing it would be. You
would have the craziest CPTSD, like for the rest of

(11:23):
your life.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
No one would know how to talk to you, no
see any therapist.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
You would be committed immediately, and like rightfully, so like
I just I can't even imagine what these kids adult lies.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
We're like that's my main I mean again, it's like
a suspension of disbelief thing, but like, my main thing
with this movie is, amongst other things, how it seems
like literally everyone is severely underreacting. Oh my yes, the shrinking.
The shrunk are like, oh god, I'm not going to
make it to the mall. And then the parent, the parents,

(12:00):
I'm like, what.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Is They don't seem to give a single shit about
what's going on.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
They're like eating cereal, They're going to bed at nine pm.
I'm like, what the hell?

Speaker 4 (12:10):
And you know what, That's the other beauty about eighties
movies is it's saying something about our parents and how
they kind of don't give a shit. They're up their
own asses. They're not really paying attention to what we're doing,
so we can kind of go and have our own
adventures on our own. It's giving, latch key, it's giving
like I'm watching soap operas after school because my mom

(12:32):
is at home. Like it's it's it's one hundred percent
of the time of its time.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yes, you cannot accuse these parents of being helicopter parents.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
They've really not a nineteen eighties parent, absolutely not. They
couldn't be them.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
They're like, oh, yeah, you have to clean the entire house, girl.
And if I shrink you, well maybe I'll learn something
about me at the end of the movie.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Maybe, but kind of not really gotta help God help you.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
If you shrink my couch, I gotta help you.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
The couch is a bigger concern at multiple points in
the plot. Kate Caitlyn, what's your history with this movie?

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I saw this quite a few times as a kid,
but I have not seen it in probably around thirty
years or more. So a lot of the details were
pretty foggy for me, though I do remember specific moments.
I remembered various moments with the giant aunt. I remember

(13:36):
just a little bits and pieces of them, like navigating
through the grass, and then I remembered the cheerios at
the very end.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
The cheerios are such a highlight that is wild.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
It maybe is saying something also, uh, Caitlin, perhaps are
your different the differences that you and I have, which
is I remember the fucking French Kiss? So I was like, oh,
like when I was a kid, I was like, oh
my god, this movie is so horny.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Wow, wow, wow.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
I was into it.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Sure, I mean, it's certainly we'll talk about it, but
like it's not. There are certainly worst teen romances and
you know what, Well, no, I'm realizing this is incorrect.
I was gonna say, what sustains a relationship but shared trauma?

Speaker 2 (14:26):
That's not true, but shouldn't be.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
But it's it's a foundation. We got shrunk together, and
I believe you.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
It's right.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Your shrinking story is valid.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
In any case. Yes, I saw this movie quite a bit.
I don't think we had it on VHS. I was
three when it came out, so I wouldn't have seen
it until the early nineties, but it was in the
rotation for a while. I think we probably rented it
from the video store quite a bit, but after that
I kind of grew out of it and haven't seen
it in several decades. But rewatching it for this, I

(15:02):
was like, Ooh, these practical effects, Ooh this these wild
parents who don't give a shit that their kids are missing.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
I also didn't know much about or it had been
a long time since I had read anything about Joe Johnston,
who we've covered his work before because he also directed Jumanji,
but I didn't realize that he It totally makes sense.
Got started as an effects guy and an art director,
and he literally designed like the Millennium Falcon and Boba

(15:32):
fet like he's a bit of a legend. And then
he was like, I'm going to be a director and
I know just the project. And he was right. It
made a bajillion nineteen eighty nine dollars.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yes, and Jamie, you said you had not seen this.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Before, right, I hadn't seen it. I did, And I
guess this I found fell into because even though it's
the oldest of the type of movie I'm going to describe,
it does feel like there was a very like late
eighties into the nineties early two thousand's plot that boils

(16:06):
down to father and or husband whose special interest is
ruining his family's life. Now this I would include, and please,
I was like, I know I'm missing stuff. I would
include Flubber flubber, and this Flubber is ruining his marriage,

(16:26):
Doctor Dolittle, the animals, it's becoming too much for the family.
The Santa Claus clause. He's already divorced, but it is
ruining his son's life. Casper wife is dead, but the
ghost thing destroying Christina Ricci's life.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yes, damn.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
There's also Jack frost.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Oh my god, how could I forget Jack frost.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yep, Michael Keaton loves his band too much or something,
and then he turns into a snowman about it.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
They do imply that being a father in a cover
band could kill you.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
It turns into a snowman about it is the funniest.
So I hate my life and my family.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
But yeah, no, Jamie, you're right.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
There's so many movies like this from this era.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
This plot pay and I was trying to figure out
and this and Missus Doubtfire isn't quite this because I
wouldn't say being missus doubtfire's his special interest. But it
has the same energy, right, Like, this big thing that
the dad is doing is irreparably harming the lives of
his family. And all of these movies, if they do

(17:36):
involve divorce, have a different perspective on it. This movie
comes down on don't do it. Yeah, and actually the
dad should maybe not even change what he's doing.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
But mom needs to kind of come around.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
Exactly, and that's what's for the best of all. I
guess at least in the Santa Claus they stay divorced. Yes,
Because I don't know, Judge reinholds love is too powerful.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
I was just thinking thinking a lot about this plot.
I'm like, I wonder why it was just coming up
so much.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Also, I think, liar, liar, you could put into this category. Oh,
I've ever seen a special interest is more it's like
his job, but his job as a lawyer, and then
it ruins his son's life. I think. I don't know.
I haven't seen that movie since I was twelve.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
So listeners please weigh in, either with more examples or
why the hell this was happening other than we are
supposed to think that fathers are more interesting. But it's
like a subthing going on here. Anyways, I hadn't seen it,
but it's a rich text.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Sure is, Let's take a quick break and then we'll
come back for the recap. Okay, here's the recap. We
meet two kids. Amy is a teen girl who's talking

(19:05):
on the phone with her friends about her crush and
she's making plans to go to the mall. You know,
teen girl stuff it is.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
It feels like very specifically like eighties teen girl too.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
And we also meet her younger brother, Nick, who I
think is like eight years old. He likes science stuff
because he's a boy and science is for boys according
to this movie. He takes after their dad, Wayne Zelenski,
who was a scientist slash inventor who is busy building

(19:41):
this elaborate shrinking machine in the attic that is supposed
to significantly shrink whatever object you put in front of it,
but it also has the power to reverse that if
the plot requires that.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
I was trying to think. I was like, what would honestly,
later on when Amy is like, this shrinking machine is
going to make my father rich and famous, and I
was like, what would they use it for? And I
was like, honestly, the fucking military would figure something out.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Military industrial complex is the answer.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Like like Rick moranis would sell this technology for billions
of dollars to the military.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
He would be I don't think so, because isn't the
sequel like Kids, I Shrunk Honey or.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Honey I blew up the kid.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
Oh yeah, Honey, I blew up.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
I can, but but I blew up it means large, right, yeah,
not explode. That is a confusing time. Honey, I blew
up the kid. We need a second pass on that, yeah, yes.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
And then the third one is Honey, we shrunk ourselves
and the parents get shrunk.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
And then there was also a TV show and then
there was almost.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
A reboot called Shrunk.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
I remember, Oh, I think that my closest encounter with
Honey Shrunk the Kids would have been the first time.
Unless I'm projecting this memory on myself. I went to
Disney World when I was like thirteen, and they used
to have a ride called Honey, I Shrunk the audience,
And I'm pretty sure I went on that.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
Yeah, Okay, I was like saying to my boyfriend last night,
I was like, I know that they had a ride
at Disneyland, Like there was something it was a big
deal at Disneyland, and I remember being like, God, I
just want to go to Disneyland so bad. Organ, I
just want to Disneyland and go to Honey. I Shrunk
the Kid's Ride. I was so in on this, fucking

(21:35):
you i'd I don't know why.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
I gotta get shrunk.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
I want to get shrunk.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Wait, Honey, I blew up The Kid Is Okay came
out in nineteen eighty two, Everyone comes Back. In the film,
Wayne succeeds in enlarging his two year old's son to
gigantic proportions as one of his size changing experiments goes awry. Okay,
So he doesn't sell it to the military, and he's
just experimented on his family, which is evil in a
different way. It's interesting. And then in nineteen ninety seven

(22:06):
in Honey We Frank Ourselves, everyone is gone except for
Rick moranis. Everyone is like recast. Oh yes, yes, you
hate to see that.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
You hate to see it? Yeah, In any case, So
Wayne is working on this machine in his attic, except
he has not gotten it to properly function yet he
keeps just exploding apples, which is also making a bunch
of noise. Which pisss off his next door neighbor, Russell.

(22:37):
And we also meet Russell's his wife, May.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
A very confusing character to me, Oh, I cannot pin
this lady down.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
No, we'll talk about her. But her name is May,
and she's played by Christine Sutherland, who people probably recognize
from Buffy. She played Buffy Summers's mom. Anyway, they have
two sons, Russ Junior and Ron, and Russell Senior is
trying to get his elder son, Russ Junior into fishing

(23:09):
and football and weightlifting, but Russ isn't interested in any
of that. He's busy leering at Amy through the window.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I the thing with Russ, it's so like I like
in theory that he's like pushing back on his father's
stuff and he's like, you can't tell me what to like.
I'll tell me what to like. And then his dad
is like, Okay, what do you like? And he's like,
I don't know. We never really find out, and although.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Although we do sort of see that he maybe gets
a little boner while he's watching Amy dance in the kitchen.
And so I thought last night, as I was watching it,
I was like, Dad, I just want to stay home
and jerk, which just let me and stay at home
and watch porn. That's all I want to do.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Dad, which like, it doesn't seem like his dad character
would like receive that poorly.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
No, he's probably like, I'm doing the same thing.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Buddy, exactly. That guy was weird. Oh. I do not
like the dad.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
I do not get what they were going for with
that character. I had never I wasn't familiar with this guy,
Matt Frewer, but he's been on everything. But he I
think most famously was Max Headroom.

Speaker 4 (24:22):
That like Max Headroom.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Yeah, I did not. I mean I guess I was like, oh, yeah,
that was a guy, not a computer. So I guess
he did a good job at that. I mean, he's
I don't know. That character is so bizarre. I do
think it's interesting that they're like, Okay, our movie is
about two sets of kookie neighbors who are convinced they
are not the kookie neighbors.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
There's all these moments where they'll look at each other
across the fence or whatever through the window and be like,
what a weirdo. Okay. Meanwhile, Wayne leaves the house, He
leaves his children unattended to head to a conference where
he's like talking to a group of scientists about his machine.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
Well, he leaves the house after being like, it's unclear
to me at the top of the movie what the
state of the marriage is. It seems like mom is
like not currently, like is taking a break.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
It seems very temporary because they say that she's they
had a fight the night before and so she went
to stay at her mother's house, but that she'll be
back that afternoon.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Right, But the kids are stressed, understandably, they're confused, yes,
and Rick Moranis replies by being like, it's all good, guys,
but the house needs to be clean when your mother
gets home. So you guys are gonna have to do that,
and specifically, Amy, you're gonna have to do that.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah. He gives his kids very gendered chores where he's like, oh, Amy,
you're a girl, so you clean, and Nick, you're a boy.
Even though you're a small child and you're like eight
years old, you should mow the lawn. We'll get we'll
get into.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
That, but there are eight year olds that are told
to mow the lawn. I'm not endorsing it either way,
but I've seen it with mine own eyes.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
That seems very dangerous to me, but yeah, I'm sure
it happens anyway. So he leaves for this conference. While
he's gone, the younger neighbor kid Ron, accidentally hits a
baseball into the Selensky's attic. It strikes the shrinking machine
and turns it on and makes it start working because

(26:30):
it shrinks an armchair and a couches.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
The couch. Rick Moranis's favorite child in the movie is
thinking couch.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes, his thinking couch that he's obsessed with. Meanwhile, Russ
sees that his brother Ron had smashed this window, so
he drags Ron over to the Selensky house to tell
them what happened, and Nick takes Ron up to the
attic to retrieve the baseball, but oh no, the machine

(26:59):
shrink the two of them, and then it shrinks Amy
and Russ Junior when they go upstairs to check on
the other kids. So now they're all tiny. They're like
a quarter of an inch tall. They're about the same
size as like a house fly. They're freaking out. Wayne
comes home, He's like, where are my kids, TIHI.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
But then he's kind of like whatever, whatever. They're probably
at the ball yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
So he goes up to the attic. The kids are
trying to get his attention, but they're so small their
voices can't carry he can't hear them. And he's frustrated
about his machine because he was just humiliated at this conference.
So he trashes this machine, beats it with a bat, yes,
just pretty much destroys it.

Speaker 4 (27:48):
There's like debris wing and it's like threatening to hit
the shrunk people. He goes on a basically abusive rampage
against his machine for humiliating him.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Yeah, rage against the machine.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
I really I thought that the guy that like nags
him does he ever come back? The guy and the
guy who's like, oh hahu, will no? I think the
shrinking machine sucks. And you're just like, well, Sureley, we'll
see this guy again. And we just don't. We do not,
We just don't.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
But Wayne does trash his own invention and then sweeps
up the debris as well as these four children unknowingly.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
And to me, I'm like, okay, so you can clean
the house when it suits you. Yes, interesting, And.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
He sweeps them all up into a dust pan, throws
them in the trash, and then takes the trash bag
out to the curb. Now the kids manage to cut
the trash bag open and escape, but now they have
to get back to the house through the yard, walking
a distance that's the equivalent of over three miles because
of how small they are, So they embark on this journey.

(29:00):
Their mom, Diane, meanwhile, returns home and she's like, Wayne,
where are the kids, And he's like, hah, I don't know,
and they're both like, shrug, it's the nineteen eighties. Doesn't
matter where our kids are.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
They're somewhere, yes, yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
We're cool with them not being around whatever.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
And that's the attitude at first, But then eventually they
make some phone calls to other parents they realize that
their children are like low key missing, and then Russ
and Ron's mom may also notices that her kids are
nowhere to be found. But again, the urgency just isn't
quite there.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
To be fair, the urgency is there for the kids.
Sometimes I'm wondering if that was like just to make
it the whole predicament a little less scary to the
audience of like they're not constantly saying we're going to die,
We're going to die, We're going to die because that's scary,
but there's only a couple moments it's where you're like, oh,

(30:01):
this is this is really serious to them, they're very
convinced this is going to be fine by five pm.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Right.

Speaker 4 (30:08):
Also, so is the score, so is the music composition.
It's very like it's giving you know, home alone. It's
very much like comedy. It's really uplifting. We are so
assured when this happens that there will be a happy ending.
And I do want to say on the parents' negligent

(30:30):
parents or like them not really caring. This is the
beauty of the nineteen eighties that I really want the
audience to understand. In the nineteen eighties, in the suburbs,
you get on your bike with the neighborhood kids and
you fucking you're from morning till sundown. You're out and
about no care in the world. The parents couldn't be happy.

(30:53):
Or you're out of the house, get the hell out
of here. You you have a day off from school,
get out of here. It was just like playing out
outside doing kids stuff. I feel like our current culture,
like our streets are too dangerous to do that. Now
you can't you can't do it as much.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
And it's and it's also depressing because I feel like
the internet has become a version of being left loose,
but not in a way that seems quite as enriching
or fun, so really depressing.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yeah, they weren't scrolling, they weren't busy on the computer
at home. They you know, these kids are like we
go to the mall when we want to have a
good time, when we want to hang out.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
That's such a good point, Like I don't know this,
this movie's attitude towards missing children is very interesting, and
they and they kind of call out one of the
factors that like was very influential, regardless of like how
true it was of like last key Kid culture going Away,
which was Milk Curtain Kids, where I think it's like
the mean little brother that's like I help you end

(31:56):
up on a milk carton and I was like, yeah,
you need you need an aunt to your life, my boy.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
I do think it's also part and parcel not to
like break into the plot Caitlin and talk about like
the context. But we're in the nineteen eighties, we're kind
of like post space race, like Cold War Reagan into Clinton,
Like we're still in this era of we are the

(32:22):
leaders in space travel, in space exploration, and you know
we beat the Russians ass and we are like top
of our game scientifically, like the STEM is popping off
in the States and elsewhere. But it's like the political
foundations behind all of that is this Reagan era family values.

(32:47):
You know, it's ten pm, do you know where your
kids are? Commercials are coming on TV. You know it's
like like like Barbara Bush kind of like education, family values,
parents involved. You know, like it's just like this toxic
culture of like moving from latch key to like it's

(33:08):
a response to our need to have two parents in
the working.

Speaker 5 (33:12):
World, nuclear family, yes, yes, yeah, which I do feel
like there's like a vibe to this movie that feels
not like, Okay, the mother should quit her job, but
it's like, well, if she's going to have a job,
she's going to have to emotionally compromise severely yea, to
like cohere to what the expectation is.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yeah, this is a rich text, a rich text text,
so rich.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
And then there are bees, not the bees, not the bees,
these come and they are swarming around and somehow Russ
and Nick end up on a bee and the bees
flying them all over the yard. Wayne is trying to
swat at the bee with a baseball bat, and then

(34:02):
he looks down. He's like, wait a minute, why do
I have a baseball bat? My son doesn't play baseball.
And then he sees the shattered attic window. He goes upstairs.
He finds the shrunken armchair in the shrunken couch in
the attic, and he puts two and two together and
realizes that the machine does work, and it shrunk all

(34:24):
the kids.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
It was really fun. Now that we all have knowledge
of more knowledge of production than when we last saw
this movie, I'm assuming of like, what a lightlift this
movie is for all of the adults versus the children. Truly,
children are like wet and in combat. The whole movie.

Speaker 4 (34:45):
They had those kids doing their own stunts. It was
I'm telling you, and I just linked in the chat.
I just linked the part one of the making up
because it is on YouTube. But yeah, the way that
they put these kids through the damn Disney ringer, it
was like, it.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Is so funny, being like, oh, and then we cut
to a shot that we know now is just Rick
moranis sweeping something up into a little dust pan. That's
an easy day at worked for Rick moranis Meanwhile, the
children are soaking and they have to go to school anyways. Yeah,

(35:21):
blew my mind.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yes, I also do want to say I think that
my my, my whole like theme on this episode is
going to be like nineteen eighties and like the ethos
of the eighties. But Rick moranis a scientist, a physicist,
or you know, like, yeah, I assume he's a physicist,
a very intense scientist. Swinging a bat at a bee,

(35:45):
swinging a baseball bat at a bee. You know, in
the eighties, we weren't worried about the honey bees disappearing.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
True, we weren't.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
We weren't concerned about the extinction of the bees.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Nope, it's true.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
No, yeah, we were swinging back.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
That's the truly a scientist trying to kill a bee
could never I did.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
I did appreciate the this movie's commitment to YadA YadA science.
Oh yeah, they don't even try to give us an
explanation of how this shit works. It's like computer, computer, molecule.
Now they're shrunk.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah, I mean, it's the same junk science that like
Back to the Future is based on like the eighties
movies were just like let's just say some words and
then that's the movie.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
It's kind of fun because it's like I know that,
like whatever the famous example is, like after Jurassic Park,
children's interests in palaeontology went through the roof. I'm guessing
this movie. Maybe I'd be curious. Did this movie move
the needle for physics? I don't think there's enough info
there to be like when I grow up, I want
to shrink? Yeah, what is what is the itch being scratched?

(36:56):
I don't think maybe it moved the needle very much.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah, because it didn't pause like an exist I mean,
you know, Jurassic Park had such a deeper thematic message,
like the the morality of science, but the uh, this
was just like guess what, we shrunk our kids and
the neighbor's kids, and uh, it's actually pretty rad.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
So yeah, like what a shrink.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
They actually sort of had some fun while they were shrunken,
and they someone even kissed.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
The kids fell in love. They fell offunk, so bizarre.
There's a very specific line I'm excited to get to
with regards to the kids being shrunk and falling in
love just this movie.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
Oh baby, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Wait, okay, So Wayne has figured out that his machine
shrunk these four children, so he starts freaking out, remembering
that he was stomping around sweeping the floor. He realizes
he probably threw his tiny children in the trash and
that they're probably somewhere in the yard now, so he

(38:06):
starts searching the yard for the kids. Meanwhile, Russ and
Nick tumble off the bumble the bean. Thank you, thank you,
I just improve that on the spot huge. They tumble
back into the yard, but now they are separated from

(38:27):
Amy and Ron, who are not getting along because Ron
hates girls. He has some sexism that he's going to
have to overcome throughout the story, which he does sort
of kind of.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Goes through Amy's grace.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
The arcs for these children are so weird.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
It's true. I really thought, like even by like eighty standards,
I was like, the Aunt's gonna be a girl. The
Aunt's going to be a girl. And that's how he's
gonna learn how to respect women is by meeting a
woman aunt. I think big opportunity that an ant cured
his misogyny. It would have worked, It would have worked,

(39:06):
but they didn't do it?

Speaker 2 (39:08):
They did not. Oh anyway, so Wayne, who is now
on a pair of stilts searching for the children, Because
I'm guessing the logic here is that the surface area
of like the bottom of the stilt that would be
on the grass is smaller than a human foot, but
a stilt could still easily crush the children. So I

(39:29):
don't know what the.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Rules of when he is trying to not squish the
kids versus when he isn't. There are a few times
where he kind of clumps into the yard and you're like, well.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
Fully tumbles off. They both tumble off. They like squat
the way that the entire movie. I was like, can
you imagine if Rick moranis just he beats the shit
out of his machine and then he goes over to sweep.
He realizes just then and there, oh my god, I
shrunk the kids. He lifts up his shoe and there

(40:02):
are just like four squished children on the bottom of
his shoe. Can you This.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
Is a story of a deeply traumatized father and like.

Speaker 4 (40:12):
Does he tell? Does he tell the wife? Does he
tell the neighbors?

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Because he could probably pretty easily get rid of the evidence.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
Yeah, that's like a sun Dance movie.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
Honey, I shrunk the kids and then I murdered them
on accident.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
And then I didn't tell anyone. Wait, where's that movie?

Speaker 4 (40:30):
And I'm living with the grief and guilt for the
rest of my days.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
That's kind of awesome, as maybe that was going to
be the reboot, like.

Speaker 4 (40:39):
A villain Ogers Georgian story. Honey, I can't stop shrinking
kids and then stepping up.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Whoa, Well, maybe we'll see that one day. In the meantime,
that's what Rick moranis is going to come out of retirement.
Oh God, just kidding Spaceballs too yesterday? Yes, yeah, maybe
I'll cover Spaceballs for my birthday this year. Anyway, Okay, Wayne,

(41:09):
he's on the stilts. He accidentally turns the sprinklers on
because he's like falling all over the place on the stilts.
So now these enormous drops of water start raining down
around the kids, which the practical effects here are pretty fun.
But also the water is very like viscous.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
It's gooey, it's pretty thick water, it's thick. I was
just sort of like, I guess that's what water was
like in nineteen eighty nine. Maybe they were just putting
corn syrup into the water back then. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
Yeah, I bet the making up tells us the water,
the sequence and how they sort of did the water
special effects. But I think what they were going for
was optimizing it for splash content, Like they really needed
it to be heavy water so it could be like, yeah,
you know, gloopy, gloppy. And then it turns sort of
into quote unquote munth, which I was like, no, that

(42:01):
looks like sewage.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
It's pretty gross what it turns into. I was kind
of shocked, especially because that's the source of the first
quote unquote romantic moment in the movie. That's where the
French comes from. The children are ostensibly covered in shit
like it's it's wild.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, so what happens here and we'll talk more about
it later, but the water is sprinkling down on them.
Amy falls into a puddle and Russ has to save
her and gives her mouth to mouth and then she
wakes up and she's like, wow, thanks, that was amazing.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
It's this very emotional moment.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
And then there's a joke that is set up that
takes a full forty five minutes to pay off, which
I was pretty impressed.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Right, yeah, the whole friend, Oh where did you learn
how to do mouth to mouth French class? But Nick
is too young to understand what that means at first,
and he went sort.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
Of his arc at the end. He's traumatized from the shrinking.
But but what French French kissing is?

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah? Okay. So the four kids continue onward toward the house.
They come upon a discarded oatmeal cream pie cookie and
start eating it.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Great product placement, Yeah, great product placement. I was genuinely impressed, truly.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
The best product placement. The only product placement in the
whole movie. I think, well, there's Lego, that's right, leg
But there is like the slamming of the oatmeal pie
the little debbies right on the counter by oh baby mcmranis.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
Oh my god, Yeah it's great.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
And I love those shits. Oh my god. I was like,
good choice of something to eat because I loved those
as a kid.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
They still hit they're like if recently because I keep
up with these things. Uh, they they recently have been
putting them into like ice cream flavors, and.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
I, oh my god.

Speaker 6 (44:05):
Highly recommend the oatmeal cream pie ice cream. It is
so they're doing it for all of them, but like
the Oatmeal Cream Pie one is uh yeah. My fiance
and I've been trying them one by one and so
far the feedback is Oatmeal cream Pie takes it.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
It's so good. Whoa they're at the grocery store.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
My mind is blown all of a sudden, because I
also remember in the Oatmeal Cream Pie when they find
a cookie on the ground in the movie and they're like,
let's go fucking crazy. I was like, goals, dude, I
got Can you imagine being a kid on set and
being like, okay, now just dive into this giant whipped
cream wall and go ham.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
I was just truly stunned.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
It is amazing how many like set pieces they do
with the kids, and how like how well they do
like the scariest thing you can imagine and then the
coolest thing you can imagine, back to back to back
to back. It's so cool.

Speaker 4 (45:02):
Well, and they make the scary things cool too, you know.
It's like, yeah, it's all so cool to me as
an eight year old, I was like, this is my dream.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
I've didn't wrap it up well.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
This especially this part reminded me of there's a Matt
Damon movie, and I just had to look up what
it was called, because I forget and I've never seen it,
but a twenty seventeen movie called Downsizing, And I think
the premise of this movie is that in order to
make resources such as food go farther and last longer,

(45:38):
people can opt to downsize themselves, shrink themselves so that
the cost of living is much less. Because when you're tiny,
an oatmeal cream pie cookie is enormous and that could
last you years.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yeah, if you figure out how to protect it from ants, right.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Right, And so I was like, hu, there, maybe there
is something to this. Maybe we need to all shrink
in order to get the most out of our resources,
which we are wasting and exploiting by and large. Anyway,
I don't.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
Think that this movie is really operating on that level. No, No,
it would be wild if it were.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Though.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
I think it's presenting a counterpoint, which is, let's just
all invest in little debbies. It lasts forever. Even if
it's a flake, a chunk of little debbies in the grass,
you can still eat it and it's fresh as day one.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
I will say it did get me. I was hungry
for one the same way that every time I watch ET,
I'm like, you know what, I could go for some
RECs PCs.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Right. That shit works on me, it does.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
It does. If one of my little treats appears in
a movie, I'm like, pause, I have to go.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
I have to go, and that's on my eating disorder.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
But that's time we watch movies at home, so we
can pause, fulfill the product placement thirty full years later,
and then return make a.

Speaker 4 (47:10):
Vaughn's Instacart order for little debbies, which is probably the
only store that has them.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
Yeah, oh well that's where that is where you get
the ice cream, I can say for sure.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
And then the Instacart employees like, someone's watching honey shrunk
the kids again?

Speaker 3 (47:28):
Oh the honey, iye shrunk the kid's special.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Got in cheerios because oh that's the other product, ceios.
It's true. Yeah anyway, So, yes, the cookie has attracted
an ant but it's a nice aunt and the kids befriended.
I think Ron names it either Andy or Antie. I
think they were calling it both things. I couldn't get

(47:55):
a handle on its name.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
There's a lot of adr with the kids, but in
their defense, they were soaking wet children.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
They probably had hypothermia the whole shoot. Yeah. Anyway, so
they ride the ant part of the way back to
the house because they're like, wow, antswer fast and strong
and we can take advantage of that. Meanwhile, Wayne confesses
to his wife Diane that honey, I shrunk the kids,

(48:25):
and she faints because women be fainting, but she regains
consciousness and then starts helping Wayne scour the yard for
the kids, but it has gotten dark outside and searching
for them is much harder. The kids use a cigarette
that Russell Senior has flicked into the yard to light

(48:47):
some torches so that they can see where they're going.
Then Wayne gets to work on repairing the shrinking machine
so that he can return the children to their normal
size if they ever find them. He has a moment
where he's like, oh, this is all my fault. I

(49:08):
was so focused on my machine that I forgot to
be a father, And Diane is like, oh, well, it
doesn't matter what our jobs are. We just have to
get this family back together.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
We'll get into that because this is like, I think,
a variation on arriving at this conclusion that I haven't
seen where he does apologize, but she's like, no, no.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
You don't apologize.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Yeah, and you're like, because I was fully expecting the classic,
which is no acknowledgmental fault and no apology. But he
does acknowledge fault. And she's like, whatever, we'll circle back
to that, which would have made sense for me if
she was like, we need to focus on unshrinking the kids,
but that's not what she says. We need to focus

(49:56):
on not getting divorced. That scene, I don't know what
time it's supposed to take place at, but it feels
like seven thirty. I'm like, keep looking at you guys.

Speaker 4 (50:06):
Yeah, they are truly just taking their sweet fucking time.
I mean, at one point, Rick Morana's like falls asleep.
He's just like I'm so exhausted from looking that. I
just I have to take a nap at my computer,
and it's like, wake, wake up, bitch.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
That scene is so funny because then she walks upstairs
looks at her husband, who has fallen asleep after three
minutes of searching, and she says, I love you, and
you're like what, just.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
I love you, Wayne Zelenski.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
Maybe you deserve each other. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
I would be like, get your fucking ass up. Are
you serious right now? You have time to nap?

Speaker 3 (50:46):
Ugh, yeah, I would have. I mean that's maybe where
the baseball bat comes in. I just like, get up,
may be napping me napping, man be taken a little
dybe napping on the job.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Anyway, So the parents also tell the neighbor parents about
the shrinking machine, but Russell is like, I don't believe you,
you weirdo. Back in the yard, the kids set up
camp in one of Nick's discarded legos, and this is

(51:23):
when Amy and Russ they're really vibing and then they
kiss on the lips, but they're interrupted when a giant
scorpion shows up and starts terrorizing them. But Ron's aunt
friend Auntie or Andy whatever its name is, helps them

(51:44):
fight off the scorpion, but it gets injured and passes away.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
It's so sad. I was really struck by how sad
I was.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
I mean, the war between the score and the ant
was so epic because I think you're dealing with close up.
Here's what I know. They definitely used like a bull
riding machine with an ant paper mache some kind of
ants attached to it. Okay, so we know that that

(52:21):
is the thing. And then the Scorpion is never irl like,
it's never like a practical effect. The scorpion is sort
of a slimy looking Did you either of you ever
watched the old like nineteen sixties or seventies Clash of
the Titans with like claymation Odyssey care like beasts and

(52:45):
stuff like the Kracken is cool, It's like stop motion,
which is what this Scorpion is. It's like a stop motion, large,
slimy looking model. And to me it looked like Clash
of the Titans, old clamation stop motion Clash of the Titans,
And I was like, this is such a stupid bad

(53:09):
mix of effects, practical, CG, stop motion. It's like they
are using green screens. They're literally throwing every tech both
fold and new at this movie at the same time
and trying to make it work. And I want to say,
like fifty percent of it looks like the kids are
just tramping back and forth through a giant hangar like

(53:34):
Stage eleven on the Warner lat you know, it's like, yeah,
it's giving a hangar decorated hanger.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
And I've learned in that in the fight between the
Scorpion and the ant I went straight to the IMDb
into the art department and learned that the art department
person who like was the head of the art department
also worked on Critters.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Interesting, Okay, what a wild movie that one is.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
Why You're So Weird another eighties classic but very weird,
and it's called Critters, And I was like, of course
they got the Critters person for all these Critters.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
Obviously, this does feel like a lot of like, especially
now knowing what Joe Johnston's background was and that this
was his first movie he directed, You're like, oh, he's
very much like both playing to his strengths and also
it just seems like he's taking advantage of having a
budget to be like Big Aunt. What do we think
about Big Aunt? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Yeah, but no, the visual dissonance between all the different
types of effects in this sequence is really kind of disturbing.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
And also disturbing is the ant dying. And if that
wasn't enough, the next morning, this neighborhood kid named Tommy
comes over to mow the Selensky's lawn, which means that
the kids might get mangled in the lawnmower.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
Terrifying.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
It's so scary they almost do get mangled, but they
somehow managed to avoid it, and then Wayne and Diane
run out of the house to stop Tommy from mowing
the lawn. The rest of the lawn.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
They've like awoken from their nightly slumber. They're peaceful sleep.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
They've gotten twelve hours so wild.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Yeah, they got all their rem cycles up. She went
to yoga like they've had a full day.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
And then they spend two more seconds searching for the kids.
They don't find them, so then Wayne goes inside to
have his casual cheerios breakfast. But luckily, the family dog
named Cork approaches the kids and he's sniffing around, and
so the kids all grab onto his fur and hitch

(56:00):
a ride into the house. Cork jumps up on the
table where Wayne is eating his casual cheerio breakfast, and
then Nick falls into the bowl of cheerios, which of
course Wayne does not notice because Nick is so small,
and he almost eats Nick several times until he finally
notices all of the kids, and then again his reaction

(56:23):
is just like, wow, I found the kids, honey. That's
pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
Honey, I found the kids. And she's like.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Wow, wow, nice awsome, good job.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Interesting, Yes, and so Wayne goes up to the attic
turns on the machine, but he can't get it to
work again. But with the help of the kids and
especially Nick, because Nick has figured out that the baseball
is a key component for this machine to work. How

(56:54):
I don't have any fucking idea, but the baseball is necessary,
they get the machine to work. They tested on Russell Senior,
and then they enlarge all the kids to their regular size.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
Even though there's like a very like inserted, weird like
last minute obstacle where we're supposed to think the neighbor
is brave or something and he's like, no, I'll do it,
and you're like, oh, yeah, yes, that's not what this
character would do.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
No, Like I was an asshole.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
Yeah, Like there was nothing to suggest that he would
have changed that way. I also think that like I
don't know, like I think that he that Rick moranis
would be like in custody, if if the neighbor had
like he's taking the first opportunity possible to be like
get this guy out, but no, instead he goes on
a journey of the soul ye off screen and comes

(57:51):
back courageous.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
Yes, he's like you know what actually I'm not a
weird asshole. I love my life, I love my wife,
and I do kind of love my kids. So you
know what, shrink me, Rick Moran, shrink.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
I know that statistically I'm about to blow up, but yeah,
all good.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
But I'm brave and I've learned that my son doesn't
need to play football in order for me to love him, right, And.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
I've learned this off screen.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Yes, And so the parents reunite with and embrace their kids,
and then the two sets of neighbors become best friends,
and the movie ends with them eating a giant turkey
together because apparently Wayne uses his machine to enlarge food

(58:42):
so there's more to go around. And then the final
beat is Nick finally understanding what French kissing is.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
What are they eating?

Speaker 2 (58:53):
I think it's a turkey.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Oh okay, for a second, I thought it was an aunt.
And I was like, that is ghoulish.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Because it looks the skin of the same looks like
the skin of the turkey, and the skin and also
the skin of the scorpion. It all looks like shiny,
like window leathery meat.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
So I wasn't being like out of my because I
was like, it looks like they're eating an ant and
I was like, Ron's right there, He's that's his best friend.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
One. They're like, yeah, this ant is good. Ron yum yum.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Anti and or Andy tastes so yummy.

Speaker 4 (59:32):
Yeah. Meanwhile, Ron is like so traumatized. He's in like
therapy three times a week. He is a vegan. Now
he like can't handle going to school. Yeah, his whole
life has completely changed.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
He's unraveled.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
Yeah. Yeah, and he's like, oh great, now our parents
are friends. I'm never gonna forget about this as long as.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
I Anyway, that's the movie, So let's take another quick break.
I will come back to discuss, and we're back.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
I mean, I for one, was not able to contain
myself for much of the much of the recap. There's
a lot of table seting we've done already, but I mean,
this movie is was a lot of what I expected
and some of what I didn't like.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
We have.

Speaker 3 (01:00:29):
Like mom dot jpeg and teen daughter dot jpeg. Here.
All the women that we see or have like any
narrative meaning to the plot are white blonde women who are,
if they're adult women, pretty deferential to their husbands, even
if they get a sassy one linery in here and there.

(01:00:53):
But there were moments where I was like, oh, that
could be something, and then it just doesn't turn into something.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
For example, it seems like Diane, who we learn what
her job is. She's a real estate agent, which it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
Does seem like she is like the breadwinner of the family,
or it does seem like.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
That, right, Yeah, she's holding everything together Diane. Without Diane,
this family is in shambles, truly suffering.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Yes, yes, I.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Mean she leaves for it seems like twelve hours and
the house is a disaster.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Yes, the way domestic labor exists in this household, in
this world. So, like you were saying, Jamie, there's a
lot of what you would expect from this movie. There's
a lot of like very traditional gender roles present here.
There are slight subversions here or there, but for the
most part, it is like men equals this, women equals this.

(01:01:46):
And we see this in the way domestic labor is
distributed and done. Where again, Wayne stays home. He seems
to have lost his job or quit it or something,
but the work that he is doing is building this
machine in the attic, while his wife Diane goes out

(01:02:08):
into the world and works there. And you might think
that because Wayne is home, he would be doing some
of the domestic labor, but that does not happen. He
has his daughter clean the house. She also cooks breakfast.
He also delegates mowing the lawn to his son Nick,

(01:02:30):
So again there's very like gendered lawn work and landscaping
and that kind of stuff. Outside work is for boys,
and inside work like cleaning and cooking is for girls. Also,
Nick doesn't even mow the lawn. He delegates it to
some other kid, and not that anyone would have to
do anything anyway, because the lawnmower is remote controlled. So

(01:02:53):
basically Nick does no chores. Meanwhile, Amy is cooking, she's cleaning,
She's not doing it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
When we cut to the house, I mean we see
her dancing, which I thought was like a kind of
direct ripoff of that sequence from Adventures and babysitting. Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
I was also getting a lot of don't tell mom
the babysitter's dad.

Speaker 3 (01:03:13):
But yes, oh my gosh, yes, yeah, this is a
very eighties thing for a blonde teenager to be doing.
But you know, even though you know she she plays
hard and she works hard, because cut to the house,
it is clean. She has executed the task. Because by
the time the mom gets home, I think she even
like comments on oh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Wow, No, it's the opposite because it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
Got dirty again.

Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
Oh because the daughter left the house for a second.

Speaker 4 (01:03:39):
Yeah, she got shrunk.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
She got shrunk, and.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
She didn't do her duties before she got shrunk. So
it was a fucking mess. And the mom comes home
and he's like, oh, you know, Amy was supposed to
finish the housework. And the mom looks around like, great,
nothing's fucking finished. My ment. He load of that capacity.
I should be spending the afternoon celebrating that I just

(01:04:04):
sold a house, but instead I have to deal with
this man's bullshit who let our kids go missing, and
nobody knows how to clean this place.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
No, but Nick does vacuum the yard. He doesn't mow
the lawn, but he does have this like handheld vacuum.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
It's an invention. Carry sorry, sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
Boy, and stem default setting this.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
This movie is so ripe for the classic Rube Goldberg
breakfast machine, which we see in so many movies. This
is not here.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
I was so ready for it. I was so ready
for it because he's like faxing the children from the attic. Yeah,
like I I was, I was like, whoa, is this
a breakfast machine? We haven't covered but but it it isn't.
He's still It's like, at this point it's almost sadistic
that he's making his daughter, who doesn't know how to cook.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
It burns everything to a crisp.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
And then they make fun of her for not knowing
how to cook, and you're like, this is a twisted
I think that. Like, honestly, with with the women in
this movie, it's there's pretty like rigid gender dynamic set up,
but it's more like the non reactions to things that
are weird to me, especially on Diane's end, but also

(01:05:31):
on like it feels like the gender performance are like
fitting the role is more important than what's happening in
the plot, because even after they get shrunk, Amy's just
like I have to get to the mall to see
my boyfriend, and you're like, yeah, you're gonna die. You're
gonna die. Your dad's gonna step on you, and you're
gonna die.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
Her big goal in life is to get asked to
the dance, and that's all she fucking cares about. And
it's like, girl, your life is in pair role the steaks,
you're gonna get stepped on by your father's crutch, which.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
Would hurt worse than a foot, I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (01:06:10):
Yeah, at least with the foot you have ridges you
can don't in the ridge then the crutch is going straight.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
It's like when a cat steps on your boob.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Yes, oh my god, yes, oh yeah, well I could
feel that. I felt that. Yeah, it's I don't know,
it's it's very weird what she doesn't react to. And
we'll get to like where she ends up, because it
just feels like another very sort of eighties like the
popular girl should be dating the dork who who leers

(01:06:42):
in her eyes.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
Oh my god. Remember the point when they are in
the lego and they're about to kiss and he goes,
she goes, why haven't you ever come over and say? Said?
She says to the neighbor Russ Junior. Right, She goes,
why haven't you ever come over before, like stopped over?
And he's like, I don't know, you just seem like
you're too popular to notice me. And she goes, I

(01:07:08):
am too popular and I can't believe I haven't noticed you.
And then they go in for o cast she like
admit she's like.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
It's true, I do think I'm too good for you.

Speaker 4 (01:07:17):
I am so popular.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
Anyway, want to make out, But then she negs herself.
She says I was too popular to notice.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
I was stupid.

Speaker 4 (01:07:25):
I was stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:07:26):
And then she kisses him, and You're like, no, you weren't, Amy,
You're you're big, forced you're you're doing a lot of labor,
you know, Like I just wish that I knew a
single interest of yours. But other than that, you're doing great.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
Girl. Girl. You're a lesbian. We are it's giving lesbian
Amy kiss.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
A girl I would love. And then of course I
mean this movie weirdly. Okay, So this is one of
the things where I'm like, I don't really understand what's
going on here, because, as we talk about on the
Bechdel Cast constantly, ninety percent of movies are about fathers
and sons. Some are good, some are not. This movie
is about fathers and sons. But I feel like it's
more like The Neighbor, about the neighbor and his eldest

(01:08:10):
son than it is about Rick Morana's and his kid.
Like there is a like, oh, he's also interested in science,
but like there's not really a tension between it. See
it Like the tension is very much between Max's headroom
and his son, which just feels weird. You're like, who
is the protagonist of this movie?

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
Well, the movie does start to try to set up
something between Wayne and his son Nick, where Nick comes
upstairs He's like, look, Dad, I made a miniature replica
of your machine. Wanna help me with it? Or wanna
play or da And Wayne is like, no, I'm too busy,

(01:08:51):
shrink building a machine that's gonna commit war crimes probably,
so go away. And Nick hangs his head. Oh okay,
so you later, Dad, And that seems like it's setting
up that classic you know, the Santa Claus dynamic where
the dad is too busy for the sun and the
dad has to realize he needs to do something to

(01:09:13):
reconnect with his kids and be there and be present
blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
And by his kids we do mean his son, his
son specifically, right exactly while his daughter cleans the house.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Yeah, but then that gets dropped and that arc that
they're trying to set up goes nowhere.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
I'm wondering how much it was rewritten, because you're just like, yeah,
that was set up and then never paid off. What
is for sure as this movie is not about mothers
and daughters, because it is, I mean, you get again,
there's some like I think, if you really wanted to
go to bat for this movie, you could maybe say
there's barely passes when they greet each other on the phone,
but it immediate. The subject immediately switches to so you're

(01:09:50):
meeting your boyfriend at the mall today, right, and she's like, yeah,
hope he invites me to the dance. The only other
conversation they have is at the end where she's like,
so you're not divorcing dad, right, and she's like, nope,
everything is fine. And then there's a third they're not talking,
but this is the line I was really excited to
get to, where Diane, they're going to bed right after sundown,

(01:10:13):
even though the children are shrunk, and there's like there
could be coyotes in this neighborhood. But let's not think.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
There's scorpions' there's other dangers.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
Let's not think about what could happen at night. We
need to get our beauty rest, right. They talk like
she's just had this conversation with Rick moranis where She's like,
we don't need to focus on you apologizing for the
horrific thing you've done. We need to focus on not
getting divorced. And then the last thing she says as
a button to the scene is weirdly slut shavy towards

(01:10:41):
her daughter. She's like, what I'm mostly worried about is
Amy and that boy next door in the dark. They
better not do anything better but drive, they better behave.
She was like, so I'm like, look for her. Oh
my god, She's saying, shans her daughter, and then Sleep
goes to bed for ten hours. Was this what the
eighties was like? Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
A million times. Yes. I was just looking at Amy's IMDb.
Her name is Amy Amy O'Neill, because I'm like, Also,
when I was watching last night, I was like, I
remember being really attracted to Amy, like as a character
and as an actor, Like I remember as a girl

(01:11:22):
watching her and being like she is so cool and beautiful,
like nobody sees her. And then also like also being like,
this lady's a great actor, Like I hope she Like
even in my eight year old mind, I was like,
I hope she has a career ahead of her. She's
she slays like, but I was I remember as a

(01:11:42):
kid being like she's gonna be the boss. Bit she's
obviously like an outdoorsy She's dressed like she's in Jurassic Park,
like this chick is going to take us all the way,
But she isn't really. She is kind of like the
leader of the pack, like the babysitter, but it doesn't
really go further than that. She isn't actually the powerhouse
hero of the kid groom like it ends up being

(01:12:05):
fucking kind of Russ Junior. Even though he's a douchebag
who literally says and does nothing, he saves her life.
It's like, no, she would be the one who had
to save everybody's ass in this situation. Not a single
one of these doors would know what to do.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
No, But okay, can we talk about the scene where
she has to be saved because there's so much to
unpack here. So it's already established that Russ has a
crush on Amy. We see him leering at her through
the window. He tells her about it then, and she's
visibly weirded out, like, oh, you could see me, you

(01:12:44):
were watching me dancing And he's like, I don't know,
shut up, then the kids get shrunk. They're going around together,
blah blah blah. This stuff happens. Then the rain drops
or the spring the water from the sprinkler starts raining
down on them. Amy she is knocked unconscious question mark.

(01:13:04):
Suddenly she's unconscious and has fallen into a puddle.

Speaker 7 (01:13:09):
She doesn't know how to swim, doesn't know how to swim.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Why is she unconscious? What even happened there? I was
getting that idea of like, women and girls are so
delicate and fragile, they're always fainting and passing out. Yeah,
but she is now drowning. Russ jumps into the very
viscous water, pulls her out. She's still unconscious. He gives

(01:13:35):
her mouth to mouth, which revives her and now she's fine,
which like, great, if someone needs the life saving technique
that is CPR, you should administer it to them.

Speaker 3 (01:13:48):
But it's played it's plot CPR, and.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
It's played as he didn't do that because he was
actually really trying to save her life. He did that
because he wanted to kiss her parentheses while she was unconscious.
And that's the whole running joke through the rest of
the movie where it's like he frenched her ha ha ha.

Speaker 3 (01:14:06):
And you're like, I certainly hope he didn't use tongue
during CPR right praying.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
But also when they do eventually kiss consensually, mm hmmm,
are they using tongue?

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
They are for sure?

Speaker 4 (01:14:22):
I was like distney, whoa, And now I remember why
I was like so horned up about that one stupid kiss.
I was just like, no, they're fully They're kissing like
middle schoolers who have never kissed in their life. There
is no passion. It is simply mechanics because they are
having to They're having these children French kiss.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Correct, they're having the children French and we don't have
to feel good about it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
We don't.

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
These they were all kids when this was I was like,
is there any chance that like one of them is
secretly twenty but they were all in fact kids.

Speaker 4 (01:14:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
When this was filmed, I don't know that it would
go down like this now, but uh but there it
is plot CPR plot French. Uh. I agree. I think
the Amy performance is like really like, I just wish
she had like more to her, but it's the movie
maybe to no whens surprise is written by two men,

(01:15:17):
you know, pushing forty so I don't think they really
had any insight on a girl of this age. No
insight and perhaps no interest. We don't know, right well,
they're like, what do teen girls like? What do they do?

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
They like the mall, they like talking on the phone,
they like their crushes on their on boys, and nothing else.

Speaker 3 (01:15:38):
And it's the eighties, so they're like, we have to
make her realize that. Again. It just feels like in
these kinds of stories it's such creepy adult male writer
total projection, where it's just like, ooh, she should have
ended up with me. I'm like, no, she shouldn't have door.
I feel bad for whoever ended up with you.

Speaker 4 (01:16:00):
I'm that crazy ass mullet. The way that they're skating
on Russ Junior's like smoldering sort of mystery boy. I
wasn't fooled when I was a kid, and I said
to this day, I remember thinking, first of all, she
is like ten years older than him. She's gotta be

(01:16:20):
He looks like a child, and she looks like kind
of a young woman. She also is miles beyond him intellectually,
so this is this is not a good match at all.
And also I say it again, Amy the character is gay.
And the way that they cast and they.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
Dressed her inner lore, I mean she is where she's
wearing a lot of highwaisted babe, it's.

Speaker 4 (01:16:49):
Giving hipsters in Bushwick. All of their costumes were hipster Bushwick,
early days, Brooklyn gentrification.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
And kind of Catherine Hepburn need too.

Speaker 4 (01:17:02):
Yeah. I was like, yeah, she's like she put her
in Jurassic Park.

Speaker 2 (01:17:06):
She is like a young she looks like a young
doctor Sadler.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
She does so.

Speaker 4 (01:17:12):
She's also wearing like kind of a chunky watch. She's
a science She's a scientist's daughter. If anybody knows women
of any kind just the smallest hint of science into
our lives as young people, we are we're rabbit holing
the fuck out of science. Young girls, we're going in.

Speaker 2 (01:17:32):
But despite her dad being a scientist, and despite her
younger brother taking an interest in science, Amy has no
interest in science. She has no knowledge, nothing she's picked
up from school or her dad or anything.

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
She can't even cook a piece of toast.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Nope.

Speaker 3 (01:17:50):
And at very least, because I was struggling with that,
where it's like she doesn't have an interest, I guess
also her love interest doesn't have an interest and so
this couple is maybe just not very intesting or interested. Well,
but and I also thought it was not pointed, but like,
maybe maybe go on this journey with me. In these

(01:18:11):
kinds of movies where the dad has a kooky like
job or passion, if his wife does have a job,
it is not a job that requires the same focus
and passion like she has been written as a realtor,
and if you're a passionate realtor, that's none of my business.
But like a job that isn't quite as like all

(01:18:34):
consuming and creative right as what the husband is doing.
And I don't know what that is. I was like,
I would I think that it would make you know
Diane's character a lot more of a character if she
was also doing something that she cared about and was
expected to take care of the entire family. And she

(01:18:54):
is clearly working hard and as successful at what she does.
But it makes it feel like there's only room for
like one passionate person in a marriage, and I don't
love that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:03):
And I also don't love that it's given to the
given to the man Rick moranis because I'm like, always, yeah,
sure that that's the dynamic.

Speaker 3 (01:19:11):
Are you sure, right I did. I will say there
is something like inside of me that really is activated
every time. The most subversive thing about this movie is
the first time you see the parents together and she's taller,
and I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
Like, oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:19:26):
That representation matter. I love seeing Rick moranis with a
tall wife. It's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
Of course, Well you're a fantasy I want to be.
But it is always and this kind of goes back
to the the point you were making earlier, Jamie, as
far as like movies about a man's special interest that
is ruining his family, because it's always the man's job

(01:19:56):
or hobby or project or whatever. That is the thing
that is crucial to the plot versus whatever the wife
slash mother's job. If she is even given a job
that we know what it is, it has no bearing
on this story whatsoever. Usually, and especially in this movie,

(01:20:17):
we do know what she does, but it could have
been anything. It doesn't matter what her job is, and
not that like a person's job defines them, of course,
but when it's always a man's work is seen as
more important. It is the thing that impacts the plot.
It is the thing that is like basically the narrative
thrust of the entire movie. You know, not great. I

(01:20:41):
don't love that. And meanwhile, both moms May and Diane
are seen in two different scenes putting away groceries. God,
I know, because that's the limit of this movie's imagination
of what adult women would be doing at any given moment.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
Well generally while advising their husband, while putting their husband
at ease. May especially, she is an interesting character because
I feel like they do a few girl boss feminism moments,
but it always happens behind closed doors, where a lot
of it is like she's de escalating her husband's anger
towards her son, so she's protecting her children from her

(01:21:19):
husband's anger at many points, but it's made to seem
like cute and like this is our relationship, ha ha,
where at one point she's like, you know, lightly negs him,
where he's like rubbing at his head because he got
bonked because he's the neighbor, and she's like, don't you
know you only got so many brain cells up there, honey,
you gotta be careful. And it seems like he's less

(01:21:43):
hostile to her than he is to their children, but
she spends a lot of time having to de escalate
his anger towards the kids towards the cops, to which are.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
Jain Zelinsky, and all the noise that he's making.

Speaker 3 (01:21:55):
Towards the cops is more warranted because why aren't they
looking for the children? But it's because cops don't do anything. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:22:05):
Also, the way that the movie opens up, I'm sort
of like, wait, as an adult, I'm watching it thinking,
is this a movie about domestic violence and neglect? It's
kind of like the neighbor dad seems like he's unhinged.
He's like a Jim Carrey sort of. It's like, yeah,
it's like what I imagine Jim Carrey is like irl, like

(01:22:27):
not in character, he's like sort of a Jim Carrey ripoff.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
I had the same thought.

Speaker 4 (01:22:31):
He's very big and clownish, but also like un fucking hinged.
This man is not a good father. He should not
be around children. He certainly should not have attracted a wife.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
And I feel for her.

Speaker 4 (01:22:48):
I know, I'm like, this poor woman, she is in
an abusive situation. Get her out of there right now,
and those children as well.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
But it's framed as a joke, and all.

Speaker 4 (01:22:57):
Of these boys are gonna grow up to be maga.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
Yes, oh my god, the boys, they're especially ron. I
mean maybe maybe if the antid pulled through it, it
would be it would be a different story. But buts
as things stand, I think he's I think he's pretty
squarely going to be fascist, yes, as also Rick Morana's son.

Speaker 2 (01:23:20):
Yes, he's going to be grew up to be Mark
Zuckerberg or something.

Speaker 4 (01:23:25):
Because also Rick Morana's character is clearly being funded by
Mark Andresen and is building a war machine that is
going to be turned into AI someday.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
It all goes so deep, yeah, down to like even
the there are little interactions between the neighbor parents that
is supposed to I think, be like funny and affectionate,
but he reads very dark. Where there's another time where
she's saying something. I think this is in the scene
where they're talking to the cops about the kids being missing,

(01:23:59):
and she says, I'm and he says no, no, no,
no no, and then he says the same thing. And
the joke is that he says what she just said
and takes credit for it, and she puts up with it,
and that's so funny and I'm laughing.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
Yeah, the two of them are confronting the Celenskis May says,
how did this happen? How did you shrink our kids?
And Russell's like, I'll handle this, May, how did this happen?

Speaker 3 (01:24:24):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:24:24):
Every time we see them on screen together, she's always yeah,
like you said, trying to de escalate. She's always like, oh,
give the guy a break, honey, I'll give your son
a chance, honey. Oh lighten up. But it is a
really bizarre dynamic. I mean, obviously they're both like caricatures
of purple, but like the dynamic is very bizarre and unsettling.

(01:24:51):
And then you have Russell being obsessed with his son
Russ Junior being into fishing and being into football and
making him lift weight.

Speaker 4 (01:25:02):
Being super masculine exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:25:05):
And no offense to this actor, no offense to Max Headroom.
But it felt weird because I was like, this is
not the guy you cast as like jock father, Like
he's too weird, you know whatever, But like just the
character choice is being made, Like I'm like, I don't
believe this guy was a quarterback. Like it's it feels

(01:25:27):
like the character must have changed a lot because what
we see visually and then when we randomly see Kimmy
Robertson from Twin Peaks and you're like, well, that's fun.
It's mostly her getting yelled at and disbelieve.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Always nice to see her down and Gloria appearance.

Speaker 3 (01:25:43):
Don also, so I was like, this movie needed me.
I could have helped. I like the fact that there's
a character named Don and a character named Ron. I'm like,
come on, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
Come on, second draft.

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
Someone has to have eyes on this.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
No, but back to the I mean, there could have
been something interesting about if a father is pressuring his
son with taking an interest in these traditionally masculine activities,
there's an opportunity for that to be examined. And we
do see Russ Junior push back on that and say
those are your interests, Dad, not mine. But as we've

(01:26:22):
already talked about, the movie squanders this opportunity to be like, no,
I don't I like reading or I like science, or
I like like I don't know what I like.

Speaker 4 (01:26:32):
Well, what do you like, son? I don't know, I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:26:35):
I'll let you know, he says, like he says it
all like smarmy too, in this weird way where he's like,
I'll let you get I'll update you when I know
what my character is, and you're like, yeah, let us
know too. We'd like to know what the hell's going
on with you.

Speaker 4 (01:26:51):
You couldn't just invent one thing that he's into.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
Yeah, comic books, I don't know anything.

Speaker 4 (01:26:57):
What would be great is if it was like, I
just want to be a lifeguard, and then it justifies
him saving Amy.

Speaker 3 (01:27:05):
Oh right, yes, yeah, I also didn't think. I mean
I guess that like Nick's interest in science becomes plot
relevant a few times, but not as much as you
would think. He figures out that they're three miles away.
I appreciated the detail or continuity error that his calculator
also struck shruck because he's able to use it. I

(01:27:28):
thought that was really cute.

Speaker 4 (01:27:29):
It's like every I guess everything that's on you is
also shrunk.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
So I'm down for.

Speaker 4 (01:27:33):
That science works on whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:27:36):
Good thing he kept that calculator on him, or that
would have been an issue. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like,
it's so exciting to watch the kid and I'm sure
like if you're a kid, especially, like it's so exciting
to watch the kids like survive all of these travails
that you don't really think about, like the fact that
the ways that they're active are not really grounded and
what the characters are. It just sort of is like

(01:27:58):
what the plot requires, and that involves, like we talked about,
a lot of damseling off Amy. Really the most active
Amy gets in these situations are there is one point
where she's like assisting in rankling the future dead aunt,
but it's basically against her will, and that presents, like
Ron the opportunity to be like, she's pretty good for

(01:28:19):
a girl, of course. And then Nick says, oh, yeah,
for a girl, of course. I was like, you agree,
what there is so weird?

Speaker 4 (01:28:27):
Yeah, that's their friendship. The moment that their friendship is
solidified as just being like girls fucking sucks, like yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
And then I mean earlier in the movie, Ron is
being like, we need to get back home because I
want to go fishing, and Russ is like, no, we
should go to the Selenski's house because they have a
machine that will fix us. Per Amy's suggestion, She's like no, Like,
my dad can fix this, right Nick, and Ron is like.

Speaker 3 (01:28:59):
What are you gonna let a girl tell you what
to do? Someone's got to make a decision here. Yeah,
and it's like that is technically a win for Amy,
but it's such a small.

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
Win, and Russ doesn't even push back on that. He's
not even like, yeah, we should listen to to Amy.
She made a good point.

Speaker 4 (01:29:17):
Because obviously she's the only one in this group of
four who can get us through this.

Speaker 2 (01:29:24):
It's clear as day, right, Yeah, and then yeah, Russ
just responds with something like, you know, you'll do as
I say when we're down here, younger brother, Like weird dynamic,
but yeah, this is all kind of I guess setting
up Ron's arc, which is that he hates girls and

(01:29:44):
doesn't respect them at first, but after traversing through the
yard he comes to respect one girl exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:29:56):
It's just your casual nineteen eighty sexism. It's bare, you know.
It's sort of launching us into the early nineties where
we have Alanis Morissett coming out and saying.

Speaker 3 (01:30:08):
No, no more, no more. And she fixed it, she
fixed it, and here we are good for her. Yeah.
It is as like it's like this this movie is
doing some like it's doing stuff we've talked about before
in slightly different ways, but it's like very clear the
playbook they're pulling from Oh absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:30:27):
Yeah, and then realizing that it's kind of just a
bunch of like horror nineteen eighties, like the horror writers
directors that are like, you know, they're not really grappling
with giant content. This is mostly a movie about the
effects and what they can do with a green screen
and this new technology that they're kind of playing around with.
We don't the characters could who cares? Who cares?

Speaker 7 (01:30:51):
They're sort of ancillary to as long as we can
rig them to a gigantic broom and sort of risk
them around in all of these different cool like stunt ways.

Speaker 4 (01:31:05):
It doesn't. We don't care.

Speaker 3 (01:31:07):
Yeah, And that does seem to be Joe Johnston's whole deal.
He's like, let's get the stunt, let's get the because
he goes on to do well. He did one of
my favorite childhood movies, The Page Master. I love.

Speaker 2 (01:31:20):
I've never seen this.

Speaker 3 (01:31:21):
One of my favorite vhs is growing up. It's It's
that is my mcaulay culkin movie for some reason. Oh
my god, it's really fun and it teaches you three
genres of book. But he did The Page Master. He
did Jumanji, like he did, you know, it. I think
that like with it seems like with his movies, it

(01:31:44):
really depends on like the quality of the script, because
that's not why he's there. He's there for Giant Aunt,
he's there for Jumanji stunts. He randomly did direct October Sky,
not a big stunt movie, but then he did Jurassic
Park three, he did Captain America the First Avenger. Like

(01:32:04):
he does big, gigantic movies, and if the script is good,
the movie is good. And if the script isn't good,
then there will be a gigantic insect. But that's about
all you can be guaranteed.

Speaker 4 (01:32:16):
Yeah, and I do feel like, you know, the scripts
weren't the movies of the nineteen eighties, especially the children's movies.
They were inspiring to me as a child, as a
young entertainer wanting to get into the industry, I thought,
oh I could do that. Yeah, I mean, script wise,

(01:32:37):
I was like, oh, oh, this is all you have
to do, have to do right, sign me up?

Speaker 3 (01:32:44):
Yeah, Yeah, it's true, it's true. Yeah, it's I mean,
I I enjoyed the movie. I'll say it. It's like
for the Bexel cast, it is it is. It was
never gonna farewell.

Speaker 2 (01:32:57):
No, but on the rumpometer, I'd say a ten out
of ten. It's also ninety minutes long. It's so it's
such a nice length.

Speaker 4 (01:33:07):
It's such a nice length and almost felt a little
too long in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:33:11):
I was like, well, because every almost every one too
many obstacles in the yard maybe, and they're way too
insect oriented or but what bugs. It's clear that Joe
Johnson's like, how many big insects will you buy me?
And that's how many big insects will be in the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
Yeah, they needed some diversity in the types of obstacles
that they encounter.

Speaker 3 (01:33:33):
Eco diversity. I thought that like a nighttime travail would
I mean, that might have been just really hard and
expensive to shoot. And like I wanted a coyote in
the yard, you know, like I mean, or what else
could happen at night?

Speaker 2 (01:33:46):
I think there just needs to be something besides wildlife
that they run into, Like surely it's just like a
bunch of different.

Speaker 3 (01:33:52):
Types I want to run into like a fairy. Well,
that's a totally different movie. I like that this movie.
In this movie, magic is not real. Magic is not real.
But the kids are shrunk.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
Yes, beautiful because science did the magic. Science, not magic
did the magic.

Speaker 4 (01:34:11):
Yeah, it was the opposite of magic. It was science.

Speaker 3 (01:34:14):
The science is magic. But wow, no it isn't.

Speaker 4 (01:34:18):
And it's kind of magic when you fall into a
flower and you get the pallen chunks all over your
body and they won't get off. Yes, yes they're sticky.

Speaker 2 (01:34:28):
That was fun.

Speaker 4 (01:34:28):
It's magical.

Speaker 3 (01:34:30):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:34:30):
Does anyone have anything else they want to talk about?

Speaker 3 (01:34:34):
I don't think so. I'm glad this movie isn't called
teeny Weenies? But does it pass the Bechdel test?

Speaker 2 (01:34:42):
I think spirit.

Speaker 4 (01:34:45):
Absolutely not.

Speaker 3 (01:34:46):
I'm going I'm going to no, because there is there
The other interaction, Oh this I was going to bring
this up, was between the two moms, but they are
talking about either their husband or their I mean technically
amy their children, but their majority son's children for most
of that time. I don't know about you guys, but
like there is like an underlying sense of hostility to

(01:35:09):
this one interaction we get between these women that I
think is like cut around to make it seem like
it's about the baseball through the window, But I just
felt like May and Diane were randomly being like a
little hostile to each other, well.

Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
Because May is like, we haven't seen you around that much,
with like kind of a weird tone, and then in
a similarly sort of like defensive tone, Diane is like, well, yeah,
I've been working a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:35:36):
Yeah, I wonder if there was like another scene that, like,
I don't know, it just felt like a very hostile
dynamic to establish and then be like and that's just
kind of what these women are like, and you're like,
all right, so we have no women who can be friends,
got it.

Speaker 4 (01:35:52):
I do feel like it's sort of, yeah, like the
classic neighbors scenario where you just hate your neighbors.

Speaker 2 (01:35:58):
Well, the husbands don't like each other, and the women
are just gonna go along with whatever the husband so
doing and feeling Maybe was that I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:36:07):
That wasn't how my neighborhood worked. It was like, if
husbands hated each other, that was not going to interrupt
wine mom time.

Speaker 2 (01:36:14):
Truly, that's beautiful wine mom.

Speaker 3 (01:36:16):
Time exceeded the husband.

Speaker 2 (01:36:19):
Yeah, yeah, I mean this is just very much a
byproduct of the culture of the eighties, it is, and
the sexism and the centering of whiteness that was inherent
to that time. And oops, it's still happening.

Speaker 4 (01:36:38):
Oops.

Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
But yeah, that was all I had to say about
the movie.

Speaker 3 (01:36:44):
So let's see how it fares on the Bechdel cast
iconic nipple scale five nipples based on how the movie
fares with an intersectional feminist lens.

Speaker 2 (01:36:57):
Yeah, zero to five nipples. I'm gonna give it a
half nipple because there was potential. I guess it was
all it was all squandered, But you know, there was
potential in the character of Amy. At least there was
one girl who got to like go on the big

(01:37:18):
adventure through the yard. There was potential that could have
been explored with Diane being the bread winner. But again,
none of these opportunities are capitalized on. Everything is just
very very status quo, very gendered dynamics across the entire movie.

(01:37:39):
And it's not it's not doing really anything interesting in
that regard. So half nipple, and I'm going to give
it to Anti the ant rip May he or she
rest in peace.

Speaker 3 (01:37:57):
Rip. I'm also gonna do I think half a nipple.
You know, all of the hahollmarks of an eighties family
movie are here. It is extremely white, it happens in
an upper middle class suburb. There are only blonde women
and they are not allowed to be interesting past a

(01:38:17):
very specific point. So sounds like a movie from nineteen
eighty nine to me, But most movies from nineteen eighty nine, counterpoint,
don't have gigantic ants. And so I did enjoy it.
And I also I feel like if I had seen
this movie when I was a kid, I would have
been very attached to Amy and like wanted more for her.
And yeah, I again she is now that. Now that

(01:38:40):
I see her as little Ellie Sadler, I can't unsee it.
And it would have It would have been so easy
and helpful to a weird plot to have her interested,
to be the older sibling interested in science. It would
have helped. But that we could not We could conceive
of a shrink Ray. What we could not conceive of
is a young woman with an interest. And so levlaf

(01:39:04):
love half a nipple. I am giving it too. I'm
gonna give it to Amy. She deserves it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:11):
Yeah, yes, and more, Jenna, how about you.

Speaker 4 (01:39:14):
I'm also doing half nipple and I'm giving it to Amy.
She was the only one with any kind of feminist potential.
I think she grows up, you know, to be a scholar.
She gets a PhD at Harvard for physics. She's a palaeontologist.
I don't know, she does something in the sciences. She's
a woman in stem who has been sort of written

(01:39:38):
to only want to go to the mall, but she's
dressing the part. She was cast in that way. This
movie is, unfortunately was written by men, as was every
Disney movie. And I do think that as a child,
because I was so moved by this film and the
making of it truly just what they wanted us to see,

(01:40:00):
which was the technical aspects of it. You know, I
have to give it some credit because it did. It
did capture my special effects loving heart. And but that's
about it.

Speaker 2 (01:40:12):
That's about it. Well, thank you so much for joining
us once again.

Speaker 4 (01:40:18):
Oh my god, I love being on this pod.

Speaker 3 (01:40:21):
We love you so much. Bring us another practical effects
any anything, anything and everything.

Speaker 4 (01:40:27):
God, I will, I will. I have so many eighties
movies that are in the zeitgeist that are perfect for
this podcast. Hell yeah, thanks for having me, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:40:37):
And tell us where people can find you on social media,
fund your work, plug anything you want to plug.

Speaker 4 (01:40:45):
You can follow me at Janna Unplugged. I don't really
have anything big to plug right now, but I do
have my own podcast where two Native American medians, myself
and Brian Bohi give advice to listeners who call in
and ask for it, called Stage Based Wisdom. It's so funny,
very dirty and weird.

Speaker 3 (01:41:05):
You and Brian are unhinged together, I really love and
you can find us in all the normal places, and
by that we mean Instagram and our Patreon aka Maatreon.
We're for five dollars a month. You can get two
bonus episodes with Caitlin and myself on a theme of

(01:41:27):
hours or you're choosing depending on how well behaved the
Patreon masses are being this. We were in dispute anyways,
Join debate. It's really fun over there, and there's also
a back catalog of over two hundred episodes to enjoy.

Speaker 2 (01:41:42):
Indeed, and with that, should we all get shrunk, let's
be let's all get randomly unshrunk, because it turns out
there's a reverse button of this, of course, obviously, yes,
all machines have that. Okay, let's do that. Bye bye Hello.

Speaker 3 (01:42:04):
The Bechdel Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted and
produced by me Jamie Loftus.

Speaker 2 (01:42:10):
And Me Caitlyn Dorante. The podcast is also produced by
Sophie Lichtermann and.

Speaker 3 (01:42:15):
Edited by Caitlyn Durrante. Ever heard of Them? That's Me
and our logo and merch and all of our artwork
in fact are designed by Jamie Loftus, Ever heard of her?
Oh My God? And our theme song, by the way,
was composed by Mike Kaplan.

Speaker 2 (01:42:31):
With vocals by Katherine Voskrasinski.

Speaker 3 (01:42:33):
Iconic and a special thanks to the one and only
Aristotle Acevedo.

Speaker 2 (01:42:38):
For more information about the podcast, please visit Linktree Slash
Bechdel Cast

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

The Bechdel Cast News

Follow Us On

Hosts And Creators

Caitlin Durante

Jamie Loftus

Show Links

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with Jana Schmieding