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The very first official date that I ever went on is inexorably tied to Disney’s 1989 comedy Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and I honestly don’t know what to make of that salient and sobering factoid other than it may go some way into explaining my star-crossed affair with movies, both good and bad…
I was the proud owner of a 1973 Plymouth Gold Duster which I had bought off of my uncle for the stone cold price of $750 and that 1989 night I picked up my date to take her to the movies I was definitely feeling my oats: A full head of hair, an almost-full tank of gas and enough youthful joie de vivre to all but power my home state of Alabama. With the smell of cheap Aqua Velva permeating the well-worn interior of my passion pit on wheels, my date and I amscrayed it to the tiny little two-screen theater in town. Did I mention that the local theater only had two movie screens? Oh, and it looked a bit from the outside like a cinder block with crudely fashioned port holes serving as windows. With all of the above now firmly painted within your mind’s eye, could it come as any surprise that the film which this heavy-hitting Lothario picked out for the night’s entertainment happened to be director Joe Johnston’s mega-hit Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? Needless to say, the cute family-oriented vibe which the movie gave off in droves (nearly as overpowering as my own ill-advised cologne) did not exactly induce any action that was too hot and heavy between my blink-and-you’ll-miss-her/done-in-one date.
All of these many moons later, ye olde scribbler of pop culture words has come to some sort of an uneasy peace with the notion that my historical First Date Movie was not The Bicycle Thief or Reds, but rather a middling Rick Moranis oater which my date enjoyed more than I did. Still, it was the film which became unwittingly a part of a pretty big life moment for me, so I’ll always clam up and remain mum out of respect for that milestone whenever my snobby Film Comment-reading pals tear into it or other similar trifles; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and I have an uneasy alliance, after all.
With all of the above being said, it’s a sad day indeed for fans of the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise. Because, despite a proven track record with two sequels, a television series and an honest-to-Pete amusement park ride, The Hollywood Reporter is revealing today that the proposed reboot of the original film is DOA.
Grand Poobah of entertainment Josh Gad (and a fine actor to boot in such films as A Dog’s Purpose and The Wedding Ringer) has broken a lot of hearts today with the news that the proposed reboot of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids which was to feature him alongside a returning Rick Moranis is effectively dead in the water.
In a statement on Twitter, Gad said of the reboot that “A lot of you ask me what’s going on with this film. Truth is, we were inches from starting and then COVID hit, inches from starting again & then my schedule exploded with conflicts, inches from starting again & budget got the best of us.”
Unlike some reboots, this particular one was set to incorporate all three films into its continuity. Gad had signed up to play the grown son of Moranis alongside the Parenthood and Ghostbusters star and the film’s original director Joe Johnston was all aboard as the director of this new iteration.
So bad news to kick off this Tuesday, but never fear: Gad urges all fans to reach out to Disney to let them know how much they would like to see a new version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Hope springs eternal, Dear and Constant Reader. If we can get new A Christmas Story and Hocus-Pocus films then the way we see it, nothing is off the table!
