American Cinematographer - September 1992 - 70

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid
The Ultimate

Baby Boom

by Stephen Pizzello
If Gulliver had gone
a

to day-care as
child, he might have encountered

place that resembled Disney Stu¬
Stage 2 during production of
Honey, I Blew Up
a

dios'

the Kid. At

handling the project's inherent cra¬
ziness, Kleiser responded drily,
"Let's just say that the next thing
I do will probably be a small, ac-

titanic

proportions. In a twist that
stymie even Dr. Spock, the
towering tot begins stomping to¬
ward Las Vegas, where he seems

one

side of the en¬
closure sat a

would

pair of giant (18'
12') baby
sneakers; loiter¬
X

to wreak

a

holy havoc.
sequel's plot ensured
an
entirely different challenge than

nearby beam
was an
equally

the first film, in which Szalinski re¬
duced his offspring to the size of

ing against

sure

The

colossal stuffed

breadcrumbs (see AC Dec. '89). On

bunny. And at

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, production
designer Leslie Dilley was respon¬
sible for building large-scale baby
props, miniature sets, and

the center of the
room,

dominat¬

ing the

scene,
stood all 2-foot

baby

torso

Produced

decked out in
that most fash¬

by

Dawn Steel and Edward S. Feldman

Directed

ionable item of
infant finery,
the corduroy

by Randal Kleiser
photography,

Director of

John C. Hora, ASC

jumpsuit.
Leaning forward in the
jumpsuit's sizeable front pocket, a
sudden

tor-oriented
drama."
On this

inspiration. "Oh Romeo, Romeo,

picture, Kleiser

wherefore art thou Romeo?" she
called out fetchingly. Across the

had to content
himself with
small actors. As
Hora noted, "One of our problems
is that the kids we're using [to play
the role of the baby] are growing so
fast that they don't look like they
did in some of the stuff we did ear¬
lier! They couldn't even speak
when we started; they were in dia¬

female stand-in acted

on a

floor, producer Ed Feldman, oblivi¬
ous to the torso
looming symboli¬
cally over his left shoulder, was
proudly announcing - with no
hint of irony-that he had recently
become a grandfather.

In sum,

it

was a

tableau

that might have caused Fellini him¬

self to

Szalinski's hi-tech lab. It was left to
Kleiser and Hora to effectively ex¬

ploit these setups, and both sought
inspiration from an earlier Disney
fantasy classic.
"We're using the Moviecam system, which is what I've
used on the last four or five projects

question his sanity. But the
charged with keeping the
cradle rocking smoothly, director
Randal Kleiser and cinematogra¬
pher John Hora, ASC, were com¬

pers. They actually started to act the
other day, in a scene where they
had to hug their 'mother' and say
the right words. They've come a

porting themselves with admirable

Chalk it up as another case

it still allows you to go up to 48
frames. You can go forward and

imitating art: The sequel's

back, and you can sync up the TV

two

68

madcap events begin after scientist
Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis)
accidentally zaps his infant son
with an enlargement ray, causing
the toddler to gradually balloon to

men

long way."

aplomb. When asked how he was

of life

American

September 1992

Cinematographer

I've been involved with," said
Hora. "It's

really versatile; it's a
quiet camera with sync sound, but
American Cinematographer - September 1992

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