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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2006 |
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Professor Wayne Szalinski is the eccentric scientist who invented the shrinking ray machine that almost caused the demise of his children in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Now he’s about to get an award for his great invention, and you’re invited to the awards ceremony. Okay, it’s not a real awards ceremony. It’s a 3D movie with terrific surprises. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2002 Path leading to the Imagination Institute in brown Tomorrowland |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009 Multilingual |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009 Warning! Warning! Warning! |
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Are you ready to go in? Some of the surprises might be too scary for small kids. So, if you have kids with you, read the sign. Ask a Cast Member if Professor Maynard is here today. He can add another dimension to your 3D experience. |
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Photos by Allen Huffman, 1998 Imagination Institute Cast Members |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009 Time to get your 3D “safety goggles” |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2008 But don’t wear them yet |
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You will soon feel as if things are happening right in front of your face, through the magic of 3D “safety goggles.” |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2002 Plenty of space to wait for the show |
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As you wait, watch the clever messages on the video monitors and check the backlit posters. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009 Professor Wayne Szalinski, Inventor of the Year |
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Rick Moranis plays the part of Professor Wayne Szalinski, just as in the hit 1989 Disney movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. The Szalinski film family is back too—his wife Diane, their sons Nick and Adam, and their scene-stealing dog Quark. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009 Dr. Nigel Channing, Chairman of the Imagination Institute |
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The next poster shows Eric Idle playing the “Founider” of the institute. (Apparently, the poster department needs a proofreader.) He wasn’t in the 1989 movie or its sequels, but here he’s the co-star. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009 Professor Phillip Brainard, last year’s winner for Flubber |
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The third poster looks like Robin Williams. In fact, it is Robin Williams as the star of Flubber, the disappointing 1997 remake of the brilliant 1961 comedy The Absent-Minded Professor. Despite the prominent poster, Williams is not part of the attraction. The poster is just a bit of marketing synergy. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009 Waiting, waiting, waiting… |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2009 Time to enter the theater |
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Adventure Thru Inner Space isn’t the only Yesterland attraction that shrinks you. As the name of this attraction suggests, during the next 13 minutes you and the rest of the audience will become tiny as the entire theater is reduced to the size of a shoe box. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2009 Hundreds of seats, but things will appear right in front your face |
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Put on your 3D glasses. This won’t be an ordinary 3D movie with long shots, close-ups, cuts, dissolves, and fades. Instead, you’ll feel as if you’re watching a continuous live show with life-size performers on a stage at the front of the theater. Oh, the faces will get a lot bigger during the show. But that will be after you’ve been shrunk. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2009 Imagination Institute logo filling the screen before the presentation |
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I would tell you to sit back and relax, but it’s hard to relax when you’re in a shower of breaking glass or when cloned white mice are scurrying on your legs—or when someone picks up the entire theater and you feel it moving. |
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Photo Tina Weiss, 2006 Posing with 3D safety glasses |
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The gags were great. The in-theater effects were great. The plot had clever surprises. What a thoroughly entertaining show! But now that you’ve seen it, are you going to want to see it again and again? Next time, the surprises won’t be surprises any more. Oh, it will still be fun. But, after you’ve seen it two or three times, you’ll probably find yourself skipping it on most of your future visits to the park. |
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Honey, I Shrunk the Audience opened at Disneyland on May 22, 1998, as part of the New Tomorrowland of 1998. It replaced Captain EO, the 3D musical space adventure starring Michael Jackson, which had closed a little over one year earlier. |
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© Disney 1989 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, the hit movie that spawned sequels and a TV series |
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By the time Honey, I Shrunk the Audience opened at Disneyland in 1998, guests were familiar with Professor Wayne Szalinski and his family from two theatrical movies, one direct-to-video movie, and a TV series. In the comedy-adventure movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), the Szalinski kids face perils as they cross their front lawn after being accidently miniaturized by one of their father’s inventions. In the sequel, Honey, I Blew Up the Baby (1992), the phrase “blew up” means a drastic increase in size, not an explosion; the Szalinski’s toddler inadvertently terrorizes Las Vegas. The third visit with the Szalinski family was the direct-to-video Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997), in which the adults are the ones who are miniaturized. Then there was Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show. The series debuted in 1997 and ran for 64 episodes, with Peter Scolari playing the role of Wayne Szalinski instead of Rick Moranis. |
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© Disney Disney publicity image promising a new kind of theater experience. |
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Disney’s publicity art for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience suggested that the action would pop from the screen into the audience. In a way, it did. With a series of clever 3D movie gimmicks, inventive in-theater effects, and even a motion base under the entire seating area, this 3D movie went where no 3D movie had gone before. The publicity art was a bit of an exaggeration as it showed an audience without 3D glasses threatened by the mighty tongue of the Szalinski’s enlarged dog Quark. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2006 Honey, I Shrunk the Audience at Epcot |
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Honey, I Shrunk the Audience was new to Disneyland, but it wasn’t a new Disney attraction. It had been running at Kodak’s Imagination pavilion in Future World at Epcot since November 21, 1994—back when that park was officially called Epcot ’94. |
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Photo by Jeff Gordon-Sm, 2009 MicroAdventure! at Tokyo Disneyland |
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At Tokyo Disneyland, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience opened as MicroAdventure! on April 15, 1997. It was dubbed in Japanese, but guests who preferred English or Chinese dialog could use headphones. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2005 Wilkommen and Benvenuti! Cherie j’ai rétréci le public |
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At Disneyland Paris, Captain EO lasted longer than at any other park, until August 17, 1998. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!—or Cherie j’ai rétréci le public—opened March 28, 1999. The presentation was in English or French, depending on the time of day. In addition, headphones gave guests a choice of English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, or Spanish. Although the original Disneyland in California was the third Disney park to open Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, it was the first park to close it. After the final showing on January 3, 2010, Disneyland’s Imagination Institute closed its doors forever. After it closed, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, the attraction that replaced Captain EO, was replaced by… the return of Captain EO—in the form of Captain EO Tribute. |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2023 Unused theater at Disneyland, January 25, 2023 |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2023 Well-lit, but unused, queue, January 25, 2023 |
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At Disneyland, after Captain EO departed, the theater was used for Path of the Jedi, various previews of Disney features, and for the Pixar Shorts Film Festival attraction. As of the publication of this Yesterland article, the theater is not in use—unless its counts that the overflow queue in front of the theater is used as seating. Other parks are reusing their theaters. At Epcot, it’s the Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival. At Disneyland Paris, it’s Mickey’s Philharmagic. At Tokyo Disneyland, it’s Stitch Encounter. How much longer will it be until The Walt Disney Company reboots the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise? Then the attraction can be rebooted too—with new actors and a bunch of CGI. Four theaters are ready for the return of a sneezing dog. |
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© 2023 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated January 27, 2023 |
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