MICROSCOPIC MOVIES!

You've all seen Ant-Man by now, right? If not, change that immediately it's brilliant. And it got us thinking about some of the other films and TV shows that have had fun with miniaturisation. It's a common trope in everything from '50s b-movies to the most recent season of Doctor Who. Here are some of the most interesting examples.

DR CYCLOPS (1940)

This obscure shocker was an early entry into the sub-genre. It was directed by Ernest B Schoedsack, who had rather more success in 1933 with King Kong. A group of scientists travel to Peru to meet the reclusive Dr Alexander Thorkel (Albert Dekker). 🤪Turns out he's a murderous loon and he promptly shrinks them down in size. They must then evade him and his cat, Satanus (su꧅btle, eh?) until the effect wears off.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957)

I Am Legend author and all round legend himself Richard Matheson wrote the script for this ground-breaking science fiction adventure. When Scott Carey (Grant Williams) is covered with a mysteri𒅌ous spray he slowly starts to shrink, day-after-day getting smaller and smaller. The film's brilliance lies in the fact that it doesn't rush to reach microscopic level we feel Scott's confusion and horror at his own plight. And while his affliction is temporarily arrested by🦂 an antidote, it's not long before he's tiny enough to live inside a doll's house and get picked on by his cat (a common theme in this list). Terrific stuff.

DOCTOR WHO PLANET OF GIANTS (1964)

An oft-forgotten William Hartnell story, this was at one time pegged to be the very first Doctor Who serial. It ended up becoming the opening story of the second season instead a relief because it is, to be blunt, a bit of a bore. The three-parter finds the Doctor and his companions Ian, Barbara and granddaughter Susan shrunk down to microscopic size by a malfunction with the TARDIS. They must then contend with a giant fly, a prowling cat (again!) and a conspiracy surrounding the deadly insecticide DN6. It's one of several classic Who episodes to play with the miniaturisation trope: 1977's "The Invisible Enemy" is an unashamed homage/rip-off of Fantastic Voyage andജ 1979's "The Arm💞ageddon Factor" also features a shrink ray.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966)

Richard Fleischer's seminal shrinking movie still stands up as an imaginative and e🔯xciting journey into the strangest place of all: the human body. Both the USA and the Soviet Union have developed incredible miniaturisation technology, but it only works for a limited time. Scientist Dr Jan Benes has figured out the key to make it work permanently, and plans to defect to the USA (who are the goodies in this scenario, naturally) but an assassination attempt leaves himﷺ in a coma, with a blood clot on the brain.

A team is then assembled and embark on a daredevil mission: they must shrink down, enter the doc's body and🍌 remove the clot, with only an hour before they're returned to f🙈ull size (which would, presumably, be extremely messy).

Sure, it's not the most scientific🌃ally accurate film, and there a🦄re numerous plot holes (which author Isaac Asimov was apparently only too happy to point out when he was brought on board to write the novelisation), but it's imaginative and fun and was, at the time, quite unlike anything seen on screen before.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN (1981)

Notorious Batman-ruiner, Joel Schumacher made his directorial debut with this daft comedy. Pat Kramer (Lily Tomlin) is a suburban housewife who is shrunk by an experimental perfume. Instead of the horror of The Incredible Shrinking Man, however, Kramer becomes a celebrity and things seem to be on the up for her until she's kidnapped by a group of crazy scientists. Daft as you like, The Incredible Shrinking Woman is sporadically funny but Lily Tomlin is good value in the lead a🌟nd the three other roles th💖at she plays in the film.

INNERSPACE (1987)

Innerspace plays out like a comedy take on Fantastic Voyage. Dennis Quaid ༺stars as Lt Tuck Pendleton, a naval aviator who volunteers for an experimental programme. He is shrunk down, with the intention of being injected into the body of 🐼a rabbit, but in a fluke of bad timing, the lab is attacked by a rival organisation. The syringe with Pendleton in is stolen and he is accidentally injected into innocent grocer and hypochondriac Jack Putter (Martin Short).

What follows is a very entertaining, very silly and none-more-'80s spy caper. Meg Ryan stars as Pendleton's estranged girlfriend, and his incredible journey brings them back together. Future Star Trek: Voyager star Robert Picardo also makes an impression as the Cowboy, though not necessarily for the right reasons his accent i𒉰s, er, dubious to say the least.

HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS (1989)

Ghostbusters' Rick Moranis starred in this Disney comed♒y as Wayne Szalinski, yer typical mad scientist. He invents a shrink ray and, as you may have guessed from the title, goes and points it at his kids. It's the sort of rookie mistake we all make from time to time.

While it's no classic, the original Honey, I Shrunk... is good, sweet-natured fun and proved, ironically, to be a huge money-maker for Disney. It was followed three years later by Honey, I Blew Up The Kid not as horrifically violent as it sounds and the direct to video threequel Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves in 1997.