Character Analysis
Wayne Szalinski is…played by Rock Moranis. And that should pretty much tell you everything you need to know.
He's a nutty professor. He's an absent-minded genius who bumbles his way haplessly through life. He's got a heart of gold and a couple of screws loose up top. You know: He's a character played by Rick Moranis.
Wayne might be a ground-breaking inventor, but he's a little bit less astute when it comes to dealing with other people—and that includes his wife and kids. In a lovely bit of irony, however, it's only when his latest experiment goes horribly wrong that he's forced to reexamine his priorities and rebuild the family that's almost fallen apart.
The Suburban Doctor Frankenstein
When the movie starts, Wayne's in quite the tough spot. First of all, his latest invention, a shrink ray, hasn't been working right—it blows things up.
This is bad, not only because it represents a personal failure, but because it threatens to derail his ambitions and force him to rejoin the corporate rat race. Take a look at some of that juicy disappointment:
WAYNE: If this thing works, this'll put us up there with the invention of electricity, the first man in space. [...]
[Wayne's shrink ray fails to work—it blows up an apple.]
WAYNE: On the other hand, we've come up with an interesting way of making applesauce.
Tied to this is Wayne's relationship with his family. Due to his laser focus on his—ahem—laser, Wayne isn't paying much attention to anyone but himself. His wife is staying at her mother's house when the movie begins, which is never a good sign as far as marriages go.
And his kids aren't getting much love from dad either—not even his son Nick, who shares a ton of nerdy interests with his old man. Lay your eyes on this awkward interaction:
NICK: You know, Dad, I was calculating—if you took all the all molecules in this house…
WAYNE: Listen, Nick, I've got to get this working before I leave. Why don't you go help your sister?
The character of Szalinski—disorganized yet brilliant—is mirrored by the Szalinski house itself. On one hand, it's filled to the brim with a host of nifty DIY technological marvels, which provides evidence of Wayne's genius. On the other, the place is a total mess. This reflects both Wayne's unique brand of innovation as well as the toll it takes on the people closest to him.
Tiny Tales
And we all know what happens next—the dude shrinks his kids.
Well, he doesn't, but his shrink ray finally starts working after the neighbor kid accidentally smacks it with a baseball. (It's an odd way to achieve scientific innovation, but it does the trick.) It takes Wayne a while to realize what happened but, once he does, he pours as much effort into searching for his kids as he did into perfecting his shrink ray…and he doesn't care how foolish he looks in the meantime.
What's more, it helps him rekindle his relationship with his wife, Diane. She's both impressed and horrified when he reveals that the children are now pea-sized: impressed that his invention finally worked and horrified that—well—their kids are now dwarfed by household insects. They also both realize their respective shortcomings in their marriage.
Check it out:
WAYNE: It's my fault. I start working on something and I don't think about anything else.
[...]
DIANE: That's not what I mean. You know, it's not important if I sell another house, or if you get a grant this year or next. We've just got to get this family back together.
It might not be the end of their marital troubles, but it sure is a good start.
Father Knows Best?
The end of the film finds Wayne in a very different place than where we found him at the beginning. His ambitions as an inventor have been realized; his wife is back home; and his kids now feel like their dad pays attention to them. Although it took a crazy series of events for him to reach this place, we're sure he wouldn't have it any other way.
And we're doubly sure that the dude won't get into any more size-related shenanigans with his kids ever again. Right? Right?
Wayne's Timeline