Size change in fiction

Resizing (including miniaturization, growth, shrinking, and enlargement) is a recurring theme in fiction, in particular in fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction.

In fiction

An early example of resizing is the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has repeated resizing themes, where Alice grows or shrinks as she eats foodstuffs or drinks potions. According to Rose Lovell-Smith, Alice's size-changes continually reposition her in the food chain, serving as a way to make her acutely aware of the "eat or be eaten" attitude that permeates Wonderland.

The novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth by H. G. Wells describes a kind of food that can accelerate and extend the growth process, which when introduced to the world causes great upheavals. In Wells' novel, giants have great powers, and they seek to continue growing and improving; only the small people with their small minds stand in their way. This is a symbol of social groups with great potential suppressed by mainstream society, and an expectation for them to eventually change the world in a radical way. Though one of Wells' lesser-known works, many of the features of the novel have been incorporated into other works.

In the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the character Mike Teevee uses Wonka's shrink ray to miniaturize himself.

Film

In 1940's Dr. Cyclops, the protagonists are reduced to less than a foot in size by the titular mad scientist, and are subjugated to his whims. 1957's The Incredible Shrinking Man inspired a boom in science fiction films that made use of size-alteration in the late 1950s and the 1960s, and also inspired a comic remake in 1981's The Incredible Shrinking Woman. 1957 also saw the release of The Amazing Colossal Man.

In science fiction/horror B-movies, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, enlargement of people or creatures to monstrous size (often accomplished via radiation) was a common theme. Films featuring enlargement include Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Village of the Giants, The Food of the Gods, 1954's Them!, and Tarantula. Bert I. Gordon is the filmmaker most closely associated with this genre.

Each of the five monsters in DreamWorks 2009 science fiction film Monsters vs. Aliens, can be traced to sci-fi/horror B movies from the 1950s, '60s and '70s. The heroine Susan, who grows to be 49 feet 11 inches tall, was inspired by Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Shrinking is often accomplished with a machine of some kind, as in the films Fantastic Voyage, Innerspace and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. In some works, the machine can enlarge as well; in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, a shrinking machine makes a toddler 100 feet tall. Both types of machine normally have the ability to reverse the shrinking process (though sometimes, as in Fantastic Voyage, the reversal happens automatically after a certain period).

In the 1999 Science fiction film My Favorite Martian, Tim shrinks to tiny size.

In the 2010 film Tooth Fairy, the main character is given a shrinking paste which he uses to shrink to a tiny fairy size.

In the Japanese film Big Man Japan, the protagonist is the latest in a dynasty of heroes who can grow to enormous size to fight equally huge monsters.

Television

• In the "Doctor Who" series episode "The Invisible Enemy" (4th Doctor), the Doctor uses a component from the TARDIS called a Relative Dimensional Stabilizer (RDS) to shrink a clone copy of himself and Leela for injection into his own brain. Later, the RDS is used to increase the size of a micro-dimensional virus so that it can interact with the macrocosm.

• In Dr. Shrinker, a segment of the mid-70's children's show The Krofft Supershow, the eponymous doctor uses his invention to shrink three young adults to six inches tall.

• The Schoolhouse Rock episode "Unpack Your Adjectives" includes a scene where a girl grows into a giantess and a boy shrinks into a small size, just before the girl steps on the boy.

• In the animated series Adventure Time, Jake the Dog, one of the series' two main characters, is able to magically stretch or shrink himself to various sizes.

• In The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Too Tall Tails", a machine used by Dr. Robotnik causes Tails grow to enormous size.

• In the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Terratin Incident", a ray of unknown origin strikes the Enterprise and causes everyone aboard to begin gradually shrinking. Spock explains this as the gaps between molecules reducing, though only in organic material such as flesh and the crews' algae-based xenylon uniforms. When Captain Kirk beams down to the planet from which the ray emanated, the effect of the transporter restores him to normal size.

• In the cartoon television series Ruby-Spears Productions, Mega Man in Episode "Incredible Shrinking Mega Man" to using secret weapon the shrink ray with red gemstone, Mega Man and Rush or steal them all the cities to small size by 3 Robot Masters (Gust Man, Cut Man or Dust Man), Proto Man and Dr. Wily.

Popular culture

The fictional super heroine Wasp, from Marvel Comics has the power to shrink small-sized and grow giantess sized. The super heroine Elasti-Girl from DC Comics also has the power to shrink and grow at will.

In Nintendo's Mario, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Donkey Kong 64, Yoshi's Story, Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Fire Emblem, Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. franchises, the player-characters in those games can grow or shrink by using various power-ups, mainly by several variants of Super Mushrooms, Poison Mushrooms, Lightning Bolt and more different items on Nintendo and created by Shigeru Miyamoto.

Oyayubihime (Thumb Princess) is a Japanese work based on Thumbelina. This story centers around the main character Saeko, who splashes a red liquid on individuals to shrink them to about three inches tall.

Minami-kun no Koibito is a Japanese television show based on the manga of the same name. The story centers around the main character, Chiyomi, who is shrunk by a magical curse when she and her boyfriend briefly went their separate ways. The caring boyfriend must do all he can to keep her condition a secret from inquisitive classmates and a relative who is a teacher at their school.

The protagonist of the magical girl manga and anime series Hime-chan's Ribbon is able to transform and resize herself by using a magic ribbon.

In Touhou Project, a Japanese video game series, the character Suika Ibuki has the power to grow to giant size by manipulating her density: Suika can turn into a giantess about 50-feet tall and create smaller versions of herself.

In the music video of Relient K's "Marilyn Manson Ate My Girlfriend", a giant Marilyn Manson eats a band member's girlfriend and the band has to go into Manson's body to save her.

In The Super Dimension Fortress Macross anime series, miniaturizing cloning technology known as micloning (maikuro-n ka in Japanese) plays a significant role in the coexistence of a giant alien race called Zentradi and humanity.

In Marvel Comics, "Pym particles" (named for their inventor, Henry Pym, variously known by the superhero identities Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath and Yellowjacket) cause physical matter to shrink or enlarge by shunting mass into, or drawing mass from, another dimension. In addition to Pym, a number of other superheroes have used Pym particles to change their size, including the Wasp (Pym's ex-wife), the second Goliath, Black Goliath, the second Ant-Man, and the second Yellowjacket. Pym also designed a prison for supervillains that was dubbed "the Big House", in which superhuman criminals who could not be normally incarcerated were shrunken down to six inches in height.

In DC Comics, the equivalent characters are the various individuals who go by the superhero name, The Atom. In particular of these people, Professor Ray Palmer is the foremost authority in size and molecular density changing technology.

In the videogame Harley's Humongous Adventure, the title character is miniaturized justifying fighting against giant rats and other such odds and relying on thumtacks as weaponry.

In the television series Ally McBeal, the main character name Ally McBeal is shrinking about six inches in height.

In the 2001 Animated film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the shrinking remote control when the teacher and Jimmy Neutron shrink into ant size.

In the 2010 Animated film Despicable Me, when Gru steals the shrink ray.

In the 2012 Disney's Gravity Falls at the episode called Little Dipper, After Mabel Pines incessantly teases Dipper Pines about being taller than him, nonetheless by a mere millimeter, the latter becomes jealous and seeks out a way to grow himself to equal height. After reading about strange size-changing properties hidden in the Gravity Falls forest in 3, Dipper sets out to find said property, which he learns to be crystals, and uses one to assemble a device to make himself taller. After he shows his sister that they are again the same height, she argues that, since her growth spurt occurred first, she would be taller in the end, and proceeds to mock him again. Dipper, angry, uses the flashlight a second time to become taller than Mabel, who, when she sees her brother, learns of the flashlight and fights over it with Dipper, ultimately resulting in Gideon Gleeful getting hold of the it and shrinking the twins. Gideon takes them back to his house and interrogates them as to how they came upon the magical item.

In the MGM cartoons, Tom and Jerry shorts Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse, when Tom shrink into tiny size of a fly and Jerry snaps Tom's Tail because he has a high-pitched screaming.

In the Cartoon show Micro Ventures, when they use shrinking machine to shrink themselves and their dune buggy to miniature size.

In the Christmas Musical film Babes in Toyland, they using shrink gun when they shrink into tiny toy size.

In the animated series Wild Kratts, the Kratt Brothers have a shrinking machine, the miniaturizer, to shrink down to smaller size. It can also change the wild kratts back to their regular size.

In the 2014 animated film Penguins of Madagascar, a character is trapped in a snow globe.

See also

• Miniaturization — besides referring to shrinking things and people, miniaturization in science fiction (and real technology) also refers to redesigning products to make smaller ones. A real-world example is the miniaturisation of electronics made possible by advances in semiconductor and manufacturing technology.
• Shrink ray
• Shapeshifting
• Square-cube law — a mathematical principle that defines why resizing is not possible in real life.

Further reading

• Glassy, Mark C. The Biology of Science Fiction Cinema. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. 2001.

External links

• The Biology of B-Movie Monsters by Michael C. LaBarbera.