A twelve-year-old boy named Josh Baskin wants to impress this girl, Cindy, whom he has a crush on. That evening, he and his best friend, Billy, goes to a carnival.

Unfortunately, Josh is too short for a specific ride. Bummed, he finds a Zoltar machine, which is offering to grant him a wish, despite its creepiness. Josh wishes to be big. The machine even gives him a card, saying that his desire will be fulfilled.

The next morning, Josh wakes up and goes into the bathroom. He discovers that he has gotten big – but of an adult man of around 30 years old.

Josh does what he can to hide himself from his mother and even his baby sister, Rachel. But he successfully leaves the house.

After learning that the Zoltar machine actually does grant wishes, Josh returns home. However, his mom sees him as a creepy adult that has kidnapped her son. He does everything he can to convince her that he really is her child. Yet she won’t believe him.

At school, Josh is hiding outside the gym. Billy finds him and panics when Josh knows who he is. Luckily, when Josh sings Billy a song that only the 2 know, Billy realizes that it really is him.

Billy is kind enough to cut school and accompany Josh into New York City. The 2 learn how to access a Zoltar machine – except that they have to wait 6 weeks to get one.

Josh realizes that he’ll need to make money to have a Zoltar machine. That means getting a job like an adult.

After being asked about his strengths and hobbies by Billy, Josh applies for a job at the MacMillan Toy Company. He goes for his interview, although the employer find it odd that he doesn’t know his own social security number or even all the digits. Thankfully, he is hired as a data entry clerk.

On Josh’s 1st day of work, he ends up making a fool of himself – particularly to the guy next to him. The other staff also find something fishy about him.

Yet he keeps his job. That evening, Billy helps Josh find a hotel that’s available. But it’s unclean and tight.

Josh is not happy there all alone that night. He even cries.

But once he is back at work, he meets Mr. MacMillan, who is in charge of the company. He is impressed with Billy’s enthusiasm with toys.

Sometime later, Billy is having fun in the actual toy store. He runs into Mr. Mac Miller, who is willing to participate in a piano activity with him. The 2 jump on a piano Mat and play different songs together.

Josh also develops feelings for his co-worker, Susan. The 2 go out a lot.

That includes attending a company dinner and even visiting Josh’s apartment. At first, Susan is unimpressed with all the kids items. However, Josh helps her on the trampoline and they jump together – thus, they have fun.

Josh actually adjusts to being an adult. He starts dressing more maturely like the other man in his job and even drinks black coffee.

Even though he is neglecting his time with Billy, he does go out to dinner with him at an Italian restaurant. And it’s also Josh’s 13th birthday. So, he gets sang to and blows out candles on a cake brought out by some waiters.

After that evening, though, Josh ends up betraying Billy. This infuriates, Billy, who even reminds Josh that he is 3 months older than him.

Josh starts realizing how much he misses being a kid. He tries to tell Susan that he isn’t a real adult – he is a 13-year-old boy who wished to be big and had that wish granted by the Zoltar machine. Of course, Susan won’t believe him.

But Billy does find out about a nearby Zoltar machine. Can he get there and get his wish granted to turn back into a child?

Not surprisingly, this movie made me laugh hysterically so many times – too many to count. The most humorous moments were when Josh turned into an adult, but still acted like a kid. I could go on, although I’d rather talk about the other strengths.

I do admire the casting choices for different characters. For instance, Tom Hanks played Josh as an adult. He was only in his early 30s then, yet looked a lot like an older version of the actor who played Josh as a kid: David Moscow.

Josh also had a crush on this girl, Cindy, before he turned into a grownup. Although Cindy is a minor character, I will admit she looked a lot like Nicholle Tom when she played Ryce, the oldest child in 1992’s Beethoven. But it’s not the same actress.

The concept of the story was also strong. Josh only wished to be big so he could go on that ride he wasn’t tall enough for. He wasn’t likely intending to turn into an adult.

His mother’s reaction to him saying that he’s her son after he turned into a grown up was quite credible. Not only did she refuse to believe him, but she also threatened to call the cops.

Even though I really liked this film and cracked up a lot throughout it, there were a few minor flaws. One was how the pacing was a little too slow at times. I watched it with my friend at his house and he would check the remaining time every now and then. And even after hilarious moments, less time has passed than I had presumed.

Another thing to note is that even though this movie is rated PG, it is not suitable for younger kids. It has a good amount of swearing, including the F-word, and some suggestive sexual content.

However, there was a reason why it got the PG rating instead of the PG-13 one. Despite the PG-13 rating being introduced in 1984, the standards for ratings were different back in the 80s.

A film would only be rated PG-13 if it include content that might be too frightening for younger children. Language and mild sexual content usually got the PG rating as long as there was nothing frightening.

But today, Big would definitely be rated PG-13. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it very much.

I give this film 4.5 out of 5 stars.