Line #19 YMMV/Big - TV Tropes


1	* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Before its release, there'd already been three OvernightAgeUp comedies [[DuelingWorks made between 1987 and 1988]]: ''Like Father, Like Son'', ''18 Again!'' and ''Vice Versa'' (not to mention the Italian film ''Da grande'', which was this film's direct inspiration), so many expected this film to tank and be forgotten. Instead, ''Big'' became the highest-grossing and most highly-praised film of the bunch.
2	* EsotericHappyEnding: Josh is most likely in for a very rough ride as he returns to his former kid life. His options for explaining his disappearance don't seem to have many good outcomes:
3	** If he decides to spend the rest of his life spinning a false narrative about how he was abducted, he'll get grilled by the police and his mother for details.
4	*** Will they believe him and send him to therapy for trauma?
5	*** Will his story fall apart, getting him accused of running away and lying about it?
6	** If he decides to tell the truth, he'll have to convince everyone that magic is real.
7	*** Will he fail to prove it and land himself in trouble for lying or even institutionalized for having a psychotic break?
8	*** Will he actually prove that Zoltar grants wishes, leading a future where whoever controls Zoltar has power over reality?
9	* HilariousInHindsight:
10	** Creator/TomHanks' character works at a toy company. Years later, Hanks would star in [[Franchise/ToyStory a film series all about toys]].
11	** The film features ProductPlacement for Pepsi. [[http://io9.com/5722906/the-real+life-location-of-the-zoltar-machine-from-big-is-now-occupied-by-a-pepsi-machine The location where the Zoltar was at the end of the film is now occupied by a Pepsi machine.]]
12	** At a board meeting, Josh is unimpressed by a Franchise/{{Transformers}} style toy that turns into a building, asking "[[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Couldn't it turn into a bug? Like a prehistoric bug?]]".
13	** At Josh's apartment, he has a model of a Saturn V rocket from the Apollo space program. Several years later, Tom Hanks would star in ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}''.
14	** Overlapping with TechnologyMarchesOn, Billy scoffing at Josh's interest in computer work is pretty funny now that computer skills are a very helpful thing to have. The movie actually seems to have been aware of this, as it's his computer skills that get Josh a job.
15	** The electronic comics are cartridge-based as well. A few months later was the UsefulNotes/GameBoy.
16	* ImprovedByTheReCut: The extended cut elaborates further regarding Josh's wish to be big.
17	* MisBlamed: For a time in Italy, this movie was considered an unofficial remake of "Da Grande" (an Italian movie with a very similar plot, aired a year before "Big"). It was actually just a coincidence, as the OvernightAgeUp theme had been experiencing a revitalization at the time (and even before that, Hollywood had used the trope before, having been a staple for 1950s American movies).
18	* NightmareFuel:
19	** The Zoltar machine. Its overall appearance is bad enough (especially the glowing eyes when it's "working"), but the breathing sound it makes and the way the mouth opens and closes hugely is extremely disturbing. Thus, the scene when Josh discovers it's not plugged in manages to actually be chilling.
20	** The scene where Josh's mother chases his adult self out of the house with a knife, for both parties. Josh is confused and trying to explain to his mother that it is him, as an adult, and tells her the whole story. She [[EntertaininglyWrong completely misunderstands]], tries to offer him her purse to no avail, and screams at him to GetOut while brandishing a knife and dialing the cops.
21	* OlderThanTheyThink: Josh's idea for a robot toy that transforms into a bug. The [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Insecticon_(G1) Insecticons]] had already been issued three years before the movie's release.
22	* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/DebraJoRupp plays Miss Patterson, Josh's secretary. She was 37 when the film came out.
23	* RonTheDeathEater: Poor Susan gets interpreted as everything from a paedophile to a rapist for her relationship with Josh, even though she had no idea he was actually a 13-year-old boy, and actually doesn't believe him when he first tells her. She merely has a relationship with who she believed to be a consenting adult. She also turns down the chance to use the machine to wish herself younger when Josh suggests it.
24	* SignatureScene: Josh and Mr. [=MacMillan=] playing the floor keyboard at FAO Schwartz. Beloved for its cute nature and displaying the characters' innocence, the clip became a hit with audiences and is usually the first thing that jumps to mind whenever someone thinks of the film.
25	* StrawmanHasAPoint: It wasn't Josh's intention at all, and he was being LiteralMinded, but Paul does aptly point out that the new guy humiliated him during a presentation by asking pointed questions about the Transformer Building prototype and suggesting an idea that was a hit with everyone else. If the audience didn't know that Josh was genuinely confused during the meeting, it would look like he was manipulating Paul's presentation to come out in his favor.
26	* TearJerker:
27	** Josh crying for his mom during his first night as an adult in a motel is absolutely heartwrenching.
28	** After Paul beats up Josh for refusing to surrender the ball to him during racquetball, Josh is sniffling while Susan patches him up. He asks why Paul had to punch him in the nose, since he tried to get along with him by "playing his game". Once more, you get a reminder that this is a thirteen-year-old kid that an actual middle-aged man tried to beat up.
29	** Josh and Susan's final goodbye as the former turns back into a child.
30	* ValuesDissonance: Josh and Susan's relationship is largely portrayed in the film as sweet and romantic, but many people have pointed out that a 30-year-old woman having a romantic (and implied to be sexual) relationship with a 13-year-old boy inherently gross and problematic, not to mention that it technically counts as statutory rape. Even if Susan didn't know Josh was technically underage, it's still a shaky relationship that rings problematic in the modern-day
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Context YMMV / Big