Tiny Men in my Backyard

Tiny Men in my Backyard is a 1988 American animated action fantasy film directed and written by Gary Trousdale. The film was produced by Fred Wolf Films and released by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution for Walt Disney Pictures, and features the voices of Victoria Dillard, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Thomas Mikal Ford, Josef Sommer, Jim Cummings, Neil Patrick Harris, Amy Irving, Michael DeLuise, and Ellen Barkin.

Tiny Men in my Backyard originally premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on September 2, 1988. It tells the story of a young teenage girl who suddenly shrinks in her sleep and finds a whole new world in her backyard full of little people and must save them after they declare war on a rival backyard. The film was later released on September 23, 1988 to positive reviews and later becoming a box office success grossing $253 million worldwide on a $35 million budget and became a cult classic years to even more bigger success from various syndicated and cable airings of the film while also spawning a franchise including a television series lasting from 1989 to 1994. This film is often regarded as one of Disney's best animated films.

A sequel titled Return of the Tiny Men will be released on April 21, 2023, nearly 35 years after the original.

Plot
Lilly James, a 15 year old girl who is fascinated with nothing but drawing and writing stories. She'll always tell her teacher Mr. Austin about her findings while also studying insects as well as miniature life despite her parents telling her it isn't real. Despite this, she still goes with her interests and ends up finding life where a crowd of tiny people surrounds her, one of them being the leader named Lord Rex with his evil minions that Lilly steps on and continues on her day where she tells her parents about this which they don't believe and ends up going to bed.

One day, while Lilly is sleeping a warrior named Kane shrinks her down to size and explains to her that she needs to help the kingdom from the Lord Rex who wants to destroy and murder all of the citizens. As Kane ends up putting her through a training program, she also rescues RJ, Lord Rex's son and warns him about another invasion which is suggested to the deadliest one. Back at Lilly's home, her parents discovers that she's missing only for a note to be left that she went to a friend's house for some days and ended up going on about their day.

Meanwhile, a spy of the Lord ends up getting a sample of Lilly's DNA to go with his evil plans. As Lilly and RJ are out getting closer and going on dates, Lord Rex sends out his main minions Frode, Abhi, and Gorath to Lilly's house after going after clues to find out where she lives and whispers out a plan to them. Kane who is suspicious about the lord, ends up being kidnapped and ambushed but defeats th and warns Lilly which makes her paranoid but later brushes off it off as she falls asleep.

The next day, Lilly who is normal size discovers that her parents are missing and ends up hearing tiny screaming noises coming from the yard only to find out that Rex has kidnapped and his minions gave her an antidote to go back to normal size. Being angered she decides to cry until she discovers a drink that ends up shrinking her to size and flies to the kingdom. As Rex grows as big as a cockroach, he ends up invading the kingdom and ends up breaking the dam, while dropping Lilly's parents in it to drown. Seeing how Kane is successfully fighting off his minions and protecting the city, Rex pushes down a building which collapses on Kane killing him instantly and ends up grabbing Lilly.

Lilly ends up reuniting with her parents and saves them from drowning before Rex towers upon them. Realizing all the skills and weapons that were taught and given to her, Lilly ends up shooting her final arrow in Rex's chest instantly killing him while shrinking him back to his normal size as well as Lilly sending Rex's minions to Hell for eternity. With Rex defeated, the grass land kingdom is filled with nothing but peace as RJ is sworn in as the new King while Lilly and her family are saying their goodbyes and grow back into their normal size. Lilly then tells this whole adventure to her class explaining that miniature life does indeed exist which results in her teacher Mr. Austin, giving her an A and a round of applause from her class. The film ends with RJ and Lilly sharing a kiss.

Cast

 * Victoria Dillard as Lilly James, a 15 year old girl who likes to draw and write.
 * Jean-Claude Van Damme as Lord Rex, the evil lord of the grass land.
 * Thomas Mikal Ford as Kane, a warrior who is the leader of the resistance force against Lord Rex.
 * Josef Sommer as Abhi, the fearless minion of Lord Rex.
 * Jim Cummings as Milgen James, Lilly's 38 year old father who has no interest in her daughter's beliefs.
 * Neil Patrick Harris as RJ, the son of Lord Rex who despises his dad due to his evilness.
 * Amy Irving as Christina James, Lilly's 36 year old mother who is reckless and resents drawing.
 * Michael DeLuise as Gorath, the dimwitted minion of Lord Rex.
 * Ellen Barkin as Frode, the cocky minion of Lord Rex.
 * Bob Newhart as Mr. Austin, Lilly's grumpy yet nice teacher.
 * Lucile Bliss as Mrs. Keplar, an old cranky lady in Tinyland who mistakenly thought Lilly was an intruder.
 * Gary Trousdale as Craven, RJ's smart mouthed assistant.

Story development
Tiny Men in my Backyard was supposed to be one of the earliest films to be released under the Xtranormal Animation Studios banner in the 1960's but was cancelled due to production troubles.

In 1984, Gary Trousdale, became interested in the film, after reading an early script on it from the 60's, while doing the effects for the 1985 Disney film The Black Cauldron. Believing the story provided an "ideal basis" for an animated feature film and keen on creating a film that took place underwater, Trousdale wrote and presented a two-page treatment of Tiny Men in my Backyard to Walt Disney Studios chief Jeffrey Katzenberg at a "gong show" idea suggestion meeting. Katzenberg passed the project over, because at that time the studio was in development on a sequel to their live-action mermaid comedy Splash (1984) and felt Tiny Men in my Backyard would be too similar a project. The next day, however, Katzenberg approved of the idea for possible development, along with Oliver & Company. While in production in the 1980s, the staff found, by chance, original story and visual development work done by Kay Nielsen for Disney's newest original feature film by Xtranormal.

Script rewrite
Coming soon!

Release
The film was originally released on September 2, 1988 by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution and later had a re-release on November 15, 1996. Originally, the film was scheduled to have a 3D re-release in July 2013, but this was cancelled on January 14, 2013, due to the under-performances of other Disney 3D re-releases until further notice. However, it was confirmed that the film would be re-released in 3D and IMAX 3D on October 28, 2022 with deleted scenes being added.

Home media
Coming soon!

Box office
Tiny Men in my Backyard grossed $113.7 million in the United States and Canada and $139.5 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $253.2 million worldwide.

Before the film's release, Jeffrey Katzenberg was wary of the film being a success due to it being darker than most of the other Disney films released at the time while also the plot being iffy in his words. However, the film became a box office success grossing $70.8 million in the United States and Canada and $100.3 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $171.1 million worldwide in it's initial box office run along with $39.2 million and $42.9 million domestically and internationally respectively from it's 1996 re-release.

Critical reception
Review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film has a 91% approval score based on 71 reviews and an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's consensus reads "Tiny Men in my Backyard jump started a new era for Disney and it's animation with it's lively action sequences along with humorous moments as well as crispy animation for it's time." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequel
A sequel was scheduled to be released during the 1990s but these plans didn't go through due to the shift to it being a television franchise as well as Trousdale focus being on other Disney films of the era. After a troublesome development at Walt Disney Studios, a sequel was finally greenlit.

The legacy sequel titled Return of the Tiny Men will be released on April 21, 2023 by Walt Disney Pictures in IMAX and 3D.

Television
Coming soon!

Videogames
Coming soon!