You have to love how our kiddy duo complain that the bottled city of Kandor–er–Shandar isn’t protected when it’s been seated by hieroglyphs deep in a cave underground. And in Pennsylvania! No one would ever expect a bottled city to be hidden in Pennsylvania. Directed by Ted Nicolaou who brought us many of Full Moon’s more entertaining genre outings, “The Shrunken City” (or as it’s known now: “Shandar–The Shrunken City”) is a entertaining enough for kids, but incredibly convoluted. I was never quite sure what the hell was going on, all I knew was that two kids found the miniature city of Kandor–er–Shandar.
They have to protect it from the Oods, a group of aliens that can camouflage as humans, and they have to race against time to do something with the miniature city. They accidentally broke its shield signaling the Oods that have been hunting for it for thousands of years. Man, they’re relentless. Meanwhile an irritating wizard appears every five minutes badgering them to save the relic, and never actually helps them. You figure he’d do more than annoy them considering it’s only two kids against an army of deadly aliens, but he probably went to school with Gandalf. Also, if the city of Kandor–er–Shandar is going to expand, destroying everything in its path, wouldn’t it be smarter to just turn it over to the Oods so they can destroy it thus preventing a horrific disaster?
Truly, I poke fun at the film, but while it is very silly, it’s really harmless and isn’t offensively bad. Back in the nineties when Full Moon movies were still being shown on cable, I would have really enjoyed this movie. In its current state, it’s shown its wrinkles, but like many Full Moon movies in the nineties, it’s ambitious enough to be entertaining and charming. And it features a starring role from Agnes Bruckner who grew up to be a really gorgeous and notable character actress, all things considered. The performances from stars Bruckner and Mike Malota, are about at the level of what you’d expect from a B grade kids movie.
They do their best to inspire excitement and awe, all the while doing most of their acting while running around, evading bad guys, and engaging in car chases. Ted Nicolaou is able to pull a lot off with such a small budget, and manages to turn “The Shrunken City” in to a very amusing B grade kids film that is at least inspired in its premise. Director Nicolaou is no stranger to fantasy, delivering the very entertaining “Subspecies” vampires films, and he transplants a lot of the atmosphere for this film, sans the sex and gore. It’s too bad Full Moon doesn’t dabble in kids films anymore, since their brand of B grade entertainment was charming. “Remote” and “Prehysteria!” aren’t riveting, but they’re charming children’s films in their own right. “Shandar!” is an equally amusing little film.