MovieChat Forums > Big (1988) Discussion > Why did Josh act more like a toddler tha...

Why did Josh act more like a toddler than a 12-13 year old?

posted 13 years ago by EightiesKid
55 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, this is still a classic 80s family comedy that mixes some sentimental serious moments in with it, but it always bothered me how Josh (especially AFTER he's in Tom Hanks' early 30s body) seems to act like a 6 year old, not someone just becoming a teen. Like how everything in his apartment is like a playground, and he never really does anything exciting once he's in an adult body. His friend Billy seemed a bit more typical though.

(I'm 30 now and born in '81, so I grew up in the 80s only a few years younger than Josh. I knew some older kids and none of them acted that childlike, either did I or any kids from school or my neighborhood back in 1994 at this age.)

Fred Savage in "Vice Versa" was MUCH more believable to me. Charlie was only 11 and he acted older/cooler than Josh (far more accurate to how I remember kids being then). Sure he still had some childhood aspects, but was also a hard rock fan who liked playing drums, and just generally seemed more adventurous.

Did Penny Marshall really believe 12-13 year olds were still that innocent and naive? It just screams "Baby Boomer screenwriter who grew up in the 50s and was totally out of touch with how kids acted in 1988!" to me.

[–] fiatlux-1 13 years ago

I thought it was unrealistic too. He seemed startlingly naive for someone who was 12 years old in this era!
He acted more like a 10 year old to me. How could a 12 yr. old not know anything about sexual innuendos? I knew more about sexual references when I was 6 lol!

Not to mention he never ever appears to feel the slightest bit GUILTY about what he's doing to his parents!!! He just writes the occasional letter home and then goes and buys a Pepsi machine and a trampoline!
This film was a comedy,and has an occasional funny moment, but it was mean-spirited to me in 1988 (I was 13 then) and seems that same way now.

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[–] MsELLERYqueen2 12 years ago

I was 12 in 1988. I didn't see anything mean-spirited about it then or now. Josh had no choice but to just write letters and wait for that Zoltar machine to become available again. What else could he do?

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[–] Petals121 9 years ago

He could at least feel bad about it. Not just write letters and then be all happy playing with his toys.

[–] Kuato_and_George 12 years ago

Kids used to play with toys longer than they do now. They'd do much more innocent stuff than (most) do now. It's almost looked down upon now. If you're 12/13 and you play with toys now there's something wrong with you. Back then? Was pretty normal.

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[–] novastar_6 12 years ago

Yeah really, he was 12 when he got big, a 12 year old is still usually pretty child-like instead of thrown into the teenaged quasi-grown up thing, especially back then. It's like 10 years before on Good Times, people today question why 13 year old Penny was watching Sesame Street, but back then 13 year olds were treated younger than 13 year olds today. I can't think of the name of the episode or the girl, but there was an episode of Three's Company with a little 13 year old girl, who to me looked more like 8 or 10, and when I was 10 people thought I was 20, it's a vast difference in the generations.

[–] Eve_of_Destruction 12 years ago

Kids used to play with toys longer than they do now. They'd do much more innocent stuff than (most) do now. It's almost looked down upon now. If you're 12/13 and you play with toys now there's something wrong with you. Back then? Was pretty normal.

This is true. There wasn't much internet and no cell phones. There were video games but not many hand helds. So you had to use your imagination or have toys. Unless you were a whore or something which the kids I knew werent. I came from a town where you were virgin until you weren't and nobody knew or talked about it. Not like now where having sex at 11 is normal.

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[–] TeaBunny 12 years ago

>> Not like now where having sex at 11 is normal. >>

LOL. What?

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[–] Drusilla (560) 7 months ago

I was being sarcastic. It's realistically more like 13.

[–] Three_Cats_Movies 11 years ago

It was also looked down upon when the film came out, also despite being brought them, I lost interest in toys by the time when I turned 11 purely as I found a different focus which was art and most people I know also lost interest by then, I only discovered videogames when I was 13, which was later than they

[–] novastar_6 12 years ago

I wouldn't say that, at 12 if I had the means the money he did, I'd probably have a lot of the same stuff he did in my room or my house.

[–] DavidTL 12 years ago

The thing I didn't like the most about what I thought was unrealistic, was when he deliberately went out of the way in the limo to flick with the lights behind him.
When I was 12, and if I were in a limo, I wouldn't, or anybody I know suddenly kneel up and reach over a womans head to flick on a light, we would just mess with the ones near us

[–] HowYaLikeDemApplesWill 12 years ago

I don't think it was as much Penny Marshall, as it was Tom Hanks at that time, who was still in between his zany childish "Adam Sandler phase", and his serious actor phase.

Whenever he overacted as a kid for comedic effect, I thought Rick Gassko in Bachelor Party. A prime example is at the cocktail party, where he's eating the mini-corn appetiser, and then the caviar. Of course these are classic scenes that most people who like this movie, remember fondly. But if you think about it even for a second, this was a smart 13 year old kid who was a whiz on the computer, and he would know that he has to "fit in" with the adult crowd he was mixing with.

I too liked this movie a lot, but like many movies, you have to check your brain at the door for maximum enjoyment.

[–] novastar_6 12 years ago

Another thing to consider is that Tom Hanks did not know how to play a kid suddenly become an adult, so they had the kid playing Josh show him how he would do the adult scenes and Tom did what the kid did.

[–] HowYaLikeDemApplesWill 12 years ago

True, but the kid 'teaching' him how to play a kid suddenly becoming an adult, didn't know either. You can't really use "method" acting in this instance, just by asking a kid how he would act if he were an adult. Heck, his guess would be as good as the kids.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie, and Hanks did a good job. But the original poster of this thread had a valid point...Hanks really over-emphasized the fact that he was supposed to be a kid in several 'adult' situations, and acted way younger than his 13 years of age would indicate.

[–] Helenlaurence 9 years ago

If he didn't the film wouldn't have really worked! They had to emphasise the difference!
He was a young for his age 12 year old, but that emphasised his innocence.

[–] ElMaruecan82 12 years ago

I agree.

Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors, but there were some parts where he was acting more like a 6-7 year old kid (and pretty well). I don't get the comments about kids being 'more child-like' at that time just because there were no Internet and cell-phones, the kid who played Josh' friend was natural and seemed to be more mature than Josh himself.

The moment I disliked the most is when Josh takes the sherry and eats it in a very gluttonous way, my wife is Tom Hanks' number one fan but at that point, she thought the same thing than I, he was a bit overacting, especially since Josh didn't behave that way as a child.

Again, there's nothing to blame on Hanks except that he should have taken into consideration that Josh was a preteen, not a kid obsessed with toys, but that has more to do with the directing, there's no doubt that Hanks could have played his character more maturely, but in my opinion, Josh should have been younger, more of a 9 or 10-year old child.

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[–] mark_ward1 12 years ago

It's ironic that Josh acts more immature after he becomes big. I'm not the first to notice this. When he's a kid, he and his friend talk about girls and try smoking. As an adult, Josh becomes obsessed with toys and acting silly.

I still like the movie, though.

[–] Helenlaurence 8 years ago

The movie wouldn't have worked otherwise!

The whole joke/ message of the movie is a child in an adults body. If he behaved no different, what would be the point?

Plus the whole message of adults losing their innocence and playfulness.

On the other hand he couldn't have been you get than 12 otherwise the whole sex bit and working etc would have been totally wrong!

[–] EightiesKid 12 years ago

I totally forgot I made this thread last year lol, and just rewatched the movie.

Exopterygota actually has an excellent point about Josh regressing. The actual 12 year old kid Josh at the beginning seemed much closer to how I remember older kids that age being back in the day. I wonder if (other than his job with toys) when he became an adult, the reason for his regressing could just be that he was scared and alone so therefore "not himself"? That would be totally understandable, although I still think Penny and Tom Hanks still kinda overdid it, lol.

And to the whole point about that era being pre-internet/cellphones/social networking/portable tech is totally irrelevant to me. I remember kids acting the same in the 80s as they seem to now, from the few I've interacted with or what I can tell on TV, etc. I think kids and people in general have always basically been the same. It's only superficial generational things that change like tech and pop culture.

I apologize if this is biased from a boys/guys' perspective, but I DO somewhat agree on one point. Back in the day, 12ish year old girls seemed to have a bit less social pressure to grow up out of toys or childlike things, while boys probably as far back as the 1950s kinda wanted to grow up and that hasn't seemed to change much. Nowadays (or kinda since the later 90s at least) girls seem like they want to grow up fast, sometimes too much.

[–] everydayboredom1980 12 years ago

I agree.

I saw this as a kid and I felt that Josh's behavior was pretty immature and toddler-like for a kid in 7th grade.