Young Josh (Moscow), at 12, is just starting on the stage of being an awkward in-between. One minute it's Little League baseball: the next, it's standing beside a blonde princess at a carnival fairground and being told you're too short to go on the ride. In that moment of mortification, young Josh encounters a fortune-telling machine, and wishes that he'll become big. The next morning finds him with a 30-year-old body and a face he doesn't recognize. He runs away to New York with best-mate Billy (Rushton) and gets a job in a toy factory. So in tune is he with the company's product that he is soon moving up the career ladder. Despite, however, the attentions of the attractive Susan (Perkins), Josh has begun to realize that all he wants to do is find the magic machine, and get back to normal.

Tom Hanks always played his 12-year-old Josh as a 12-year-old, and won a Best-Actor Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for his success. He was helped in this by Penny Marshall who had young Moscow play each of big Josh's scenes first, so that Hanks could absorb the reactions and body-language of a real 12-year-old.

The director, Penny Marshall, provides the perfect pace for this film about a boy who just wants to be tall enough to be popular - but gets a whole lot more than he bargained for. The scriptwriters contributed the delightful story and dialogue that aptly illustrated the boy-in-man's-body problems: On the occasion when he's told about a woman co-worker who '...will wrap her legs around you till you beg for mercy', he innocently responds with 'Well, I'll be sure to stay away from her, then'.

I often wonder why it's so damn hard to just be a big kid no matter how old you are. Big is a movie about hanging on to that carefree child even when you grow up. It's about not getting caught up in stringent rules and routines, remembering those things that made being young so great, the outlook on life, especially when facing the mundane world of adulthood. Big strikes the balance between the two.

This is one of those movies that nearly everyone has seen. And, I suppose it's the precursor to that movie, 13 Going on 30, despite some differences in how the metamorphosis occurs and the result and everything.

Big is the story of 13 year-old Josh Baskin who is tired of missing out on all the privileges of being an adult. He's tired of simply being a kid. One night, he makes a drastic wish at a carnival arcade machine, and in the next day, he wakes up 30 years-old (or so). So the kid gets his wish, and while trying to return to normal, is a 13 year-old kid faced with a 30-year old's responsibilities. And it's a lot of fun. He works at a toy manufacturer. He gets the most excellent loft. I remember wanting a place like that when I was a teenager. Eventually, the 13-year-old must balance with the responsibilities of being a 30 year-old when Josh falls seriously in love with Susan (Perkins).

Big is one of the greatest movies ever simply because of the idea of a kid trying to be an adult and an adult still trying to hang on to being a kid, and all that things that Josh Baskins gets to experience while doing that.

As one of Penny Marshall's most notable production, this is enjoyable for nearly any age group. Everyone in it is fantastic--Hanks, Perkins, Loggia, Heard, Rheul, Moscow, and Rushton. It's a tough thing trying to hang to being young when you get older, but Big's a good reminder to keep trying.