Yet another weirdly funny movie by Juliusz Machulski. This one came out in 1988.
A young journalist Olgierd Jedlina has a Dark Secret — he is a (dun, dun, dun...) krasnoludek. You know, one of those tiny little guys who braid horse manes and help out orphaned girls? Yes, really. No need to laugh.
See, turns out that, while the krasnoludki don't do the braiding and helping stuff anymore, they still exist. They live in Szuflandiatranslation , a Mouse World hidden in the disused basement of a boring institute. And some have found a way to grow big for a while, so they can reap the fruits of life, so to speak. This Magic Potion (and the resulting state of bigness) is called "kingsajz" (phonetically rendered "king size"). It's tightly restricted among the tiny folk, but some inventive soul has discovered, a while back, that the human-made soft drink named Polo-Cocta also works. Since then, some krasnoludki stay "in kingsajz" permanently by drinking lots of Polo-Cocta. But Adaś Haps, an alchemist and Olo's friend, has devoted his life to breaking the monopoly and bringing kingsajz to the masses.
He succeeds. Cue trouble.
Because Kilkujadek, the leader of Szuflandia, isn't letting his privileged status go...
Tropes:
- Absent-Minded Professor: Both the alchemists. Ala's dad has some other issues that may cause absent-mindedness and eccentricity, but Adaś is a textbook case.
- Accidental Discovery: Ala's dad found the formula of kingsajz by accident. And, while Adaś has experimented on himself, the magic ingredient is something most chemists wouldn't have tried: tap water — so he probably did find it by accident.
- Alchemy Is Magic/Artistic License – Chemistry:Kingzajz makes krasnoludki big. That's it. The formula for it serves as the MacGuffin. There's also an alchemical potion that makes humans small.
- All Men Are Perverts: Since krasnoludki are Always Male, they are extremely curious about women, especially in voyeuristic sense. Kilkujadek even comments that the real reason behind everyone wanting to go into kingsajz is not due to all the lofty ideas and luxuries, but simple sex drive — never mind the inherent hypocrisy of the statement, as he's very keen on female company himself.
- Agent Provocateur: Adaś's cellmates are supposed to get the secret out of him, but fail.
- Bathhouse Blitz: In the end, Olo and Adaś have to fight Kilkujadek and his cronies off in a bathroom. By clever use of soap, Olo manages to drown them in the toilet.
- Clandestine Chemist: Adaś Haps, a somewhat exccentric, nervous, nerdy alchemist illegally searching for the kingsajz formula to allow every krasnoludek a choice of how big he wants to be.
- Coincidental Broadcast: After Kilkujadek's agents destroy the Polo-Cocta factory, both the resulting shortage and seemingly random men mysteriously vanishing feature in the news.
- Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: While posing as a szuflandian Double Agent, Olo claims a specific krasnoludek he knows has been recently killed was his handler.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: Szuflandia is hidden in the basement of the Institute of Quaternary Research. Judging by the Cobweb of Disuse, nobody ever goes through the human-sized door, making it the perfect place.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: While never graphic and always cheerful, the film has a whole lot of very unusual and brutal ways to go:
- The regular way of dealing with dissidents is to slice them with an egg slicer. The alternative, seen as beyond cruel, is to be fed to birds.
- While being tiny, Kramerko unknowingly activates a trap by catching two cables connected to a battery, closing the circuit and electrocuting himself to death.
- Kwintek gets caught by a mouse trap, which fatally crushes him. He survives the initial impact, but Olo can't pull the spring back on his own.
- Kilkujadek and his goons end up flushed down a toilet.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The movie is a clear allegory of Iron Curtain Europe, with defectors from the increasingly deprived dictatorship of Szuflandia living in the consumerist "king size" world drinking something that might almost be Coca Cola.
- Elite Agents Above the Law: Kilkujadek sends two of these after the protagonists.
- Epic Fail: The attempt to kill tiny Olo with a bar of soap fails entirely — the bar didn't even travel half the distance needed.
- Fanservice: Quite a lot, although Ala sleeping in the nude is seen from a krasnoludek's perspective and serves to accentuate the size difference. There is however zero justification for Eva, Olo's fiance from the opening, to walk completely naked toward the camera.
- Fascist, but Inefficient: Szuflandia is crawling in this direction — Olo gets a nasty surprise ordering food in a bar, because items that used to be common two years back now are scarce. And, of course, nadszyszkownik Kilkujadek's word is the law.
- Fashion Show: Olo and Ala meet at one of those. She designed the collection.
- Faint in Shock: Olo's editor, when she sees him in his small form.
- Fantastic Honorifics: Krasnoludki call each other "kumoter" (an old-timey word for "friend") and their officials are titled "szyszkownik" (roughly: pineconer) and "nadszyszkownik".
- Forced Transformation: Ala's dad has been turned into a rabbit by Kilkujadek for opposing him.
- Gainax Ending: Their rescue mission accomplished, Olo, Ala, her dad and Adaś happily board a train to go "south". Then they look out the window and it turns out they're on board of a model train some kid is playing with on the lawn in front of Pałac Kultury. Cue screaming.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Just like Sex Mission, the film is chock-full of allegories for the contemporary situation in the Polish People's Republic, with ever-increasing problems for the common people and constant shortages being contrasted with the bloated decadence of the Party's top brass and them playing favorites with their most faithful followers. It mostly got past the radar of political censors not due to being considered inoffensive, but because the whole system was on its last legs (a mere year later, the so-called "semi-free" elections officially ended communist rule). And even then, most of the stronger political undertones are double-wrapped in metaphors and allegories just in case, actively exploiting Comedy and the Fantasy Ghetto.
- Helium Speech: The krasnoludki speak in high-pitched, distorted voices. They're not as high as a literal helium voice, but close.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: The krasnoludki have their own names for months, mince their oaths in their own special way and generally use diminutive forms of names (Adaś instead of Adam, Olo instead of Olgierd) they go by in the large world. The names they use among themselves sound fairy-tale-ish.
- The Infiltration: The rescue plan, in which Olo pretends to have been The Mole for Kilkujadek, requires him to go to Szuflandia (small). He stumbles somewhat after spending two years away.
- Informed Obscenity: Some szuflandian insults are made-up ("ty zmrolu!"), some are not.
- Kidnapped Scientist: Adaś gets captured and imprisoned. Rescuing him takes up a big part of the plot.
- Lilliputians: Krasnoludki, of course. And maybe the regular sized cast, too.
- Lost in a Crowd: In the opening, Olo tells Adaś to hide in the crowd in the hotel's lobby. It doesn't work — after making a massive scene, szuflandian agents seize him and drag him outside, kickstarting the plot.
- Married to the Job: Adaś admits to never having had the time to meet women, because he'd spend it all in the lab.
- Must Have Caffeine: When the Polo-Cocta shortage starts, it sure looks like a lot of people (Olo included) must and will fight for it. Subverted, however, because caffeine isn't why they drink it.
- Mouse World: The krasnoludki mention their traditions of being House Fey, but they've long since stopped helping humans and instead went into hiding.
- Nerd Glasses: Worn by Adaś, the closest thing this movie has to a Mad Scientist.
- No Ontological Inertia: The very moment Kilkujadek is killed, the curse he put on Ala's dad is broken and he turns back to human. Well, mostly human.
- One-Gender Race: Krasnoludki are Always Male. The opportunity to meet women is a large part of why kingsajz is so attractive. Ala's dad is the very krasnoludek who discovered that Polo-Cocta can be used as kingsajz, and she's a perfectly normal human woman, except she takes in her stride the things other human women wouldn't believe, like krasnoludki or her father being turned into a rabbit.
- President Evil: Nadszyszkownik Kilkujadek, the self-serving, sleazy, cynical ruler of Szuflandia.
- Professor Guinea Pig: Adaś, who was specifically trying to find the kingsajz formula. There just isn't any other way to test it.
- Public Secret Message: Adaś improvises a code while being kidnapped. Due to how frantically he yells it, though, it's fairly obvious he's either gone entirely bonkers or trying to say something important. Ala figures it out. So does Kilkujadek.Adaś: Cafe Biba, bekonik, dużo wody, kranowej!
- He means
- Ca - calcium, Fe - iron, Bi - bismuth, Ba - barium, Be - beryllium, Co - cobalt, Ni - nickel, K - potassium, and lots of water from his laboratory tap.
- Red Herring: Olo throws one to Kilkujadek's agents, who take the bait and investigate Olo's editor, until they realise she's a woman (for more laughs, she's played by a man in drag).
- Satire: Of the realities of living on the worse side of Iron Curtain, this time focusing on how the party officials gave themselves privileges while outwardly preaching austerity.The barman: Coupon, please. We don't sell flies without a coupon.
Olo: What? He got one, he had no coupon! - Scavenged Punk: Apart from all the office furnishings like card catalogs, boxes and phone cords, the denizens of Szuflandia use kitchen implements (a strainer as a prison cell, an egg slicer as a guillotine), discarded packaging and various scraps in ways unintended by humans. They have lots of rope ladders made of string and matches.
- Sizeshifter: The titular "kingsajz" allows a krasnoludek to grow to a human size temporarily. Ever since someone discovered it can be substituted with Polo-Cocta (a slightly Shoddy Knockoff Product version of Coca-Cola), a group of krasnoludki has been staying "in kingsajz" permanently.
- Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Empty Piles of Clothing are left when a kingsajzed krasnoludek shrinks back, and before taking kingsajz, all clothes must be off.
- Shout-Out: To Vabank — the pair of tough guys who guide Olo back into Szuflandia are named Kwintek and Kramerko (and played by the actors who played the full-sized Kwinto and Kramer). Kilkujadek's agents also name-drop Sex Mission.
- Tattooed Crook: Parodied. One of the krasnoludek in the szuflandian prison has a big, childishly designed toadstool tattoo covering his entire chest.
- Wainscot Society: Szuflandia, complete with Scavenged Punk gear.
