Movie Moment Monday - The "Big" Keyboard

This is the latest entry in a series in which I present one of my favorite scenes in film history. Each scene will be posted during the first work day of every week, thus I call it Movie Moment Monday.

Before he won two Oscars and solidified himself as one of the most successful movie stars of all time, Tom Hanks was just another funny, talented guy who was waiting for his big break. Funnily enough, it would come in the form of a movie called Big. Not a very subtle pun. A few years before that he tried to make a "splash" with some other movies, but Big truly was the big one for him earning him his first of five Best Actor nominations (he'd later win for Philadelphia in 1993 and Forrest Gump in 1994).

Big was directed by, Laverne herself, Penny Marshall and was released in June of 1988. If you are a child of the 80s you have most likely seen this movie a bunch of times and even if you haven't you probably know what scene I'm ready to show you. It's as iconic as they come and has been parodied time and time again.


The Players
Tom Hanks - Josh Baskin
Robert Loggia - Mr. MacMillan


The Set Up
We all know the story. 12-year-old Josh Baskin walks up to the Zoltar machine at a carnival and wishes he were big. The next morning he wakes up looking like a man in his 30s. He quickly finds out the Zoltar machine has disappeared and it will take a month or so for a new one to be delivered. In order to live on his own he gets a job working at a company called MacMillan Toys. He's just a normal computer jockey until the scene you are about to see. One weekend he's walking around an F.A.O. Schwarz toy store because that's what 12-year-olds like to do.
Mr. MacMillan, who also frequents the store, sees him there and they begin to talk about toys. Since Josh is a kid in an adult's body he has an extremely unique insight on what kind of toys kids like. As a viewer we know all it will take for MacMillan to promote him is one awesome bonding experience. It comes in the shape of a giant piano keyboard. I'm sure most people have seen this before, but I know I won't ever get sick of it. So, please enjoy.

It really is a wonderful scene and it's such a simple idea. It's one of those scenes you wait for. You're flipping the channels and you see Big is on. You start watching once you realize it's still early in the movie and it hasn't happened yet. You watch the scene and enjoy it for the umpteenth time and probably end up watching the entire movie. I know it's a scene I will never tire of and I hope you feel the same way.