The Shrunken City

Also known as Shandar: the shrunken city , its low budget Romanian American kids science fiction movie directed by Ted Nicolaou in 1998. Produced by The Kushner-Locke Company and Castel Film Studios . Starring Michael Malota , Agnes Bruckner and Jules Mandel. Two teenaged kids discover a miniature bottled city buried beneath a construction site. They must protect the tiny civilization within from reptilian alien hunters after its everlasting power supply

File:Shandar.jpg

The Shrunken City of Shandar

Cast

Michael Malota as George Lang

Agnes Bruckner as Lori

Jules Mandel as Prime The Chief Engineer

Steve Valentine as The Ood leader

Ray Laska as Lieutenant Morgan

Dorina Lazar as Ramona

Christopher Landry as Sargent Bobby

Ion Haiduc as The Truck Driver

Lula Malota as Mrs. Lang

Andrea Marcelaru as Lori's Mom

Mihai Nicolescu as Mr. Manilo

Florin Kevorkian as Ood Soldier 1

Mihai Baranga as Ood Soldier 2

Lucian Pavel as Ood Soldier 3

Silviu Biris as Ood Soldier 4

Plot

In the fictional town of Cochran Heights, Pennsylvania, a curious thirteen-year-old boy, George Lang finds an archeological remain at a construction site . With the intent to show his friend, Lori, he goes to her house at six in the morning to wake her up before all the workers get to the construction site. Although skeptical, Lori goes with him and they encounter the hieroglyphic-like structure. The stone breaks causing them to fall into a cave where they see a dusty ancient bottle. The kids take the bottle to George's house where they begin to dust and examine it more closely. Unbeknownst to the children, the bottle contains the city of Shandar, a civilization of technologically advanced, and peaceful people that have been dormant for thousands of years. When George puts the screwdriver in one of the plugs they get teleported automatically inside of the bottle. They awaken Prime, the chief engineer from a 26,000-year-old hibernation.

Prime explains that only 350,000 people of Shandar managed to escape from the Ood, an intergalactic race of reptilians that tried to steal the energy power from the city. Unfortunately, George and Lori have unplugged the power link from the bottle, this will cause the expansion of the city to its regular city-destroying anything on its way, even Earth. Prime tells George and Lori that Shandar has enough power to hold its tiny size for 12 hours, and after it will explode like a hydrogen bomb, unless the power link is plugged back in the bottle. Prime urges George and Lori to communicate with their board of elders about the situation. The Oods will detect the bottle if the power link is missing and will try to destroy it. Odds will appear to regular humans like authority figures, and they won't know that they are intergalactic pirates, the only way to see them as they are is with a special magnifying glass, which Prime gives to George. While the kids were inside of Shandar, the Odds have already detected the whereabouts of the bottle, all the way to George's garage. When the kids are teleported back to George's house they rush to tell Mrs. Lang, however, it's already too late, the Odds have come to the house and disguised themselves as environmental activists.

George and Lori escape and decide to turn to the police instead, meanwhile, the Oods, which are using a magnetic detector follow the kids around. Prime can talk to George and Lori through mirrors or any surface that can reflect his image, so they plan to get Prime to describe to Lieutenant Morgan what is happening. Unfortunately while running from the Ood the bottle is shaken and Prime hits his head with one of the walls becoming unconscious. Unable to wake Prime, and provide an alibi , Lieutenant Morgan confiscates the bottle and calls George and Lori's parents. In the Meantime, Sergeant Bobby is questioning the infamous town's kleptomaniac , Ramona who has been brought to the station for shoplifitng charges. When Sergeant Bobby leaves her without supervision, Ramona steals the bottle and runs away. The Oods have found out that the bottle is at the police station, and have disguised themselves, this time as museums curators . Claiming that the kids have stole the bottle from the museum , Lieutenant Morgan attempts to return the bottle to museum curators , yet the bottle is no longer there because Ramona stole it. Lori mades up a lie in order to distract their parents and run to look for Ramona in the park. When they find her , they tell her about Shandar and the Oods , but she doesn't believe them until George shows her the magnifying glass , revealing that the police officers that are chasing them , are not human, but reptilian aliens. Now with the bottle back in their possession, the kids escape by the bus to Industrial City.

They enter a peanut factory ran by Mr. Manilo, who gets aggravated when he sees kids running around in the factory . The Oods find the kids and trap George, but Lori hits them with a metal bar causing the Ood leader to drop his magnetic detector inside one of the processing machines . Aiming to escape again, the kids pretend to be Mr. Manilo's nephew and niece and request a truck driver from the factory to take them to the construction site. While in the truck , Prime appears to the children and reminds them that there is only 1hour and 58 minutes left to Shandar's explosion. The kids show the reflection of Prime in the mirror to the truck driver , but he thinks is part of an expensive video-game. At the construction site one of the loaders have lifted the archeological remains , therefore the only way to find the power link now is by jumping in the loader and getting to the place the remains where dumped .The archeological remains get dumped at a tire yard and George and Lori spend the last few minutes left to the explosion trying to find the power link. But the Oods once again find and attack them. George and Lori separate to gain some time , Lori runs with the bottle , while George looks for the power link . Prime tells George that he could use electromagnetic energy to detect the power link , so he uses his compass until he finally finds it . Lori on the other hand is running from the Oods, who manage to corner her, and lie to her about the people of Shandar and that the alternative to survive is to return the bottle to them. However, she doesn't believe the Ood leader and tosses the bag containing the bottle into one of the tire mountain pile. George comes to the rescue by driving one of the cranes and lifting the Ood . The kids finally plug back the power link into the bottle and get teleported inside. Now with almost no time left for the explosion Prime who is very weak guides George through the complicated equipment in order to restore the power back to Shandar. The Oods using electromagnetism also teleport into the bottle , but Lori distracts them by throwing the statues from the hall to their heads . When everything is about to be destroyed , George pulls one of the levers and the Oods disappear. Grateful for saving the Shandar civilization, Prime repays George and Lori by erecting statues on their honor, and in order for the city to never be attacked by Oods , Prime teleports the bottle into another dimension.

References

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