So how does The Wizard hold up after all these years? Surprisingly well. Alright, so it isn’t Citizen Kane or anything, but for what essentially amounts to a 100 minute commercial for everything Nintendo, it is still a fun little adventure for anyone looking for a bit of nostalgia.
The plot revolves around two brothers, Corey (Fred Savage) and Jimmy Woods (Luke Edwards) whose parents are going through a messy divorce that is tearing the family apart. Jimmy has become withdrawn from the world since witnessing the death of his twin sister years prior. The only words Jimmy can mutter are “California”, prompting Corey to take his brother to California to see if that can snap him out of his state.
During their trip west, Corey discovers that Jimmy has a knack for gaming (“50,000! You scored 50,000 points on Double Dragon?”). The two soon meet Haley (Jenny Lewis), who suggests that they should enter Jimmy in the National Video Game Championships, which also happens to be taking place in California. Meanwhile, the duo’s father, Sam (Beau Bridges), and brother, Nick (Christian Slater), set out to track the them down.
Although the movie holds up well, it doesn’t have quite the impact it did back when the film was first released back in 1989. Back then, the only reason anyone went to see it was for the last five minutes of the movie, the unveiling of Super Mario Bros. 3. Sure we got to see cool things like the Power Glove, but in those pre-internet days, that was probably the biggest moment in any gamer’s life (except for the day they actually got to play Super Mario Bros. 3).
Again, the movie is basically one long Nintendo commercial. You get to see the movie’s villain, Lucas (Jacky Vinson), express his undying love for the Power Glove (“I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.”), as well as watch Nick and Sam heal the broken father/son bond over late night sessions of Adventure of Link and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You’ll even get to hear characters trying to infuse life lessons through game-related metaphors. What I found surprising, however, was that the name Nintendo isn’t mentioned until the later half of the movie, and even then it is only used once.
Outside of the nostalgia trip, The Wizard doesn’t offer much as far as extras go. In fact, the only thing fancy about the movie is that it uses one of those new DVD boxes with the snap-tight clips. While I would have liked to have seen a few extras make it on to the disc, I couldn’t think of much that would be worthwhile unless Nintendo was involved somehow (maybe they’re saving that for the special 20th anniversary release). Regardless, The Wizard is still a fun movie that children of the NES generation will want to add to their collection.
