The Wizard: sheer '80s brilliance

When I was in 4th grade, I had a serious Super Mario Bros. 3 problem. I had just gotten a Nintendo, and GamePro magazine's first issue (free at Toys R Us) came out around the same time. The issue had a multipage spread on Mario 3, which at the time was only out in Japan. The giant world, the awesome power ups, the maps -- I reread that preview a hundred times.

So you can imagine how excited I was by The Wizard, the 1989 movie with Fred Savage that was basically a feature-length Nintendo commercial. More specifically, a Super Mario Bros. 3 commercial. Savage and his little brother, said Wizard, hitchhike across the country so the little kid can play in a video game tournament. The tourney scenes were American kids' first glimpse of actual SMB3 gameplay. Here's how much I wanted to see the movie: My aunt Kimmy took me to New York for a weekend, and my chosen activity one night was to go see The Wizard.

Anyways, the movie is coming out on DVD. Kotaku has a clip up that's absolutely hilarious. The kids' "costumes" are clearly the clothes they had in their closets. The set is some random room with a water fountain. It's shot more like a home video than a movie.

Movies like this are why I love living in 2006. Our commercials are 10 times better than this full-length movie. Say what you will about derivative film franchises, MTV's skin-crawling reality shows and The O.C., but at least they a)have good production values and b) are either smart or are self-aware enough to still be fun by acknowledging it when they aren't smart.