The Wizard

The Wizard

1989

Director: Todd Holland

Writer David Chisholm

100 Minutes

The commercialization of products after E.T.’s Reese Pieces have flooded the film industry since 1980. Subliminal advertising for soft drinks, franchises, eateries, etc. have all been apart of our movie-going experience.

And none were bigger than The Wizard - Nintendo promotional film at it’s finest.

Corey Woods (Fred Savage) crosses the country with his brother, Jimmy (Luke Edwards) and his love interest, Haley (Jenny Lewis). Jimmy’s goal is to make it to California, a place long remembered in his family's history, but once Corey finds Jimmy’s extremely talented video game play, he enters him into a video game tournament.

Along the way, Jimmy plays Lucas (Jackey Vinson) who dazzles Jimmy with the Nintendo Power Glove. Even Jimmy was impressed, yet fearful to play this great competitor.

In the scene above, Lucas and Jimmy have made it to the finals of the tournament, but the plot twists is when they both find out they have to play a different game. A new game. Any video game competition, it would be uneven if everyone played the game of their choice. Here, Nintendo introduces Super Mario Brothers 3.

It’s a huge reveal and pre-teen/teenage kids around the country were glued to their theater seats when the third installment of the Mario franchise was revealed.

We love this scene cause this was the medium that brought us the hottest, newest Nintendo Game. The movie in itself is average. Fred Savage is always entertaining, but it was just another 1980’s performance. More so, Christian Slater played Nick Woods, Corey’s brother, was clever, but nothing special.

The Wizard gave a generation a great video game and that’s why it’s remembered. That’s why we love it.

In the end, Super Mario Brothers 3 gave us the raccoon suit, advanced levels, and even magical whistles. If not for the Wizard concurring the game, we would have nothing to strive for.

Except, a Frog Suit.