The Wizard (film)
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The Wizard is a 1989 movie about a boy (Fred Savage) and his two friends who run away from home to compete in the ultimate video game championship.
Plot
Corey (Savage) lives with his father (Bridges) and his older brother (Slater). His younger half brother, Jimmy (Luke Edwards), lives with his mother and her new husband. After witnessing the tragic drowning of his twin sister, Jimmy developed some sort of traumatic condition which resembles autism. Jimmy's mother has become frustrated with his treatment, so she decides to put him in a care facility. Corey decides to run away with Jimmy, and they set off for California with very little money and no idea how to get there.
Along the way, they meet Haley (played by Jenny Lewis), another runaway, and discover that Jimmy has an incredible talent for video games when he scores 50,000 points at Double Dragon. Together, Corey, Jimmy, and Haley hitchhike to California for a video game tournament to prove that Jimmy is not a freak. Meanwhile, they are being pursued by Putnam (a bounty hunter) and their family. They also have a run in with Lucas Barton, who owns every NES game, plus the Power Glove. Chasing the three are Corey's father and brother, and a private detective hired by their mother (Will Seltzer). After a stop in Reno to gather the money to enter, the three reach California, Jimmy enters the tournament, and manages to beat Lucas in the (then unreleased) Super Mario Bros. 3.
The movie features footage from many classic NES games, but this footage contains many factual errors. It also features a "preview" of sorts for Super Mario Bros. 3, which was to be released the following year. Though critically panned as a 100-minute video game commercial, it remains popular among video game fans, primarily for its value as camp.Universal Studios will release The Wizard on DVD on August 29th, 2006, and it will be preserving the film's original widescreen aspect ratio. In Germany, the film has been available on DVD since March 1, 2001, albeit with a pan-and-scan presentation.
Trivia
- In Europe, this movie was retitled Joystick Heroes.
- The most prominent game featured in the movie, Super Mario Bros. 3, went on to become the best-selling video game not packaged with a console [link]. Many of the other games featured in the movie were also major successes. The Power Glove, however, failed to catch on.
- Several of the games featured were played as standalone arcade machines, and one (Ninja Gaiden) was a cocktail cabinet. NES games did not appear in these formats, although Ninja Gaiden was a popular arcade game before being ported to the NES (the game shown was the NES version), and all of the games played by Jimmy were available in the arcades through the Play Choice 10 system.
- The word "Nintendo" is only spoken twice in the movie.
- There were difficulties synchronizing the film speed with the video games, due to the differences in speed. Film runs at 24 frames/second, and the games ran at 30 frames/second.
- The concept of a child who was cut off from the world except through games was also used in The Who's rock opera Tommy. The child in Tommy was deaf, dumb and blind to the world around him—but somehow possessed an almost supernatural talent for pinball, similar to the talent which Jimmy demonstrates for Nintendo games. The title of the film is also similar to the rock opera's most famous song, Pinball Wizard.
- The film was originally scheduled for this movie's release date, but was pushed back several months, and this film was released instead.
- Tobey Maguire has an uncredited role as one of Lucas's friends.
- Jenny Lewis is currently the lead singer of the band Rilo Kiley.
Video game related errors
Fans of the Nintendo Entertainment System are quick to point out that there are numerous errors within the movie involving the console and its games. Some examples:
- In the scene where Haley challenged Jimmy at Double Dragon, Jimmy has just scored over 50,000 points. However, when Haley finishes, she has just set the new high score on the same machine at just over 25,000 points.
- In one scene, Haley marvels at Jimmy's skill as he plays Ninja Gaiden, commenting on how he had played through the game twice and not taken a hit. However, his life bar shows some health missing, indicating he has taken at least one hit.
- At one point, Sam is playing when his game is interrupted by his son Nick. He claims he just reached the Sixth Palace. However, when Nick unplugs the NES, a shot of the TV screen is shown before it goes blank, showing him in a town.
- When Jimmy's turn in the preliminary round of Video Armageddon is completed, he walks away from the game he's playing, but the game continues to play on its own. In addition, all of the monitors are showing the exact same actions. This shows the actors were not playing the games themselves, but most likely all the TVs were hooked up to the same NES and someone was playing them off-screen.
- When the final round to Video Armageddon begins, the three finalists' scores - each of them represented on a television monitor by lightning bolt-riding knights - begin going up immediately. In addition, several things that cause a gain or loss in score in the competition (losing or gaining a life, or finding a warp whistle) do not cause a gain or loss of score in Super Mario Bros. 3. This may not be an error, as the tournament may be using an alternate scoring method.
- Also during the final round, when the announcer declares that each player is entering World 2, they are actually still in World 1 (entering stage 1-3). The players apparently skip over stage 1-2.
- Roger Ebert has pointed out that, during one scene, Sam announces he has reached the third level of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when the screen clearly shows the first level [link]. This is not an error, however. Sam stated that he had almost defeated the boss of the third level (Mechaturtle), and it was very likely he was starting over.
External links
- ["The Wizard"] IMDB page
- ["The Wizard"] - Elaborate review/dissection with accurate movie quotes.
- [The Original Wizard Website] - In-depth site, including link to petition for DVD. 2005 July update.
- [THE WIZARD Movie Review!] - 2003 June 4, X-Entertainment. In-depth, includes five WMV clips. Accessed 2006 March 17.
- [Satirical abridgement of the film] - 2002 April 9, Progressive Boink. Accessed 2006 June 1.
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