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Remember The Wizard?
trotski writes "I remember when I saw The Wizard as a kid, I thought it was the perfect movie. X-entertainment has released a review through the eyes of geek of this classic. Few movies have ever dwelled in pits of infamy quite so deep as The Wizard, Nintendo's 100-minute video game commercial that vaguely masqueraded as a real movie. The Wizard should've been able to keep kids well into their late teens interested, but the entire thing goes down the tubes once you hear the villainous cool kid's pickup line: "I love the Power Glove. It's so bad." The site includes video clips of this and other great moments in the movie."
There's also a
just-the-facts plot review of this timeless classic, at the Onion.
i saw it with my parents and they bought my SMB3 on the way home because they liked the movie so much. Few people ever did as much for the quality of my life as that movie did
lysergically yours
Who didn't have a crush on the red head girl from that movie?
Compare it to videos that exist in their own right, rather than just to sell toys. Examples include Power Rangers, Transformers, Pokemon...
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
i saw this movie just to see pictures of the (yet-unreleased) super mario brothers 3. dude, that was probably the most anticipated game of my entire life (and amazingly, it didn't disappoint. still up there among my favorite games ever).
btw, the powerglove was a piece of crap. i think i still have mine in a closet somewhere. completely unuseable.
If you live here in the states, you may know it as "the movie" the USA network played from 1994 well through 1997 between the hours of 8 and 10 eastern time.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
The best geek movie from when I was a kid was Time Bandits. Does anyone else remember this? I just bought it on DVD the other day and watched it for the first time in years. It was awesome!
remember the wizard?
no.
Why is it that most... ok, ALL, video game- based movies are bad?
Take Joysticks, for example. As anyone that has seen this movie can tell you, it's one of the WORST movies EVER made. But as a "period piece" (it came out in 1983), it's pretty cool. The arcade scenes pretty much make up for the horrible acting and lame plot (local rich guy wants to shut down the local arcade... yawn). Plus, there's a bit of T&A in it and it stars Joe Don Baker. w00t!
More info about this atrocity here.
"You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
Cory(Fred Savage) to Lucas in a vain attempt to save face after the awesome power glove is revealed, "Keep your power gloves off my girl."
... the "Close Encounters" tune that the Power Glove played? doo dee doo doh daaaaaaaaa
"Derp de derp."
I saved up to buy a Power Glove but on the day that I went to buy one Toys R Us was all out...so I bought Legos with my money instead. That was a much better investment.
We used the PowerGlove quite a bit in a VR class during undergrad. Great cheap interface.
http://www.spymac.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo= 6035&slideshow=1
http://www.nesplayer.com/wizard/after.htm
... the Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour.
"You can count on us Mr. President. Major Nuggut, Gooey, Cocco, put down those entertaining Mattel products."
...when George Lucas will release a 20th anniversary edition with all the videogame sequences updated to feature Nintendo256 titles.
(and maybe, just maybe, re-add the deleted scene where someone touches Haley's breasts).
Of course, shrewd viewers will know he's just building back up the Wizard fan-base for the Colecovision/Atari 2600 Prequels.
A friend and I came up with the idea after watching Minority Report and turning the power glove into some kind of control device for a computer like Tom Cruise had. Neither of us being THAT in depth technically, we blew it off as not being possible and kept it to just being "something cool."
.. ?
For you electronics "Wizards" here just how possible is it to hook up a power glove to a computer and use it as a mouse or joystick type device for playing Quake or sol.exe
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Check out my blackbox styles
Thanks for lowering my consumer expectations.
When I saw this movie as a kid (which I enjoyed at the time), I bought the PowerGlove shortly after. After less than an hour attempting to get it to work, it went into the closet. Aside form the 2 or 3 times I've broken it out in worthless attempts at playing with it, it's stayed there for the last 10 years, until I realized its worth $50 on eBay, and out the door it went.
This was the first time that several things happened:
1) I bought something that was of horrible quality, thinking it would be of excellent quality
2) I spent a lot of money (+/- $100?) on something that was really "throw-away"
3) I realized that I was a sucker to marketing
4) My expectations of items that I purchase were lowered forever
You've only begun to redeem yourself. The good games you've given me over the last 7 or so years have been working away at your debt. The way I see it, you still owe me four Mario's, three Zelda's and a Metroid. Otherwise, we may find out how much a childs innocence is worth in court!!
P.S. As a favor, I expect to see Mario set on fire much more in the next Mario.
I'm 23 now, so when The Wizard came out I was still under the rules of the parents, and the rule handed down from my mother was, "You are NOT seeing this movie. I will not take you, you will NOT see it with your friends, understood?" As a child influenced by the pop-culture and of course being a big Nintendo fan, I was devestated, plus I never really understood why I wasn't allowed to see the movie. All I knew is that my parents told me that I'd one day understand why they wouldn't let me see it.
I finally saw it when the movie made it to TV a few years later, but still being a young teenager I just enjoyed those video game references. After seeing it a few more times here and there on cable did I realize why I wasn't allowed to see it. This movie has got to be the single worst movie ever made. Now obviously this is a movie straight out of the mass-marketing, greed, product-placement superextraveganza we call the 1980's, so we can't blame Nintendo for trying with that aspect, but we can blame them for this...
Here's what had to have been going through the minds of the screenwriters:
Screenwriter 1: "Hey, let's create a 100 minute long commercial and here's the kicker, this kid, 'The Wizard', will play a new unreleased videogame."
Screenwriter 2: "Great! But let's make the kid on the brink of mental destruction because he watched his twin sister drown a few years before. Then we'll have his brother kidnap him, take him cross-country to california where they meet up with a girl, and they'll force the kid to play video games for money!"
Screenwriter 1: "Outstanding! While we're at it, let's have the girl, who hasn't even come close to puberty shout 'He touched my breasts!' It'll be great because she has no breasts and she's a little girl! The moviegoers will love it!"
Screenwriter 2: "Aren't we just the worst screenwriters in history?"
Screenwriter 1: "And how!"
I really don't blame my parents at all now. I really can't fathom the minds behind this movie (with the exception of the product placement part). I mean, they made this kid be in a state of mental destruction because he watched his sister die, he's kidnapped and FORCED to play video games, and nobody seems to care that he just wants to go see some dinosaur park in California which has some special meaning because of some past trip there with his now dead sister.
Not to flame anybody here but how can anyone really call this movie good? Walking commercial? Yes it is, but good movie? Hell no.
/obvious Coneheads refference
Yeah, he's right. That IS the same Dinosaur Pee-Wee got laid in.
All kidding aside, I remember waiting dilligently for this to come out on VHS as a kid. My parents hardly ever took me to the movies. When it did, and I finally saw it, I wasn't really all that impressed. By then, SMB3 was already out, and I had already whomped it's digital ass. But it was still a fun movie none-the-less.
Oh well. Nostalgia sure is fun, isn't it...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
Who didn't have a crush on the red head girl from that movie?
She was...a girl...who liked...VIDEO GAMES!!
Oh my god, I think we just struck gold!
Why is it that most... ok, ALL, video game- based movies are bad?
See, there're rules for these things:
* Movies based on video games will suck.
* Movies based on Saturday Night Live characters or skits will suck.
* Remakes of classic movies will suck, but lots of people will go to see them anyway because they don't remember the originals.
* Sequels to movies where a majority of the original characters do not return will suck.
* If these characters are not played by the original actors, the movie will suck.
It's not the filmmakers' fault, those are just the rules. They look up the type of movie thay want to make. If it's there, the suck flag gets set.
On Topic:
If you want a serious answer, I think it's because unless you use animation, you can't reproduce the action of the game, so you have to rely on making it a conventional action movie. Since it's going to be nothing like the game, and since the plot of the game will be much less interesting by itself, it will, by necessity, suck.
Java: the bastard demon spawn of C++ and Ada
1989 was the year I turned 21- I remember nothing from that year-- and after reading about 'the wizard' I'm much happier for this fact!
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
Amazingly enough, it is possible to mod a Power Glove to work with a PC. Check This Out, as well as this page. That should get you started. I know there's a driver for it somewhere, it was featured in a /. story sometime in the last 1.5 years...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
What videogame enthusiast didn't like *Cloak and Dagger* or *D.A.R.R.Y.L.*? Those were full-on Atari commercials...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Does anyone here remember the Nintendo World Championships in 1990? Or did anyone take part in it? I think it's pretty funny that the kid who won in the Wizard movie was from Utah (just like the Real Championships). E-mail me if you took part in it. It would be great to have a reunion or something. jeffhansen.com
....Mike Jittlov, the Wizard of Speed and Time.
If we're going to spend some time contemplating the deep philisophical meaning of the Fred Savage Nintendo Movie, then maybe we can set aside a few minutes to consider this fantastic film.
Over time, I've consistently held The Wizard of Speed and Time to be my number one film, trumping all others by a long shot. Certainly if your primary source of entertainment is a little box with a keyboard, then you can appreciate more than anyone the amount of work and care that this film shows in scene after scene. Jittlov is, basically, a master animator, and this story of a man trying to tell his dreams through filmmaking is both inspiring and entertaining.
For most people, the response to my mentioning this film is "Well, of course." but if you haven't heard of this film before, trust me, you're in for a treat. Mike Jittlov is a great guy personally, and a fantastic filmmaker professionally, and the more people who know about this incredible piece of work and bring it into their lives, the better.
Due to the usual vagaries of the film production business, Mike sees little or no financial reward from the versions of the film currently out there, so don't pay too much thinking it'll get back to him. But see this film. I risk breaking its back with the accolades I and others heap on it.
Holy shit - I apologize for the above post. My mind is most definitely not on the topic at hand. For some reason, I skipped a sentence or two and missed the link to X-Entertainment in the story. Bah. That's what I get for Slashdotting at 4am (and not completely, uh, in my best state of mind shall we say).
Ah well, the Atarihq.com link I gave above is interesting, at the very least. See? I did contribute something.
*embarassed sigh*
But, you keep on with your video game girl...less competition ;)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
not just for its 80s feel, but for its bizarre moments above all.
... Spanky?
-for example, the kids hitch a ride with a giant black trucker named Spanky
-the kids surreptitiously ride in the back of a farmer's truck and then get beaten up by the farmers. their money is stolen. CMON WHO DOES THAT?!?!? the kids are like 10 years old.
-fred savage's character dons a monster mask and tries to scare the girl as a little practical joke. she stares at him incredulously for a couple of seconds. then she hits him square in the face, bare knuckles style, knocking him out cold for the entire night! WTF!!
-sam, the kids' dad, is supposed to continue the journey but he's caught up in playing zelda. the elder son, nick, gets his attention: (lifted from imdb)
[Sam is playing Zelda II The Adventures Of Link]
Nick: Pop I think we got it.
Sam: Wait a second. I'm on the sixth palace of Hyrule. Yeah, Got past the river devil.
Nick: Right.
[Turns off the Nintendo]
Sam: What the hell are you doing? I had the magic key. I got the cross. I was closing in on the barbarian!
Nick: You're losing it pop.
-the girl utters a memorably idiotic line:
Haley: She packed it in. She was a showgirl. Great legs. I got her legs, what do you think?
-calllifoooornia!
it's surreal. hilarious. as un-timeless as movies get.
rent it today for a laugh. and remember, quoting The Wizard out loud definitely makes you cool.
The Powerglove was bad.
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