The Wizard (1989 film)

The Wizard is a 1989 American family film directed by Todd Holland, written by David Chisholm, and starring Fred Savage, Christian Slater, Jenny Lewis, Beau Bridges, and Luke Edwards. It was also Tobey Maguire's film debut.[3]

The Wizard
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTodd Holland
Produced by
Written byDavid Chisholm
Starring
Music byJ. Peter Robinson
CinematographyRobert D. Yeoman
Edited byTom Finan
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
(North America)
Carolco Pictures (International)
Toho (Japan)
Release date
  • December 15, 1989 (1989-12-15)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6 million[1]
Box office$14.3 million[2]

The film follows three children as they travel to California to compete in a speedrunning video game tournament. The youngest of the three is emotionally withdrawn with a gift for playing video games. The Wizard is known for its extensive product placement of Nintendo material. The film was also well known for being the official introduction to Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America.[4] Despite receiving consistently negative reviews, the film has garnered a cult following.[5][6]

Plot

Jimmy Woods is a young boy suffering from PTSD after his twin sister, Jennifer, drowned two years earlier. Prone to wandering away from home at random times, he perpetually carries around a lunchbox while frequently repeating the word "California". Jennifer's death resulted in a split of Jimmy's family: he lives with his mother, Christine, and stepfather, Mr. Bateman, while his older half-brothers, Nick and Corey, live with their father, Sam. Exasperated by Jimmy's behavior, Christine and Mr. Bateman decide to commit Jimmy to an institution. Unwilling to allow it, Corey sneaks Jimmy out, and they start traveling on foot for Los Angeles. Nick and Sam resolve to bring the boys back, in competition with Mr. Putnam, a greedy bounty hunter hired by Mr. Bateman and Christine to find Jimmy.

At a bus station, Jimmy and Corey meet Haley Brooks, a teenager on her way home to Reno. When they discover that Jimmy has an innate skill for playing video games, Haley informs Corey of "Video Armageddon", a gaming tournament being held in Universal Studios Hollywood, with a grand prize of $50,000. Corey sees the tournament as an opportunity to avert Jimmy's institutionalization by showcasing his talent, and Haley agrees to help take Jimmy to the tournament in return for a share of the winnings. The trio hitchhike cross-country, using Jimmy’s skills to win bets on games. They eventually meet Lucas Barton, a popular but snobbish gamer who demonstrates his ability to play Rad Racer with a Power Glove and informs Haley he will also be competing. Corey and Haley learn that Jimmy's lunchbox contains photos and mementos of Jennifer.

The trio arrive in Reno, gaining more money with help from Haley’s trucker friend, Spankey, whom Haley coaches to success at a casino’s craps table. Jimmy then begins training on arcade machines with help from the Nintendo Power Line. The children escape from Putnam to Haley's trailer, where she reveals she wants her share of the prize money to help her father buy a proper house. Putnam finds Haley's trailer and captures Jimmy, but Haley summons several truckers who barricade Putnam on the road, assault him, and rescue Jimmy. After Spankey drives the children to the tournament, Jimmy enters and becomes a finalist after playing Ninja Gaiden. In between rounds, Putnam makes another unsuccessful attempt to apprehend the children. Jimmy, Lucas, and a third finalist compete in the tournament's final round – they have 10 minutes to score as many points as they can in Super Mario Bros. 3, a brand-new game not yet released in the United States. Cheered on by his family, Haley, and even Putnam, Jimmy wins the tournament at the last second and earns the prize money.

As the entire family heads home, accompanied by Haley, Jimmy suddenly becomes restless when he spots the Cabazon Dinosaurs, causing them to stop the car. They follow him inside, and Corey finds Jimmy looking at his photos of the family, one of which was taken at the tourist trap. They realize that Jimmy only sought closure in a place where Jennifer was happy. Jimmy leaves his lunchbox at the site and the family resumes the car trip, happily riding off into the sunset.

Cast

Production

During 1988, a shortage of ROM chips and the preparation of a version of Super Mario Bros. 2 for the west delayed several of Nintendo's game releases in North America. The delayed products included Super Mario Bros. 3 and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.[7] The delay presented Nintendo with an opportunity to promote the game in a feature film. In 1989, Tom Pollack of Universal Studios approached Nintendo of America's marketing department about a video game film; inspired by Nintendo video game competitions, Pollack envisioned a video game version of Tommy for younger audiences. Nintendo licensed its products for inclusion in the film. During production, the filmmakers were granted approval from Nintendo regarding the script and portrayal of its games.[8] Super Mario Bros. 3 was one of the products shown in the film and was used in a final scene involving a video game competition.[8][9] Despite the film touting itself as featuring the first public reveal of Super Mario Bros. 3, the game had already been released in Japan during the previous year, with U.S. magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro having already covered the Japanese version.[10][11][12]

Filming took place between June 5 and July 25, 1989.[1] In a 2008 reunion,[13] as well in an interview in 2014,[14] Todd Holland revealed that the original cut of the film was 2.5 hours long and included an extended backstory for Jimmy and Corey.

The 1965 A64B Autocar severe-duty, Cab Over Engine vocational truck that Spanky drives was previously used in the 1987 Sylvester Stallone film Over the Top. When the truckers box Putnam in on the road after he nabs Jimmy, "Hawk Hauling," (the name of Stallone's character Lincoln Hawk's company in Over The Top), can still clearly be seen on the driver's-side door when Spanky opens it to exit the cab around the 57:35 minute mark in the film. Following Over The Top and before it finally made its way into The Wizard, the truck was also used in 1988's Messenger of Death. After filming The Wizard in 1989, it went to sit on a Universal backlot for years until it was called back into service once again, this time for the Lori Petty film Tank Girl, where it was repainted silver. A few years later it appeared in another science fiction film, again in its silver repaint.[15] In 2010 it was spotted for sale in truck jackknife stuntman George Sack Jr.'s California scrapyard.[16]

When later interviewed for Nintendolife.com in early September 2009, director Holland admitted that he had some issues with the final script- "I argued with the studio that we were shooting way too much footage- more than we could ever possibly use [...] I lost the argument and was told flat out by Universal to shoot the entire script". According to Holland, the original cut of the film was over 2.5 hours long and that nearly an hour of footage needed to be deleted in order to make the film a suitable length for family viewing. The deleted material was finally released in 2020 on the collector's edition blu-ray of the film. Most of the deleted footage comes from the original cut of the opening act which explores Corey's home life in more detail, including deliberately antagonizing his older brother, his mother's emotional issues surrounding Jimmy and her divide from her former family. Nick's alcoholism is also explored in more detail as well as additional clips from the road trip scenes. Trucker Spankey gets more screen time in the deleted scenes also, explaining his role in more detail and there are more clips from the final Video Game Armageddon contest.

Music

Release

Box office

The Wizard debuted at No. 5,[17] earning $2,142,525 in the domestic box office.[18] At the end of its run, the film had grossed $14,278,900.[2] Based on an estimated $6 million budget, the film was a moderate box office success, after which it became a cult film.[1]

Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. Multiple newspaper critics labeled it a feature-length commercial for Universal Studios Hollywood and Nintendo. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a cynical exploitation film with a lot of commercial plugs" and "insanely overwritten and ineptly filmed". He later called it one of the worst films of 1989.[19] Washington Post staff writer Rita Kempley wrote that the movie was "tacky and moribund", plagiarizing heavily from the 1988 film Rain Man.[20] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 32% score based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 4.39/10.[21] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 23 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[22]

David Sheff, in the book Game Over (1993), called it "less a piece of art than a one-hundred-minute advertisement for Nintendo that millions of families paid to see" especially for Super Mario Bros. 3.[23] Levi Buchanan of IGN, in 2012, called it a "90-minute Super Mario Bros. 3 commercial".[24]

Despite the negative reviews, the film was still popular enough to achieve cult film status and to receive a reunion screening from Ain't It Cool News at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz in Austin, Texas, on February 8, 2008. Director Holland and stars Savage and Edwards were in attendance to take questions from fans.[25]

Home media

The Wizard was released on VHS and LaserDisc three times, in 1990, in 1992, and in 1997. By 1993, The Wizard grossed $6 million in video rentals.[26]

It was first released on DVD in Region 2 on February 2, 2001 and finally in the US and Canada (Region 1) on August 22, 2006.[27] The Blu-ray version was released on May 15, 2018,[28] and a special edition Blu-ray was released by Shout! Factory on March 24, 2020,[29] with a new 4K remaster, audio commentary with director Todd Holland, never-before-seen deleted scenes, and more.[30]

Legacy

On September 6, 2016, Pax West 2016 concluded with a replica of the Super Mario Bros. 3 tournament from the film.[31]

References
  1. "The Wizard (1989) - Box office / business". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  2. "The Wizard (1989)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  3. Weintraub, Steve 'Frosty' (September 15, 2015). "Tobey Maguire Talks 'Pawn Sacrifice' and Being an Extra in 'The Wizard'". Collider. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  4. "Gamecubicle.com Super Mario Sales data". Retrieved October 9, 2007.
  5. Onanuga, Tola (April 7, 2014). "My guilty pleasure: The Wizard". The Guardian. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  6. Matheson, Whitney (December 18, 2014). "FLASHBACK: Fred Savage & Jenny Lewis In Cult Classic 'The Wizard,' AKA 1989's Biggest Nintendo Ad". E!. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  7. Sheff, David (1993). "Game Masters". Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children. Random House. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-679-40469-9.
  8. Sheff, David (1993). "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children. Random House. pp. 190–191. ISBN 978-0-679-40469-9.
  9. McFerran, Damien (April 2008). "The Making of The Wizard". Retro Gamer (49): 84–87.
  10. Matti, Michele (November–December 1989). "NES Journal: The Wizard". Nintendo Power (9): 90.
  11. Semrad, Ed (August 1989). "International Outlook". Electronic Gaming Monthly (2).
  12. The Eliminator (May 1989). "Overseas Prospects". GamePro (1).
  13. Stomp, Goomba (January 11, 2015). "How 'The Wizard' failed Nintendo". goombastomp.com. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  14. Life, Nintendo (June 18, 2014). "Interview: The Wizard Director Todd Holland On Everyone's Favourite Nintendo Movie Turning 25". nintendolife.com. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  15. "Autocar A64 B in "Over the Top"". IMCDb.org. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  16. "Home". JACKKNIFE KING. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  17. "Weekend Box Office". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  18. "Weekend Box Office Results for December 15-17, 1989". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. December 18, 1989. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  19. "rogerebert.com". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
  20. "Washington Post". December 15, 1989. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
  21. "The Wizard (1989)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  22. "The Wizard (1989) reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  23. Sheff, David (1994) [1993]. "A New Leader of the Club" (PDF). Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World. Vintage Books. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-307-80074-9.
  24. Buchanan, Levi (June 14, 2012). "The 90-Minute Super Mario Bros. 3 Commercial - IGN". IGN. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  25. "A Weekend With The Wizard". 1Up.com. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  26. Kinder, Marsha (1993). Playing with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games: From Muppet Babies to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. University of California Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780520077768.
  27. "The Wizard". DVD Talk. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  28. "The Wizard Blu-ray".
  29. "The Wizard Collector's Edition Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
  30. "Shout Factory: The Wizard Collector's Edition Detailed for Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. December 18, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  31. Ellis, Tim (September 6, 2016). "PAX West concludes with a real-life version of 'The Wizard' in Seattle". GeekWire. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
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