Overview
The Wizard (1989) Sunday Family Films
Essentially a long-form commercial for Nintendo that takes the plot of Rain Man, which had just won the Oscar for Best Picture, and shrinks it to the world of children. The Wizard has become a time capsule of 8-bit gaming culture and movies about/for kids who roam very, very free. After his little brother, Jimmy (Luke Edwards), is put in a mental institution, Corey (Fred Savage) breaks him out and the pair run off together to California. On their travels, Corey meets a girl named Haley (Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley fame (which is also of Ronnie Pinsky fame)) and discovers that Jimmy is a master at playing video games. With talents like his, he could easily win the top prize of $50,000 at a national video game competition. While the three travelers hitchhike to the competition, the boys' parents naturally hire a bounty hunter to track them down—who the kids must avoid if they are going to take down Super Mario Bros. 3 at Video Armageddon.