The Wizard is one of the best 80s movies for kids or teens. It's got it all--an excellent and hilarious story, great music, excellent actors, and above all--that little 80s console of long hours of entertainment known as The Nintendo.

The Wizard was made to feul sales for Nintendo in promoting it's newest video game, Super Mario Brothers 3, which I understand to be the company's best selling game of all time (and with good reason). The story involves three kids, struggling for independence from their messed up family life. Fred Savage plays Cory, who's father and brother tend to change the subject of the uncomfortable fact that his half-brother Jimmy is going to be put in a foster home. Not if Cory can help it. He and Jimmy go Shanghai for California, the land of possibility. Along the way, they meet Haley, a hot shot young girl who's father is a truck driver and mother is a gambling addict. On her way to Reno, she discovers that Jimmy is a video game wizard (like the Pinball Wizard). With the Video Game Armaggeddon just weeks away, Haley comes up with the idea that the three kids should pool their resources, go to California, compete, and split the cash.

It may seem like an easy goal--heading from Utah to California on a skateboard and a couple of bucks, hustling video game hacks along the way. But meanwhile, a crazy bounty hunter kind of guy has been hired to bring Jimmy (and only Jimmy) back home. He's similarly in a competition--against Corey's father, who needs to get to the kids first before the crazy bounty hunter does.

This movie has it all. You get to see some the greatest Nintendo games (Double Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) The Adventures of Zelda, Excite Bike, and Rad Racer) in addition to other Nintendo accessories such as The Power Glove ("I love the Power Glove, it's so bad.") It's so effective in selling Nintendo nostalgia (though it wasn't quite nostalgia when the movie was made),that it will make you want to pull out the old console--or emulator--and have a crack or two at some games again.

Additionally, you have an excellent cast of actors involved in a hilarious cat-and-mouse chase, with the most laughs coming from the traveling dispute of the bounty hunter and Corey's dad (Beau Bridges). Plus, how can you go wrong with an early Fred Savage, Jennifer "Rilo Kiley" Lewis, and Christian Slater movie? You can't. It's packed to the brim with excellent features that if you're in love with the 80s, you're sure to enjoy.

Jimmy Woods (Luke Edwards) suffers from unspecified mental handicap and often wanders off to go to California. He lives with his mother Christine Bateman and stepfather. The stepfather institutionalizes him in a home. Corey (Fred Savage) and Nick (Christian Slater) live with their father Sam Woods (Beau Bridges). There is little that Sam can do without custody. Corey takes his half-brother Jimmy away from the home on a trip to California. Bateman hires Putnam (Will Seltzer) to track down Jimmy while Sam and Nick follow the boys on their own. While at a bus station, they meet Haley Brooks (Jenny Lewis) and discover that Jimmy is a real wizard at video games. Haley suggests entering him in a big video game contest in L.A.

This is a fun little adventure for kids. Of course, it's insanely dangerous to promote hitchhiking for little kids and it's a thinly disguised commercial for Nintendo. Nevertheless, Lewis and Savage are cute together. The power glove sounded awesome. The B story has some fun comedy. Beau Bridges getting hooked on video games is funny. If not for 3 little kids hitchhiking around in what essentially is a commercial, I would be more fully behind this movie.

This movie was a trip down memory lane. I have the fondest memories of NIntendo and all those games: Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Megaman, Metroid, Double Dragon, and others. If I had known then what I know now I may have committed even more time to the videogame craft. Now guys are making millions of dollars playing videogames.

The Wizard in the movie was a nine-year-old boy named Jimmy (Luke Edwards) who earned the nickname by being great at videogames. He behaves like he may be autistic or at least on the spectrum. He comes off like an autistic savant when it comes to videogames.

Jimmy had an insatiable desire to go to California and no one knew why. After Jimmy got placed into a facility that cares for special children his brother Corey (Fred Savage) broke him out so the two of them could go to California. Along the way they run into a girl named Haley (Jenny Lewis) who helps them and convinces them to go to Universal Studios to compete in Video Armageddon, a nationwide videogame competition.

I loved this movie as a kid because who doesn't love videogames? Plus, at that time, Fred Savage was a star. He was in "Wonder Years," he had been in "The Princess Bride," "Vice Versa," and "Little Monsters." You couldn't go wrong casting Fred Savage. The movie wound up being about more than a mere videogame championship, it was a warm movie about family and friends.