The Wizard (1989): Why This Nintendo Adventure Still Feels Good

Before “gamer” was a lifestyle, there was The Wizard — part road trip, part therapy session, and part Nintendo fever dream.

Fred Savage, Jenny Lewis, and Luke Edwards hit the highway toward a video game showdown, but what makes it memorable isn’t the joystick — it’s the journey.

This film gets dismissed as a 2-hour commercial for Super Mario Bros. 3, but beneath the pixels, it’s about kids escaping broken homes, finding family, and discovering that sometimes winning isn’t about the score — it’s about connection.

Why it still works today:
Because it reminds us of when play meant wonder, not algorithms. The Wizard captures that perfect pre-internet innocence when friendship was your only real “power-up.”

🎧 If you love nostalgic stories like this, check out my breakdown of Steve Martin’s L.A. Story