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Remember The Wizard? 275

Posted by michael from the power-glove dept.
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.
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Remember The Wizard? More

Remember The Wizard?

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  • what a great movie (Score:5, Funny)

    by Transient0 ( 175617 ) on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:32PM (#6202655) Homepage
    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
    • I remember playing smb3 in a 'Choice 10' machine for a few months before 'The Wizard' hit theaters. I felt like such an elite gamer because I knew everything that was supposed to happen in the game before the kids played it in the movie.

      God, what a geek I was.

  • Red Head (Score:5, Funny)

    by JPM NICK ( 660664 ) on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:32PM (#6202657)
    Who didn't have a crush on the red head girl from that movie?

    • Re:Red Head (Score:5, Informative)

      by trotski ( 592530 ) on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:43PM (#6202697)
      The redhead you speak of is Jenny Lewis. You can try to 'do' her today if you like. Better yet, you could listen to her music, as she is currently the lead singer of Rilo Kiley [rilo-kiley.com], a southern california indie band.

      • Re:Red Head (Score:5, Informative)

        by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:04AM (#6202760) Homepage Journal
        http://www.rilo-kiley.com/: "www.rilo-kiley.com could not be found."

        I think you mean www.rilokiley.com [rilokiley.com], without the dash, with a successful name lookup, and which seems to be the right webpage (unless there's another Rilo Kiley out there...).

        Too bad their webpage sucks (and not just because it's Flash, but because it's devoid of - well - anything useful). Try the HTML version [rilokiley.com] even if you have Flash for the simple reason that you get to use your own scrollbars and not some crappy Flash variant. Makes reading their tour dates a lot easier (since the Flash scroll control makes it very easy to accidently scroll past a given date).

        Unfortunately, I still can't figure out anything about them or their music. They any good? :)

        • Re:Red Head (Score:3, Funny)

          by Loki_1929 ( 550940 ) *
          "Too bad their webpage sucks "

          I've never done a "me too" post before, but looking at that site has convinced me that the time has come to make an exception. My God, it's a 1996 website using 2001 technology. It's about as bad as the Powerpoint presentations a couple of my customers do (and then, of course, make me watch).

        • You can listen to their music on the web site.

          It's so bad. And not like the Power Glove.
          • Actually, I'm kind of digging their single, Paint Peeling. Of course, I've got a thing for female leads, but I can't exactly ignore TEN YEAR OLD DAN JUMPING UP AND DOWN SAYING D00D D00D WIZ0RD CHIX0R COMING TO YOUR HOME TOWN IN THREE WEEKZ Y0.

            If nothing else, San Francisco's Great American Music Hall is a fantastic small venue. Yeah. No "bottomless pit of geek fandom" sensation of dread here, no siree Dobbs.

            --Dan

        • Re:Red Head (Score:3, Informative)

          by euxneks ( 516538 )
          Unfortunately, I still can't figure out anything about them or their music. They any good?
          Looks like you can download their music at http://www.rilokiley.net... It's all live recordings I think..
          GAK! Sounds like country! wait.. no... still listening.. must not be bad..er.. sounds like new age bluegrass.. hrm must click on more.. sounds not bad

        • Re:Red Head (Score:2, Informative)

          by kaygee ( 24480 )
          Actually, they are quite good, IMHO. They signed with Saddle Creek Records, the Omaha label that also puts out Cursive, The Faint, Bright Eyes, and many other good bands.

          Their latest album is The Execution of All Things and has some very good stuff on it.

          I would encourage you to visit saddlecreekrecords.com, as they've got mp3's posted for all the groups on the label and their stuff is really quite good.

      • Re:Red Head (Score:3, Interesting)

        by fenix down ( 206580 )
        No fucking kidding? I actually have a mix CD a friend gave me with a couple of things from them on it. I think I'm going to kill this friend for not mentioning this very pertinent detail. They hadn't really stood out too much for me, but they're not bad. They're kinda halfway between something like The Pixies and the kind of thing that gets put in ads for WB dramas. Sorta weird, but not in a bad way.

        It's a little creepy that, if anything, she sounds more like a 12 year old girl in the band than she do

      • Re:Red Head (Score:3, Interesting)

        by swgs ( 235424 )
        She was also involved in a rescent project with Ben Gifford of Death Cab for Cutie, called The Postal Service. I personally like all these bands mentioned, but to each his own if you dont. Another interesting thing of note is that Pinsky from Salute Your Shorts is in Rilo Kiley as well, his name is Blake Soper http://us.imdb.com/Name?Soper,%20Blake

    • Here are some pictures of what she looks like now (Score:4, Informative)

      by angryflute ( 206793 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:27AM (#6202826) Homepage
      http://www.spymac.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo= 6035&slideshow=1

      http://www.nesplayer.com/wizard/after.htm
    • 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!
      • Sorry, if you want a geek pinup it has to be Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years). Not only was she hot as Winnie, she's still pretty hot as Elsie Snuffin in The West Wing (as geeky a show - though in a different area of expertise - as has ever been on television), and even better, she's published an article in a peer-reviewed physics journal.

        But, you keep on with your video game girl...less competition ;)

    • HOTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!

      OMG I wanted to jump right through the screen and figure out all the secrets of girls! :P
    • I wanted her to use her power glove on my joystick!!!

  • it's just a commercialization (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SHEENmaster ( 581283 ) <{ude.ktu} {ta} {sivart}> on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:35PM (#6202663) Homepage Journal
    Compare it to videos that exist in their own right, rather than just to sell toys. Examples include Power Rangers, Transformers, Pokemon...

  • smb3 (Score:5, Funny)

    by joe_bruin ( 266648 ) on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:35PM (#6202668) Homepage Journal
    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.
    • btw, the powerglove was a piece of crap. i think i still have mine in a closet somewhere. completely unuseable.

      Mine's stuffed away in a box too. Played SMB3 yesterday, though.

  • In the states... (Score:5, Funny)

    by digitalsushi ( 137809 ) * <slashdot@digitalsushi.com> on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:38PM (#6202679) Journal
    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.

    • I was watching the end of a crappy movie on USA (The Patriot) with someone a couple months ago. As the credits rolled, the announced came on:

      And now, on USA Instant Replay, The Patriot, starring... [emphasis mine]

      Needless to say, we got quite a kick out of that.

  • No way! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:42PM (#6202689)
    The best geek movie from when I was a kid was Time Bandits [imdb.com]. 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!
    • "Oh, so that's what an invisible force field looks like."

      And the coolest ending, "Don't touch that Mom, Dad, it's pure evil!"

    • Re:No way! (Score:3, Informative)

      by HouseOfMisterE ( 659953 )
      If you like "Time Bandits," then you should check out some of director Terry Gilliam's other works. These include "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and a lot of Monty Python stuff. Link to Terry Gilliam at IMDb: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Gilliam,%20Terry
      • Those were all several great movies I remember enjoying that no one seemed to really hear of (besides the python flicks)

        Then again, I was a couch potatoe, but I've been reformed since then!
    • Not only was Time Bandits a better movie, but do you remember the Randall character, played by David Rappaport? He also played in "The Wizard". No, not the movie. The 1980's series where he did loads more to influence my life than anyone in the movie.

  • __ (Score:3, Funny)

    by drDugan ( 219551 ) on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:47PM (#6202709) Homepage
    remember the wizard?

    no.

  • Joysticks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AtariKee ( 455870 ) on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:47PM (#6202710)
    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 [imdb.com].

    • Rules for crappy movies (slightly off topic) (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anomalous Cowturd ( 673181 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @01:00AM (#6202903)

      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.
      • * 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.

        you forgot movies based on comic books or any televisoin series with very few exceptions (coughStarT
      • Movies based on Saturday Night Live characters or skits will suck.

        Wayne's Corollary: Unless the movie stars Mike Myers.
      • Movies based on video games will suck.

        No argument here...

        Movies based on Saturday Night Live characters or skits will suck

        Dude, what about "Blues Brothers"?

        Remakes of classic movies will suck, but lots of people will go to see them anyway because they don't remember the originals.

        I though "Ocean's Eleven" kicked ass - not a masterpiece, but an all-around fun movie. But the original wasn't exactly "classic", I guess.

        Sequels to movies where a majority of the original characters do not return will
        • the thing remake was pretty good too

          one of the major problems with the tom clancy movies is they rewrite them too much, ryan never kills the irish terrorist in patriot games the book, the guy sits on death row for years before finally being put to death by the system, clear and present danger was a terrible movie and the sum of all fears with ben affleck has almost nothing in connection with the book
    • Why is it that most... ok, ALL, video game- based movies are bad?

      1. The movies typically come out long after the games they're based on have lost most if not all of their popularity.

      2. Marketed to the wrong people. Instead of creating a movie that would appeal to the video game fans, of which there might be a few hundred thousand, they instead try to appeal to the mainstream teenage audience, from which the original game probably found no audience.

      3. Wrong people involved in the creative process.
    • Why is it that most... ok, ALL, video game- based movies are bad?

      The anime(ted) version of Street Fighter [imdb.com] did *not* suck, especially the scene where Chun Li friggin' kicks someone through a brick wall.

    • I'd venture that Resident Evil was a pretty kick-ass flick, especially for any Romero fans.

      Ok, so it stands on its own as being the only movie based on a video game that doesn't suck (some may claim Mortal Kombat, but come on now: as a movie it's pretty bad, we just liked the fight scenes and awesome techno soundtrack).

      Just for fun, let's see just how bad it gets:

      Super Mario Brothers
      Street Fighter (Raul Julia is rolling in his grave over this one)
      Tomb Raider (and they're making a SEQUEL!!?!??)

      Of course,

  • My favorite quote (Score:5, Funny)

    by steesefactor ( 563098 ) on Saturday June 14, 2003 @11:48PM (#6202715)
    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."
  • "Go get me a drink, dork-lips!"

    last time i saw this movie i was with a bunch of friends during the winter a few years ago. i lived in my first apartment and we didn't have heat 'cause it was too expensive.

    anyhow, there was this space heater next to the tv whose alarm would go off if it was moved. we decided to use this as the "shameless promotion alarm/dork alarm." you know, since a dork is a whale's penis.


    when the screen came up at the end of the movie with Super Mario 3, we nearly kicked it ac
  • "That man touched my breast!!!!"

  • Anybody else notice.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:08AM (#6202770) Homepage Journal
    ... the "Close Encounters" tune that the Power Glove played? doo dee doo doh daaaaaaaaa

  • Power Glove (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pizen ( 178182 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:09AM (#6202773)
    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.
    • Watching that kid play with the Power Glove was hilarious. I owned on, and let me tell you, watching Mr. Cool play with the Power Glove was about as realistic as watching Beau Bridges hammer away at TMNT as fast as his fingers could move.

      The Power Glove was a nightmare to use. It should have been a hint that the controller had a controller built onto it. Going left and right in Rad Racer was a chore, with the thing often twitching to one side or the other for no reason. And just try to hold your arm up
    • I'm glad I never bought one of those. I did manage to find an old one my friend was throwing away. I opened it up to see how it works. It's actually kind of simple, it's just two strips of material in the fingers that have variable resistance in ohms when you bend them.
    • Did you get some of those TC Legos that you could plug into your Apple computer? (The ancestor to Mindstorms.) Man those things were awesome. Geeky childhood memory: Going to see Seymour Papert talk about Lego robots, and controlling them with the LOGO language.

  • PowerGlove /= crap -- useful for VR sims (Score:3, Informative)

    by JoshMKiV ( 548790 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:15AM (#6202787) Homepage Journal
    We used the PowerGlove quite a bit in a VR class during undergrad. Great cheap interface.
  • As you can see, the guy wrecked many many times into traffic. I remember playing rad racer in that Nintendo championships and not wrecking at all, having practiced the game like two times before :P

    How massive wipeouts made it into a movie, even a shitty movie is funny.

  • But it can't compete with... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ath0mic ( 519762 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:33AM (#6202846)
    ... 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."

  • Wait 'til 2009 (Score:3, Funny)

    by 1nv4d3r ( 642775 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:36AM (#6202853)
    ...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.

    • Re:Wait 'til 2009 (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      (and maybe, just maybe, re-add the deleted scene where someone touches Haley's breasts).

      He'll add the scene back in, but he'll use the magic of CGI to replace her breasts with walkie-talkies.
  • Taken from the website:
    "There's a video clip of this following the review, and it's worth every byte of my bandwidth."
    Insert Slashdotting anal rape joke here.

  • Conversation with a friend (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PovRayMan ( 31900 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:51AM (#6202886) Homepage
    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 .. ?

    • Yes, It Is Possible (Score:5, Informative)

      by E-Rock-23 ( 470500 ) <lostprophyt@nOsPaM.gmail.com> on Sunday June 15, 2003 @01:14AM (#6202940) Homepage Journal
      Amazingly enough, it is possible to mod a Power Glove to work with a PC. Check This Out [xensei.com], as well as this page [geocities.com]. 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...
    • A friend and I modded one of these back in high school (way before we'd heard the term "mod" for "modify"). We clipped the Nintendo plug off the end and wired it up to a printer cable, following some instructions we'd got off of a BBS or something. Plug it into the parallel port, and it worked beautifully for a VR program my friend had. I don't know if he ever did much with it, but it was a fun project.

      And I might add that whatever software this VR program was using to work out the glove position etc,

    • There is an old book called Garage Virtual Reality that came with a CD (or floppy disks?) that covered connecting the power glove to VR software.

  • ATTN: Nintendo (Score:5, Funny)

    by coene ( 554338 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:52AM (#6202887)
    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.
    • speaking of spending a lot of money, I must have spent at least $2,000 on Nintendo, SNES, and N64 video games growing up.

      Now that I think about it, my time would have been better spent programming or reading.

  • worst excuse for any movie ever made (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mitzman ( 523507 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @12:54AM (#6202891)
    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.
    • To be honest, i'm not sure i've seen the wizard, even though I have a taste for cheese. But reading the basic review I think every generation has a film of this nature. The first thing that comes to mind is something called, "TILT" which rather then an unreleased NES game used pinball culture as a vehicel, a vehicel to have the lead actress's ass in the camera shot thoughout practicaly the entire movie.

      While I think it's important we watch classic media to view the cultural impact of entertainment device
  • /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...
  • Of course I remember the Wizard [amazon.com] -- that show ruled when I was a kid. Watching ol' Don Herbert showing those kids science experiments was way more fun than any dumb old video game console -- and still would be now... :-)

  • thank god (Score:2, Funny)

    by squarefish ( 561836 )
    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!

  • Atari had better commercial films... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by The Lynxpro ( 657990 ) <lynxproNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday June 15, 2003 @01:20AM (#6202950)
    What videogame enthusiast didn't like *Cloak and Dagger* or *D.A.R.R.Y.L.*? Those were full-on Atari commercials...
  • 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
    • I was in New Jersey, and I remember getting a high score in Super Mario Brothers, Rad Racer, and Tetris, and subsequently not faring too well in the on-stage competition w/my much older competitors (I was six at the time), and... most of them knew the trick to avoid getting 50 coins to not advance to Rad Racer, and then going to jump on that turtle like forever to rack up points, then eventually switching off to Rad Racer, and after beating that, just doing whatever in tetris with the time left, though it w

  • Of course, for many people, "The Wizard" means.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Jason Scott ( 18815 ) * on Sunday June 15, 2003 @02:09AM (#6203047) Homepage
    ....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 [imdb.com] 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." [remulak.net] 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 [wizworld.com] sees little or no financial reward from the versions of the film currently out there, so don't pay too much [amazon.com] thinking it'll get back to him. But see this film. I risk breaking its back with the accolades I and others [spiteyourface.com] heap on it.
    • The short form of The Wizard of Speed and Time, which I've seen probably a hundred times, is one of the greatest triumphs of spirit and will ever created by an independent artist. Truly a great work. The longer version of the film, which I only have seen once, was also pretty darn amazing.
  • Not sure why no one has mentioned this yet, but X-Entertainment [x-entertainment.com], an excellent and funny source of 80s and 90s pop culture (among other things) did a review of this movie [x-entertainment.com] 10 days ago, including video clips of various scenes (including the "I love the Power Glove" quote). Tons of pictures, and funny comments throughout (just ignore the constant overexagerations - Matt seems to like using them).

    Anyway, an excellent review of a movie I thoroughly loved as a kid. I watched it a few weeks ago on a local TV sta
    • 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*
  • Man, that guy was great! I used to watch him every day after school on Nickelodeon. My favorite episode is the one when he blew up the balloon filled with hyrdrogen, teaching us that hydrogen, when combined with oxygen, makes heat and water! Of course, I'll never forget when he showed us how to mesure the heights of trees by walking 100 meters (he was Canadian, wasn't he?) away and mesuring the angle between the ground and treetop and using the Pythagorian theorem. Wow, that stuff rocked!

    Mr. Wizard [johnsrealmonline.com], I
    • Of course, I'll never forget when he showed us how to mesure the heights of trees by walking 100 meters (he was Canadian, wasn't he?) away and mesuring the angle between the ground and treetop and using the Pythagorian theorem

      Oh, shit, I meant "cosine", not "Pythagorian Theorem". What a dumbass. Sorry, the bars just let out.
  • I remember when I saw The Wizard as a kid, I thought it was the perfect movie.

    When I was a kid I actually thought "The Powers of Matthew Star" [tvtome.com] was a good TV show.
  • I love the Power Glove. It's so bad.

    That sounds like something that Michael Jackson would say...

    If so, I guess that's the kind of glove he likes wearing nowadays.

  • not just for its 80s feel, but for its bizarre moments above all.

    -for example, the kids hitch a ride with a giant black trucker named Spanky ... 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 s
  • Wow, this brings me back.

    Somehow I was able to find myself at the theater watching this movie with my folks pretty soon after it came out. I would have given my left nut to play SMB 3 at the time, I believe. My dad had this freakish system of trying to get me to play less nintendo: Unlike normal parents, who would simply say 'Play for an hour, and no more,' or similar, my dad had me scrupulously record exactly how much time I spent playing each day.

    That's it - I think he expected me to look at old pages a
  • The funny part was that the bad kid kept it in a stainless steel foam padded briefcase. The power glove ruined alternative interfaces forever. The hand is the most natural interface humans have, but show anybody a glove control, and "power glove" is the first thing out of their mouth before the laughing starts.

  • You must admit (Score:3, Funny)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Sunday June 15, 2003 @10:35AM (#6204406) Homepage
    The Powerglove was bad.

  • if the marketing group at microsoft sees this- 'Xbox, the movie' could be next

    ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...............

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