The Wizard is a 1989 American adventure comedy-drama film directed by Todd Holland (in his directorial debut), written by David Chisholm, and starring Fred Savage, Jenny Lewis, Beau Bridges, Christian Slater, and Luke Edwards.

Known for its extensive product placement of Nintendo material, it also officially introduced Super Mario Bros. 3 to North America, which then became the best-selling standalone video game.

Nick and Sam resolve to bring the boys back while competing with Mr. Putnam, a greedy bounty hunter hired by Mr. Bateman and Christine to find Jimmy but not Corey.

They eventually meet popular but snobbish gamer Lucas Barton, who demonstrates his ability to play Rad Racer with a Power Glove and informs Haley he will also be competing.

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.

Jimmy, Lucas, and third finalist Mora Grissom compete in the tournament's final round – they have 10 minutes to score as many points as possible in Super Mario Bros. 3, a brand-new game not yet released in the United States.

As the entire family heads home, accompanied by Haley, Jimmy suddenly becomes restless upon spotting the Cabazon Dinosaurs, causing them to stop the car.

[7] 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.

[1] In a 2008 reunion,[14] as well in an interview in 2014,[15] Todd Holland revealed that the original cut of the film was 2.5 hours long and included an extended backstory for Jimmy and Corey.

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.

Trucker Spanky 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.

[18] The Washington Post staff writer Rita Kempley wrote that the movie was "tacky and moribund", plagiarizing heavily from the 1988 film Rain Man.

[20] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 23 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

[21] 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.