If there's anything that really embodies the spirit of Christmas, it's a small child becoming increasingly desperate as they start to realise that "Santa" probably isn't going to deliver the amazing new videogame system that they've had their heart set on for so long. That's the heart of 8-Bit Christmas, a film that is as much an ode to the joy of the Nintendo Entertainment System as it is to those childhood years spent pleading and scheming with parents for assistance in ensuring that the perfect present ends up under the tree by Christmas morning.
Starting in the here and now, Jake Doyle (Neil Patrick Harris) is being constantly pestered by a daughter (Annie, played by Sophia Reid-Gantzert) who wants a mobile phone for Christmas. Once they get back to Jake's childhood home, Jake shows his daughter his prized Nintendo Entertainment System, something he spent time wanting as badly as Annie wants a phone. This is the cue to move back through time, where we join young Jake (Winslow Fegley), his sister, Lizzie (Bellaluna Resnick), herself desperate for a Cabbage Patch Kids doll, and the parents (played by June Diane Raphael and Steve Zahn) trying to please their kids without necessarily giving in to their every whim. We see Jake developing his love/obsession for the videogame system, and the numerous setbacks he experiences as he tries to ensure the one thing that he thinks will guarantee him one of the best Christmases ever.
Director Michael Dowse has a filmography full of comedy features, with one or two notable exceptions, but this nostalgia-tinged romp (not his first film making use of that rose-tinted filter) is one of his best. He seems to work well with writer Kevin Jakubowski, someone I wasn't familiar with at all before this film, and makes excellent use of a near-perfect cast. It also helps that Christmas looms large in every scene, it's a deadline that may make or break the happiness of our lead characters, or so they think, and it's easy to remember that feeling of wanting something so badly that not getting it would signify the end of the world, because that's how huge and catastrophic it can feel when you're a child with that sharp focus.
Harris and Reid-Gantzert frame everything nicely, and the story structure maintains a nice connection between the past and the present as it shows the material side of Christmas counter-balanced by adults who know that there can be much more value in quality time and love shared between family members. Fegley is great fun as young Jake, whether he's coming up with a new plan to get his hands on a Nintendo or helping his parents make his sister happy. Resnick is cute enough, and her sibling relationship with Fegley's character feels natural and real. Both Raphael and Zahn are superb, even if the former is slightly overshadowed by the eventual front and centre positioning of the latter. Other children onscreen feel well-suited to their roles, Cyrus Arnold once again portrays a bully with aplomb (not sure how many he has played in his career so far, but I think he's three for three in the last films I have seen him star in), and there's a fun cameo role for David Cross.
An easy film to recommend to those who enjoyed the style and tone of The Wonder Years (and who didn't enjoy the style and tone of The Wonder Years?), 8-Bit Christmas is a funny and heart-warming Christmas story that should somehow connect with every viewer, whether it's a child hoping for their first mobile phone or an adult remembering the time when they wanted nothing more than a videogame console, Cabbage Patch Kid doll, or any big seller that seemed to disappear from shelves quicker than you could add it as a P.S. on your letter to Santa.
8/10
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I think I've seen this on Hulu but never actually watched it. Reminds me of the Jonathan Coulton song "2600" which is about a kid who really wanted an Atari 2600, the forerunner to the NES.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever actually had that kind of toy I wanted that no one had. My Red Ryder BB gun was a Jetfire Transformer in 1985 and I still have that. But my sisters got Cabbage Patch dolls; I'm not sure how hard of a time my parents had in finding that.