Natal em 8 Bits

I love the iconic Christmas movies like Home Alone, Elf, the Santa Clause, and even National Lampoon's Christmas vacation. However, this Christmas, I started to get a little tired of seeing the same movies over the last 10-20 years. The problem was, there hasn't been a recent Christmas movie of any quality in the last decade....until now. The movie feels a lot like a current "Christmas Story", but instead of the Red Rider, the lead tells the story of his childhood pursuit of a Nintendo. High quality child actors mixed with a classic, yet current feel. It was cute and wish they would put more out like it.

What an amazing film, brought back so many memories watching this. I was born in 1973 so the 80s was a massive part of my childhood. I fell into computers going through the BBC Micro, Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 computers and experiencing several more. There's a fashion reference which instantly made me think of the bright fluorescent socks and you'd never wear matching pairs.

There's going to be several parts throughout the film that's going to trigger some great memories for most that watch it who experienced those wonderful years. The music sets the scene in many places and the use of Obsession by Animotion is extra magical for me.

I went in not knowing what to expect with a cast I've never heard of, wondering if I'd be switching it off half way through but was hooked until the end.

This is one of those films that's going to be a classic with the whole family.

To be brutally frank, it is not so much how good this is, as it is how bad 99 out of 100 X-Mas movies are. Most are produced as part of a strange seasonal production line, pre-sold, profitable before anyone even sees them, and destined to be forgotten by New Years. In contrast this is sharp, witty, sassy, has great timing and the young actors are all self-aware and loving it. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

I suppose this movie was intended to pull the nostalgic heartstrings of Gen Y while they watch it with their kids, but it missed the mark as either a movie about gaming or the 80's. I truly expected this film to be saturated in 80's culture and it was something of a let down.

My husband first noticed that the film had opened with a weird, wishy washy muted colour palette, so he was expecting it to jump into the rad day-glo colours of the 80's once the flashback ensued, but it didn't. There was hardly any vibrancy to this film. Set design was sort of 80's, sort of not, costumery was generic minus a pair of old school gloves and boots. The 80's music selection was comprised of maybe four songs that didn't really fit, and Animation's "Obsession" is played into the ground for comedic effect (it was Fashion Television's theme here in Canada, but anywhere else it's pretty much about sex, kinda weird to play it for a kid wearing boots lol). That's not even getting around to the NES portion of the film, which equally disappoints. It's remastered graphics and fake games were a huge let down!

I grew up on a myriad of consoles so I was drawn to the film for the gaming aspect and what you get is not what we grew up on. It's kind of a slap in the face, really, because they baited us with the promise of 80's gaming culture and what we got could've honestly been any hot toy from any previous decade.

Does the film borrow elements/formula from A Christmas Story? Yes. Do I care? Hardly because I find this more digestible than that movie. It's a cute kids Christmas movie with a moving conclusion. But it should've been way funnier, had the atmosphere of Christmas in the 80's, and actually related to the NES and what it was to be a child gamer in the 80's.

Men and woman that today are grandparents and even greatgrandparents around the world,this flick will be a return to the unbelievable 1980's, where everything was magic, especially on the gaming front, where a nintendo or a sega made you the king of the hill in your neighbourhood, or made you become a looser like me due to lack of money and far too conservatively concerning parents of a secondhand pre 2nd world war born generation, being convinced that every digital gadget contained a death beam and that the violent nature of the games would damage the fragile numbheaded kid of theirs, meaning i had to thievelend for five bucks pr weekend a handheld gizmo acting as firefighter saving poor jumpers from a hirise on fire, giving me nightmares of the neurotic kind, becoming nervously hit by a mental issue called counting or numerologia that still 50 years later riding my grumpy old mind...

well its that kinda movie that the young generation of today will scratch the back of their neck, but much of the realism of back then is told very well in this christmas carol called 8-bit christmas. Its a well made movie, with a great cast of kids with no stagefright at all, a story us gompers can giggle of and the kids of to day relate to, and most of all show how expensive everything new and everybodys urge to mustve stuff was back then. It will rewoke the child in you, cause the props and staging and the coloured wire light bulbs will light a fire of emotions and longing back to when life was bright and easy, a pandoras box of of reminissence and nostalgia.

So join into the story told by a father torn apart due to his daughters tormenting one and only and never ever ever after wishing wish to have a smartphone for christmas, and let that be a guideline for your gift investments for once in a lifetime, and a merry yule for you too. Its a recommend, and my wish for christmas is english for birthlanguage...