Sophia Reid-Gantzert and Neil Patrick Harris star in 8-Bit Christmas, streaming on Neon.
Sophia Reid-Gantzert and Neil Patrick Harris star in 8-Bit Christmas, streaming on Neon.
Opinion by Karl Puschmann
Karl Puschmann is Culture and entertainment writer for the New Zealand Herald. His fascination lies in finding out what drives and inspires creative people.
When you're a kid the spirit of Christmas is usually found in a box that's been wrapped in shiny paper and is sitting under a twinkling tree in your lounge.
I'm aware of how cynical that sounds but hey, kids are nothing if not transparent in their wants anddesires. And what kids want and desire at Christmas are presents.
They'll happily spend the weeks leading up to the big day attending to the very important business of crafting, amending and refining an extremely detailed Christmas list to post, or email, to Santa. As a backup, this fanciful list of exorbitant asks and fanciful notions has also been committed to memory and can be recited at a moment's notice, usually with a few last-minute additions. Subtractions from the wish list are unheard of.
Steve Zahn, June Diane Raphael and Bellaluna Resnick feeling festive in 8-Bit Christmas.
But as you get older, hopefully wiser, you come to realise that the presents are the least important part of the holiday. It's all the surrounding stuff that makes Christmas such a magical time, even if your festive spirit is initially buried under a fair bit of adulting stress thanks to the near overwhelming preparations needed to bring that magic to life.
Thinking back I don't remember any of the stuff that was on my yearly list to Santa. Nor do I recall many of the presents I leapt out of bed at some unholy early hour on Christmas morning to unwrap.
But I do have strong memories of how we spent our Christmas Days and of running around the backyard with my cousins at the big family get together at my Opa and Oma's place every Christmas Eve.
June Diane Raphael, Neil Patrick Harris and Sophia Reid-Gantzert in 8-Bit Christmas, streaming on Neon.
Crackly records spun Christmas carols, some in English and some in their native German, while my grandparents busied themselves preparing the forthcoming banquet; Opa manning the BBQ, Oma womanning pretty much everything else.
We'd stuff our little faces with endless snacks and after dinner we'd pile our plates with delicious dessert treats. There were smiles and laughter and the occasional stern word from a parent or parent of a parent.
Obviously, the highlight was the getting of gifts, which came near the end of the evening. It was the most exciting part of the night. The whole reason for being there.
The thing is, all these decades on I can't remember what any of those presents were. But I vividly recall all the people who were there then, but are not with us now.
Winsolw Fegley and Steve Zahn trying to secure a black market Cabbage Patch Kid in 8-Bit Christmas.
We've been surrounded by Christmas since November but I've been too busy with work and the logistics of the holiday for it to register. Instead of a magical time, it's been just another entry on the To-Do list.
But that all changed last weekend when I sat down for Pizza/Movie night with my two young kids and put on 8-Bit Christmas.
This hugely entertaining Yuletide comedy, which is streaming on Neon, stars Neil Patrick Harris as a father trying to teach his daughter the true meaning of Christmas. Like all kids at this time of year, she's deaf to his learnings because she's single-mindedly focused on unwrapping her first smartphone on Christmas Day.
After failing to sufficiently explain why that's not going to happen he tries a different tack and tells her the story of how he got his prized NES, Nintendo's 8-bit gaming console, in the Christmas of 1985.
Winsolw Fegley learning a Nintendo in not going to be under the tree in 8-Bit Christmas.
The movie deftly borrows the story-within-a-story structure from The Princess Bride, the childhood re-enactments of A Christmas Story and the warm glow of 80s nostalgia as popularised by Stranger Things and sprinkles a little Christmas magic on top.
As Jake tells his childhood tale, complete with daring escapades, devious schemes, and a squashed dog, his initially uninterested daughter finds herself heavily invested. As did I and my two children.
8-Bit Christmas is a fun ride and a real time machine for 80s kids. It captures that youthful zest for the season that sadly gets gradually whittled away over cold, hard time. But it's also brutally honest in acknowledging that for children Christmas is all about what's under the tree and not so much about the people who put the presents there.
The gang set off on another hare-brained scheme to secure a Nintendo in 8-Bit Christmas.
What makes the movie so satisfying is that the seeds of the true meaning of Christmas are planted early on and organically grow to deliver a tender yet emotive wallop at the end in a way that's sentimental but not saccharine.
It really is a great little Christmas comedy that will entertain, fill you with festive spirit and leave you smiling warmly at all the memories of your own past Christmases. Even if you can't recall what it was you were so excited to unwrap all those years ago.
