In the late 1980s, the ultimate Christmas gift was a Nintendo Entertainment System — at least, that’s what the trailer for HBO Max’s upcoming holiday movie 8-Bit Christmas will have you believe. Based on the book of the same name by Kevin Jakubowski, 8-Bit Christmas takes place in an idyllic Chicago suburb in the ’80s, and centers around one young boy named Jake Doyle and his quest for that elusive “Nintendo.”
The trailer sees an adult Jake Doyle, played by How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris, telling his daughter about that one unforgettable Christmas, and the lengths he and his friends went to in order to get their hands on the video game console. The movie slides back and forth between the present-day narration and the late ’80s, as Jake relates the epic tale, with some larger-than-life details.
“It was the ’80s!” says Jake, after his daughter reacts skeptically to his account of a kid jump-kicking a television. “Stuff got real!”
8-Bit Christmas hits HBO Max on Nov. 24, just in time for cozy Thanksgiving movie-viewing before pulling out your Nintendo Switch.
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19991762/HBO_Max_Press_On_White_Horiz_300dpi_0.jpg)
HBO Max
- $15
Prices taken at time of publishing.
On top of new WB releases in 2021, HBO Max brings together HBO, DC , Cartoon Network, and Criterion libraries.
Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.
