Pocket Power was a Nintendo magazine created for the release of the 1989 film “The Wizard”.   The Wizard starring Fred Savage was a movie that heavily revolved around video games, in particular Nintendo products.  The movie follows a boy and his brother who run away from home and hitchhike cross country with the help of a girl they meet along the way to compete in the ultimate video game championship, Video Armageddon for a grand prize of $50,000.

In early 1989, Tom Pollack of Universal Studios approached Nintendo of America with a concept of a featured film centered around video games.  Pollack envisioned a video game version of the 1975 British film Tommy which is about a psychosomatically deaf, mute and blind boy who becomes a pinball champion and religious leader.  Pollack’s concept was a kid friendly adaptation of Tommy centered around video games and made for younger audiences.   Nintendo liked the concept and agreed to license their products for inclusion in the film.

Filming of the movie took place between June 5 and July 25, 1989.  During that time Nintendo came up with many marketing and promotional ideas that they could use to benefit from the film, one of which was Pocket Power.  The movie made its debut in theatres across North America on December 15, 1989 and as part of admission guest were given a copy of Pocket Power.

Nintendo supplied participating theatres with a special edition pocket sized version of their Nintendo Power magazine for the movie.   The theatres distributed the magazine to the audience as they entered the theatre.  Pocket Power was a 40-page magazine in the likeness of Nintendo Power and covered the same type of topics.

The magazine featured a behind the scenes look at the movie, a celebrity profile of Fred Savage and details on their upcoming Nintendo World Championships.   In addition to the three main features the magazine had coverage of over 20 new Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy games as well as a large 2-page ad for the Power Glove.