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title: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou: 8-bit video game
description: Wes Anderson&#x27;s &quot;The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou&quot; reimagined as an 8-bit video game.
canonical: https://time.com/3561303/the-life-aquatic-8bit-video-game/
author: Eliza Berman
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article:published_time: 2014-11-06T17:22:40.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:25.102Z
og:title: Here&#x27;s The Life Aquatic as a Classic Video Game
og:description: Wes Anderson&#x27;s &quot;The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou&quot; reimagined as an 8-bit video game.
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twitter:title: Here&#x27;s The Life Aquatic as a Classic Video Game
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# Here's _The Life Aquatic_ as a Classic Video Game

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![Eliza Berman](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5d202c23ada34d0/698a0ab4b21a9c4d3f503362/200115_Time_Headshots_Day451119.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)


![Eliza Berman](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5d202c23ada34d0/698a0ab4b21a9c4d3f503362/200115_Time_Headshots_Day451119.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Eliza Berman


Berman is a senior editor at TIME.

Nov 6, 2014 5:22 PM UTC

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14f9e45c94d9496b/698764f735ba6f20a9c04e64/screen-shot-2014-11-06-at-11-47-52-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

YouTube

![Eliza Berman](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5d202c23ada34d0/698a0ab4b21a9c4d3f503362/200115_Time_Headshots_Day451119.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)


![Eliza Berman](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5d202c23ada34d0/698a0ab4b21a9c4d3f503362/200115_Time_Headshots_Day451119.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Eliza Berman


Berman is a senior editor at TIME.

Nov 6, 2014 5:22 PM UTC

Mission: Find the jaguar shark. Step one: Smoke grass. This is how Wes Anderson’s 2004 film _The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou_ would begin if it were an 8-bit video game. David and Henry Dutton of Cinefix, a YouTube channel that bills itself “the ultimate destination for true movie buffs,” have rendered the movie as a Nintendo-esque short, complete with David Bowie soundtrack (only this time the songs are played on what sounds like a Casio keyboard rather than sung in Portuguese).

In their 8-Bit Cinema [series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1AXWu-gGX6LNsfQ-KkeGPxL76CFONTom), they’ve retold nearly 40 popular movies — from _The Big Lebowski_ to _Fight Club_ to _Frozen_ — as 8-bit video games. The term 8-bit refers to the third generation in gaming, which began in 1983 with the release of what would come to be known as the Nintendo Entertainment System. For _The Life Aquatic_, the Duttons decided to use 16-bit to capture the film’s vivid colors and textures.

Video games today are so realistic that the [_Call of Duty Kevin Spacey_](http://time.com/3273554/call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-kevin-spacey/) is almost indiscernible from the real Kevin Spacey. But it’s always nice to take a trip back in time to our pixelated past.

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