Wreck-It Ralph

As mentioned in this reviews title (look up), the film I will be reviewing is none other than Wreck-It Ralph.  I'm sure most of you know it is one of Disney's newest animated features, unaffiliated with Pixar.  This film follows an arcade character Ralph, from the game Fix-It Felix Jr., where Ralph's only job is to destroy an apartment complex while Felix fixes it.  As can be imagined Ralph is feared and loathed by the buildings tenants.   To give you a little understanding, the film follows these characters inside the games.  Take Toy Story; the toys are toys when humans are present, but when humans go away they become life like.  They have their own hierarchy and relationships, heartaches and triumphs, same goes for Wreck-It Ralph.

As I previously mentioned, Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) is a "bad guy"and is perceived as one even when the game is off.  In fact in the story we see Ralph in an "AA" type meeting.  Instead of having some drinking problem or drug problem, he is at a meeting made up of other video game badies, including: Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as M. Bison and Zangief from Street Fighter.

I thought this scene was probably my favorite because it was fun to see all these evil characters from games I played many years ago as a younger person.  It was really interesting to see inside their lives, and listen to these characters speak openly about their roles within the games; they even had an oath:

"I'm bad and that's good

I'll never be good and that's bad

There's no one I'd rather be than me."

This scene reminded me of another film  from Disney, Finding Nemo.  Just as in Wreck-It Ralph, Finding Nemo too had a scene where sharks are meeting in order to swear off eating fish in order to change the way other sea creatures look at them.  Pretty clever stuff coming out of Disney these days.

Back to the main plot.  The sub-text of this film is to show no matter what you think of yourself, there's always a rhyme and reason, a method to your madness.  You don't need to change yourself in order to fit in or to allow yourself to feel better about yourself.  How this notion was utilized was that Ralph no longer wanted to be bad, he wanted to be good; he wanted friends and admirers.  Ralph wanted to break out of his shell and show the "world" that he was more than an evil doer, a smasher of buildings, a wrecker of homes.  Ralph wanted to prove that he could be good, someone the other citizens could aspire to; so good ole Ralph decided to jump games.

Ralph up and left his world, and entered into other game worlds in search of a medal.  Why a medal?  It's simple, Felix receives a medal every time he fixes the building and wins, this then causes the citizens to throw Ralph off the roof... GAME OVER.  Ralph thought a medal would be all the proof he needed to win over the game world citizens.  So he hops into a game filled with soldiers; their objective is to destroy some evil bugs, Ralph doesn't handle the fear to well and runs off.  He eventually finds his medal, but in the process gets launched from that game into yet another.  Only this time the game he finds is one filled with racing and candy.

Ralph lands in this bizarre world of candy trees and chocolate mud, finding himself face to face with an unknown character referred to as the "glitch".  He befriends her, unwillingly at first, in order to save her from being erased and to ultimately retrieve his medal.  As can be predicted they form quite the tight friendship, they both triumph over evil, la la la, everybody's happy... roll credits.

I really liked this film from top to bottom.  One of the things I like about it was the simplicity behind the story and behind the animation.  Wreck-It Ralph didn't try to animate to the point of realism by any means.  This film used good old fashioned animation, the kind we have come to know and expect from Disney.  The Humans were animated, as well as the game characters, and didn't look any more real then the humans in Toy Story.  There was nothing flashy about this, which allows the story to shine through and make the overall picture great.  A little clutter =  better film.  The thing to take away from this is that Disney has the formula down to make a perfect story: plot, character development, hero's journey.  Most people, including myself look at Disney and think where they succeed the most is in their look, their animation, however I feel Disney's greatest asset is in fact their complete story telling ability, and this is evident in Wreck-It Ralph.


Final Words: Large Popcorn.
This is a fun story, with a common theme.  The characters are unique and engaging, while the overall look is very appealing without being distracting.  This is a great family night film, the kids will get a kick out of the entire experience!

Until next time, happy viewing!

Review Rating : Based on popcorn sizes; small, medium, large, extra-large
                           When films get a snore zzz... worth skipping