Video game movies are a weird anomaly. They’re projects that have plots, atmospheres, and scenes already perfectly laid out, yet whoever is in charge typically decides to throw all that away, and whatever ends up releasing is an abysmal shell of what could and should have been. Without fail, video game movies SUCK (the latest example of this would be last week’s Silent Hill: Revalation).
So what happens when you make a video game movie about a game that never existed? Wreck-It Ralph is born, and apparently it freaking rocks.
Ralph’s home game, Fix-It Felix Jr.
The premise of Wreck-It Ralph is phenomenal, yet so simple that I’m really surprised it hadn’t been thought of before. Ralph has been doing the job of video game villain for 30 years, and he’s tired of it. The bad guy doesn’t want to be the bad guy anymore, so Ralph sets out to prove that he’s not as much of a villain as everyone makes him out to be. Unbeknownst to Ralph, his leaving the Fix-It Felix arcade cabinet sets off a series of events that could get his own game unplugged, as well as many others in the arcade. Along the way Ralph meets an array of loveable characters, and the film also features countless cameos from other games throughout its duration.
The bad guy never gets invited to parties.
The world of Wreck-It Ralph takes an almost Toy Story approach to explaining how it works. When people are around (the hours that the arcade is open) everyone simply does what they were programmed to do. After hours however, each character has a life of their own just as we do outside of our own work. Being a villain, Ralph is not a very popular guy, and after 30 years he’s understandably lonely and upset about the whole situation.
Ralph ends up in game central (a power bar, which brilliantly explains how the games connect to one another) in order to find a game in which he can win himself a medal (meaning he’ll be seen as a hero instead of a villain). He’ll eventually meet the hilarious Vanellope von Schweetz, an adorable outcast (just like Ralph) that just wants to be a part of her own game (the colorful Kart racer Sugar Rush). The relationship that grows between the two is where Wreck-It Ralph really shines: the pair are hilarious, touching, and at times heartbreaking.
2012’s most adorable animated duo.
As mentioned above, Wreck-It Ralph‘s premise and plot are effective and engaging, and thankfully this goes for the rest of the film too. Voice acting in the movie is top-notch from every single character: there is no weak point, though John C. Reilly (Ralph) and Sarah Silverman (Vanellope) stand out as especially excellent. Visuals are equally impressive, with detailed characters and worlds that tend to go on for as far as you could possibly see. I also love the manner in which the art style changes based on the era of the game the characters are in: the modern Hero’s Duty features hundreds upon hundreds of enemies in a bleak Gears of War style world, while the classic look of Fix-It Felix has sparse environments filled with simple looking characters with choppy animation, just as you’d expect from an older game.
‘Hero’s Duty’ a hilarious satire of the modern FPS
The fact that Disney was able to get so many character cameos from so many different companies is something that I definitely can’t go without mentioning. I don’t want to spoil anything here, but every time one of these recognizable faces showed up on screen, I couldn’t help but smile. There are so many references to different titles that it’s certainly hard to keep up with them all, but I’m sure with each watch of Wreck-It Ralph you’ll pick up on things that you never noticed before.
Bad-Anon is just the tip of the cameo iceberg.
The only real problem that I had with Wreck-It Ralph is that things tend to flow a bit too conventionally. Ralph and Vanellope are both outcasts who form an important, life changing relationship. One of them messes the whole thing up, and it isn’t until the character’s darkest hour that they realize the massive error that they’ve made. Pretty standard stuff, and it slightly drags down an otherwise quite original experience. The film may also be slightly predictable for either extremely intelligent children or anyone over 15, but at its core Wreck-It Ralph is a family film, so I can’t fault it for being easy to understand.
Is Wreck-It Ralph worth your quarters? The answer is undoubtedly yes. Phil Johnston, Jennifer Lee, Rich Moore and the rest of the team have crafted an astonishing, believable, touching world worthy of repeat viewings, and one that will most definitely leave you itching for more. Whatever your age, you’re guaranteed to leave the theater smiling.
Wreck-It Ralph scores a nostalgic 4/5, and is one of the best animated films of the year.
