Wreck it Ralph
Director: Rich Moore/ Disney Animation
Cast Headliner: John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman
Release Date: November 2nd 2012
A movie that originally started as Fix It Felix , a movie that has been jokingly nicknamed by variations of its title such as Destroy it Dan and Smash it Steve. What this film really is, is a loving tribute to the video game culture. Disney has returned to making a great animated movie, and has also made the most "video game ish" movie ever. It is today's Toy Story , Roger Rabbit, and Super Mario the Movie (just with different characters) that I and the world have always wanted.
The film takes place in one of those last great arcades that have a mix of video game machines old and new. Reilly voices Ralph, the Wario/Pete/Donkey Kongish villain of his arcade machine. He tires of his job, and thus his adventure starts. This segment of the film is the funniest and best in my opinion. It is great to see Bowser and a Pac Man ghost and Zangief and Doctor Eggman sitting side by side on a tv screen for the first time. There are tons of references in most of these scenes, and any present or former gamer will appreciate the work they did in putting in as many as they can. Some great written humor comes from Ralph running into things from other video games.
Now if the movie had just been this, I would have been extremely happy. It soon drastically changes however. He stops off for a flashy and action packed fight sequence in a combination Halo/Call of Duty/Mass Effect/Metroid parody called Hero's Duty , but the film quickly leaves this potential to drop Ralph into the colorful Sugar Rush. I expected a retro video game movie, but what it became for about 3/4's was an adventure in a world of candy.
That is not a total problem. While it is regretful that more worlds and references were not included, the fact that everything is made of candy allows for more humor and interesting situations. Ralph befriends Vanellope, played by Sarah Silverman who shows a good range from cute to angry in her voice. Every character in this film is great, Jane Lynch as the gritty Samus/Ripleyish Sgt Calhoun and Jack Mcbrayer as essentially his 30 rock character in Fix it Felix from Ralph's game also deserve mention.
The plot is well written and full of twists, with some moments very sad and happy. The movie gets even more exciting as time goes on. The visuals are also fantastic, it is very cool to see the different graphical styles in different game worlds.
Just as Toy Story showed the world what toys may do when owners aren't around, Wreck it Ralph looks inside the world of games. Even if this movie had not had famous characters guest starring it is still worth seeing. It is a story about games in the best way. Disney has made a film that can be enjoyed by everyone because it is just that good. I highly reccomend it. 8.75 out of 10
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