Review of Wreck-It Ralph (2012) by Henry P — 28 Oct 2016

10/29/16.

I'm gonna rate it! Wreck-It Ralph successfully does what many video game movies fail to do: tell a great story about video games in the context of a movie. Well, instead of adapting a video game's story, spirit, etc (like several have) Wreck-It Ralph does it differently: tell an original story about original characters, involve a few licensed video game characters here and there, and just have fun with the background video game references. We open with a montage of Fix-It Felix Jr. arriving at the arcade, and the changes around it over thirty years, narrated by Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) who is confessing to the bad guy support group how he feels after thirty years of getting the short-end of the stick. After getting some advice, Ralph comes back to his game where they're having a party! Skrillex DJing and Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer) getting praised while Ralph is not only not invited, but feared by his fellow NPCs (non-playable characters for you non-gamers out there) and guests like Pac-Man. After turning the party sourer than a sour ball, Ralph sets out to prove he can be the good guy, in a philosophical tale of coming to terms with who you are. It's fun how it hops from the simplistic 80s-style Fix-It Felix Jr. to the dark and gritty modern-style Hero's Duty, and to the cutesy 90s-style Sugar Rush, with references to so many real-life games just scattered throughout. The animation is gorgeous all around, whether they capture the 8-bit motion of the Nicelanders in Fix-It Felix in CGI, the gritty darkness of Hero's Duty, or the colorfully sweet brightness of Sugar Rush. Ralph is just trying to prove he can be a good guy (both the hero and a nice person), Felix is doing his job of fixing Ralph's wrecking, and they run into new friends: Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), a misfit "glitch" from Sugar Rush, whose sweetness and determination mirror that of Ralph, and Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch), a tough, complex NPC from Hero's Duty who provides a hilarious contrast to Felix's soft and simple personality. Henry Jackman (with a little help from Skrillex) provides a great score that captures all the eras of gaming featured, but when genuine, intimate, character moments come up, it's volume zero to soft. Wreck-It Ralph is truly a genuine and funny animated classic from Disney thanks to all this, and provides a nostalgia trip for adults who played the referenced games (or see the similarities between the real-world games and the fictional ones here), a gateway to these for kids, and an excellent story all around.

11/2/13.

In a time when originality feels nonexistent, one dares to go into the originality zone: Wreck-It Ralph. You've seen Disney make princesses, "super" dogs, time travel, fairy tales, fable adaptations... and a whole lot of other movies. Now, they step out of the adaptation zone, and bring their all to a movie about a video game villain trying to do good. As a video game fan, I found its references to video games well done. It also makes me question what happens inside my consoles when I'm not playing. Wreck-It Ralph is the freshest animated movie I've ever seen in terms of idea, plot, and characters. From the simple game of Fix-It Felix, to the apocalyptic, gritty world of Hero's Duty, to the bright, colorful Sugar Rush, Wreck-It Ralph is fun on every level, and shows how the bad guy may not always like being bad. It's well written and very witty when it comes to plot and characters. The animation helps too, with the most realistic CGI I've seen since Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It doesn't go overboard with the video game references, just shows some characters, and gives the well-known characters small parts, leaving the story up to the original ones. Henry Jackman provides his score, with a little help from Skrillex, and all the original dialogue just puts the icing on the cake. If you play video games, you''ll love all the nods to well-known games and franchises (Sorry Call of Duty, Hero's Duty is as close as you get). There's no denying this is the best of Disney, making it my number one animated movie, ever.

11/3/12.

Best⦠Disney Animated Classic⦠EVER! It felt like an A-Bomb of joy and happyness went off in my brain. The visuals were glorious! The 3D worked! And all the video game references were funny, subtle, and placed correctly! There were references to every video game I know/played from Super Mario Bros. (With out the actual bros.) to Sonic the Hedgehog, to Street Fighter, to Mario Kart, Metal Gear⦠and even to video game violence itself, with Ralph's "When did Video Games become so violent?" line. It just goes to show how wizard Disney is at making and/or distributing movies! I hope they make a sequel. Not a DisneyToon Direct-to-Video sequel, but another, original, sequel. Finally, it was interesting how video game characters apparently have their own lives outside their game, and how It did what Toy Story did: make you wonder what's really going on behind our backs with seemingly inanimate objects. Does Clyde the ghost hold a bad guy support group in the center of Pac-Man? Can Fix-It Felix really fix ANYTHING? And will Ralph learn that you can be a bad guy, but still be good to people? Find out in Disney's Wreck-It Ralph!