Review of Wreck-It Ralph (2012) by Allan C — 09 May 2014

My kids have been obsessively watching "Frozen" lately and I found this Disney film much more to my liking. The retro video game aspect of the story, of course, appealed to me, but the the story itself is much more original than your typical Disney fare (i.

E. "Frozen" or ""Sophia the First"). The story here is about a video game bad guy, Wreck-it Ralph, from a Donkey Kong-like game is tired of being a bad guy and wants to be a hero, so Ralph sets out to become a hero by traveling into other video games in the arcade.

The setting of an arcade where all the video game characters interact with each other and have secret lives once the arcade closes for the night is much more along the lines of Pixar films, rather than films filed with princesses and grand musical numbers, which I found much more appealing.

This film was executive produced by Pixar regular John Lasseter, though he also executive produced the blandly enjoyable "Frozen". Besides the clever setting, the film also had a good amount of heart without being overly sappy, thanks especially to the voice work by John C.

Reilly as Ralph. There's also some very good supporting characters that including Jane Lynch as a Halo-type of futuristic warrior who teams up with a goofy Mario-like character voiced by Jack McBrayer.

Their relationship is particularly funny when the two begin to have feelings for each other. These sorts of video game genre crossovers are a big part of the film's charm. Sarah Silverman is surprisingly good as a likable character who is a glitch in a Mario Cart-like game and wants to be a main character.

Alan Tudyk, Mindy Kaling, Ed O'Neill, Dennis Haysbert, Edie McClurg, Joe Lo Truglio, , Horatio Sanz and Adam Carolla also provide voices for characters. Overall, this is a pretty fun animated film that stands up to the best of Pixar (even though this is a Disney film).