Review of Wreck-It Ralph (2012) by Mrnice — 20 Mar 2013

If you have any interest in video games (especially Mario Kart, modern shooters, arcade games) this movie has several concepts and ideas that are imaginative and intelligent. The middle of the movie is standard kid friendly action-blockbuster, but the setup is unique, along with some intelligent crossover effects from video games into the realm of animation.

I found the voice of the little girl a bit distracting because it sounds like a grown-up impersonating a child, but it's well done, so, non-issue really. Then there's the exclusion of many game genres.

RPGs, platformers, point'n'click, strategy, puzzle etc... which would in different ways broaden the scope of the sometimes repetitive use of gokarts. Also, there's not much to take from the movie into the real world.

It's in that way stuck between useful exposition of interactive media, and a useless entertainment flick. Very well made, very well thought out. But the direction it takes suffers the same premise as video games: often it's about entertainment and forgetting the bigger themes in life.

In these times, we are hard pressed to face real issues and focus culture towards a discussion of those problems, ideas and technologies. For example, what if the movie inspired kids to code? I'm afraid they'll be more inclined to draw and play than to 'get' the importance of words and the ability to code useful tools.

I liked that the king was able to 'code' his way out of a problem, but mostly it was about racing a gokart.