Since the current end of Pixar’s Toy Story, there’s an impression that Disney is after a new kid friendly franchise to earn some more money off. Since toys and animals have well been tapped, they’ve charged their usual Walt Disney Animation Studios to tackle a full blown computer animation movie about video games with Wreck-It Ralph. Does a change of studio with an okay track history deliver a big success within a broad subject?
Bored of his life wrecking the same tower block everyday since the 1980’s, video game character Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant) is attending a bad guy rehab program, and has the scorn of his fellow characters from his game Fix-It Felix Jr. Aiming to prove himself to be a nice guy really and achieve respect, Ralph decides to leave his game and earn himself a medal, putting the other inhabitants of his game at risk of being turned off. However, Ralph’s game jumping puts the whole arcade in jeopardy, so it’s up to Felix (Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock), and other game characters, to stop him before he ruins the arcade.
Reilly really is the perfect voice for Ralph. He delivers that sympathetic side of the character so well, and evolves over the character arc too. Reilly gives the impression that Ralph is a tragic monster, as he is just really misunderstood, giving a tether for audiences young and old to hook onto; at the start there’s no way we’re meant to believe that Ralph is a bad guy on the level of the Ghosts from Pac-Man or Dr. Robotnik from Sonic; he’s just a guy who doesn’t really believe in what he does, it’s just all he knows. Without conviction in his acts, he comes across as an actor playing a bad guy, which is essentially all the characters in the arcade are.
Sarah Silverman (School of Rock) is the main female lead as glitch kid driver Vanellope, from a sweet and candy themed racing game. As a squeaky little punk, the usually mature Silverman adapts to the needs of the role rather well, and does a good job as the slightly annoying/misunderstood glitch girl. However watching Vanellope in her world is a bit like watching someone with ADHD running around, so you get burnt out quickly, and the overlong time spent in her world is frustrating.
Continuing our perfect streak of great casting is McBrayer as Felix; he brings a natural, coy, clean-cut element to his performance which nails Felix; he’s an all-round good guy with no hint of evil in him at all, and spends most of the movie interacting with various videogame icons in “clashes of styles” as he is the antithesis of an 80’s gaming character. Another highlight is Glee’s Sue Sylvester, Jane Lynch, as Calhoun (the squadron leader of the futuristic Hero’s Duty arcade game); as a bad-ass overly macho female drill instructor type with a tragic past; there is an element of parody about her to the shooter genre, but she excels so much in the role tailor-made for her.
If you’ve ever played a video game at all, even if you’re more from the current generation of console gaming, you will find something fun to pick up on from this movie; there are so many casual mentions, appearances, and tributes of video games and their characters, you’ll almost need a scorecard to keep up. Included from top level franchises in gaming yore are nods to Street Fighter, Sonic The Hedgehog and Q*bert. Fix-It Felix Jr. is a parody of the original Donkey Kong arcade game in style & gameplay, whilst similarly Calhoun and Vanellope’s games are good reminders of first person shooters like Gears Of War and classic racer Mario Kart respectfully.
It goes even further than your standard referencing and parodying of current and past generation gaming; the explanations of how Vanellope is a glitch, and how she could corrupt and destroy her game are clever, the scenes where characters engage in a video game’s code via a virtual reality/cyberspace experience are pretty neat, and heck, even the jerky movements of the other inhabitants of Felix’s game are spot-on of 8-bit games of the 1980’s. It goes beyond what you expect a film focusing on video games would have done, and shows it has been well researched. It even has a wee bit of love inside amongst all the cutesy charm.
For the most part, there is some out of place but fantastic “shades of grey” on the morality scale. There is a grand middle patch between most of the characters doing some dodgy dealings to preserve their world or status quo. At first, King Candy is fearful of Vanellope and her glitching as if she becomes part of the races, she could corrupt their game and get him and his fellow characters turned off. The law of ‘sacrifice one to save the rest us’ is applied for the most part and characters do what they have to do to get their needs and get by in absorbing scenes, but sometimes it doesn’t work at all.
That’s actually a crippling fault with the film – it gets stuck in the fact that it’s a Disney movie. Everything is spelled out for the little ones so you know everything mentioned will come back into play by the end of the runtime. It gets bogged down for a good 20 minute spell halfway through with a boring bonding session between Ralph and Vanellope. I get I’m not the target audience for this film and it’s not a Pixar release, but look at how engaging Toy Story 3 and Brave were for elder viewers. There’s a self created expectancy to have something for everyone in terms of plot etc. and it’s not here this time round.
Needless to say, it’s still turning out to be a smash hit for Walt Disney’s own Animation Studios, and a shot in the arm it needs after slightly disappointing releases in the past. Having dropped the traditional cell animation style, it’s easily their best film creatively and compares favourably to anything Pixar have done. It certainly gives Toy Story a run for it’s money and I’d be more than happy to see more of Ralph and co. in an inevitable franchise.
Overall, it’s a bit too cutesy, kid friendly, and trapped in a Disney film’s set mechanics, but otherwise a superb homage to video games old and new. What they do for the most part with their morality is unexpected and delicious, and fantastic voice acting and memorable characters make Wreck-It Ralph smash the competition.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
