Saturday, October 27, 2012

WRECK-IT RALPH

WRECK-IT RALPH
Written by Jennifer Lee and Phil Johnston
Directed by Rich Moore
Voices by John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch

Wreck-It Ralph: I’m bad and that is good. I will never be good and that isn’t bad. There is no one I would rather be than me.

I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be very happy if every day you went to work only to be despised and misunderstood by everyone around you. Thus is the plight of one reasonably oafish, apparently stinky, video game character who goes by the name of Ralph, WRECK-IT RALPH, to be more precise. He has no friends; he sleeps in a dump; and he has freakishly huge hands that seem destined for only one thing, wrecking stuff. Here is the worst part. This has been his day in and day out for 30 years! As miserable as Ralph’s life is for him, his attempt to turn it all around is a great delight for all of us.

Ralph is the “bad guy” from a classic arcade game called, “Fix-It Felix Jr.”. As Ralph (aptly voiced by John C. Reilly) destroys a building full of innocent people, Felix (voiced by the apparent go to guy for innocent, yokel types, Jack McBrayer), with his trusty magic hammer, comes along to fix everything. When he’s done, Ralph is tossed off the building and into a pile of mud. When he realizes he hasn’t even been invited to the game’s 30th anniversary party, Ralph simply leaves it on a mission to change the way people see him. Ralph has had enough of being a bad guy and wants to be good for a change, but what he really needs is a lesson in personal acceptance. Naturally, Ralph starts wrecking stuff in other games because he has yet to accept that wrecking stuff is in his nature. If Ralph were crossing a river on the back of a frog, no matter how well intentioned he may be, he would inevitably wreck that frog before they reached the other side.


WRECK-IT RALPH is a unique and imaginative take on the world of gaming. Classic video game characters, from Sonic the Hedgehog to Pac-Man, come alive after the arcade closes for the night, and travel between games through dozens of electrical wire train tubes, that converge in a central station that deserves to be called grand. And as they come to life, so does the film, a remarkable effort by first time filmmaker, Rich Moore. There were times I questioned just who the film was made for though. I seriously doubt young kids would know who Q-Bert is but yet, more often than not, the humour was aimed primarily toward a younger sensibility. Despite some minor focus issues and some overused family friendly themes (don’t kids know that they just need to be themselves by now?), WRECK-IT RALPH is great fun all the same. It may not get a perfect score but it definitely makes the leader board. Pretty solid bragging rights for a first time player, I think.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not a gamer and I find the film to be overstuffed with geekery and unexplained in-jokes. I hope reviewers will keep people like me in mind when they decide for *us all* whether or not the film is truly good. (Keep in mind too that car people loved Pixar's Cars. The rest of us didn't.)

Black Sheep said...

Thanks for your comment. I think it's safe to say that not everything is for everyone. I think the trailers for Wreck-It Ralph made it pretty clear they were going to dive head first into the geekery of video gaming. I'm a little surprised really that you expected anything else really.

I do think the filmmakers are a little unaware who their specific audience is. Some of the jokes are decidedly adult and some are leaning towards infantile, not to mention that I don't really see little kids knowing who Q-bert is, but I don't feel that they should have toned down the inside gaming jokes. The only way they would sell this film is to make it truly authentic.

Anonymous said...

So did it feel formulaic as most disney movies do these days. Like it is the same movie you seen 100 times before just with a video game theme? That what I am afraid of with this movie even through I am a huge classic video gamer.

Black Sheep said...

The themes in the film are not at all original ... Be true to yourself, things aren't always how they appear ... but the world of arcade gaming that comes alive once all the kids go home is most certainly original and exciting. If you're a classic gamer, you should definitely check it out!

Anonymous said...

Yeah thanks for the reply. I have to admit when I first herd about this film I had little to no interest considering it was done by disney for the reason I stated earlier but the more I see and read the more excited I get especially with the viewers at imdb giving it 7.8 out of 10 and with so little good movies with video games as the central theme I am glad to see this looking as if it handles this well and done by people who actually know about the games they are writing about.