Wreck-it Ralph Review

In Walt Disney Animation Studios' new family animated adventure, Wreck-it Ralph, a video game villain named Wreck-it Ralph lives in a classic arcade video game Fix-it Felix Jr. where he as a villain wrecks an apartment building as the game's hero Fix-it Felix Jr. has to confront him by rebuilding the apartment with his magic golden hammer. After 30 years of doing the same tiring and unappreciated job, just being a villain, Ralph seeks to be a hero by game jumping into Hero's Duty, a first-person sci-fi shooter where he gains a medal claiming him a hero. But soon after he jumps into a kart racing game called Sugar Rush where he loses his medal and needs help from a new little friend and native to Sugar Rush named Vanellope Von Schweetz, who dreams to be a real racer in the game because she is a glitch, to gain it back. So far the story sounds basic and nothing to big or imaginative. But trust me there is far more to Wreck-it Ralph than what meets the eye when previewing it. Wreck-it Ralph is an highly enjoyable, entertaining, funny, cute, original, and imaginative animated film new to be joining many of Disney's greatest. The character of Ralph, played by John C. Reiley, is a very enjoyable and likeable protagonist, he's big guy with a big heart, and unlike other heavy characters in animated movies such as Shrek, he is not enjoyed because of mild manners, flatulence jokes, embracing his poor hygeine, or just because he is big and heavy. Ralph has a personality, passion, the heart of a hero, he always wants to do the right thing, and he can be enjoyably goofy and funny without trying too hard. Just to get things out of the way pretty much all the major cast members of the movie are highly enjoyable. Fix-it Felix Jr., played by Jack McBrayer, is not a stuck-up and snoody hero, like Ralph he has a good heart, good humor, actually does care for Ralph and sees him as a friend, as well as good moments especially in scenes with Sergeant Calhoun from Hero's Duty, played by the always funny, talented, and character invested Jane Lynch. Calhoun like many of the characters is enjoyable as well as funny, her comedic moments may seem unintentional but really they are. Her character is an exaggeration of the tough military character you see in games today and she makes a great satire of that with her comedic moments. Vanellope Von Schweetz, played by Sarah Silverman, may come to some as annoying and too energetic, but guess what, she is a child, and she acts like a child. It is very obvious that Silverman was really into this role, and her performance shines as she successfully pulls off playing the energetic, cute, tomboyish, and even emotional girl even she is intentionally annoying to the other characters. Which let's face a lot of little girls, if not most children are like this and ranging from children in other Disney films, they are either trying way too hard to act like adults or trying way too hard to be obnoxiously precious. Vanellope is just right. Finally we have the main antagonist King Candy, the ruler of Sugar Rush and played by Alan Tudyk, who comes of as a goofy bad guy but has plenty more surprises to him that makes him an enjoyable villain more into the movie. So the villain successfully comes of as funny,goofy, and at the same time threatening when he wants to be. So now into the story, I have to say I am pretty surprised to how original it is. It is very well set up as well as very imaginative. The way and rules of the video game world are perfectly fleshed out as well as it gives advantage to the plot of the movie making things that seem unnatural make sense. The world's of Fix-it Felix Jr., Hero's Duty, and Sugar Rush are very tribute to other video games and they also have fun with thir settings and rules. A good example is Sugar Rush, which is sort of like Candy Land mixed with Mario Kart, as the rules, settings, jokes, and even puns, are related to some sort of candy or sweet, as they surprisingly make sense to the audience as well help the movie's setting seem more enjoyable, creative, and clever. Plus there are other surprises and plot elements that help the movie from just being a basic animated family movie. I only have one minor problem with the ending which is not big enough to ruin the movie but I do kind of have an issue with. Without spoiling anything, let's just say one character has this problem, but the character can use this problem for emergencies to cleverly get out of situations which is okay, but there this plot element that can be used as an excuse to take the problem away but by the end of the movie the character keeps the problem in order to achieve, but not really in a good way. I don't know if this a huge or small problem, but it might have a chance for the audience to be turned off by the character. I was not turned off though, I still like the character, but still it can be a flaw and it could have been easily fixed. One last thing to note that needs to be mentioned is the clever references and cameos from other well-know video games. The beginning scene in the self-help group for video game villains which features Bowser, Dr. Robotnik, M. Bison, Zangief, the Pac-Man ghost, and many more video game villains is funny to watch as well as eye appealing to lovers of old school video games. Including other cameos and in-jokes, pretty much the whole movie is a love poem to not only classic video games but gamers in general. This movie is widely known as Roger Rabbit with video games, and it pretty much is. The rules of how the worlds work, the settings, the story (though far more complex than most if not all video games), and characters are all send ups to video games and if you are a lover of classic video games such as myself, especially from the 80s and 90s, chances are you will love this movie. But that note aside, Wreck-it Ralph is more than just a movie about video games, it embraces video games and the creativity they have (or will hopefully have again in the future), with its highly original, imaginative, funny, and creative plot, character, and settings. As I pressed start for the movie, Wreck-it Ralph immediately became the best video game movie ever made! Grade: P+

P.S. The short before the movie. Paperman, is also really good. Good traditional animation, as expected from Disney, it's touching, romantic, creative, and imaginative. I expect to see more of this quality from the Mouse House.