Monday Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph

Released: November 2nd, 2012

Studio: Walt Disney Animation Studios

Run Time: 101 minutes

Summary (IMDb):

A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.

IMDb

Wreck it Ralph is about a video game character named Ralph who’s job is to wreck things in the video game he works for -- Fix it Felix. Lately Ralph has been displeased with his life and the way he’s treated by his fellow video game peers. He lives in the garbage pile by himself while everyone else lives in the penthouse and praise Felix. We see Ralph attending “Bad Guy Meetings” with other video game “bad guys” like M. Bison and Zangief from Street Fighter and Bowser from Mario Bro’s. They try to talk Ralph out of going “Turbo” and game jumping because if you die outside of your game, you don’t come back.

For anyone who grew up with Street Fighter and Mario Bro’s or with (what is now considered) retro arcade games will appreciate this film. I loved how they incorporated many different video game’s and characters. I loved the idea of the gaming train station and how characters travel from game to game through the power wires. I also really loved the idea of their society.

As much as the movie is about Ralph trying to figure out what matters to him in life and where he wants to be it’s also very much about Vanellope and her struggle to fit in with her own peers. It’s about two people from two different video games struggling with pretty much the same thing and even though their situations are slightly different THEY are not that different.

I’ll admit, I was excited to see the Sugar Rush part of this movie and I’m glad that it was a big part of it. I was fascinated with the plushie’s at The Disney Store that are scented and I was drawn the most to Jubileena (the cherry girl). The other girls don’t really play a big part in the movie, they’re pretty much Taffyta’s minions. I LOVED Jane Lynch in this, she kept her snarky sense of humor that Sue Sylvester spews out. It was amazing.

There are parts of this movie that will make your heart swell and there are parts that will make you want to sob your eyes out (it is a Disney movie after all). There are twists and major turns that you won’t see coming and Vanellope will rip your heart out on multiple occasions. Overall, I loved this movie. Maybe not as much as I loved Tangled but it’s still pretty up there. To mix a story of people trying to figure out who they are and video games? What’s there not to love?!

The best part of the movie, I'd have to say though is the  fact that DDR was incorporated into it and the song the Oreo's sing in front of King Candy's castle :P I had wished that they had put Kingdom Hearts characters in it too but Kingdom Hearts isn't an arcade game *sad face*. Still I enjoyed this movie a ton and I'm sure you will too!!

The husband and I sat though the whole credits (and I mean whole they even had someone under "Caffination") and there's nothing extra in the end. I know it's a stand alone movie but you know, we were half curious and half lazy lol.

Fun Facts!

-- During early production, Disney had Mario and Luigi set to cameo in the film, but were unable to pay the fee Nintendo had requested to use the characters. The character Fix-It Felix seems to borrow a few attributes of Mario: The overalls, accompanied/recycled 1980s 'Mario Bros.' sound bytes, and their physical movements such as jumping and spinning (which was used in later games). 

-- King Candy's voice and character design is modeled after Ed Wynn, a popular comedian and voice artist, best known as the voice of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland and as Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins. [ I KNEW HE SOUNDED LIKE THE MAD HATTER!!! ]