Disclaimer: I had seen Wreck It Ralph before watching it in preparation of writing this review, so I will try my darnedest to go about this with the least amount of bias as possible.
Now with that out of the way, Wreck It Ralph came out just in time for the holiday season of 2012. It is fairly new and still regarded as one of the best movies of that year. But why was it so loved, and is it essentially over-hyped just like Frozen was in 2013? That is what I am here to determine.
The movie opens to show that the whole world these characters live in is located inside an arcade. The main character is revealed to be Wreck It Ralph, voiced by John C. Reilly, or a “bad guy.” Ralph obviously is jealous of Fix It Felix, voiced by Jack McBrayer, because every time the player and Felix beat Ralph, Felix gets a medal and Ralph gets thrown off the roof of a building and into the mud.
The idea of the plot is a lot like the premise of Toy Story. When the arcade closes at night, all the characters come to life and can leave their games through the power cords and into Game Central Station.
The idea is that Ralph is sick of being hated and despised by everyone. Ralph knows there is more to who he is, and he wants to prove it to everyone else.
Along the way Ralph starts to game-hop, looking for medals and trying to prove that he can be more than a “bad guy.”
He winds up meeting an annoying/adorable little girl named Vanellope Von Schweetz, voiced by Sarah Silverman, from a game called Sugar Rush. All I can say about it is that it is a mix between Candy Land and Mario Kart. That is where the majority of the movie takes place. The animation really holds up, and the whole movie is colorful and flat-out gorgeous. The movie is so packed full of references and puns that it is basically impossible to catch all of them the first time around. There are so many video game characters, from old to new, that nobody can see this game and not recognize at least a few characters they know.
Even though there are essentially an infinite number of video game lands that Ralph could travel to, the story tends to stay focused on just a handful of realms that are relevant to the main story line. I honestly think that was smart of the development team, because this way it doesn’t allow for too much distraction. They could have allowed the movie to have an even crazier number of references and video game lands that Ralph could have gone to, but instead they really developed the characters and focused on the story – never forgetting that this is a movie.
Personally, I am a sucker for kid movies, but this one has humor for adults and kids alike. Even though I have seen the movie more than once, I still caught myself laughing out loud at some of the jokes. The comedy is fresh and constant.
For the last third of the movie, there is quite a bit more drama. But it is only because the director focused on the movie, not the fan bases of the games.
This is one of my favorite movies, and I would recommend it for movie night or afternoon – anytime, really.
Leave a Reply