Wreck-It Ralph

 

When I first saw the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph over the summer, my reaction was one of great enthusiasm and slight trepidation.  The enthusiasm came from the fact that as a life-long fan of playing video games, here was a movie that seemed to combine a number of famous characters, past and present, in a clever way, similar to Toy Story or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with the video game characters having lives of their own when no one is playing their game.  The trepidation came from the fear that the movie might be one big in-joke, and either become tiresome, or speak to too limited of an audience.

I'm glad to say this is not the case.  Wreck-It Ralph is first and foremost a heartfelt and at times bittersweet underdog story.  The fact that it is set in the world of video games is simply a gimmick, and an excellently-used one, at that.  You don't have to be a gamer (past or present) to get the jokes, and while there are definitely some gags thrown in that only those who play games will laugh at, it doesn't happen to such a degree that it drags down the film.  What surprised me the most about the film is how much I grew attached to these characters, and their individual plights.  The titular Wreck-It Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) may be a bully in the game he stars in (an early arcade game that's a throwback to the original Donkey Kong game), but in real life, he's a common everyman who unfortunately has a talent for destruction and smashing things with his massive hands.

In Ralph's game, he climbs to the top of a skyscraper, destroying it as he goes.  The game's hero, Fix-It Felix, Jr (Jack McBrayer) is controlled by the player, and fixes the damage Ralph causes with a magic hammer.  At the end of the game, the grateful residents of the building reward Felix with a medal, while they drop Ralph off the side of the building, and into a nearby junkyard.  That's the way it's been for the past 30 years, since Ralph's game was first plugged in at the local arcade.  Needless to say, the poor guy's a bit tired of the grind, and of the lonely nights he spends in the dump, looking longingly up at the party the residents always throw for Felix for his accomplishments in the building penthouse.  Ralph has started to go to a support group for video game villains (which includes the likes of Bowser from Super Mario Bros., Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Kano from Mortal Kombat), but their encouragement and reminder that just because he's a bad guy in the game, doesn't make him a bad guy in real life, is not really helping.

The way Ralph sees it, he has to get a taste of what it feels like to be a hero for a change to get out of his funk.  He makes the daring move of leaving his own game, and sneaking into a modern, post-apocalyptic-themed shooter game called Hero's Duty.  He disguises himself as one of the space military grunts in that game, and ends up achieving his Hero's Medal.  However, while attempting to return to his own game, he gets sidetracked and ends up in a different game - Sugar Rush, a literally candy-coated racing game in the style of Mario Kart.  There, he meets a little girl named Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), who just wants to race like everyone else in her game, but everyone rejects her, because she's a "glitch", and was never programmed right.  At first Ralph wants nothing to do with the girl (who, in all fairness, does not strike the best first impression by stealing his Hero's Medal and running off with it), but in time, he realizes that they have a lot in common in how they are seen by others in their individual games.

There is a lot of brightness and imagination in Wreck-It Ralph that appealed to me, and helped cover up the sameness of the plot, which basically boils down to a basic "be proud of who you are" message.  I liked how the movie used a variety of animation styles and techniques, from hi-tech CG, to basic 8-Bit early 80s video game style art.  The individual worlds that Ralph visits are imaginative, and seem like they could have come from actual games.  Director Rich Moore (TV's The Simpsons) and his writers and animators obviously understand gaming, but don't let their know-how completely take over the project, making it accessible to just about anyone who watches it.  Ralph is an immediately identifiable everyman type, who is largely misunderstood, because of his title as a "bad guy" in his game.  And the relationship he builds with the equally-misunderstood Vanellope (who initially comes across as somewhat of an odious comic relief character) is genuinely sweet, and kind of touching.

It's actually the characters who carry the entire film, as the plot (involving a crazed king, and some killer cyber insects infecting other games) is not much to write home about.  Outside of Ralph and Vanellope, there's the loyal Fix-It Felix, who goes searching for Ralph when he realizes that his game's just not the same without the big lummox smashing the building down.  There's also a Space Marine from the Hero's Duty game that gets wrapped up in the action.  She's voiced wonderfully by Jane Lynch, and gets off some good one-liners, and a couple comical jabs at stereotyped commando types with tragic backgrounds who appear in shooters.  Compare these animated video game-type characters (who are heartfelt and full of humor) to the stiff, live action ones seen in last weekend's Silent Hill: Revelation.  There's a lot of joy in these performances, and it carries through to the audience.

 

Wreck-It Ralph seems destined to be a giant crowd pleaser, as I think it appeals enough to both children and adults (especially those adults who remember feeding quarters to arcade machines some 30 years ago).  It's heart is in the right place, but most of all, it's highly entertaining and very bright.  To top it off, the movie is preceded with a delightful animated short titled Paperman.  It's a charming romantic comedy that I think will play better with adults than with kids, and is probably the best short to come out of the Disney studio in years.  Simply put, this is a joyful experience from beginning to end.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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