Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph may have the best concept we’ve seen in animation since Shrek came out in 2001. Ralph is a video game villain, who grows tired of his tedious job after 30 years. So he decides to break the trend and earn a medal, which is usually reserved for heroes. In order to do so, Ralph ventures to other video games to gain the respect of his peers. The presence of well-known video game entities like “Sonic the Hedgehog”, “Pac-Man” and “Street Fighter” adds significantly to the Disney project. While there are plenty of original games and characters, the fact that familiar faces are shown in the trailers and in the film’s opening scenes give the audience, and more specifically children, something to latch onto and get interested in. Sure, Ralph’s game, “Fix-It Felix Jr.” is almost exactly the same as the original “Donkey Kong,” but that’s okay.

The voice cast for the film does very well. John C. Reilly, who plays the title character, proves to be an absolutely perfect choice for the kind-hearted giant. Overall, the film doesn’t have much working against it. Visually, the movie fits into the holding patter CGI based animation has been dealing with recently. It looks good, but not any different than what we’ve been seeing from Disney’s competitors. The same goes with overall themes. It’s an “everyone’s special in their own way” kind of concept, which we see more in more in children’s fare.

It all comes down to the very well thought out concept behind Wreck-It Ralph. We’ve seen what toys do when no one is looking in Toy Story, so now we know how complex the lives of video game characters are. Gamers will appreciate the references to secret levels, glitch characters and the idea that all your video games interact with each other. Ralph’s attending of a villain support group is a great example of how successful the film is in executing a unique vision. And it’s surprisingly not very morbid by Disney standards.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.