I grew up with video games. I still
remember owning a Colecovision and hours spent in arcades in high
school. My love for video games still exists even though the types of
games I play has changed. Wreck-It Ralph manages to pull in kids with
the story and their parents with the nostalgia of their own
childhoods.
In the latest from Disney/Pixar we get
the story of Ralph (John C. Reilly) the villain in the game Fix-It
Felix Jr. His video game is 30 years old and he feels slighted for
being a bad guy, while Felix is treated wonderfully after the arcade
closes by the other inhabitants of his game. One of the ghosts from
Pac-Man hosts a VA support group for various villains of other games.
Ralph never attended till recently when he started feeling like he
could be more than a bad guy. Everyone says stay the status quo. The
characters all move from game to game after hours, the bar everyone
drinks at is the game Tappers, the Villain support group is into the
ghost home of Pac-Man, its just fine after hours but everyone is
expected to not game jump while the arcade is open because if your
missing or in the wrong place your game could be put out of order and
even worse unplugged. Also if you die outside your game you don't
regenerate.
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| Game Central Station |
Ralph wants to be a hero so badly he
game jumps into Hero's Duty, a first person shooter game similar to
Halo. He meets up with Sargent Calhoun (Jane Lynch) then accidentally
gets blasted out of the game with a virus and ends up in the racing
game Sugar Rush where he meets Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah
Silverman) a glitch in her game. She wants to be a racer like
everyone else but she's an outcast because of her glitch. A side
effect is that glitches can never leave their games. If your game
gets unplugged you can leave and end up in Game Central Station which
is where we see Q*bert and his game cohorts as homeless people. The
rest of the movie is about the growing friendship between Ralph and
Vanellope, as well as between Calhoun and Felix Jr (Jack McBrayer) as
they attempt to find Ralph and the rouge virus bug from Hero's Duty.
There's some great voice casting in
this film. Dennis Haysbert, Ed O'Neill, Edie McClurg, Adam Tudyk and Adam
Corolla are all in this. The games you love from being a kid, Sonic,
Ryu from Street Fighter, Bowser, and the universal contra cheat is in
this movie. There's even a Cola and Mentos mountain. I laughed
hysterically throughout this movie and there were clearly game
references that only the over 30 crowd would get. C1 thoroughly
enjoyed it as well. There were several moments during the movie where
she was gasping because she was shocked at the turn of events. Thanks
to Super Smash Brothers she recognized several characters but asked
me questions about others after the movie was over.
I give this movie a Full Price but pass on the 3-D. Pixar
knows how to appeal to the kids and the parents who have to bring
them along and they deliver as usual here. C1 gave this movie a
“purchase” which on her scale means amazing and we need to own it
too.
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| Paperman |
Wreck-it Ralph is rated PG.
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