Viewed in
2012, 2013
Formats
Movie theater (3D), HDTV
Premise
A CGI animated tale of a arcade game bad guy (voiced by John C. Reilly) who ditches his game, and befriends a glitchy racer in another game.
Loved
Loving tale of friendship, video game shout outs, brilliant writing.
Liked
3D, sweet-tooth shout outs.
Thoughts
This is almost unfair, considering I'm part of the key demographic. Had this been subpar, I would've still liked it. But since it's very good, I loved it way too much.
I was blown away by the writing and story-telling. The relationship between Ralph and Vanellope was lovingly crafted and full of heart. In some ways, the ads were misleading, as the soul of the film was the friendship between lovable ogre and cutesy kid. It reminded me of a more mature version of Sully and Boo from Monsters, Inc. The leads and minor characters were hilarious and bursting with personality.
In addition to Pixar's 2001 excellent feature, Wreck-It Ralph also embodied the best parts of Toy Story franchise, Tron franchise, and Candyland (currently an Adam Sandler production). The writers and animators created a really cool world full of video game cameos. Cameos were built around the story, not the other way around. Growing up with 1980's/1990's video games, I was completely caught up in nostalgia and geeking out over the crossovers and interactions from some of my favorite characters.
They did a great job of paying tribute to the forefathers of video games as we know. The behavior of 8-bit characters were hilariously cute, ending credits played out to a J-pop song, and the post-credit Easter egg will have any old school console gamer in stitches.
Now the surprising aspect was that in reality, the majority of the plot took place in a fictional video game, which was a saccharine-laden parody of a famous game we all love and play. That's where the Candyland parallels took hold. Suddenly, I was sideswiped by a cornucopia of dessert/snacks-oriented cameos and shoutouts. In other words, Michelle Obama's worst nightmare. These moments were just as funny and well-integrated as the gaming stuff.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the voice overs. While Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch weren't super-duper-stars, they're still well-known with distinct voices that could've derailed the momentum of the story. But their performances, along with the great writing and loving visuals, made me forget about that instantly.
As for the 3D, it definitely enhanced the experience, though I wouldn't say it was essential to enjoying the film. The filmmakers definitely focused more on creating an immersive sense of depth throughout, instead of falling back on gratuitous shots of things flying at the audience. Though frankly, I think they could've taken advantage of that a bit more for fun. And there was no brightness issue whatsoever.
So besides wishing for more in-your-face 3D, my other nitpick was that the subplot of the antagonist was kind of lame. The writers had worked so hard to create these charming, interesting and multi-dimensional characters, but somehow couldn't mold the main boss into someone of that standard. Upon second viewing, I noticed some time-continuity issues, but everything else held up like the first time.
But my biggest concern about the film was how it would speak to younger audiences. Similar to how we bag on other animated features that incorporate parodies that only adults get, I imagine a similar situation here, as video games have matured to the point of having multiple generations of forgotten consoles and titles. Talking to a friend, he said that concern was non-existent for his young kids, as they (pardon the pun) ate up the dazzling eye candy and lovable characters. I loved Wreck-It Ralph, and it seemed like non-gamers would still enjoy it.
