Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph
For most of my life, almost as long as I’ve loved movies, I’ve been a huge fan of video games. Because of that, it’s been disappointing that films based on games have had such a dismal history, with many of them being pretty much unwatchable. But on the other hand, there have been some great films about video games – Tron (1982) and WarGames (1983) spring immediately to mind. Well, we can add a new film to the top of that canon: Wreck-It Ralph, the fifty-second animated feature film from Walt Disney Pictures. Not only is this a great animated family film, it might well be the best movie about video games ever made.
Wreck-It Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) is the villain of the arcade video game Fix-It Felix Jr., in which the game’s eponymous hero Felix (voice of Jack McBrayer) fixes a building that Ralph destroys. For over thirty years, Ralph has been doing the same job and has grown tired of being the villain. Wanting to prove he can be a hero and not just a bad guy, Ralph escapes his game through a power cord and lands in Hero’s Duty, a light-gun shooter game where he helps the game’s hero, Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Jane Lynch), battle against “Cy-Bugs,” the game’s alien invaders. Ralph then enters Sugar Rush, a kart racing game set on tracks made of candies, cookies, and other sweets. There, Ralph meets one of the game’s characters, Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman), who has learned that her game is faced with a dire threat that could affect the entire arcade, and one that Ralph may have inadvertently started.
The voice cast does excellent work across the board, with all the leads playing to their strengths as actors. John C. Reilly has always been good at playing these kinds of sad-sack everyman characters, and he gives Ralph the perfect mix of sympathy and grumpiness. Sarah Silverman, who I know can be a divisive figure, does a great job making Vanellope a character who we find exasperating at first but ultimately come to love. Jack McBrayer is able to take Felix, who could have just been the over-earnest good guy, and give him actual depth. Similarly, Jane Lynch gives Sergeant Calhoun, who could have just been a one-dimensional tough chick character, real complexity and layers. Alan Tudyk almost steals the show as King Candy, the gleefully demented ruler of Sugar Rush. He plays Candy almost like a villain from the 1960s Batman show hopped up on Pixy Stix, and is every bit as manic and funny as that description suggests. Mindy Kaling does a good job in her small role as Taffyta Muttonfudge, Vanellope’s nemesis and de facto leader of the Sugar Rush racers, who are basically a bunch of bitchy high school girls in the bodies of super-deformed anime characters. Adam Carolla and Horatio Sanz get some hilarious moments as Wynnchel and Duncan, a pair of walking, talking donuts who serve as security for Sugar Rush. And, in a nice treat for gaming fans, voice actors Kyle Hebert (Ryu from Street Fighter), Reuben Langdon (Ken from Street Fighter), Gerald C. Rivers (M. Bison from Street Fighter), and Roger Craig Smith (Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog) all reprise their game roles in brief cameos.
It’s difficult for me to get across just how funny this movie is without spoiling a bunch of jokes that you should see for yourself. Of course, a lot of it is based on video game nods and in-jokes. The writers are clearly huge gaming fans, because the dialogue and settings are just littered with both subtle and obvious references to video games of all kinds. There’s a lot of fun wordplay and sight gags galore. But don’t worry if you’re not a gamer, because even if you don’t get some jokes, there will still be plenty of things that will make you laugh.
A scene from “Wreck-It Ralph.” Photo by Disney – © 2012 – Disney. All Rights Reserved.
But as funny as the movie is, it also has a surprising amount of heart. I imagine anyone can relate to Ralph’s situation, of feeling like people resent you even though you’re just doing what you’re supposed to do. The scene where Taffyta and the other racers bully Vanellope was very effective. And all the messages about friendship really worked for me. I’m not exaggerating when I say that, towards the end of the movie, my eyes started to get a little watery.
Of course, no movie is perfect. There are a handful of moments of obvious exposition that come across as clunky. And I think that a bit too much of the film is spent inside Sugar Rush. It’s obvious that the filmmakers are able to create some really impressive settings and backdrops, and I would have liked to see more of those. However, these things didn’t occur to me while I was watching the movie, which speaks to how much I was caught up in the unfolding story.
I honestly can’t recommend this film highly enough. After The Avengers, this is the most fun I’ve had seeing a movie at the theater in 2012. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Disney has outdone Pixar this year. It’s encouraging to see that the House of Mouse can still absolutely knock it out of the park with animated films. If you have kids, they’ll love it. If you like video games, go see it. If you’re not into video games, see it for the humor and the heart. If you’re looking for great family entertainment at the movies right now, then look no further than Wreck-It Ralph.
Timothy Monforton
