Trailer Trashin’: Get in the Game with Wreck-It Ralph
With the cooler fall weather comes the beginning of the long wait for the big year-end movies. But in the meantime, there are still plenty of cool trailers being released. This week’s Trailer Trashin’ looks at Disney’s upcoming animated film Wreck-It Ralph.
Premise: 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 hero Felix (voice of Jack McBrayer) fixes a building that Ralph destroys. For over 30 years, Ralph has been doing the same job and has become tired of being the bad guy. Wanting to prove he can be a good guy and not just a villain, Ralph escapes his game through the power cord and lands in Hero’s Duty, a light-gun shooter, where he helps the game’s hero Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Jane Lynch), battle against “Cy-Bugs,” the game’s alien invaders. He later enters Sugar Rush, a kart racing game set on tracks made of candies, cookies, and other sweets. There, Ralph meets Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman), one of the game’s characters, 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.
My take: For most of my life, I’ve been a huge fan of video games, almost as much as I’m a fan of movies. And while films based on games have had a pretty dismal history, there have been some great films about games – Tron (1982) and WarGames (1983) spring immediately to mind. And now, Walt Disney Pictures is adding to that canon with their 52nd animated feature film, Wreck-It Ralph. This is the second trailer for the movie, and I think it looks like it could be incredible.
The filmmakers have assembled a pretty awesome voice cast. John C. Reilly seems like he’s absolutely nailed the everyman-looking-for-a-purpose feel they’re going for with Ralph. I know Sarah Silverman can be a divisive figure, but I like her and I think she’s a good choice for Vanellope von Schweetz, especially since the character is supposed to be kind of annoying to Ralph. Jack McBrayer, who I absolutely love on 30 Rock, is the perfect choice for the straightforward, overly-earnest Felix. Having Jane Lynch play a tough-talking female authority figure may not be a stretch, but she seems like a good fit for Sergeant Calhoun. Alan Tudyk, who’s already appeared in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Ice Age: Continental Drift earlier this year, plays King Candy, and he’s someone I’m always glad to see getting work. And there are some fairly notable names playing smaller roles, including Dennis Haysbert, Mindy Kaling, and Ed O’Neill.
I absolutely love all the nods and references to both specific games and general gaming tropes and conventions. Fix-It Felix Jr. is obviously inspired by arcade classics like Donkey Kong. Hero’s Duty is a fun way for the filmmakers to comment on the prevalence of first-person shooters in today’s gaming world, and Sergeant Calhoun is a fun twist on hyper-macho shooter characters like Marcus Fenix from Gears of War. Sugar Rush is clearly a loving tribute to Mario Kart and similar games. And the number of actual video game characters appearing here is staggering, if only because of all the legal stuff Disney must have had to go through to use them. There’s characters from Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Bros., Q*bert, and even Joust. And I really appreciate the fact that 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) have all been brought in to reprise their roles from their respective games.
A scene from “Wreck-It Ralhp.” Photo by Disney – © 2012 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
For the most part, this is a really good trailer, but there are a couple things I didn’t like. First, a couple of the jokes kind of irritated me. Seriously, Disney? Bathroom humor? You’re not DreamWorks or Blue Sky Studios, you’re the House of Mouse. You’re classier than that. Second, while I love the setting and all the game references, the actual story seems fairly thin. “Guy unhappy with his lot in life looks for a greater purpose” is not the most original pitch, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done well. And finally, this is really just me nitpicking, but why does Kano from Mortal Kombat not have his Australian accent?
My quibbles aside, this does movie look like it could be something really special. I have not been this excited for a non-Pixar animated film since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit back in 2005. If this lives up to its potential, it could be for video games what Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) was for cartoons and what the Toy Story trilogy was for toys. When November rolls around, you can bet money I’ll be checking out Wreck-It Ralph.
ANTICIPATION: Game on, man! Game on! Can’t wait!
Release Date: November 2nd, 2012
Starring the voices of: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Dennis Haysbert, Jamie Elman, Stefanie Scott, Mindy Kaling, Adam Carolla, Horatio Sanz, Edie McClurg, Rachael Harris, Ed O’Neill, Kyle Hebert, Reuben Langdon, Gerald C. Rivers, and Roger Craig Smith
Director: Rich Moore
Writers: Jennifer Lee and Phil Johnston
P.S. So, we’ve seen spy pictures of the new RoboCop, and the design, to be perfectly frank, sucks. They took one of the most iconic robots in movie history and replaced him with something completely generic and uninspired. The new look could be a powered armor-wearing space marine from any one of numerous sci-fi video games. Of course, what we see in the photos is not exactly what will be onscreen, but when the starting point is something this forgettable, I’m not anticipating anything good.
Timothy Monforton
