Wreck-it Ralph
(2012)
I saw a trailer for this movie some months ago maybe before Pirates of the Caribbean 4? and was immediately taken by the hook: video game villain Ralph (John C. Reilly voicing) is tired of being the bad guy after 30 years, so he leaves his video game at the arcade and investigates other games, trying to become a hero. It has the same hooks as Toy Story and Monsters Inc. creating new worlds where none exist, breathing life into imaginary objects, and like those two, the pretend worlds have rigid rules they follow (which, like in most Pixar movies, have to be broken to achieve true self-enlightenment and happiness). Ralph comes from the eponymous game from the 80s, with choppy 8-bit graphics; it resembles a cross between Donkey Kong and Rampage. He mostly investigates two other game worlds Heros Duty, a modern 3D type first-person shooter thats a lot like Starship Troopers, and a girly racing game called Sugar Rush, where the whole world is candy and gumdrops and all of the characters are overly cute little girls with candy-type names (Im writing this sans internet and so do not have the IMDb to provide salient details). In Heros Duty, which Ralph infiltrates in order to win a medal and prove he is a hero, he encounters Calhoun (Jane Lynch), a stereotypically hard-bitten combat girl with ludicrous proportions (all the men in Heros Duty are built like the Hulk, and Calhouns waist is about fifteen inches); shes all flint and steel, and he leaves her realm quickly to end up where we spend most of the film, in the candy-world of Sugar Rush, where he meets Venelope (Sarah Silverman), a quintessential Pixar type, a misfit oddball who is disliked by the other more popular characters in her world. Venelope is a glitch, a piece of code that malfunctions, but shes also smart and resourceful, and Ralph ends up helping her because he can relate to her outsider status. She, like the characters in Toy Story, merely wants to get her name back in the contenders circle so that players can choose her as an avatar when they play her game; and so, like Ralph, she just wants to be loved. As usual with Pixar, the design and animation are top notch. The parody elements are very strong the characters from the Wreck-it game even have choppy movements when the game isnt on, reminiscent of their 80s appearances, and they pretty much nail the overly dramatic and violent first-person shooters so prevalent today (one of the soldiers says of Calhoun, She was programmed with the most painful and dramatic backstory ever, which they proceed to reveal in hilarious fashion). I wasnt as pulled-in by the Sugar Rush segments at first flashbacks of the beautiful but ultimately kinda dull Brave kept popping up but Silvermans Venelope is so artfully designed and masterfully performed that she dispels any doubts. All the voice acting is top notch (Im sorry, I just cant recall who performed Fix-it Felix, the hero of the Wreck-it game who chases after Ralph and ends up an unlikely partner with Calhoun); youd expect that from this cast of pros, but it imbues the movie with that extra shine we have come to expect from Pixar.
Wreck-it Ralph is Pixar firing on all cylinders taking a piece of our modern culture and twisting it around to give it life and a logic all its own. Its both nostalgic (QBert gets a small recurring role) and modern, bridging the gap between the entertainment of our childhoods and the technology we take for granted today. It has a big warm heart, but also a well-developed funny bone, and perhaps most importantly a sharp brain. This is probably the best Pixar movie since Wall-E; its well worth a trip to the cinema, even at inflated (unnecessary) 3D prices. Wreck-it Ralph is an endearing story that, in true Pixar fashion, both kids and adults can embrace. November 5, 2012 P.S. The short cartoon before the feature, Paper Man, was utterly brilliant.
