Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph poster Disney

I wrote a post a while back as a guest blogger about this film, and how I was looking forward to it. I was not disappointed, although the 3D was not great (it would definitely be fine to see in 2D), and the movie wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. However, there's plenty here for both the young and the young at heart, and in typical Disney fashion, there are parts throughout that film that the adults might laugh at but the kids might not.

Wreck-It Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) is getting tired of his job. For the past thirty years, he's been the "bad guy" in the video game Fix-It Felix Jr., while Felix (Jack McBrayer), always gets to be the hero who saves the day with with his magic hammer. Ralph would be okay with this if his "regular" life was fine too, but the rest of the townspeople in the game get to live in a nice building while he has to sleep among the bricks in the town dump. When one of the townspeople scornfully remarks that if Ralph was to go win a medal like Felix always does, Ralph could live in the building's penthouse, this gets Ralph thinking, and he decides to "game jump" and find a medal to win. He goes from Hero's Duty, a modern-day game, to Sugar Rush, where he meets Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), a "glitch" who isn't allowed to participate in the speedway races held there.

Ralph wants to help Vanellope learn how to drive and be able to race, but King Candy (Alan Tudyk), the ruler of Sugar Rush, isn't having it; he tells Ralph that if Vanellope is to race and the person playing the game sees her glitching (sees the screen become strange-looking), it's possible that the game's plug could be pulled and they would all have to retreat back to Game Central Station. That is, all of them except Vanellope, because glitches aren't allowed to leave their games.

There was a lot more to this movie than the plot above, including a surprise twist at the end, and I was amazed at how detailed the plot was for a "children's movie." John C. Reilly's voice is perfect for Ralph, and Sarah Silverman's works very well for Vanellope too. Jane Lynch plays a sergeant in Hero's Duty who is trying to find Ralph, along with Jack McBrayer as Fix-It Felix, and both of them embodied their characters perfectly too. My one complaint with this film is that it could have nixed the "potty humor" - there are a lot of jokes about the game "Hero's Duty" (you can probably figure out why) and Vanellope has a lot of bantering with Ralph as well, although to be fair she's of preteen age in the movie.

Yes, see this film, and skip the 3D. I loved all of the Shrek-like parts in it - there's an army of Oreos that guard the king's castle, and they parade around chanting "Or-ee-oh. Oh ... hoe" which was pretty funny. The best one-liner comes near the end and is from Vanellope, but I won't spoil it here. Although the movie wasn't as funny as the trailers make it look, its definitely still worth seeing, and it's one of the better animated movies I've seen lately.

Wreck-It Ralph is in theaters today, November 2nd, and is rated PG with a runtime of 108 minutes. 3.5 stars out of 5.


See below for Disney-made commercials for the arcade games featured in Wreck-It Ralph:




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