Yesterday I saw Disney's new movie, Wreck-It Ralph, starring John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch. I was really looking forward to this movie, and it's not because I'm a gamer. I'm not, at all. There were a lot of actual game characters in this movie that I didn't recognize. I of course know the classics, such as Q*BERT, Pacman, Sonic, Mario, and I do still very much enjoy playing Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask from the Zelda franchise. But I'm not familiar with most games. In fact, for a while, I thought the title character had an actual video game.
The reason for my excitement is simple. I love Disney. Not counting horrible sequels (I'm sure I'll get to another soon) I love Disney. I have more Disney movies in my collection than any other genre, and there's a lot that I've seen so often that I can recite the film. They have wonderful characters, a lot of the villains are actually threatening, many Disney songs have found their way to my iPod, and a few (a lot, actually) have made me cry. When I was 18, I went to Disneyland for my birthday, and I got to meet Mickey for the first time. It wasn't some guy in a Mickey costume, I got to meet Mickey. I love Disney. Are we clear? Good.
Now, getting back to the movie. I know of most of the actors in this movie, (Jane Lynch is my favorite, and her character, who we will get to soon, was my favorite), and though I wasn't too familiar with the writers, director Rich Moore also directed some early Simpsons episodes, a lot of which are among my favorites in the series. Plus, Producer John Lasseter was also behind a lot of other great Disney flicks. Point is, I knew the movie was gonna be good.
The basic plot follows Ralph, who is the villain in his game, Fix-It Felix. The game, along with many others, is in an arcade, and when the arcade closes, the characters can leave their game and visit others. Ralph is talking to a group of villains, and no, they aren't together to plot an evil dastardly scheme. They're all just talking about their lives. Ralph is tired of being the villain. He wants to be a hero, and get a medal like Felix does. We see that he lives a very lonely life in a dump, while everyone else in his game lives in fancy penthouses. In fact, the people in the game are pretty damn cruel. They're celebrating the anniversary with Felix, and Ralph is left out. He knocks on the door to the penthouse Felix lives in, and the hero (albeit awkwardly and a bit reluctantly) invites him in. However, the townsfolk are not happy to have him, and this is made clear in no uncertain terms. Angry, Ralph vows to everyone that he will win a medal and become a hero. To do this, he goes into one of the arcade's newer games, Hero's Duty, dressed as one of the characters.
The object of the game is to help the player reach the top of the tower so they can get a medal, while destroying alien insects that are on the attack. He meets Sergeant Calhoun, (Lynch) and while she's a typical "tough as nails yet is hiding a tragic back story" female, Lynch really delivers. She has some really great one-liners.
"'Fear' is a four-letter word, ladies! You wanna go pee pee in your big-boy slacks, keep it to yourself!"
"It's 'Make Your Mamas Proud' time!"
"Doomsday and Armageddon just had a baby, and it's ugly!"
As expected, the game is way more than Ralph can handle, and both he and one of the insects eventually find themselves in another game. It's a candy filled racing game, and Ralph meets Vanellope, a spunky glitch who has her own dreams of how she wants to change how the other characters see her. Because she is a glitch, she's not allowed to race, but she knows that she's a racer, and she really wants to. She steals the medal Ralph did manage to get, and uses it as payment to enter herself into the upcoming race, which will decide who will appear as the game's avatar when the arcade opens again. Ralph eventually starts helping her, but as this is happening, his own game is marked as "out of order" by the arcade owner when he's not there to wreck the building, so Felix has come to the candy game to find him and bring him back, so that the game will not be unplugged, leaving all the characters homeless in Central Station.
Additionally, Calhoun is with Felix, and her mission is to find the insect Ralph brought. It turns out the insects don't realize they are characters in a game, and are more like viruses, that will destroy everything in their path.
While Felix is waiting outside for Vanellope, King Candy comes to see him. Ralph isn't thrilled to see him, as he and his men tried capturing him before, but the king gives him back his medal as a peace offering. He then explains to Ralph that the reason Vanellope can't race is because she's a glitch. If people playing the game see her, they'll think the game is broken, and it will be unplugged. But Vanellope won't be able to leave, and so if the game were to be unplugged, she would vanish and cease to exist. Ralph reluctantly agrees, and when the King leaves, what follows is actually a really heart-wrenching scene. Vanellope has given Ralph a medal that she made to thank him for all his help. It's actually a cookie, but thought and effort was put into decorating it. But Ralph, thinking of her own safety, tries to convince her to back out of the race, and when he refuses, he smashes her car, all while Vanellope is sobbing and begging him to stop.
Just... God! I think the Nostalgia Critic was right, Disney has more crying scenes than any other studio!
Well, as you can imagine, Ralph is feeling quite devastated himself, so he returns to his own game, only to find it out of order and set to be unplugged. Sad and alone, again, Ralph looks out the screen to the arcade, and to his shock, sees Vanellope painted on the outside of her game. Wanting answers, he returns and confronts the King's right hand jawbreaker character, and demands to know why Vanellope is a glitch if she clearly was meant to be in the game. It turns out the king is responsible, but because he locked up everyone's memories, he doesn't know what he did, or why. Ralph finds Felix, who was locked in the dungeon, and asks him to help him fix Vanellope's car. Felix agrees, and Ralph and Vanellope make up and get her to the race. All Vanellope has to do is cross the finish line, and the game will reset, restoring everyone's memories of what's really supposed to be going on.
Unfortunately, the bugs have hatched, and are wreaking havoc as the race continues. It also turns out that King Candy is Turbo, a rogue racer who got his own game and another unplugged because he couldn't stand that the newer game was taking attention away from his own. He's handled quite quickly, though, and gobbled up by a bug.
Okay, when has Disney ever gotten rid of a villain that easily? No, it turns out that because the bug ate him, his code merged with the bug's, and now he's a bit of a mantis looking thing, but still menacing. Ralph, however, manages to create a beacon of light (in a really fun way) to distract all the other bugs, along with Turbo, and destroy them.
The danger has passed, and so Felix fixes the finish line, and Ralph pushes Vanellope in her car over. The game is reset, and it turns out Vanellope is the rightful ruler, though she quickly discards her frilly princess dress and declares herself as the president rather than the princess, and Ralph is finally seen as a good guy by the townspeople in his game, despite being a villain.
This movie was really good, and I didn't even cover all of it. There are a lot of wonderful scenes between Calhoun and Felix, a lot of great nostalgic feels, a few of which have nothing to do with video games, but still fit in with our childhood.
Some people, I find, don't realize that Disney can pull off this type of movie without Pixar, but to that I point out Bolt and Meet the Robinsons, which are also really wonderful movies that might not be the typical musicals, but still carry a lot of what makes Disney great. Every range of emotion is still felt during this film. You laugh, you feel empathy for the characters, and you might even tear up a bit. Wreck-It Ralph is a really good movie, one that I will definitely look forward to owning, and I might even go see it again.
Ciao!
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