Finest Video Game Movie of the Year

Rating: 8/10 (9 February 2013)

Wreck-It Ralph is the latest Disney movie, but after watching it, the last thing you'll think about afterwards is "Disney". It takes place in an arcade, featuring many classic arcade games such as Pac-Man, Street Fighter II, Space Invaders, Frogger, Sonic the Fighters, TRON, Mortal Kombat and many, many more. But I digress.
The movie centers around a video game villain called Wreck-It Ralph. He's celebrating his game's 30th anniversary, and during the celebration, he starts to realize just how unappreciated he really is. He is overshadowed by the hero of his game, Fix-It Felix. So he goes on a quest to earn some respect and show that he can be good.
This movie was my most anticipated movie of 2012. I love animated movies, and I love video games. Video games are an important part of my everyday-life. And I know a lot about retro games and arcade games, so this movie was really awesome for me.
I'm gonna try not to go all gamer-gasm here, because this is after all a place for movies. But let's just get this out of the way: The video game references are amazing. They're just so hilarious and they're more obvious than in something like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. This is by far one of the best animated movies of all time, and as weird as it may sound, the video game cameos and references are a huge part of that. It would've been cool to see the game references a bit more spread-out, because the movie goes all out in the beginning with reference after reference and cameo after cameo, but then becomes more of its own movie. I wish the references would spread more out and cover more than just the opening sequence. But it still makes for an overwhelmingly awesome first part.
The story is a bit on the weaker side. But the character development makes up for the movie's simple story. A lot of it centers around one side-character that at first comes off as a bit annoying, but after a while becomes more likable. The main character is also really fun to watch, and the villain, who starts off as terribly dumb and annoying, actually ends up being quite evil.
The movie centers around three different made-up arcade games: "Fix-It Felix Jr.", "Hero's Duty" and "Sugar Rush". All three of these games contain very different art styles, and the movie would have for example characters from Hero's Duty and Fix-It Felix Jr. visit Sugar Rush, a game where none of them fit in. And this especially showed in the last part.
I like how symbolic the made-up arcade games are. I didn't notice it while watching the movie, but it seems that Fix-It Felix Jr. represents the "retro gamers", Hero's Duty represents the "hardcore gamers", and Sugar Rush represents the "casual gamers". I really thought that was a nice touch.
The animation is outstanding. Not only are the video game characters animated perfectly and they really fit the movie and setting, and it's just all fun to watch them on-screen. The 3D is nothing special, but it never gave me eye-strains, nor did it distract from the movie, so kudos to Disney for not ruining the movie with 3D.
Overall, Wreck-It Ralph is an awesome movie. Too bad it came out so late here in Norway, 'cause if it came out before January, I would've definitely put it on the number 1 spot on my top 10 movies of 2012 list on YouTube. Not only are the cameos and references amazing, but the movie itself is really entertaining and great. Some pacing issues during the middle, but mostly just greatness all around.