The best computer game-themed animated film since 'Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase', although not Disney's finest

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2014)

I have wanted to see this film for ages since I like computer games although I do not play them now as much as I did when I was younger. 'Wreck-It Ralph' has a great mixture of characters, fantastic backgrounds, a varied blend of animation styles and a diverse range of music but I found the story confusing in places.
While the most prominent animation style is 3D computer-generated, I like the old 2D computer game-style animation whether it was used for the stylised Walt Disney Animation Studios 'Steamboat Willie' logo (the best incarnation since the one used before 'Tangled' to commemorate it as Disney's 50th animated classic feature-length film) accompanied with a vintage video game-style arrangement of Mickey's whistling or used for the Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade game segments. The 3D replica of the world of Fix-It Felix Jr. had some jerky animation on the characters but I guess it was done intentionally to reflect the jerky animation in the original game. Nevertheless the majority of the 3D animation was superb and matched the same standard one would expect in a Pixar film. The backgrounds were imaginative, in particular the inner workings of the arcade machines, their power supply and the sweet pastel-coloured world of Sugar Rush (what a great name for a candy-themed racing game). The latter environment had some clever and witty elements such as Nesquick sand, laughing Laffy Taffy that hung above it, the Diet Coke swamp and the Mentos falling into it, thus putting a new spin on the now-slightly outdated soda-and-Mentos-fountain trend.
The best characters in this film are Wreck-It Ralph (albeit having blocky arms and legs yet a more rounded head and body), Fix-It Felix, Calhoun (one of the most realistically-designed characters in the film), Q-Bert (who I remember from an updated version of the game for Sony PlayStation) and Vanellope (sounds like a cross between Vanessa and Penelope) Von Schweetz, who reminded me appearance and personality-wise of Agnes from 'Despicable Me'. John C. Reilly was impeccable as Ralph, Jane Lynch really brought her Sue Sylvester (the harsh cheerleading coach in 'Glee') side to Calhoun; and Q-Bert was amusing with his gobbledygook style of speech with his speech bubbles similar to those used to suggest profanities (which there is little to none of in this film); however I was uncertain about Sarah Silverman's voice for Vanellope to begin with since she made her sound like a cross between a cutesy little girl and a teenager but Vanellope became more likable as the film progressed.
The story is mostly original but there are parts of it that were derivative, such as the main character being a villain (a la 'Despicable Me' and 'Megamind') albeit its references to video games that were fun to spot (including Dr Eggman and Sonic the Hedgehog, Q-Bert, Pac-Man and King Koopa/Bowser from the Super Mario games), and complicated, especially in the middle but I liked its dramatic twists such as Ralph destroying Vanellope's new car but Felix fixing it and that during the car race as well as the idea of Ralph and other computer game villains attending an Alcoholics Anonymous-type group and the arcade characters coming to life at closing time in a similar manner to the toys coming to life in the absence of humans in the 'Toy Story' franchise.
Although a lot of today's music is not as diverse as it used to be, I found this film's soundtrack very diverse indeed. It consists of electronic old computer game-style music (I liked this style applied to 'Oh, Susanna!'), more-familiar chart hits (Kool and the Gang's 'Celebration' and Rihanna's 'Shut Up and Drive' that played along their corresponding scenes very well) and some lesser-known numbers such as 'Sugar Rush (reminded me of those quirky Japanese pop songs you'd hear in a Cybercandy store)' and Owl City's 'When Will I See You Again?' that played during the end credits. I did, however, find parts of the soundtrack generic since they sounded similar to other musical scores for films of a similar genre and I wasn't too keen on the piece of instrumental modern dance music played during an earlier arcade scene because I usually only like dance music if it has added vocals.
Overall 'Wreck-It Ralph' did not meet all of my expectations but it ran at a reasonable length, paid homage to video games in a unique way and above all was the best computer game-themed animated film since 'Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase.' 8/10.