Game on! Taking on life one game at a time.

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2013)

Wreck-It Ralph is such a good movie, and it really does show that Disney doesn't really need Pixar to make good animation movies. The film tells the story of the titular 8 bit arcade game villain named Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) who is tired of playing the villain, getting ostracize by his co-workers and force to live in ruins of his old stump. I like how John Reilly stumbles in his lines, but it still felt real to me. The movie does a great job visual to make it seem like 8 bit world, even to the point of using jerky motion that spoofs the limited animation cycles of 8 bit characters. He rebels against his role and dreams of becoming a hero. He sees that the only way he can be a hero is to game jumps to another game to win a medal to earn their respect. When the Arcade closes at night, video games characters in its games are allow leave their normal roles and are free to travel to other games through plugs that lead to a place known as Game Central Station, but have to return to their game in the morning, if not the game would seem broken, and in worst cases. Shut down. Since Wreck-It Ralph hasn't return, the game Fix-It-Felix Jr. is now in danger of just that. The hero Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer) is starting to think that Ralph went 'turbo'. Going 'turbo' is name for a video game character whom went to another game, and try to sabotaged it, causing both games to be shut down. He soon find out that Ralph has gone to a first-person shooter game call Hero's Duty. Hero's Duty is a Call of Duty, Halo, type of game, lead by Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) where the game's winner receives a medal after fighting Cy-Bugs. Felix soon find out that he crash-land in another game called Sugar Rush, a kart-racing game similar to that of Mario Kart. Ralph searching for medal, meets Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), a glitchy character whom like Ralph is shun by her game mates. Being PG makes Sarah Silverman so much more bearable, as she tend to too raunchy, but still Vanellope von Schweetz at first is such a annoying character, but the character's charm grow on you. It seems like a lot of critics hated her. I mean, she was annoying, but no more than a kid would be in most movies. Seriously, I swear most critics have completely mistaken her for an adult character because they constantly treat her like one, talking about how annoying she is when she's freaking nine! The way she acts is like how most 9-year-olds act! At least she was somewhat sympathetic. Ralph helps Vanellope build a kart to fight against it. King Candy (Alan Tudyk) the ruler of this world, refuse to let her participate, claiming that she is not really part of the game and her winning would cause the game to be shut down. Alan does a really good job on the voice, sounding more like Ed Wynn then his normal voice. This is where Ralph is force to decide about being the villain in the eyes of Vanellope to save her, or be the hero which will cause the end of both Fix-it Felix and Sugar Rush. A hard choice to pick. The final act has the most emotional and greatest twist to any movie that came out in 2012. The movie also contains a number of other video game references, to the point that I heard people calling this film the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit of video games" or "Toy Story with video game characters". The film includes characters, sight gags, and dialogues from games like Super Mario Bros, Paperboy, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Final Fantasy Q*Bert, Street Fighter and others. I geeked out quite a bit seeing them. My favorite reference is Metal Gear. How much cooler would the movie be, if the games were from a Flynn Arcade referencing Tron? To me the big name video game characters seemed a little tacked on because they didn't affect the story all that much, and that's a downer in a way. Of course the Copyrighted characters aren't in it for very long, but I think it's pretty impressive that they got as much as they did, but then again, this is the very growing media empire that is Disney we're talking about. While they didn't use the cameo characters to their highest potential. I almost feel it would have distracted the focus of the movie from the characters that the story revolves around to the established video games characters. I feel the cameos were not necessary, but at the same time it is icing on the cake. The movie works due to it's use of video game nostalgia, while building a clear colorful visual worlds where the characters can come in and out as they want. It's a visual spectacle. It was great for what it was: a child's movie covering adult themes with a video game background with humor that sharp. I think it would have been so much better if it focused on Ralph. He became a side-kick in his own movie when Vanellope comes in. There also so many story lines, and the romance of side-characters was so tacked on. Again, it's already a good film, but stating it could have been way cooler if it allow Ralph's journey to continue. Vividly creative setting and concept, extremely likable characters, but obscured by a kind of cliché attention-grabbing comic relief character for parts of it, but worth watching.