A true/awesome Video game-Movie!

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2012)

Video game movies, if I remember correct, have always sucked! Owe it all to directors like Uwe Boll, who made every other video game adaptation suck. What could have been mediocre if not great video game adaptations were thrashed well beyond recognition. Of course we do have 'loosely- based-on/cheesy-but-enjoyable' Resident Evil franchise and 'Live action movies' based on major game titles produced by the game studios itself ala 'Halo Forward Unto Dawn'. But a good video game-movie was still in destituteness.ie until now!
If you are the ones who like to skip previews before the feature film I'd say go early and it'll pay you off quite immensely for there is a gem of a Pixar short to be seen. Entitled 'Paperman', words just fails me to describe how lovely its animated. I wont spoil anything here you just have to watch it for yourself!
The story is paper thin, Ralph plays an antagonist in a game called 'Fix it Felix'. While the protagonist of the game, 'Felix' makes friends with everyone; Good-at-heart-Ralph gets tired playing the bad guy for 30 straight years and he decides to prove that he is not so mean. To please his fellow NPCs he sets on a journey to earn a medal in a game and bring back his glory. The plot sounded good enough to show off a plethora of vivid game worlds that Ralph ends up in, but sadly it ain't so and we are given mere 3 game worlds; Ralph's own 'Fix it Felix' game, the Halo- esque 'Hero's Duty' game and the very kiddish 'Sugar Rush where most of the story takes place. Of course we do get to see the 'Game Central' where most of the game characters as well as NPCs use it as a transit. It was a who's who of characters when it came to Game Central, Sega's characters aplenty along with some old. It all spirals down to a cameo- heaven of a movie filled with truck load of game characters inducing nostalgia in almost every frame. Gamers will know exactly what I am talking about. And there comes the second problem the non-gaming community could well be put off with some of the iconic characters in the movie as they are not aware of em. For instance while I was laughing my ass off at the Metal Gear Solid 'exclamation' in a scene, but my friend was sitting beside me numb seemingly incognizant about the Metal Gear Solid lore. I am sure kids will love it but amidst these Call Of Duty generation who would know about arcade classics like 'Qbert'?
'Ralph' is voiced by John C Reilly and I think nobody could have done it better. He literally voiced life into Ralph. I just could digest Sarah Silverman pulling off a kids voice. Maybe its me, I've seen her literally churn out abuses and couldn't visualize her voicing the 'shes- so-cute, I-am-gonna-die-Vanellope'. On the other hand Jane Lynch's PG13 trash spewing bad-ass 'Calhoun' was a pure delight to watch and maybe its coz she's portrayed as one hot female gamer. Alan Tudyk's 'King Candy' too was a worthy mention.
The animation is spot on, from the jerky movements of the characters in Fix It Felix to the super fluid 'HD' animations of Hero's Duty it all complements the appropriate game worlds. Myself being an FPS fanatic, I loved 'Hero's duty' game and would like to get my hands on it. Fix It Felix will make you relive your old arcade adventures. The score by Henry Jackman was pure awesome. He's turning out to be quite a Hans Zimmer. He'd composed the score for X-Men First Class and it had been one of my favorites from last year. Equally satisfying is the soundtrack featuring excellent tracks by Owl City, Skrillex and Rihanna. My favorite was the 'Celebration' track by Kool & Gang. Be sure to check out the soundtrack, its worth it.
Wreck-it Ralph is an incredibly fresh and heartfelt take on videogames. Its not a video game adaptation per se but its a movie made for video game lovers by video game lovers. As I said before, non-gamers and even casual gamers may find themselves disrupted but not too be distracted from the plot.