Enter Coin - Press START!

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 2014)

I was not ready for the emotions this film stirred in me! And although there's a lot of clichés in this film, it never, ever, not once, interferes with the narrative & morale of the story. Let me just say now that the first 30 minutes of this (nice long) film doesn't grab you that much. It's all so surreal & uncanny! Your nostalgia begins to take hold of course! The characters & dialogue are predictable as the games they inhabit. Then a deeper, more introspective undercurrent begins to unfold. It is balanced with the humour & peril perfectly though.
Once you're introduced to the character of Vanellope aka The Glitch, the context of the story starts rebuilding at it's foundations but with twice the importance & you really begin to get sucked in. It's strange. These characters & their lives couldn't be further away from the reality of our own, & by the end of the film you're so emotionally invested in these people that you want to jump in the screen to protect them!
The graphical style throughout this film never ceases to stun you. I've always seen CGI as an intruder to the creative solutions of film making, & it has spoilt a LOT of films for me. But it works in reverse with animated films such as this. There was a life's worth of ideas thrown in to the design concepts of this picture, and it exhibits great restraint at the nascent stages of the film in order to accelerate them. There is no way you will be able to acknowledge all the details of this film in one sitting. So it's longevity is secured.
The voice acting is OTT of course, but connects to the visuals in fundamental ways. I have to hand it to the actors who not only brought these characters to life, but made them so vivid & lovable.
To many, this film will be just another cartoon equivalent; an afternoon's entertainment; or a good laugh for the kids. But to people like myself, it means so much more. When you're a child, you are not equipped with enough answers to build confidence. Some use ego instead to fake the real thing. But many have their confidence destroyed at this vulnerable stage. When I was a child, I had no friends for a long time. It was something I could never deal with. But video games helped me build a fantasy away from reality. My friends were Pacman, Mario, Zelda, Samus, etc. The point I am making is that anyone who ever grew up with video games will never have anything but love & gratitude for them. I feel sorry for those who were purloined of this privilege. I feel a kind of affinity to these characters, because they are the building blocks to my childhood. Not an ideal one maybe. But this film really hit home by the last half hour, & I found myself weeping for their cause. You feel their struggles, as all your own come flooding back.
The bugs destroying the world underground felt like the equivalent of the situation I was in when my parents were arguing night after night after school; the deep contrasts of a young boy trying to have fun to salvage another day of bullying & inferiority. Children also wish to be surrounded by candy & sweets, & yet they somehow know it's all cosmetic. And finally, we know that feeling of being trapped like Vanellope - the odd one out.
Growing up is seeing these fantasies in you die slowly. This is what gives nostalgia both it's irrationality & tragedy. It's like reality is still bleak, but you can't retreat back in to your fantasy anymore. You simply have the memory of that safe place. Vanellope is the one instance where she gets her memories back AND gets to go back to her fantasy. This is a fairy tale of the modern era. And it has a happy ending I still pray for to this very day. It's so absurd that I am here crying for fictional characters that don't even exist, because of society's failure to put the more quintessential human qualities before his fear bread desires.
I may be on my own as usual in this statement as to this film's frivolity & mundane entertainment value. But I rather suspect that this film shall mean so much more to some people who dare to let it take a look back at your own video game.
Every game gets it's plug pulled in the end. Better to win one race than none.