Tremendous

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2012)

The best American animated film of 2012, I think it's safe to say. Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) plays a video-game villain, a monstrous man who smashes a high-rise apartment every day while Fix-It Felix Jr. (Jack McBrayer), the hero, combats him and eventually gets him thrown off the building into a pile of mud. In the game's universe, this is just everyone's job. Ralph is sick of being the bad guy, though, and wants to win acceptance from the people who live in the apartment. The video game characters can leave their consoles and visit the other games, and Ralph decides to become a hero by entering a war game. Unfortunately, the havoc he wreaks there gets him thrown into another game where he wreaks even more havoc. This film is insanely clever, creating several different worlds with their own flavor. It's also just great at setting up plot points and twists without ever showing you its hand. Small bits that seem like only errant gags come back up later in surprising and brilliant ways. The characters are as well constructed as the plot. The two other most important characters are voiced by Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman, as a sci-fi warrior and a pixie racer respectively. Silverman's character in particular is so wonderful, both adorable and annoying. Her character's relationship with Ralph becomes the emotional center of the film, and it packs almost as much of a wallop as Pixar's best works. The film is very much at Pixar's level throughout. It's really one of Disney's best movies, period. Huge congrats to Rich Moore, who follows in fellow-Simpsons veteran Brad Bird's footsteps in delivering a hugely satisfying feature film. Hopefully he'll give us another one really soon.