Wreck-It Ralph

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2013)

I saw a review for this film on TV and I was definitely up for seeing a Disney computer animated movie (without Pixar), I do like video games and have fond memories of the classic ones, so I was interested to see which ones would be incorporated into this film. Basically Litwak's Arcade is full of video games, and when it closes at night the various characters within them travel through the cables into the game platform and can travel to the other games, when doing this though they cannot regenerate in a game that it not their own. Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the bad guy of video game Fix-It Felix, the game consists of him wrecking buildings filled with residents while Fix-It Felix Jr. (Jack McBrayer) tries to fix the damage, but Ralph is tired of being the villain, and he is shunned by the other game characters. His game is celebrating its 30th anniversary, he is not invited by the Nicelanders to the celebrations, and he unintentionally spoils the party seeming aggressive. In the game Tapper he gets the idea to be accepted by his fellow characters by winning a gold medal, so he enters first-person shooter game Hero's Duty, but entering with no-nonsense leader Sergeant Calhoun (Glee's Jane Lynch) he unintentionally interferes with the player's experience, but he gets the chance to climb the alien tower of the game and reach the medal to be won, which he does. Using an escape pod he flies out of the game, not realising that he has taken a Cy-Bug with him, the alien enemy of Hero's Duty whose only instinct is to multiply, eat and take over, and with Ralph out of his game it is reported to the arcade manager, and he sticks on the Out of Order sign, meaning it may be unplugged. Trying to land Ralph unintentionally flies and crashes into kart racing game Sugar Rush, a sugary land full of candy and chocolate, and he loses his medal while flying, trying to retrieve it he meets glitch character Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), who steals it from him, using it as a token to enter the race of the game. Despite her paying her way into the race King Candy (A Knight's Tale's Alan Tudyk) and the competitors do not want her to participate because they think a game playing will mistake a glitch as a technical fault which would cause the game to be unplugged, but Ralph defends her and they make a deal so that she can race and he can get his medal back. Meanwhile back in Hero's Duty Calhoun meets Felix who is looking for the villain of his game, they find out he is somewhere in Sugar Rush along with a Cy-Bug, the gun wielding leader wants them dead not just because they will take over, but because she has a back story where her fiancé was killed by one of the aliens when she was to be married. In her secret home in Diet Cola Mountain, beneath the mound of Mentos rocks falling and causing explosions in the liquid, Ralph and Vanellope have brought the kart that they built together in the factory earlier, the wrecks a race track for her to practise on, and he is confident that she is a great racer that has the potential to win, and she is willing to do so. King Candy has hacked into the computer system of the game and managed to retrieve the gold medal that Ralph took, he tries to convince Ralph that he can take it if he assures that his young friend will not race, explaining the glitch problem could mean the game being shut down, he is sad to do it, but he does what he feels is right in telling her this, but she thinks he only cares about his medal. Returning to Fix-It Felix he sees that all the characters have abandoned the game, because they believe it will be shut down the next morning due to his absence mistaken for a fault, and looking out into the arcade he sees Sugar Rush, but he notices on the side a picture of Vanellope on the cabinet, so he realises she is meant to be part of the game. Ralph returns to the sugary game, and he saves Felix and Calhoun who were being held in the prison by the King, the handyman character fixes the wrecked kart for his friend to race in, but when it commences the Cy-Bug eggs hatch and the alien creatures take over, and then it turns out King Candy is actually Turbo, a character from a racing game that got filled with competitiveness and caused a rival game to be shut down. After a big battle between the alien bugs and the disguised real villain Ralph races to Diet Cola Mountain to release the mound of Mentos and create a beacon to kill all the creatures, including Turbo who is one himself, Vanellope saves her friend from being killed, and she is able to cross the race finish line to become a real character and no longer glitch, and in the end Calhoun married Felix, and Ralph is accepted as a nice guy by everyone. Also starring Adam Carolla as Wynnchel, Futurama's John DiMaggio as Beard Papa, Kevin Deters as Clyde and Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog, with additional voices by Jim Cummings and Elizabeth Daily. Reilly is a great choice for the cuddly voice of the shunned big bodied but big-hearted character, and Silverman is funny as the slightly annoying young girl insistent on racing, the special effects to create the familiar and new characters is fantastic, the script and jokes based on video games are clever to be enjoyed by adults and children watching, it is just a fun animated adventure. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film. Good!