With an emotional story, lots of nostalgic references, and nice development, Wreck-It Ralph wins the game!

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2012)

When I have heard that Disney was going to make a new movie this time about a video game arcade with some of the 80s greatest video games ever made, I was really excited and wanted to see this with lots of expectations. I started to like the premise: A bad-guy named Ralph from a video game called "Fix-It Felix" who wants to be a hero instead of being the villain all the time and goes to both games to receive a medal. So, he goes to Hero's Duty and Sugar Rush where there he meets a girl named Vannellope and makes a friendship with her as she tries to win a race so she can become a racer before they make a deal to win and give Ralph a medal. It's kind of like Toy Story but instead of toys, it takes place in a video game arcade.
With that said, I saw this on the opening weekend starting from last night and was blown away. It succeeded what it had set out to do and delivered what the trailers had promised. Before I can get to the redeeming qualities, there is one flaw that I would like to point out. There is some nice messaging, but there are some really dark moments that could frighten kids ages 8-10 especially the tragic back-story of Calhoun, one of the characters of the movie.
Flaw aside, everything else exceeded my expectations towards this wonderful movie. The story is very original with some really happy moments, some sad moments, and like I said before, some dark moments that I've already stated and has a very nice concept that would not only remind the adults of the 80s video game references (especially some nice cameos including: Bowser, Dr. Eggman, the ghost from Pac-Man, some Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter characters, and Sonic), but will entertain them as well as the kids young and old. The characters, like the story, are also original with lots of help from a great voice cast including John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Dennis Haysbert, and Alan Tudyk. Wreck-It Ralph is a determined protagonist who changes his life and tries to achieve it be becoming what he wants to be and his development between him and Vanellope, an adorable girl from Sugar Rush who wants to become the best race-car driver, is well-thought out. Some of the characters like, Fix-It Felix, Calhoun, whose tragic back-story made me felt sorry for her, and several of the video game characters are also likable, but the most memorable character goes to the main villain, King Candy. He reminds me of Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland except he's not only menacing, but unbelievably over-the-top it's hard not to forget this villain.
The pacing for this movie is very brisk and moves along very nicely and I like the music from Henry Jackman. It has some nice 80s video game music and the orchestra for several moments of the movie is beautifully well-made. The strongest aspect, however, goes to the animation and boy was it so amazing. The character animation on the Wreck-It Ralph and several of the video game characters are creative and look exactly like the ones from the 80s video games, but what stands out most about the animation is it's visuals. Everything you see in just blows you away. The bright colors, the set ups and the environments of the video games which makes it look completely gorgeous especially the Game Central Station and it's some of the greatest visuals I've ever seen in an animated feature film since Dreamwork's "How To Train Your Dragon", "Kung Fu Panda" and several of Pixar's films including the "Toy Story" trilogy, "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", and "Cars".
Overall, Wreck-It Ralph delivered what it had promised: an emotional story, lots of great nostalgic references, and nice development from the characters which makes this, in my opinion, one of the best movies of the year and the most anticipated movie next to "The Hunger Games" and "John Carter" My advice: Go see it! It is really *that* good!