Amusing with some nostalgia value. 77.5%

Rating: 8/10 (14 February 2013)

It's hard to imagine who this movie is pitched at, as most of the humour arises from nostalgia for old video games which the target audience (children) would no doubt be ignorant of. In the cinema, I can't say that I heard a lot of reaction from the children watching this movie (which isn't to say that they didn't enjoy it...maybe they did). If you haunted amusement arcades back in the day or played on old consoles, then you should have fun with this movie...you just might have to convince your children (or grandchildren!) that there's something in it for them!
The movie's premise is like that of "Toy story"...an animated cast of characters from video games come alive when the arcade closes and lead an independent life. I did get a laugh out of things like a big exclamation mark appearing over one character's head...a pop cultural reference I am sure would go over the heads of the young viewers in the audience (from the "Metal gear solid" series of games).
There was one scene which made me enquire what rating the movie had...there's a scene where a zombie character has his heart literally ripped out by another character and paraded briefly, like a trophy. This was the only moment when I was aware of the audience reaction...it was pretty much along the lines of "Ewww!". The movie is rated "PG" in Australia, which I suppose might be reasonable. Since no small children were obviously scarred for life by this scene, maybe I am just being too concerned about the 'appropriateness' of such content in this movie?
Themes in this movie are good food for the target audience (children) to chew over...overcoming other people's perceptions or expectations for you; self-belief; the value of duty; trust; ulterior motives; assigned roles etc. The titular character in this movie has to deal with some of these issues...in a video game is 'the bad guy'...the one who destroys things. He'd like to be the good guy for once so enters other games in order to achieve this.
Eventually it dawned on me that one of the voice cast for this movie was "Ken" from the sitcom "30 Rock" (Jack McBrayer).
The female character of "Glitch" was one who I found engaging and she also has to deal with some of those themes I outlined above...she's something of interest for young female viewers no doubt...although one of her jokes at the end of the movie did seem quite dark too!
Since I am most familiar with the older games represented in this movie (not that I necessarily played them or was a fan of them), I can't say that I know if there are any new game characters which would be known to a young audience and hence give them a reason to take a particular interest in this movie.
There is some product placement in the movie...I mean, apart from the obvious use of characters who feature in these old arcarde or video games.
As an adult, this movie appealed to me, hence the good score.