Wreck-it Ralph Review: A Gamer Geeks Dream Come True

Throughout the years, there have been many movies based off of video games, but no video game-themed movies. Walt Disney Animation Studios changed all that with ‘Wreck-it Ralph” and, for the first time, the world has a video game based movie that’s actually brilliant.

“Wreck-it Ralph” is about a video game villain who is tired of being a villain and believes he is more than his label. On the 30th anniversary of his game, “Fix-it Felix, JR,” Ralph decides to game jump in the arcade his game is in and prove that he can be a good guy and win a medal.

It’s a classic identity crisis story told with a strong script and well-written characters. The story does a brilliant job of making us feel Ralph’s feelings, even when his villain friends try to convince him that it’s kkay to be bad and he should stay that way. John C. Reilly is perfect as Ralph and his chemistry with Jack McBrayer as Felix is one of many the highlights of the movie.

Where other movies of this genre would try to use as many video game gimmicks as possible, “Wreck-it Ralph” uses the video game motif as a backdrop to the world and lets the characters and story do all the work. That’s what makes this movie stand out.

The only setback is that the second half turns its attention away from Ralph and focuses more on the game “Sugar Rush,” a “Mario Kart” type game mixed with “Candy Land.” Here is where Ralph meets Sarah Silverman’s character Vanellope and the story’s focus shifts to her trying to win a race. Even though the story is no longer about Ralph, it’s still well written and enjoyable.

Some people got worried that Sarah Silverman was cast and thought that she would be extremely annoying and make the movie unbearable. In truth, Silverman is fantastic and, surprisingly, likable. It goes to show what she’s truly capable of when given a decent script.

Regardless of all of this, there are a few setbacks. Every preview of “Wreck-it Ralph” shows various characters from various well known video games, such as M.Bison from “Street Fighter” and Sonic from “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Too bad their screen time is very brief and if you’ve seen the previews you’ve seen all the screen time these characters have. Plus it would’ve been nice if the movie could’ve explored the arcade more and the audience learned more on how this world worked. It has many interesting ideas and so many possibilities that the movie leaves the audience high and dry from the details. Maybe a sequel that explains the world more would not be such a bad idea?

At every screening of the movie there’s an animated short called “Paperman,” which is about an office worker who meets a girl on a train platform and tries to get her attention all day by throwing paper airplanes at her window next door. Even with zero dialogue the short does a great job of telling a story and portraying emotion via facial expressions, actions and visuals. Not to mention the animation is some of the best Disney has made in decades. Disney should go back to its roots and start making these by the boatloads like they did when Uncle Walt was alive.

“Wreck-it Ralph” is the first but will continue to be the best video game-themed film once Hollywood realizes what a cash cow that sub-genre can be. The combination of a solid script and a great cast is what makes this worth a watch even if the story does go off the rails by the second half.