Wreck-It Ralph Review

Ralph with the "Bad Guys" in Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph

B

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

After many years in obscurity Disney Animated Studios has begin to find its stride again. From Princess and the Frog to Bolt the studio seems to be on the climb back to relevancy. Wreck-It Ralph is another solid film in the resurgence that, despite being fairly conventional, manages to have enough charm and video game references to make it the best animated film of the year so far.

Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is a “bad guy” in the oldest game in the arcade Fix-It Felix Jr. In the game Felix (Jack McBrayer) gets all the credit as he is the “good guy” of the story while Ralph lives alone in the dump ashamed of whom he is. So Ralph decides to attempt to do something about it by abandoning his game and trying to get a medal from the first person shooter “Hero’s Duty”. After dealing with Hero’s Duty and its tortured leader Calhoun (Jane Lynch) Ralph crash lands into Sugar Land where a young glitch Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) steals Ralph’s medal to enter a race in her own game. Ralph must attempt to get his medal back while learning something about himself in the process.

The main problem with Wreck-It Ralph is that the story of the film has been done before in the past. Every plot point can be predicted from miles away and those who have seen an animated film can predict the ending about 10 minutes into the film. That being said the film manages to have enough charm to keep the film interesting and enjoyable. Most of this comes from the many videogame references from the late 80’s to the mid 90’s. The film has many great moments where videogame characters and themes have time to shine, whether subtlety or not so. Each reference is small enough that they don’t dominate the film, but frequent enough that it allows for the generic animated movie plot to remain interesting through most of the film.

Wreck-It Ralph also has enough of a vision that it doesn’t seem like a cash grab. Director Rich Moore, and the writers, who have worked on the Simpsons and Futurama, manage to keep the writing witty enough to sustain a steady stream of humor throughout the film. Sure through the middle of the film it has trouble sustaining a constant momentum but for the most part the humor has enough punch to it to keep the story afloat for most of the film.

On the voice over side of things John C. Reilly is great as usual. Reilly has played many lost souls over his career so this seems like a good fit for the actor. McBrayer gets to have fun as the kind of lame and over celebrated Fix-It Felix. Jane Lynch does solid work here as the tough woman programmed with the hard back-story and Sarah Silverman keeps the energy of the film up throughout the middle of the film.

The animation here is close to perfect within the context of the film. Bright colors and flashy animation is present here while still keeping the “video game feel” that makes the film special.  Characters move and talk like they are from their respective video games in a naturalistic fashion. Nothing here feels strange or out of place and the attention to detail is stunning. There is some great nods to video games in the score and what is original works well within the context of the film.

The short before the movie is again an example of the short before a Disney film that almost outshines the actual film itself. The short is entitled Paperman and follows a man with a monotonous job who attempts to reunite with the girl of his dreams that he encountered at a train station. The black and white film is magical and while not as good as say Pixar’s La Luna, still manages to capture many emotions during its brief running time. It’s fantastic that between Disney’s animated studios that the tradition of creative shorts before big movies continues.

Wreck-It Ralph is a solid animated effort and a good addition to Disney Animated Studios’ comeback lineup. While the film’s story is fairly uninspired and “been there done that” the film still manages to charm through the usage of references and witty writing. The film doesn’t feel cheap or like a cash grab and for this year of week animated films that’s good enough to make it the best in animated films this year.