Okay, I don't normally do movie reviews and I probably won't and this won't even begin to capture the awesomeness of the movie but still. This will contain spoilers. Do not ruin the film for yourself, go and see it first.
This blog is no way intended to steal thunder from the blog of my good friend Shane Vaughan, he writes really epic movie reviews each week, to see his blog go to http://critique-of-the-week.blogspot.ie/
I guess I should begin with a synopsis of the film. The concept is surrounding old video games. In one particular game, 'Fix it Felix Jr.' there is a character, the bad guy, called Wreck it Ralph, the titular character in the movie. He is the 'bad guy' of his video game but the people in the game see him not just as the bad guy in the game but also in real life. He spends his life wrecking their skyscraper and sleeping on the bricks that he breaks in the local dump. Fix it Felix gets a medal every time he throws Ralph off the roof of the skyscraper.
It comes to the thirtieth anniversary of the game being in this particular arcade and Ralph is sick of being treated like dirt. So he goes to Bad-Anon, like AA but for video game bad guys. Here the motto is: "I am a bad guy but that is good, I will never be a good guy and that isn't bad." Ralph tells the other assembled bad guys, including Pacman ghosts, Bowser and Dr. Robotnik (from Sonic) that he doesn't want to be the baddie anymore. This causes some hilarious reactions including the Pacman ghost turning blue (like when Pacman eats the big yellow dot).
Ralph next goes in search of his own medal (like Felix) because if he gets one he will be given the penthouse in the skyscraper.
This quest takes Ralph to Tappers (the game where you are the barman and have to slide beer along counters to the customers before they reach the end) to talk to the barman where he finds someone from Heroes Duty ("you'd really have to watch where you step in a game called heroes doody") where he gets his medal but crashes into Sugar Rush, a cute game about racing around sweets.
Here he meets Penelope (Vanellope) who is a glitch in the game (she turns into code for a few seconds every now and then). What ensues is the most adorable friendship with the most adorable Disney character. Vanellope sleeps in a glitch and is not allowed to race because she is a glitch, she can't leave her game either. In short she is the Wreck-It Ralph of her game.
Ralph helps her, sometimes unwillingly, other times willingly to enter into the Sugar Rush races, the point of the game. They 'bake' a go-cart and she has them sign it (seriously adorable character).
The King of Sugar Rush comes to Ralph and explains what will happen if Vanellope comes somewhere on the leader board. She becomes a playable character. This is, of course, Vanellope's dream but for the game as a whole could be a nightmare. If she is on the leader board and a kid chooses her and she glitches then they might declare the game broken and unplug it. (When a game is unplugged the world ceases to exist and the characters have to get out of it on time, returning to Grand Central Station [an extension lead]) If the game is unplugged Vanellope is trapped and so Ralph stops her from competing, for her own good.
She sends him home where he learns Felix went after him and decides to go back to find Felix. On returning it turns out that Sugar Crush has a virus and needs to be abandoned. Ralph and Vanellope race to save the day leading Ralph to sacrifice himself on a mountain of Mentos and Diet Coke.
The film has some ingenius product placement, Sonic and Pacman being obvious ones, but there is also the Mentos and Diet Cola mountain, Nesquick Sand and others. All the games are real arcade games (shown at the end during the credits) and we saw it in 3D. The 3D was epic. Added to the movie as opposed to taking away.
The dialogue is hilarious. Things like "she's programmed with the worst back story of all time" and "it's in my code" make the film a delight for adults as well as children. Unlike some Disney films, which I feel are ruined by their bad guys, the bad guy in Wreck-it Ralph is great. They do not steal the show and you are convinced there isn't one most of the way through. There is also an hilarious shout out to the fact that the Disney company now own Star Wars, watch out for that one.
Wreck-It Ralph is Disney's 52nd Animated Classic (on that list with Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, the Hunchback, Lion King, Aladdin, Hercules, Pinnochio and Mulan to name just a hand full.)
Like we, as children, watched Snow White and other earlier Disney movies and the children of today watch the likes of Lilo and Stitch, the Lion King and others from the 90s to early 00s; our children will be watching Wreck-It Ralph.
It is one of the greatest Disney films of all time. One of the greatest films of all time if you ask Andy.
I think the last time I felt as strongly about an animated film was Up. This means that, for me, 'Wreck-It Ralph' takes a place with films like Aladdin, the Lion King, Lilo and Stitch, Tangled, Shrek (1 and 2, I liked both of those ones), Up and Toy Story. An epic must see and cannot wait for the DVD.
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