Wreck-It Ralph (2012) review

(9/10)

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, for I love classic video games and catching references to them. It's a complete nerdgasm for all of those game-freaks out there.

PLOT:Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is a video game bad guy in the arcade game, Fix-It Felix, Jr. with Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer) being the hero. After 30 years of being thrown off buildings, sleeping in the dump, and getting no respect, Ralph decides to go game-jumping to find a medal and prove his video game comrades wrong. He jumps from games like Hero's Duty, led by femme fatale, Sgt. Calhoun (Jane Lynch), to games like Sugar Rush, where he meets and befriends young outcast, Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman). While Ralph is trying to find his medal, his game-friends are trying to save him, and a nasty plot is going down in Sugar Rush involving Vanellope. Ralph must either learn to accept himself or have his game shut down, while cleaning up his mess and solving the Sugar mystery. It's a great plot executed greatly.



VOICES:The voice acting in here is very well done. John C. Reilly does a very good job as distressed Ralph, and his performance doubles in laughs in dramatics. Sarah Silverman also played a very convincing part of the child racer, Vanellope von Schweetz. The other shiners would be Jane Lynch as Sgt. Calhoun, Jack McBrayer as Fix-It Felix, Alan Tudyk as King Candy, Rich Moore as Sour Bill, and Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog among many others.

SCORE:The score was pretty good. It was mainly made up of fun video game themes with some dramatic score to enhance the mood. It was a nice blend with a cool original song at the end.

ANIMATION:The animation in here wasn't anything unique, but it was very clean-cut and done with lifelike precision, next to the 8-bit effects used in some of the video games. The movie's animation was pretty much like one, big, blended video game.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie was so much better than I thought it would be. The humor was clever, the plot was very intricate, and there was great meaning behind it. The video game humor and references were very funny, among some clever jokes. There are cameos of several video game characters, including Sonic, Bowser, Ryu, Pac-Man, Dr. Eggman, Quibo, and several others. Not to mention, the jokes alone could have kept the movie going well. The plot was also very well thought-out too, especially for a kid's movie; the twists and dramatics introduced through out the movie are just glorious and could have compelled the movie further as a drama than just a kid's movie. Also, there's a great meaning behind the movie about accepting yourself no matter who you are and about appreciating every part of your life. The only bad thing about this movie is that you can sense a bit of the formula used in most good family films these days being used. They embraced the formula better than most modern family films have been doing, but it still is, in a sense, formulaic.

OVERALL,an awesome family movie with a great plot, very well done voice acting, fun score, clean animation, clever humor and references, intricate plot twists, and great meaning, but it had a sense of formula in it.