Wreck It Ralph movie review!

Wreck-it-Ralph

Wow. Anything about video games and video game culture I just love. This movie has more heart than most animated features. It is kind of like a Toy Story premise where the characters of the game come to life after people stop playing their video games.

The story starts with Ralph narrating about his life. He lives in a dump right next to a high rise apartment that was built over his land. He plays the character of the bad guy in the game Fix-it-Felix Jr. (the “jr.” is a reference to Donkey Kong of course.) When the narration ends we see that he is actually telling his story to a group called Bad-Anon, support for people who portray bad guys in video games. I love that there is a Beholder attending the meeting!

Since he plays a bad guy everybody treats him like one. Ralph has no friends, and doesn’t even get invited to the party celebrating the games anniversary. This is Ralphs problem. He just wants to be accepted. Ralph crashes the party and ends up making a mess. The citizens of the game tell Ralph that they might like him if he gets a heroes medal.

So Ralph leaves his game in order to find one. He finds himself in a shooter called Heroes Duty, starring Jane Lynch as the female commander. Her character was programmed with the most horrible back-story ever! Lots of fun references to the Aliens movies. Ralph escapes with a heroes medal he plans to bring back home.

Ralph crash lands in a game called Sugar Rush. Everything there is made of candy, even the racing karts. Then he meets Vanellope, Voiced by Sara Silverman, she is the heart of the movie. An orphan girl, trapped in a racing game, but she can’t race because she is a glitch… Vanellope steals the medal from Ralph and uses it to get into a race. Ralph eventually makes a deal with her to help her win so he can get the medal.

This isn’t actually an action or adventure story. It’s what Blake Snyder, writer of the Save the Cat books, calls a “Buddy Love” story. It’s story where two people change and grow because of their relationship with each other. Ralph and Vanellope can’t live without one another, their lives are intertwined and they wouldn’t be who they are if they hadn’t met.

This movie is so much fun! There are great gaming references all over the place, from the Konami code to graffiti sayings like “Arieth lives” and “Leroy Jenkins”. We see a fun cameo by Sonic the Hedgehog at the beginning. They also create some cool video game lore about a game character going “Turbo”, when a character leaves their game making it unplayable.

I also love the romance between Jayne Lynchs’ character and Fix-it-Felix. They are so fun together because she is the hardcore cussing tomboy and Felix is the chivalrous sweet guy who never says anything mean. They’re polar opposites of each other and their courting is great.

Throughout the movie there is a running gag about how bad Ralphs breath is. When Ralph puts on a space suit he says “smells like Ralph in here”. The joke adds to the story when he threatens to put a candy character in his mouth as a form of torture.

Ralphs journey in this movie is wonderful. He leaves his home trying to impress the people he doesn’t care about. He makes friends with the only person he can through Vanellope, both outcasts in their own games. Of course Ralph becomes a hero but it’s not in order to impress anyone. His journey is very real to the characters in their world.

This movie is imaginative, exciting, and creative. The most heartwarming coming of age films I have seen in a long time!

Go see it right now!