Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph 2D

I've been talking about Disney's movie homage to the days of arcade gaming, Wreck-it Ralph, since last autumn, but thanks to the differences in international release schedules, it's only just opened here in the UK. Yesterday, the wife, kids and I decided to go and see it.

Wreck-It Ralph wears its main plot thread right on its sleeve. At Litwak's Arcade, a TobiKomi Fix-It Felix Jr cabinet has been entertaining young gamers for three decades. Every day kids put in their quarters, watch the movie's titular hero, Ralph, smash up the Nicelanders' building, then proceed take control of the game's titular hero, Felix, to repair all the damage. When you complete the level, the inhabitants of the Niceland building grab Ralph, hurl him off the top of the building and the whole thing starts again — just like every great arcade game from the late 70s and early 80s. But bad guy, Ralph, doesn't want to be the bad guy any more, a feeling that's only amplified by the game's 30th anniversary.

Who says it's lonely at the top?

You see, much like Disney's other big video game inspired movie franchise, Tron, the characters inside all of the arcade machines at Litwak's are alive and much like yet another Disney franchise, Toy Story, when there are no players around, the game characters get up and live out a secret, alternative life, free from the rules of their actual game. Furthermore, and for reasons best not explored too deeply, these data people are able to move between games, courtesy of a circuit breaker to which all of their cabinets' power cables are connected. It is by this conceit that older gamers will get their geek and nostalgia overload.

Game Central Station or a circuit breaker to you and me

Any self-respecting arcade throwback will delight in pointing out all of the real arcade machines and their characters, as they enter and exit the train station-like circuit breaker. Q*Bert, Pac-Man, Tapper, Street Fighter II, Mario and Sonic are just some of the classic games and characters you'll see in this film, but they are far from the only ones. In fact, with the exception of Fix-It Felix Jr, Sugar Rush, Hero's Duty and Turbo Time, all of the games referenced in this film are (or in most cases, were) real games. While these references are only skin deep, some of them are so obscure that only the geekiest and oldest gamers in the audience will get them all. Basically, people like me. There's obviously a real love for arcade games here, but they don't over egg it, so non-gamers and kids who think gaming started with the Nintendo DS should still enjoy it. Nonetheless, there are a few gags that will ping right off the heads of most people. I doubt most people will get why Mr Litwak wears a referee shirt in the arcade. Not that all of the cameos are from games. Look out for a famous dubstep star DJing at one point, much like Daft Punk did in Tron Legacy.

Why is Zangief a bad guy? Communism? Is that what you're saying, Disney?

After attending Bad-Anon, a weekly support group for all of the games' villains, Ralph heads home to find the rest of the characters in his game are celebrating their anniversary. So Ralph crashes the party, much to their chagrin. After embarrassing himself, Ralph decides to prove he can be a hero by entering the hot new first person rail shooter, Hero's Duty, and winning a medal for heroism. And, with the setup complete, the movie begins its roller coaster ride through Hero's Duty and ends up in the Mario Kart-style, sickly sweet racing game, Sugar Rush. It's somewhat ironic that the movie actually spends most of its time inside the Sugar Rush universe, as Ralph tries to help an exiled racer named Vanellope von Schweetz finally win her first race.

A mixed-up racing kart for a mixed up film

In terms or subplots and supporting character development, there's actually a lot going on here, most of which is rather shallow and fails to really explore any of the issues they raise. This is partly due to the fact that, like a typical arcade game, there's very little time for the audience to catch their breath, as they are whisked along from set piece to set piece. The one that does work quite well is Vanellope's glitch, which presents itself like a combination between a nervious tick and epilepsy. This cute little character (voiced by Sarah Silverman) is shunned by the other racers because of her affliction, only for it to work in her favour towards the end. As the parents of an autistic child, this resonated with the wife and I, who know first hand both the highs and lows of having such a disability.

Overall, there's none of the depth of your typical Pixar or Studio Ghibli film here, but despite all the gaming references and shoe-horned branding, Wreck-It Ralph does have a bigger heart than, say Shrek, Madagascar or Ice Age. And it's certainly a class above the vast majority of kids CG animated movies. If, like me, you're an ageing gamer with young kids, you and your kids are bound to enjoy it, but I fear some people will be put off by the one-two punch of frequent gaming references in the first act and the multitude of sub-plots competing for attention for the rest of the film.

Oh and one last thing, my son has told me I can no longer eat Clyde when I play Pac-Man. Thanks, Disney.

MTW