When the day is done, i.e. when Litwak’s Arcade shuts down for the night, Ralph retreats to a junkyard and sleeps in amongst a pile of bricks, dreaming of a life where he is beloved and where he is a hero — badguys rarely get the credit they deserve for their hard work and effort. This is a life spectacularly realised in “Wreck-It Ralph,” a delightfully playful and wildly imaginative Walt Disney computer-animation in which video game characters enjoy a life of their own when free from the control of their human players. They share this quality with the plastic playthings of Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story,” if lacking the universally felt magic of that film’s concept: we have all at one point imagined that our inanimate toys spring to life when our backs are turned, but have we ever thought the same of a video game character?
Still, what “Wreck-It Ralph” has by the truckload is an infectious fondness for its pixelated protagonists and dollops of sweet nostalgia that will transform any casual gamer of the 1980s into as giddy a seven-year-old as the ones sitting in the audience with them: thanks to the dazzling array of brain-implanted video game sound effects and backdrops that are on frequent display, childhood memories of frantic button-pushing and joystick-manoeuvring will come flooding back with the unstoppable thrust and overwhelming force of a full-scale tsunami. And I haven’t even mentioned the countless familiar faces to be recognised throughout: the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog and Q*bert can be seen wandering through Game Central Station, while in a Badguys Anonymous support group, Ralph discusses his problems with M. Bison from “Street Fighter," Bowser from “Super Mario Bros.” and one of the ghosts from that old-school classic, “Pac-Man.”
Wreck-It Ralph himself, however, is an original creation, even if Disney have been so kind and thoughtful as to have made a real-life “Fix-It Felix, Jr.” game available for playing online — I’ve played it myself, and, like the film, it’s a good deal of fun. He is voiced by John C. Reilly (“Step Brothers”), usually a supporting actor whose endearing, sad-sack voice is a vital cog in Ralph’s lovability; here is a good-natured character who wishes to be appreciated, who watches with jealousy as Fix-It Felix receives praise for his work while he remains unrecognised and is faced with rejection upon pursuit of it.
It is a jealousy that causes him to abandon his game in search of popularity, a move referred to by fellow game characters as “going Turbo,” a reference to a racing character who, in a bid for attention, broke into the arcade’s newest racing game and consequently had his own game unplugged. Ralph’s journey sees him integrated into other games, and one of the many joys of “Wreck-It Ralph" is its gorgeously designed, meticulously detailed world-building: Ralph first encounters the very modern “Hero’s Duty,” a high-def first-person shooter that is essentially a sci-fi-twisted “Call of Duty” in which heavily armed marines do battle with giant, flying space bugs. “When did video games get so violent and scary?" Ralph wimpishly remarks upon entry.
But most of the action takes place in “Sugar Rush,” a teeny-bopper go-kart racing game made unique by the fact that it is made entirely out of colourful confectionery: its sugar-coated sites include a forest of candy cane trees and a river of chocolate, while, in a neat touch, the two local police officers are a pair of walking, talking donuts. Such a world provides ample opportunity for shameless product placement, and sadly, “Wreck-It Ralph” gives into such distracting, corporate-driven urges: our hero falls victim to Nesquik sand and encounters a Diet Cola volcano made eruptive by falling Mentos. This jars with the film’s intentions to lovingly pay tribute to the world of video games, and one might feel a slight tingle of cynicism when such moments pop up.
This is, however, vanquished whenever the adorably sprightly and lovably bratty Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman with a lungful of helium) is on-screen, which is thankfully often. She’s a smart-mouthed young resident of “Sugar Rush” whose dream is to be a go-kart racer; this, in spite of the fact that she is a “glitch,” and that it is strictly forbidden for glitches to race in “Sugar Rush.” Ralph quickly befriends Miss von Schweetz, and promises to help her achieve her goal; King Candy (Alan Tudyk, “Firefly”), the lisping ruler of “Sugar Rush,” has other, more diabolical plans for this malfunctioning tot.
Meanwhile, in an enjoyable sub-plot, Ralph is chased by Calhoun (Jane Lynch, “Glee"), the hard-ass sergeant from “Hero's Duty" supposedly programmed with “the most tragic back-story ever" — her beloved fiancé was gobbled up by a wedding-crashing space bug, one of which Ralph may have inadvertently set loose inside “Sugar Rush." Felix enthusiastically tags along, fearing that his game will be shut down forever if Ralph does not return in time. This leads to a climax that is disappointingly generic in its action-packed mayhem, but which is saved by its characters — it helps a great deal that we have been given time to watch them grow and learn to care about them.
I have a suggestion for the sequel, which, given the film’s box office figures, looks likely. All of the action in “Wreck-It Ralph" takes place inside Litwak’s Arcade and the games contained therein. But what if Ralph and his friends were to venture outside of the arcade and encounter multiple versions of themselves in other arcades — what if Ralph were to interact with another Wreck-It Ralph, like Buzz and the whole supermarket aisle of new-and-improved Buzz Lightyears in “Toy Story 2?" Anyway, it’s just a suggestion. I have a feeling that “Wreck-It Ralph,” like so many family films, will be played on a never-ending loop in households throughout the world when it is released on home video — it will, however, have the rare luxury of being repeatedly placed into the DVD player not just by children but by thirty-something gamers too.
7/10
I am waiting for DVD release of Wreck It Ralph.
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