Movie #30 - Wreck-It Ralph!

"Wreck-It Ralph" is a new movie from Disney who have surprisingly taken this long to try to leverage video games into the movies.  It follows Ralph, who is the big bad guy that destroys everything in an arcade game similar to Donkey Kong.  Fix-it Felix is his nemesis, the shiny hero who fixes everything he breaks and gets all the kudos from the apartment dwellers in the game.  But Ralph is sick of being the bad guy, lonely and unloved and living in the garbage dump.  He longs to be a hero, accepting medals and having friends.  Even his bad-guy support group (a fantastic play on AA and one of the best scenes that was sadly given away in a lot of the trailers) can't shake his feelings and Ralph decides to 'go turbo' and find another arcade game where he can be a hero.  This leads him into a series of adventures through other games, mainly the first-person shooter 'Hero's Duty' and Mario Kart style 'Sugar Rush', as Ralph tries to figure out his true place in the world.

The graphics are pretty amazing in this, and I didn't even see the 3D version (planning to).  The concept is extremely well thought out - what happens inside the video games when the arcade is closed and we're not looking - and provides so many jokes and nostalgic feelings for gamers.  I think non-gamers would still get a lot of enjoyment from the storyline though, which has a lot of heart.  The movie was directed by Rich Moore, who has never made a movie before but has helmed some pretty popular episodes of the Simpsons and Futurama, so you know you're in good hands.  The voices of John C Reilly (Stepbrothers, Talladega Nights) as Ralph and Sarah Silverman as lil racer Vanellope are perfect for their roles, as are most of the other main characters as well.  I was watching 30 Rock the other night and sadly now when I see Jack McBrayer (Kenneth the page) I am just thinking of Fix-it Felix instead.

Any adults in their 20s, 30s or 40s who have wasted away time in a video arcade or playing the early 8-bit games will definitely find a lot to love in "Wreck-It Ralph", as will older kids who will love the graphics and bright colours.  Young kids might be a little bored, as a lot of the jokes and action will sail straight over their heads.  I took my 5 year old nephew to see this, he's already a Nintendo kid who loves Mario and Sonic along with being obsessed with Angry Birds anything (hilariously he bought his dad Angry Birds pyjamas for Christmas this year).  He got a bit bored in places where there was more talk than action, and thought it was long, but he was good and didn't ask to leave.  He still said it was cool.  Not enough Sonic the Hedgehog!  A huge sugar rush and a good holiday film.