Just went and saw “Wreck-It Ralph“, starring John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch. There are many more well known actors that I’m quite happy they were able to pull in such as Ed O’Neill and Alan Tudyk. The fact that Disney was able to get licensing from major game companies to use their characters is both surprising and wonderful.
The plot’s surface is simply a videogame bad-guy wants to be appreciated and game-hops in an arcade trying to win. But once you get under that layer, you realize this is a film about acceptance, finding your way in the world, and being who you are not what others think you are. Being chock full of video-game references new and retro this film will be entertaining for adults as well as children. Almost everyone who is under the age of 40 is familiar with arcades and video-games so it is relevant to a large percentage of the population. If you are a gamer and have kids this is a movie you need to see. You’ll like it!
Ralph and other real video-game characters meet at “Bad Anon”.
Potty-humor (duty humor, I suppose), the inclusion of minor gunplay (gotta shoot bugs!), tech references and puns (bugs, virus, glitch…), and the inclusion of dozens if not hundreds of videogame characters and tropes really make this film entertaining. I’m planning on re-watching it and trying to count all the cameos and easter-eggs! Heck, it even quotes Napoleon Dynamite once! The attention to detail such as pixels, jittery movements, tongue-in-cheek humor really make this shine.
I highly recommend you see this film if you are a hard-core nerd or a casual gamer. I saw it in 3D, which didn’t distract me at all.
Aside: I watched this opening night at a Regal Cinemas. In a full-sized room there were less than a dozen people. 5 of them were my friends and I. I don’t know if this is because it was the same opening weekend as Tarantino’s new film “The Man with the Iron Fists”, the new plane thriller “Flight” starring Denzel Washington, and Tom Hanks’ “Cloud Atlas” (new, but not brand-new). Hopefully this film doesn’t get over-shadowed and underappreciated.
