Dinsey's Wreck-It Ralph: A love-letter to videogames

[Rob-Bert]

It looks more like Shrek that Toy Story.

I have a feeling it won't be completely terrible but I can't help but feel the game character cameos and poop jokes will end up being a huge detriment in the end.

[Wombatwarlord777]

Has anybody else seen this in theaters yet? Maybe some spoiler tags are in order?

I went in primarily to see all the cameos that have been advertised for this thing since the very get-go. I have the habit of spoiling these types of things for myself, but there wasn't a lot that that hasn't been out in previews. There are a couple of really slick blink-and-you'll-miss-it references though. My favorite was probably the graffiti in Game Central Station which exclaims that "Aerith Lives".

As of the original content of the film, it was probably great for little kids and I didn't feel it was that bad myself. The friendship that develops between Ralph and Vanellope is the strongest aspect of the film. It's so gratifying to see the two gradually bond together, especially keeping in mind that they've both been friendless outcasts through no fault of their own. The absolute best part of the film for me is when Ralph and Vanellope churn out Vanellope's less-than-ideally-baked racecar, which Vanellope accepts unconditionally much to the relief of Ralph, who had been trying to compose himself to gently handle what he thought would be disappointment. It makes Ralph's good-intentioned destruction of said racecar all the more heart-wrenching. That girl really, really wanted to race.

The whole B-plot involving Felix Jr. and Calhoun blossoming romance felt a little forced. I realize that in every other Disney film, the plot involves or culminates in a marriage, and I suppose it's funny in that awkward sort of way that they're both of vastly different body structures and video game genres. I just didn't think that it was necessary and, aside from one really funny visual gag, didn't add anything to the movie.

King Candy was a pretty awesome villain, though. He has a great visual design that goes well with his jubilant, then manipulative, and then finally scarily-psychotic personality. I suppose in retrospect I should have guessed that the Candy King was Turbo in disguise, but the formal reveal was spectacularly unnerving. And the homage to transformed RPG final bosses in the form of King Candy's Cy-Bug glitched form was great too.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. It had great references, some pretty good characters, and an okay story.

[Esrever]

I really liked Wreck it Ralph!

The cameos were amusing but I'm glad existing games didn't dominate the whole film. Actually, the three main fictional games were one of the things that impressed me most about the film! I thought their construction and mechanics felt very real and demonstrated a real understanding of gaming. Especially Sugar Rush! I've seen gamers gripe about how that section of the film had too many candy jokes and not enough gaming stuff, but I completely disagree. The race courses felt like real kart racer courses. The "unfinished volcano area" felt like something hackers would really uncover in a game. The way glitching was depicted (and especially how the glitch was embraced by arcade players) was great. Even the kart-creation factory sequence felt like a credible game element, consisting of a series of minigames that could have been ripped straight out of Mario Party. More than the cameos, this was the stuff that made the movie feel honest and showed it came from people who aren't just pretending to like or understand video games.

The characters were super likeable, with solid designs and some really fun, distinct cartoony animation. Some parts of the plot felt a little mechanical or by-the-numbers, but it was a formula that worked really well. And the villain was great. It's nice to see Disney steadily improving with each of their original animated features. Tangled was a strong effort and this was even better. It was easily the best mainstream animated film of the year, and the best non-sequel animated film I've seen since Up.

[Radrappy]

I thought it was okay, but could have done with less candy jokes. Stuff like "Nesquicksand" is cute, but doesn't belong in this movie. The only other thing I'll say is that when this film wanted to get emotional it laid it on thick. I think there was a 15 min block of heart wrenching scene after heart wrenching scene despite that we had only had a short bonding montage in which the two primary characters got to know each other. The suddenly high concentration of feelings made the whole thing come off a little forced.

[Esrever]

Every time I see crazy emotional sentiment that almost feels like someone forcibly shoved it into an otherwise light Disney movie, I assume it's John Lasseter.

[Opa-Opa]

I finally got around to watch it and I must say I loved it. The cameos were pretty cool but the whole characterization of the game world is what really caught my attention. The way the 8-bit characters moved, the scenery, how every world really looked like a diferent game. It was pretty cool.

I've been playing a lot of Sonic & All-Star Racing Transformed, and with Ralph in there I ask myself why isn't there a Sugar Rush course. It sure looked fun in the movie.

[Crowbar]

This is a big bump but this movie only came out recently in the UK so I feel entitled.

I wanted to be the grumpy old man and decry the standard schmaltzy Disney storyline but I actually enjoyed it. My suspicion, based on the trailers, that they only had a limited pool of licensed sources from which to draw references turned out to be true. But it wasn't really a big deal. I actually ended up buying into the main plotline. I was conscious of the fact that I actually liked it more once the plot kicked in for real, unlike Brave which provoked the exact opposite reaction. When Ralph had to break Vanellope's car my heart pretty much tore in two and I find that slightly embarassing.

I'm disappointed that nobody else on this forum noted that they naughtily featured a Sonic 3 boss in a Sonic 2 level during the credits animation. That said, I thought the credits were really well done, it looked like they put alot of effort into understanding the different visual languages of a variety of games in order to do pastiches of them.

Also I found it a little incongruous that Sonic made so many appearances in the movie despite the fact that he's not originally an arcade character, in fact I don't know if Modern Sonic has even cameoed in any arcade games. And yeah, I now realise how wrong it is that Ralph is in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed but VAnellope isn't.

[Crowbar]

Oh yeah, and Ralph refers to an arcade cabinet as a console. FILM RUINED.

[Crisis]

I saw it on the UK's opening weekend (lots of kids in the audience). I liked it a lot. I had a similar reaction to Crowbar vis-a-vis the heart-tearing moment, although I would also add the shots of Vanellope being trapped.

There were a few problems, mainly the overreliance on the movie's internal logic and some pacing issues, but the movie was just so goddamn endearing it doesn't really matter.