Four stars. Rating: PG, for kid-level rude humor and mild action/violence
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 11.2.12
I haven’t had this much fun since
1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit blended classic Disney and Warner Bros.
cartoon characters in a similarly madcap adventure.
 |
| After crashing his way into the candy-laden realm of the game Sugar Rush, the clumsy and destructive Ralph only wants to retrieve his hard-earned gold medal. Alas, impish Vanellope von Schweetz has her own plans for that medal, and they involve her own desire for "street cred" among her peers. |
Wreck-It Ralph, like numerous
fantasies before it, concerns the activities of playthings after pesky humans
have gone to bed (or otherwise departed the scene). Pixar owns this sub-genre
most recently, with its Toy Story franchise, but the concept is much older,
dating back to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet and Victor Herbert’s 1903
musical, Babes in Toyland. Both have been staged and filmed many, many times.
To my knowledge, Wreck-It Ralph is the first such storyline set in the world of arcade gaming. It boasts a
sharp script by Jennifer Lee and Phil Johnston, the latter responsible for
writing last year’s delightful Cedar Rapids. Most crucially — and as is the
case with the Toy Story films — Wreck-It Ralph takes place in a colorful
world that is laden with goofy characters, but includes plenty of droll and
clever dialogue.
The result: It will delight both
youngsters and their parents, and the latter also will recognize all sorts of
inside jokes and familiar references.
The action unfolds at Litwak’s
Family Fun Center & Arcade, where — as longstanding tradition demands —
local kids reserve next-play status by lining up their quarters. Game choices
include everything from the cutesy-poo, animé-flavored Sugar Rush, where
players race adorable girl avatars through a track bordered by gumdrops, cotton
candy and all manner of sweet stuff; to the hyper-realistic, first-person
shooter thrills of Hero’s Duty, a nightmarish storyline right out of Starship
Troopers, where a combat platoon battles scary cy-bugs that threaten to
annihilate the universe.
Somewhere in between is the retro
appeal of Fix-It Felix Jr., a 1980s game mildly reminiscent of Nintendo’s
original Mario Bros. (whose characters, perhaps tellingly, are not in this
film). The game’s villain, Ralph, is a 643-lb. man monster who is
determined to destroy the apartment building that the game’s Nicelanders call
home. Players (in our real world) control plucky little Felix, whose magic
hammer repairs all the damage. Successfully completing the level means that
Ralph gets tossed into a nearby mud puddle.
Unhappily, Ralph (voiced by John
C. Reilly) is a sensitive soul, and has grown tired of always being the bad
guy, and of living his off-duty hours alone in a brick pile. He even joins a
support group, Bad-Anon, where familiar villains from various games (Street
Fighter, Altered Beasts) share their tales in sessions hosted by Clyde, the
orange ghost from Pac-Man.
