Went and saw Wreck It Ralph. Here are my impressions. I’ll try to avoid spoilers that weren’t already revealed in the trailers.
The general premise of Wreck it Ralph is basically a cross between Toy Story & Tron. As soon as the patrons of a certain arcade parlor leave each night, the denizens of various video games stop pretending to be part of a game and start living their own lives, even going so far as to visit other games through a game waystation. The main character of the movie, Wreck It Ralph, is the bad guy of an original arcade game who is sick of being the bad guy and wants a little respect & appreciation. After being insulted by some of the other members of his arcade game, he gets fed up and leaves his game in search of an opportunity to become a hero. Hilarious hyjinks & daring action ensue.
I enjoyed Wreck It Ralph but I didn’t love it. That is to say it was a fun movie with some clever bits (and some not so clever bits) but I’m not dying to add it to my permanent movie library. Surprisingly enough, the movie wasn’t a nonstop stream of video game cameos and references – the bulk of the movie’s focus was on the original arcade games they designed just for this movie and most of the really funny video game cameos you’ve already seen if you’ve watched the trailers. I liked the meta-game aspects of the world they created here and there were several nice (that is to say terrible) puns scattered throughout the movie. The visuals ranged from good to great and the audio (music, sound effects, and voice acting) was excellent. On the downside, I think the Sugar Rush segments of the movie outstayed their welcome and had mismatched art – Sugar Rush is supposed to be a cutesy Japanese Mario Kart parody but instead of looking Japanese, it looked like someone trying to make something look Japanese and failing badly with the result that it just looks like a Dreamworks take on the classic board game, Candyland. On the plus side, Disney hired famous Japanese pop idol group AKB48 to do the Sugar Rush theme song which I found hilarious (the fact that they got an actual Japanese pop group to do the song, even more than the song itself).
The most pleasant surprises of the movie weren’t in the movie itself but in what happened before and after it. Before the movie begins, there was a fantastic short called Paperman. Funny, moving, and with a distinct art style, Paperman was heads and shoulders better than anything that was in the actual movie. It felt like a collaboration between Studio Ghibli & Pixar – truly wonderful. And then after the movie was over, the credits proved to be extremely entertaining – they really let loose with the video game theme there, even moreso than in the actual movie. Oh and make sure to stay for the entire credits; I’m just saying.
If Wreck It Ralph had been as clever and as well done as the Paperman short that preceded it, it would have easily become a candidate for my favorite movie of all time. If Wreck It Ralph had been as clever and as well done as its credits, it would have easily been my favorite video game movie of all time. As it is, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World holds that honor, but Wreck It Ralph still managed to make for a very enjoyable outing.
Thank you so much. You nearly expressed exactly my feelings for the movie. If anything, I’m just barely less positive on it than you are.
I’m one of the biggest fans of Disney around and, of course, a huge gamer. I’m very easy to please when it comes to Disney movies and frequently end up defending various releases against others’ criticism.
When I came out of Wreck-It Ralph feeling that it was just a fun children’s movie, I came out of it feeling sour on the experience. I wanted it to be great, and I couldn’t bring myself to say it was. There were certainly great aspects (all of which you touched on), but there was far too much that fell flat for me to be satisfied. The very fact that the movie was merely good made it so I didn’t enjoy it at all, but recognized it as something that I could find enjoyable.
Now that my expectations have been reset, I think I’ll go see it again. Paperman is worth it, as is seeing my name in huge letters during the very fun credits sequence (I share a name with the movie’s Art Director).
Maybe it’s because we have different tastes, but I thought Wreck-It Ralph was damn near perfect. I can’t wait to see it again when I get it on DVD, and would be back in the theatres now if it wasn’t for the fact that movies cost too much these days.
I thought Paperman was cute, it was certainly an unexpected bonus, but I sure wasn’t going into the theatre expecting it or the movie to be anything like it. I went in expecting a video game movie and was surprised by how damned good it was. I felt that it blew every other video game movie, ever, out of the water and broke the mold saying that such movies will always do poorly.
From the way you’re reacting, I’d almost say that including Paperman was a bad idea. It apparently coloured the rest of your expectations for the movie, which such shorts are not supposed to do.
It was alright. I was not expecting the cast of Chrono Trigger to pop in like they did.