Review: Wreck-It-Ralph
Shen-Long Was Here
I could be very adult right now and say that I wanted to see Wreck-It-Ralph as someone who appreciates animation films. But the truth is that I wanted to see this film because the mere sight of M. Bison, Zangief, Bowser, and Robotnik in one room took me back my childhood, chucking a coin into a machine and hammering my palm on a shiny, red button. I've never been very good at video games (except for maybe RPGs and rhythm games), but that doesn't mean I enjoy them less than anyone else. I remember being beaten by my older sister countless times. I remember the arcade at my oldest sister's workplace (a theater) where they had Darkstalkers and a groan of anger would slip out of me as I watched Felicia fall to yet another projectile from Morrigan. If only I knew I could jump. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, always fighting with Patty over the lone female character. At seventeen, playing The Simpsons arcade game with Ferdy in a pizza joint. Driving and crashing in Mario Kart while my dad patted me on the shoulder and said, "I hope you never drive in real life." Stuck behind two men at Anime Expo, hogging the Guilty Gear console and glaring at the one member of the female species who dared to wait.
Arcades are a part of my life; watching another kid in front of you solve a puzzle you couldn't figure out and shouting, "How'd you know that?", falling in a slump of frustration after the last coin your allowance could muster had dissolved into two words: Game Over. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing and Disney knows how to manipulate it. For after nostalgia comes that beautiful word that the company of Walt Disney loves so much: consume. Buy the ticket and see glimpses of your childhood flicker past your eyes. Consume those moments like the viruses consume the saccharine world of Sugar Rush.
And you know what? I did.
As the video game version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, I have to say that Wreck-It-Ralph continues in the vein of acquiring licenses (however, apparently they couldn't get everything from Nintendo, you will see a blue Princess Peach). This is the only comparison I can make between the films though. Wreck-It-Ralph is a light-hearted romp through memory lane. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a visual master-piece with incredibly memorable moments and left a mark on the collective memory of American children as Christoper Lloyd revealed his identity. Wreck-It-Ralph features a similar moment, but it lacks both the surprise and the trauma.
Wreck-It-Ralph simulates the feeling of a video game. There's beautiful movement in this film, the point-of-view allowing you to see just how lush and expansive the environment of these video game worlds are. The music is tailor made for each game and it's reminiscent of walking through an arcade. You know the kind of game Hero's Duty is, that loud, booming game with aliens sprawling across the screen as two plastic guns lie waiting. And you know the kind of game Sugar Rush is, sparkly consoles with Japanese songs emanating from them as a driver's wheel idly awaits you. This film prevails in visuals, in feeling like a video game.
It also has nostalgia. I'm talking about you, Sonic Says moment. And Street Fighter 2 bonus stage. And Mario Brothers 2 bonus stage that was only in a certain version of the game in which my sister always stopped me from collecting coins by throwing a turtle shell at me.
Ralph is the villain of his game, Wreck-It-Ralph, a Donkey Kong type game in which Felix Jr. must fix the building and save the residents. There's a beautiful perspective switch and we discover that behind the screen, Ralph's actually a nice guy. He's tired of being treated like the villain. While conversing with the bar-tender at Root Beer Tapper, Ralph runs into a soldier from Hero's Duty, a first-person shooter. He learns that the game awards medals and if Ralph wins a medal, perhaps the people of his game will treat him better. The only problem is that Ralph's disturbance causes a virus to leak into another game, Sugar Rush. It's there that Ralph meets a difficult racer named Vanellope von Schweetz. Vanellope is a different kind of problem in video games: she's a glitch. And due to her glitchy nature, she's not allowed a place in their races. The two are outcasts of their worlds and through helping each other, they slowly learn their true place in their games.
The voice talents are quite good, but they suffer in being so recognizable. Instead of thinking of Ralph as Ralph, I think of John C. Reilly. The same is true of Jane Lynch's character. Surprisingly, Sarah Silverman is really good in this. She embodies the character so much that you forget it's her. And this is how voice talents should be conducted. Not to say that John C. Reilly's or Jane Lynch's contributions aren't good, it's just that they pale in comparison when put up next to Vanellope.
It's in the very conflict of this film that I have a problem though, and I see this as a problem with most children's films. So many of these animated films seem . . . afraid of consequences. I'm not talking about punishing a villain. I mean, realizing that there's a possibility the heroes might die. Think back to Roger Rabbit. How did you feel when you saw that toon dunked in the slime and slowly wither away? How did you feel when the slime edged closer to Jessica Rabbit and Roger? That's what makes the film memorable, those moments when you believe the heroes are in danger. Wreck-It-Ralph lacks this entirely; the threats are only minor. As such, it's a much lighter film and perhaps less memorable for me.
Oh, I enjoyed it. Definitely, it made me feel like a kid again. The moment Vanellope learns to race and she launches off of the track - that's what it feels like when you're zooming in a racing game. Wreck-It-Ralph is a beautiful marvel that excels at making you feel like you are in a game. It's the story that suffers for this. But it's that quandary of movie-making: do you go for a compelling story or do you focus on the visuals?
Wreck-It-Ralph focuses entirely on the visuals. And I'm not blaming it for that.
I could be very adult right now and say that I wanted to see Wreck-It-Ralph as someone who appreciates animation films. But the truth is that I wanted to see this film because the mere sight of M. Bison, Zangief, Bowser, and Robotnik in one room took me back my childhood, chucking a coin into a machine and hammering my palm on a shiny, red button. I've never been very good at video games (except for maybe RPGs and rhythm games), but that doesn't mean I enjoy them less than anyone else. I remember being beaten by my older sister countless times. I remember the arcade at my oldest sister's workplace (a theater) where they had Darkstalkers and a groan of anger would slip out of me as I watched Felicia fall to yet another projectile from Morrigan. If only I knew I could jump. Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, always fighting with Patty over the lone female character. At seventeen, playing The Simpsons arcade game with Ferdy in a pizza joint. Driving and crashing in Mario Kart while my dad patted me on the shoulder and said, "I hope you never drive in real life." Stuck behind two men at Anime Expo, hogging the Guilty Gear console and glaring at the one member of the female species who dared to wait.
Arcades are a part of my life; watching another kid in front of you solve a puzzle you couldn't figure out and shouting, "How'd you know that?", falling in a slump of frustration after the last coin your allowance could muster had dissolved into two words: Game Over. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing and Disney knows how to manipulate it. For after nostalgia comes that beautiful word that the company of Walt Disney loves so much: consume. Buy the ticket and see glimpses of your childhood flicker past your eyes. Consume those moments like the viruses consume the saccharine world of Sugar Rush.
And you know what? I did.
As the video game version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, I have to say that Wreck-It-Ralph continues in the vein of acquiring licenses (however, apparently they couldn't get everything from Nintendo, you will see a blue Princess Peach). This is the only comparison I can make between the films though. Wreck-It-Ralph is a light-hearted romp through memory lane. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a visual master-piece with incredibly memorable moments and left a mark on the collective memory of American children as Christoper Lloyd revealed his identity. Wreck-It-Ralph features a similar moment, but it lacks both the surprise and the trauma.
Wreck-It-Ralph simulates the feeling of a video game. There's beautiful movement in this film, the point-of-view allowing you to see just how lush and expansive the environment of these video game worlds are. The music is tailor made for each game and it's reminiscent of walking through an arcade. You know the kind of game Hero's Duty is, that loud, booming game with aliens sprawling across the screen as two plastic guns lie waiting. And you know the kind of game Sugar Rush is, sparkly consoles with Japanese songs emanating from them as a driver's wheel idly awaits you. This film prevails in visuals, in feeling like a video game.
It also has nostalgia. I'm talking about you, Sonic Says moment. And Street Fighter 2 bonus stage. And Mario Brothers 2 bonus stage that was only in a certain version of the game in which my sister always stopped me from collecting coins by throwing a turtle shell at me.
Ralph is the villain of his game, Wreck-It-Ralph, a Donkey Kong type game in which Felix Jr. must fix the building and save the residents. There's a beautiful perspective switch and we discover that behind the screen, Ralph's actually a nice guy. He's tired of being treated like the villain. While conversing with the bar-tender at Root Beer Tapper, Ralph runs into a soldier from Hero's Duty, a first-person shooter. He learns that the game awards medals and if Ralph wins a medal, perhaps the people of his game will treat him better. The only problem is that Ralph's disturbance causes a virus to leak into another game, Sugar Rush. It's there that Ralph meets a difficult racer named Vanellope von Schweetz. Vanellope is a different kind of problem in video games: she's a glitch. And due to her glitchy nature, she's not allowed a place in their races. The two are outcasts of their worlds and through helping each other, they slowly learn their true place in their games.
The voice talents are quite good, but they suffer in being so recognizable. Instead of thinking of Ralph as Ralph, I think of John C. Reilly. The same is true of Jane Lynch's character. Surprisingly, Sarah Silverman is really good in this. She embodies the character so much that you forget it's her. And this is how voice talents should be conducted. Not to say that John C. Reilly's or Jane Lynch's contributions aren't good, it's just that they pale in comparison when put up next to Vanellope.
It's in the very conflict of this film that I have a problem though, and I see this as a problem with most children's films. So many of these animated films seem . . . afraid of consequences. I'm not talking about punishing a villain. I mean, realizing that there's a possibility the heroes might die. Think back to Roger Rabbit. How did you feel when you saw that toon dunked in the slime and slowly wither away? How did you feel when the slime edged closer to Jessica Rabbit and Roger? That's what makes the film memorable, those moments when you believe the heroes are in danger. Wreck-It-Ralph lacks this entirely; the threats are only minor. As such, it's a much lighter film and perhaps less memorable for me.
Oh, I enjoyed it. Definitely, it made me feel like a kid again. The moment Vanellope learns to race and she launches off of the track - that's what it feels like when you're zooming in a racing game. Wreck-It-Ralph is a beautiful marvel that excels at making you feel like you are in a game. It's the story that suffers for this. But it's that quandary of movie-making: do you go for a compelling story or do you focus on the visuals?
Wreck-It-Ralph focuses entirely on the visuals. And I'm not blaming it for that.