Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph, Family, 2012

Plot: A video-game villain is tired of playing the role of the bad guy, so he decides to try to prove that he deserves praise from his peers.

Thoughts: I was excited to see this movie because of the “retro” lore and various eater eggs sprinkled throughout the movie (my favorite was the Metal Gear Solid exclamation point). While there were a lot of moments of nostalgia, I don’t feel like they integrated into the film as much as it should have to really make memorable moments in the film.

For a Disney Animation Studios film (instead of the usual Pixar- Disney combo) it was a decent film, the one thing it lacked, however, was heart. The movie was built for two strong plots, but the writers really wanted to squeeze one more into it. This, in my opinion, was the downfall of the film. It takes masters to weave three different storylines (even if they dovetail) in a movie, and Disney missed the mark.

The animation was very Pixar-esque, proving that Disney picked up lessons from its former partner as well as rival DreamWorks and I look forward to seeing their full dynamic later.

I really wish more of these characters had screen time.

The characters, save two or three, were one-dimensional. I never got a sense of their lives and why they make certain decisions (aside from being most convenient for the film). Venellope, while sweet and cute at moments, was emotionally erratic and I didn’t really see a connection between her personality and her history.

The voice-actors, however, saved part of the film and really brought emotion out of a script that seemed void of it. I thought John C. Reilly carried his role well; he and the rest of the cast gave the feel of anonymous voices (thought most of them were at least B-listers) and I think this aided the film greatly.

Wreck-It Ralph was a clever film, but unfortunately it was not memorable. To this day, and to my embarrassment,  I quote other Disney movies regularly, but I don’t see myself mentioning this movie much often, though I would like to play some of those games.

3.2/5

(P.S. they really dropped the ball on developing the Fix-It Felix plot, maybe that leaves room for a spin-off)