Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Player One

Film: Wreck-It Ralph
Format: DVD from personal collection on laptop.

I have a long connection to video games despite not having been an active gamer for a dozen years. I won’t go into it beyond saying that it was my career for 12 years or so as well. When Wreck-It Ralph showed up, I knew it would be a film that either pissed me off to no end or that I would love completely. It would depend entirely on how much respect was given the various source materials used to make the film. If it dealt with video games and video game culture without making it a joke, it could be the best thing going.

Thanks to smart writing, good characters, great use of classic video game characters, and a great deal of respect, Wreck-It Ralph is one of the great animated movies of the current decade. I went into this the first time with my fingers crossed and left the theater a believer. When people care about the story and not just about making a buck on their film, it shows, and Wreck-It Ralph was made by people who understand not only how to tell a story well, but who also know the culture they’re involving themselves in. Wreck-It Ralph was made by people who like video games.

Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the bad guy in a classic video game called Fix-It Felix Jr. In the game, Ralph smashes a building that the player/Felix (Jack McBrayer) repairs with a magic hammer. When the player wins a given level, Ralph is tossed off the roof by the people who dwell in the building. When the film starts, the game is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the arcade. But things are not so good for Ralph. Since he’s the bad guy, no one in the game likes him, and he lives in the dump off to the side of the building he smashes. He spends time now and then with a support group of other video game villains (where there’s a significant mistake), and is told that being a bad guy is his job and he needs to stick with it.

That night is the 30th Anniversary party inside the building, and Ralph is naturally not invited. He crashes the party, though, and after accidentally destroying the cake, he is told by the people in the building that if he can get a medal (Felix gets one for winning), they’ll let him live in the building. That night, Ralph sneaks into a military first-person shooter called Hero’s Duty, since the prize for completing the game is a gold medal. He does this despite the reality of the video game world, which includes the fact that dying outside of one’s own game means a permanent death.

However, when he tries to leave the game, he leaves with a Cy-Bug, one of Hero’s Duty’s monsters into a third game, a racing game called Sugar Rush. He’s certain that the Cy-Bug is dead (it isn’t), but he gets his medal stolen by Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), a glitch character from the racing game. Vanellope uses Ralph’s medal to enter the nightly race, which will allow her to be a real character in the video game, something that none of the other characters want, particularly the game’s ruler, King Candy (Alan Tudyk).

Eventually, everyone shows up in Sugar Rush. Felix discovers what has happened to Ralph when he doesn’t show up as a new game begins. This takes him to Hero’s Duty where he meets Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch), who is in charge of that game. The two go looking for Ralph and to kill any escaped Cy-Bugs, and during this, Felix becomes enamored of Calhoun. Ultimately, it all comes down the big race at the end, which happens just as a massive horde of Cy-Bugs erupts from under the ground and begins to destroy the Sugar Rush game. This is a bigger problem because as a glitch, Vanellope can’t leave the game.

So what does it get right? Quite a bit. One of the conceits of the movie world is that after the video arcade closes, characters can leave their games and enter other games. It’s safe because without a quarter being dropped into the box, the games themselves can’t actually start. Characters frequently congregate at the old Tapper machine. Ralph’s support group meets in the Pac-Man game, and when he leaves, Ralph is carrying the cherries. There are moments of characters from other games—Q*Bert is homeless since his game console has been removed. In fact, the only thing it gets wrong here is that it labels Zangief from Street Fighter II as a villain when he’s a playable character.

Mostly, though, it takes its audience seriously even though there are plenty of jokes here. The filmmakers realized that some of the kids and many of the adults in their audience would be on the lookout for hidden references and in-jokes for the gamer crowd, and there are plenty of them. No one likes being condescended to, and Wreck-It Ralph never condescends, not in the characters and not in the way the plot resolves. That resolution is set up beautifully and works out in a way that is both surprising and makes perfect sense.

It was additionally smart to create three completely new games for the action to take place in. Those games are their own unique worlds but are reminiscent of actual games. Fix-It Felix Jr. in particular is very similar to Donkey Kong, even in how the cabinet is designed.

I like this movie a lot. I liked it when I took my kids to see it and I liked it a lot today.

Why to watch Wreck-It Ralph: It gets the games right.
Why not to watch: If you don’t play games, you’ll miss a lot of the good jokes.

14 comments:

  1. I think I've seen this three times since it first opened. John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman and Jane Lynch OWN their characters.

    2012 was a really good year, but that made it tough to pick a favorite movie. I ended up with a five-way tie and Wreck-It Ralph was one of them.

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    1. This is a good film to point to for why the Academy should create an award for voice acting. Like stunts, it's a category that's gone unrecognized for far too long.

      And you're right--2012 was a very good film year.

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  2. Yep, great, smart movie. The characters have real personality and there's a depth of emotion to each of them. I especially love Alan Tudyk's fantastic Ed Wynn homage. If this movie happens to be on TV, I'll watch it and have trouble tearing myself away.

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    1. I know what you mean. Since the Best Animated Feature category has only been around for a few years (relatively speaking), there aren't a lot of movies in it on my watch list. I put this in tonight more or less to try to rectify that a little. I'd forgotten how much I liked it the first time around and got caught up in it a second time.

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  3. Really enjoyed this movie. Reviewed it here.

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    1. Normally when I see something in the theater, I put up a review. I don't know why I didn't for Wreck-It Ralph. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to make sure I got a chance to watch it again.

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  4. I completely agree. This was one of my Top 10 films of 2012 and it was robbed at Oscar time. And there was some subtle commentary in there for older gamers like me, such as when Ralph wonders in Heroes Duty, "When did video games get so scary and violent?"

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    1. Brave is the only Best Animated Feature film from 2012 I haven't seen yet. I'm not sure if I'd pick this one or ParaNorman based on the four that I've seen. That's a question for another time.

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    2. Just my opinion, but "Brave" was severely disappointing to me. The filmmakers had the chance to do something truly meaty and cultural, and they instead went for substance-free, Disneyfied cornball. They really dropped the ball with "Brave," whose preview trailer was way better than the film.

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    3. That's what I've heard from a lot of people about Brave. It's the main reason I haven't rushed out to watch it.

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    4. Brave fell into the "barely recommended" category for me. I consider it a lesser Pixar movie. When you do watch it you'll notice at least one story parallel with the later Disney film Frozen.

      I just took a look at the nominees that year. I'd put Brave above Pirates: Band of Misfits, but that's about it. ParaNorman would be my #2 after Ralph. I'd call Brave and Frankenweenie about even.

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    5. Leaving out Brave, you and are are pretty close on our ratings for these. I still don't know where I stand with a favorite of Ralph vs. Norman, but I'll get there some day.

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  5. I think Brave is pretty good. Not the best Pixar, but better than it's reputation. It's certainly one of the most beautiful Pixar films and the voice work is excellent. Many of the characters are a lot of fun, if underused. The story is a little too straight-forward, it feels like it's missing a subplot or two, but I just watched it again and I always enjoy it.

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    1. I'm reserving judgment on it until I see it, which I hope to do by the end of the year. It's one of only two or three Pixar films I haven't seen, so at the very least I'm interested in it for that reason. On the other hand, I have zero interest in Cars 2.

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