So Disney made a movie about video game characters, how will it turn out?
If it's not a good game or...WAIT A MINUTE! It may not be a good game, but it's about good games. I'm Happy Gamer, and this is Pokematic, here to talk about Disney's Wreck it Ralph.
So as you can see, Happy Gamer will be helping me out on this review, because while it isn't a video game, it's about video games. He'll talk about the gamer aspect later. But now I'll talk about, well, everything else. So as you probably know by now, Wreck it Ralph is about a villain from an old arcade game, and he's tired of being the bad guy, so he goes to other games to try to be a good guy, or something to that extent. Here's a better synopsis of what happens.
So Ralph is the bad guy in the arcade game Fix It Felix Jr. According to HG, the game Fix It Felix Jr. is kind of a cross between Donkey Kong and Rampage. You got a guy wrecking the building, Ralph, and a guy who needs to fix it, Felix, and once Felix fixes all the windows and stuff and gets up to the top, the level is completed and the inhabitants of the tower rejoice and throw Ralph off of the building. This has been going on for 30 years, and while Felix is given the hero's treatment, Ralph lives in the dump next to the building and no one in his game likes him, because he's the bad guy.
On the 30th anniversary of the game, everyone is celebrating at a big party in the penthouse apartment in the building, all except Ralph. He sees the fun, and goes up to see if he could join in. After some awkward small talk with Felix, Ralph is invited in. He causes a bit of a ruckus, accidentally, and after a series of events, he and the owner of the building make a deal that if he can get a medal, he could live in the penthouse, since heroes get medals and villains don't. He proceeds to getting one in a new game called Heroes Duty but things happen to cause him to lose it in Sugar Rush, a racing game similar to Mario Cart. That's all you need to know for the time being. There are some plot twists, so any further would ruin it.
The characters are quite entertaining. Our main characters, Ralph, Felix, Vanellope, King Candy, and Jane Lynch, are all very interesting. OK, Jane Lynch is voice behind the character Sergeant Calhourn, but who's going to remember her character since the character looks so much like her? We already know who Ralph and Felix are, so lets talk about Venellope and Jane. Venellope is a "glitch" in the racing game Sugar Rush. She refers to her glitchness as "pixlexia." Her dream is to be a racer, but she doesn't have the necessary coin in order to pay the entry fee. She lives in an unfinished track in the game called Diet Cola mountain. Ralph ends up helping her race. King Candy is the king of Sugar Rush. He ends up being the antagonist of the movie, but his intentions are pure, as it would seem. Sorry, spoilers after that and I really don't want spoilers. But he does have access to the game's programing, and how the programing is handled is quite interesting. Jane Lynch is the Sergeant of the First Person Shooter "Hero's Duty." She's out to fight the cy-bugs. She's a no nonsense leader, and has a rather depressing back story. She was programed as having lost her would be husband to a cy-bug. Right as she was getting married, a cy-bug flew through the stained glass window and ate her fiance. Everyone from real video games aren't given much screen time or development, but who cares, we already know who they are, and while they are mostly there to add realism to the movie concept, they are handled quite well. When only given a few lines, or none at all, there isn't much room to screw them up. But they aren't the main characters.
I don't usually mention the marketing, but this movie is worthy of the mention. Aside form the usual trailers, Disney made actual, playable versions of the games that our main characters come from. On the Wreck-It-Ralph web site, there are flash versions of Fix it Felix Jr., Sugar Rush, and Hero's Duty. Take it from Happy Gamer, they are fun. Our favorite is the Fix It Felix Jr. game since it's incredibly reminiscent of classic arcade games, and not only has the 8-bit graphics and repetitive background music, it also has the increasing difficulty of classic arcade games. Hero's Duty is a decent FPS that's kid friendly. You're shooting bugs with minimal gore and no blood. I hope these games get released for download on home console or handheld. They're on android/apple products, but I want a real controller in my hand, and they are well made. Plus Sugar Rush isn't available from what I've found, Hero's Duty isn't the same, top down perspective instead of first person, and not sure about Fix It but it's probably not the same either. I don't know since I don't have mobile devices to get them on, but they're free so if you have the devices, why not get them?
Well that's my portion, now for Happy Gamer to talk about all the gaming aspects. Take it away HG.
Oh man, that was so cool. When the citizens of Fix It Felix Jr would move it would be jerky like the animations of an old arcade game. When a quarter was put in a game, there was this "Quarter Alert" thing that told everyone to get ready for the game to start. The characters were awair that there was a world outside theirs, and could see into that world through the screen. Game Central Station is a power strip that all the arcade games are plugged into. Wow.
Then after hours, the characters were able to go between games though their power cords. The villains anonymous meeting was held in the pac-man ghosts hub thing. The bar in their universe is the classic arcade game Tapper. They had real characters from real video games. They had Bowser, Q-Bert, Frogger, Clyde from Pac-Man, a mushroom from super Mario brothers, and so many more. Before the movie played, the Disney Animation Studio's logo was done in an 8-bit style. They included The Konami Code! And this is just the tip of the Ice Burg. If you do see it, be sure to stay after the credits, because Disney throws in something special for you hardcore arcade gamers out there. It has to deal with the Disney Logo at the end. Be sure to catch it.
Thank-you Happy Gamer. Now my family has been putting off getting a blu-ray player for some years now, movies still released on DVD and we only got a real HDTV last year. This movie though, I'm going to make sure we get a blu-ray player so I can enjoy this movie in all it's greatness. I should also mention that I saw it in 2D because most of the time you don't miss much so I can't give a verdict on if the 3D is worth it or not, but since I know I will be seeing this again, next time I think I might try 3D, cause even if the 3D is bad, it's still worth the extra price. Well this has been Pokematic, and Happy Gamer, signing off and game on and have fun.
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