WRECK-IT-RALPH

WRECK-IT-RALPH

Reviewed by Paul Gibbs

GRADE: A+

I only had moderate expectations for Wreck-It-Ralph. The trailers were pretty good, but not really great. Disney’s non-Pixar CG efforts have improved each time out, but I’m not a big video game fan, so I suspected I would be less than completely engaged by the world of the movie. But Wreck-It-Ralph not only far exceeded my expectations, it managed to be better than even my highest hopes for it.

            The title character (voiced by Jon C. Reilly) is the villain in the video game Fix-it-Felix Jr, and has grown weary of the thankless role of villain, wanting to be loved, appreciated, and included. Ralph makes the bold move to venture into other video games in his arcade (despite the knowledge that dying in another game means actual death, without regeneration), and his adventures take him to a sci-fi action game called Hero’s Duty and a kiddie racing game called Sugar Rush, where he reluctantly joins forces with a “glitch” called Vannellope Von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman). The jokes are fast and furious, in a way that recalls the Toy Story films. Director Rich Moore and his screenwriters create an interesting and hilarious interconnected video game world that runs the gamut from the old school Atari and arcade games of the 1980s, to the modern “story” and first-person shooter games of today. And they never lose sight of the heart, character and story that make the film work. Pixar head John Lassetter’s influence on Disney has never been quite so easy to spot. In fact, it’s ironic that, while  this year’s Pixar movie Brave had a very Disney-esque feel, Wreck-It-Ralph feels very Pixar. It may not be quite as perfect as the Toy Story movies, but it’s so funny, so touching and so dazzling that I was immediately ready to rush out and see it again.

            The voice cast is uniformly excellent (other roles are played by Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Alan Tudyk, doing his best impersonation of former Disney mainstay Ed Wynn), and it’s nice to see an animated film where the voices are chosen more for their ability to create interesting characters than to provide star power.   The characters are well developed enough to draw us into the film and make us care about them, as we do in all of the best Disney and Pixar creations. And there is a broad enough variety of humor to render the question of “what if I don’t get the video game references?” question moot.

            Wreck-It-Ralph is sure to be one of the most entertaining films of the holiday movie season, and a new animated classic. Don’t miss it.