Wreck-It Ralph

[size=+1]Wreck-It Ralph[/size]​

Tyro the Fox is British. That's why this review is several months late. The European release of this film has had a major delay between the American release and this one. Over here, it came out only recently for seemingly no reason. So, Tyro has to wait till right about now to finally see this thing. But Tyro can persuade you to go see Wreck-It Ralph because it is a good film, regardless of the delay, right? Tyro rarely on-time with reviews anyway.

Tyro starting to think third-person is not very funny. For cavemen and Elmo only.

So, what do you get if you cross Toy Story with Super Smash Bros.? Yes, lots of fan fiction but you also sum up this film in a nice little nutshell. Granted, it's far more complex than you'd initially think but it's otherwise quite similar. Ralph is a arcade game bad guy that's finding that his life doesn't satisfy him any more. The 30th anniversary of his game 'Fix-It Felix Jr' comes along and he attempts to join in the festivities, only to be ignored and told to leave. Infuriated with getting hated for his job, Ralph sets off to attempt to gain some recognition from other games to prove his worth.

The first thing you'll notice is that the film isn't all that patronising. It's a little quick towards the beginning to set everything up but it's certainly not rushed. Other films about computer games tend to be worth very little of your time. The example I can think of is The Wizard that was largely advertising, 80's cheesiness and a constant need to get to California. The only reason it was watched by children was because it was the only way you got to see Super Mario Bros. 3 early. The reason you'll want to see this is to get cameo after cameo after cameo of computer game characters. The story is sort of secondary when Dr Eggman and Zangief are on the big screen together.

And then you realise that the story is what's actually going to not only steal the show but eclipse the reason your here in the first place because it's really good. There's a few beats from Toy Story where jealousy and greed override the rational thought of the main character but it's not a retread. There's the idea of things being alive that you wish would be and the idea of being in service to children while being entirely at the mercy of oblivious humans. But the central conflict of finding a superficial sense of worth and then finding a deeper, more fulfilling sense of achievement is actually very touching. It's able to provide a lot of laughs and even jerk a few tears as Ralph makes a few hard choices. The writing is clever like that and has elements that make perfect sense but I never saw coming.

What even more fun is how the character's interact. There's the Bad-Anon scene everyone would have seen with Zangief, Eggman, Bowser, Clyde and other villains which show off their little quirks but there's other details too. Some of the eight bit characters are animated to jerk around like a game sprite would and some have odd abilities like Felix's hammer that can fix anything. Strangely enough, it's pretty good for a few nice laughs. Heck! There's a bit where Sonic is damaged, looses rings and then collects a few again so it's unlikely you'll be screaming at the screen that somethings wrong with the characters you know.

What actually steals the show are the characters you don't know. The main characters are actually richly detailed and well-written. I believed that these guys could be computer game characters if they weren't in this. They all have great little quirks such as Ralph is overly aggressive and somewhat clumsy as his name would suggest. Vanellope is just as cute as she looks like an adorable, slightly irritating munchkin that rolled in some pic-n-mix. Interestingly, they both share a startlingly pleasing chemistry over the course of the film that's not entirely obvious and certainly not silly. It's sweet and even a little tragic at times.

However, my favourite quirk is Sergeant Calhoun's programmed back-story that's such a daft send-up of Master Chief it's almost blown out of proportion. Also, Fix-it Felix is actually kinda passive under Calhoun's dominance which is a neat twist considering that the hero isn't normally shown to be quite so out of his depth. And boy does Felix show it. Although, even this film isn't above the cliché of the hero getting the girl at the end. It's just odd that it's off to the side while Ralph and Vanellope have their arc that takes the main show.

Now, here's some thing cool: The film's design is spectacular even without 3D. Seriously, everything looks bright and colourful, even when it's trying to be dark and gritty. 'Hero's Duty' has dashes of green, blue and purple to it's black to stop it look grey and plain. 'Sugar Rush' looks like the Easter Bunny through up on it. Everything's stupidly bright and colourful while also made entirely of sweets. Even Game Central Station is an impressively realised place.

In short, the film is just awesome. I would just bore you if I carried on going on and on. If you like games, you need to see this. If you have kids that are likely to be board this week, go see this. It's a good movie. Go and you won't be disappointed. Seriously! Go!

Hmm...Short review for once...Meh. It's a good movie, they'll do that.