Turbo Charged! A movie review of WRECK IT RALPH

Ralph will wreck the box office. He has to because Walt Disney Animation's newest feature, WRECK IT RALPH, is a great film. Filled with nostalgia, lovable characters, and visual graphics that are quite literally eye candy, this is a movie that you will want to see; with the family, on a date night, or for a friend's night out.

WRECK IT RALPH is a refreshing twist to the regular CG fare offered by the Walt Disney Animation Studios. It's not a fairytale. Instead, in the vein of many a Pixar film, this story takes place in modern time. But Chicken Little and Bolt this is not.

WRECK IT RALPH is sure to satisfy movie-goers once the film opens this Friday.


We won't get into spoilers with this review but the premise of the story is that Ralph (John C. Reilly) is a video game baddie from a 1980s arcade game, Fix It Felix Jr. Think of the original Donkey Kong arcade game setup and you've got an idea for Ralph's life. His goal is to make a mess for the game's hero Felix (Jack McBrayer).

But Ralph is tired of being the bad guy. He wants to be acknowledged as a hero, even if it's just once. He'll never get that chance though because, as a villain, Ralph is an outcast in his own game. Tired of a lonely existence, he sets off on a game-jumping journey to earn his hero recognition.


Crossing through the Game Central Station surge protectors, video game characters are free to visit other games. This is how we meet Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) in the modern FPS game "HERO'S DUTY" and Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) in the 1990s racing kart game "SUGAR RUSH."

Without Ralph, the Fix it Felix Jr. game can't be played. Appearing to be out of order, the game faces possibility of being unplugged which means the end of existence for his game world. Felix is then charged with leaving on his own journey to retrieve Ralph and protect the game from certain doom.


Perhaps one of the most appealing aspects of WRECK IT RALPH are the nostalgic nods to the video games of yester-year with cameos left and right. You might have seen one of several posters featuring characters from other video games but do not let that mislead you with the premise. Most of the pre-existing characters serve more as backdrop or in brief cameos. The story predominantly features around all of the original characters.


Any Italian plumbers? That is definitely a no-go but not for lack of trying. Director Rich Moore noted at Comic Con that it was very difficult to work with Nintendo on an agreement to include Mario or Luigi, settling instead on Bowser who you might have seen in the film's trailers at the bad guys support group. But Mario is not completely missing, he is present in the form of a verbal joke at his expense. Knowing the back-story, you'll find the otherwise harmless joke a bit tongue in cheek.

What's most impressive is that there was a great amount of care put into the film. This is absolutely obvious when you consider the characters, their relationships to each other, the authenticity of the video game worlds, and the story itself. All carefully put together into a movie that could have very easily ended up a mish-mash video games, storylines, and characters.


Instead, we have a well-assembled work that is worthy of the Disney name; even more impressive is that it's an original story and not a remake or adaptation. WRECK IT RALPH proves that the Lamp isn't the only powerhouse capable of conjuring a little bit of animated magic on the big screen.