Wreck-It Ralph is the name of a video-game character. He's the villain
in the arcade machine called "Fix-It Felix, Jr." Children come to the
arcade to play this machine as well as other new and old games. Just as
in Toy Story, when the children leave, the games or rather the
characters in the games come to life. They interact with one another.
They have their own personalities and lives, and everything seems fine
and dandy.
The only problem is that because Ralph is considered a villain in the
game, all the other characters treat him like a pariah. This, however,
makes no sense. Every indication suggests that the video-game characters
are akin to actors, playing roles or else they're puppets being
controlled by the children who play them. Therefore, I don't know why
the other characters would fear Ralph or exclude him from things based
solely on the role he plays. His villainy is clearly just an act, an act
whose damage can be magically fixed. Unless the characters discriminate
against him for his size alone, I don't get their behavior toward
Ralph.
I suppose their discrimination is merely a plot device to get Ralph
going on his adventure. It would be one thing if Ralph really were a bad
guy but he's not. It's a fact that's obvious, but one that's ignored.
Yet, it informs the actions of other characters later in the film, so it
kept disconnecting me from the premise and the purpose here. It also
negates the character arc for Ralph. If this whole story was supposed to
teach or change Ralph, it didn't. I guess it made him appreciate his
job more, but that was never really the problem. All he wanted was to
get the characters in his machine to appreciate him more and by the end
he didn't even get that.
Ralph has to leave his machine and travel through the electrical wires
into other arcade machines. He stumbles into one machine called "Sugar
Rush," which is a go-kart racing game set in a candy land environment.
There he meets Vanellope, an avatar that has become a glitch in the
game, something that's not supposed to be there. It's through the
unlikely friendship with her that Ralph finds peace of mind, but it
would have been more satisfying if that peace of mind had come through
the friendship of the characters in his "Fix-It Felix" machine.
The writers create a monster, the cy-bug, that they don't really utilize
much. The ultimate villain does some things that don't make sense. The
world crafted is cute and at times clever but not everything was
well-thought. The only thing left is the comedy styles of John C. Reilly
who voices Ralph and Sarah Silverman who voices Vanellope. Silverman is
amazing and hilarious here and Reilly's one-liners and insults
represent some of the best comedic writing I've heard all year, even
though a couple one-liners were perhaps inappropriate. I'm referring to
the "nellie wafer" comment. What did that mean?
Three Stars out of Five.
Rated PG for some rude humor and mild action.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 41 mins.
