Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Walt Disney Pictures

I gotta say this is a pretty cute movie that's fun for kids, adults, and people in-between, like me. Kids will like all of the cutesy characters, especially the girls in a game called "Sugar Rush"; which is such a sweet game it gave me a cavity! Adults will have fun with all of the references to older video games like Q*Bert, Street Fighter, and Pac Man.

The story itself is pretty standard for these Pixar/Disney movies with a misfit character who's trying to discover himself or herself and its fairly predictable, especially the "duty" jokes at their version of Call of Duty called "Hero's Duty." Although it was very funny, the support group for bad guys reminded me a lot of the support group for toys from last year's Toy Story short. While there are predictable moments, that doesn't mean Wreck-It Ralph isn't an entertaining movie.

As I said, the references are fun to laugh at and it even becomes a guessing game as there are several more in the background, too. Obvious references are to other video games and snack foods, like "Nesquik Sand" and Laffy Taffy that literally laughs, but there are references in the background like sound effects and even a code to hack into a video game's code itself is an old NES code. Not only that, I liked the style of humor, especially a moment where Ralph says he's never had cake before because no one ever throws it out in the trash; who would?!

The voice-acting was top notch too, as John C. Reilly plays the lovable "villain" Wreck-It Ralph, Sarah Silverman is suprisingly entertaining as Vanellope, but Jane Lynch is a fairly typical choice to play a character that barks orders as a Sergeant in Hero's Duty. One voice that was unrecognizable to me was who played the part of King Candy. If this movie had been made years ago it would certainly be Charles Nelson Reilly, but after looking online, I discovered it was Alan Tudyk. Good performance, sir.

While Wreck-It Ralph doesn't rank among my favorite animated movies, it's worth a rewatch as I'd like to discover more references that I've missed. By then maybe Wreck-It Ralph will have grown on me and earned a medal as part of my movie collection.