Wreck-It-Ralph
(2012)
Is there any way to tell the difference
between a Disney brand movie and a Pixar one these days? Both are adorned with
John Lasseter’s name and, when one releases shameless cash-ins such as Cars 2 while the other comes up with a
high concept riff on ‘80s computer games, the lines are blurred further.
That said, Brave was a welcome return to original storytelling for Pixar. And,
inspired as its premise is, Ralph quickly
succumbs to tried-and-tested characterisation and plotting. Rich Moore makes
his movie debut (he also gets a story credit, one of seven contributors), but
he’s a veteran director of TV fare such as of The Simpsons and Futurama.
He brings a suitably irreverent, offbeat sensibility to the material. Although
he succumbs to traditional Disney/Pixar sentimentality in the final reel,
there’s always the feeling that Ralph
might shoot off in an unexpected direction at any given moment.
Ralph is the villain of an 8-Bit 1980s
arcade game, Fix-It-Felix, Jr (not a
million miles from Donkey Kong, with
Ralph as Kong); he’s tired of being the bad guy, and seeing the luxurious
conditions his fellow characters bask in while he’s consigned to spend the
night on a pile of bricks. So he sets out to become a hero, seizing a medal
from a first-person-shooter (Hero’s Duty)
before arriving in the Super Mario Kart-esque
Sugar Rush. There, he meets a
computer glitch, Vanellope, who has dreams of racing. Unfortunately, Ralph has
brought along a Cy-Bug from Hero’s Duty,
which could spell doom for Sugar Rush.
Moore crams the film with references to
past gaming characters, from Pacman
to Sonic the Hedgehog. Q*Bert is easily the most indulged of
these, and the most likeable. To be honest, I’ve never been a great gamer so
many of the characters passed me by without recognition. They’re just the icing
on the cake, however; as it should be.
The movie’s set up is superior to its
pay-off, such is usually the case where curmudgeonly or miserable characters
find redemption; the ending takes the edge off and all you are left with is,
well something akin to Sugar Rush. So
Ralph (an impeccably cast John C. Reilly) visiting a villain’s support group,
incurring the wrath of his fellow characters at a 30th anniversary
bash for Fix-It-Felix, Jr, and
causing enormous disruption in Hero’s
Duty, is carried off with a degree of anarchic aplomb. The sketching out of
the gaming micro-universe has the same kind of diligence that was brought to
bear on Toy Story, with clear rules
for what happens when humans are no longer playing (as such, characters acting
up and causing games to malfunction makes for an amusing and instantly
recognisable reference point).
Once Ralph meets the (as he puts it)
annoying brat Vanellope, the story settles on a much more predictable path. I’d
hoped there would be a wider variety of game settings for Ralph to traverse
(something akin to Looney Tunes – Back in
Action’s Louvre sequence), but Moore opts to play it safe. Vanellope echoes
the cutesy kid in Monsters, Inc. but
with added Sarah Silverman smart-mouthiness. Clearly, we’re supposed to find
her adorable but she quickly becomes a strain on my nerves. It’s the point in
the film where the lessons that need to be learned come into focus, and Ralph
slowly starts to lose his edge. In parallel, Felix (30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer, who is perhaps a little too recognisable; at times I felt I was
listening to Kenneth) and sexy Hero’s
Duty chick Tamora (Jane Lynch, also instantly identifiable) are on a
romantic course as they attempt to track down Ralph and the Cy-Bug. There’s
even a villainous reveal that I wasn’t expecting (as in, it didn’t make a huge
amount of difference and so leaves one suspecting it was the result of one
story conference too many) but comes from the Pixar’s The Incredibles.
But this is still one for Disney to be
proud of, if only because it diverges from the safe territory of restaged fairy
tales (don’t worry, they’ve another of those coming up). The gags are sometimes
a bit on the crude side (you can tell Silverman’s involved when there’s an
extended poo-themed discourse), but more often quite inspired (“You hit a guy, with glasses” is
especially witty). 2012 gave offered a string of good-but-not-quite-great
animated features, and Ralph can be added to that pile.
***1/2
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