Film Review: Wreck-it Ralph

Ralph (John C. Reilly) is a computer villain in an arcade and he’s been around for thirty years. It’s his job to wreck the crap out of things whilst Fix-it Felix (Jack Mcbrayer), well, fixes it and is loved by everyone for it. Ralph on the other hand is hated by everyone in this computer game universe, even though he’s really a nice guy who has been programmed to do a bad job. So after thirty years of being bullied for been a bad guy Ralph decides he can be a hero and goes on a quest to prove it by game jumping across the arcade that he’s in. During this film Ralph and other characters show a range of different games and characters from different gaming generations.

Wreck-it Ralph is a well animated film with some great voice acting. It has a funny storyline for both young children and adult gamers. The film is bright and colourful and very fast paced, which will keep children entertained. At the same time there are some well hidden adult jokes (similar to how The Simpsons do it). If you’re an adult gamer then you’ll appreciate it even more as they’ve sneaked in loads of little references to games and consoles (like the Konami Code). So if you have a young child that you want to keep occupied for an hour or two and you’re into computer games, then this film is perfect for you! 

Wreck-it Ralph is superb role modelling for children as well. It shows that some people that seem bad might be good and that those that seem good, might be bad. It also teaches that you shouldn’t bully people because of things that they’re born/programmed with. I know that you’d probably expect that from a Disney film, but to be honest they have a huge track record of racially and sexually profiling their characters. This doesn’t seem to happen in this film though and this made me very happy, especially with female badasses like Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) and Vanellope von Schweets (Sarah Silverman). With any luck this will be a direction that Disney continues to go in. 

The film could probably have done with featuring more of the real game characters as they don’t really make very many appearances. However, they may have made the right decision not to give them bigger roles because if they got it wrong there would have been a lot of complaining from the gaming community. Something that they shouldn’t have done though is put in that awful ‘music’ by Rihanna, although it did fit quite well and I almost didn’t notice it until she repeated the word ‘drive’ several times.  

 

THE VERDICT

Ralph is bad, and that’s good. He’ll never be good, and that’s not bad. In fact, it’s pretty damn brilliant. This is a great story for young children, parents, and adult gamers. It sets a good example for children to follow whilst entertaining them, and has some brilliant voice acting in it too. At the same time Wreck-it Ralph is filled with adult humour and gamer references. We don’t see as many real game characters as would be liked, but it still works very well. Disney have made a great family film here and I really recommend that if you’re taking the kids to the cinema this weekend, that you take them to see this film.

LHSRAting for Wreck-it Ralph 8.5/10

-Ayden

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