MAN was I excited about Wreck-It Ralph. I wanted ALL the video game references! Give me Mario! Give me Sonic! Street Fighter! Zelda! Metroid!
WELP, there weren’t as many cameos as I hoped. Ryu and other Street Fighter characters, some Sonic characters, and other familiar video game names were sprinkled in here and there. And Q*Bert played a pretty lengthy role.
But no Mario(other than a mention), no Samus, nobody else that I can say I was looking forward to seeing made an appearance in Wreck-It Ralph.
To find most of the cameos, you had to dig into the background of the scenes in Game Central Station. In the beginning, an AA for video game villains, Bad-Anon, featured some pretty popular bad guys.
I gave up on the personally nostalgic examples and settled in to the movie. Wreck-It Ralph is hilariously heartwarming. Disney certainly knows how it’s done.
The film was directed by Rich Moore and I was surprised to find out he’s also directed episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama. Respect points: earned.
Voice casting also earns big points across the board.
John C. Reilly voices Wreck-It Ralph which is, how do you say? Perfect. Sarah Silverman voices the adorably audacious Vanellope Von Schweetz. Jane Lynch is practically mirrored as Sergeant Calhoun.
Perhaps my surprise favorite voice is that of Alan Tudyk. He does an admirable job. Tudyk portrays King Candy, the ruler of Sugar Rush, which is the game Vanellope is part of. The comical lisp combined with a wacky personality had me drawing comparisons of King Candy to the famous voice of Roger Rabbit.
With this cast in place, Wreck-It Ralph flowed like the chocolate river of Sugar Rush, smooth and delightful.
The story is about a bad guy, Wreck-It Ralph, who’s tired of always seeing the gratitude and honor of his peers go to his video game counterpart, Fix-It Felix. He seeks a way to become appreciated and on that journey, he makes an unexpected friend in Vanellope Von Schweetz.
Vanellope is in a sad situation as well, but it takes her courage to convince Ralph to support their partnership in order to gain prestige for them both.
Sugar Rush is invaded by a problem caused by one of Ralph’s previous mistakes. It takes the two of them, plus help from other friends, to eradicate the problem before disaster strikes. If they don’t succeed, then their games are deemed out of order and the arcade owner will unplug the game which can either cause homeless video game characters, or death.
It really is a fun ride and there are plenty of laughable, lovable moments. Even without the big cameos I wanted, I still got the nostalgic feeling I was looking for.
I savored the times when the animation style changed from the high definition CGI to an 8bit graphic layout. The credits were even fun to watch in that regard.
In the very end, Disney closes out the credits with a glitch in their logo; a nice touch.
I rented the HD version of Wreck-It Ralph on Amazon Instant Video for $4.99 and watched it on my PS3. It was a pretty convenient way to go about it since I didn’t want to spend the $15-$20 on the actual DVD and I was too lazy to take a trip to the Redbox. It won’t be out on Netflix Instant for a while either, so this worked out well.
If you liked Wreck-It Ralph as much as I did, check out some of this cool merchandise I came across…
Fix-It Felix Jr. The Game – for IPhones and IPads
“I’m Gonna Wreck It!” T-Shirt – from Redbubble
Wreck-It Ralph Smash Hands w/ Ralph phrase sounds – from Amazon
