WRECK-IT RALPH

 

 

Wreck-It Ralph is a computer-animated Disney flick that features the voices of John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman (yes, THAT Sarah Silverman!). The flick is about a video game "bad guy" named Wreck-It Ralph--voiced by John C. Reilly--who wants desperately to be a "good guy" and goes about becoming said good guy. He seeks to find a hero's medal so that people can respect him more and finds out he can get one in a first-person shooter game called Hero's Duty. So Ralph sneaks into the game and swipes the medal. Afterwards, he gets attacked by one of the "bugs" that are the targets of the shooters in the game while fleeing in an escape pod. The pod crashes in another game called Sugar Rush and ends up losing his medal. When he finds the medal hanging from a tree, he climbs up the tree and meets a game character named Vanellope--voiced by Sarah Silverman--who's considered an outcast in the game due to her "glitchy" nature. Anyway, Vanellope ends up stealing Ralph's medal so she can use it to enter the next game race in an attempt to make others within the game to stop treating her like such an outcast. Finally, Ralph makes a deal with her that he will help her win the race so he can retrieve his medal after she wins. Their efforts are hampered by Sugar Rush's leader the aptly-named King Candy who--spoiler alert!--turns out to be another video game character named Turbo who had earlier sabotaged another game out of jealousy and caused both games to be shut down as a result. King Candy/Turbo tinkers with Sugar Rush so he can rule it even though--second spoiler alert!--Vanellope is the actual "queen" of the game. While all this is going on, the actual "hero" of Ralph's game named Fix-It Felix searches for Ralph with the leader of the Hero's Duty game--voiced by Jane Lynch (of Glee fame)--who's afraid the "bug" who attacked Ralph in the escape pod will multiply and cause havoc within the game system and whom Felix winds up having the hots for. While I won't say precisely how the movie ends up, of course, the film does have a "happy" ending--with a sort of twist--and, as with other Disney flicks, does have a kind of "moral" message. Though I'm not usually the biggest fan of Disney flicks overall, animated or otherwise, I did actually enjoy Wreck-It Ralph. I do feel the film would appeal to not only kids but to adults as well, especially adults who remember going to arcades to play coin-operated video games when they were kids back during the time when one had to actually step out of their house if they wanted to play a video game. (Yes, I'm THAT old!) A sidenote: I was actually kind of surprised Sarah Silverman was hired to do a voice in this film given her R and/or X-rated comedy performances. But, then again, I guess it's no more surprising than noted "shock jock" Howard Stern being hired to host the "family-oriented" show America's Got Talent. My, how times have changed, indeed!