Wreck-It Ralph 2012
I caught this on a free weekend of Encore, just happening to turn on the TV as the movie was starting. It was kind of good and I ended up watching the whole thing. I didn’t have high expectations, which probably helps. The movie concept sounds pretty good since it involves characters in a video game. But the video game seems pretty bad, maybe a poor imitation of Donkey Kong. There are a couple of other video games involved as well (the characters can travel from one game to another at night when the video arcade is closed) which are similar, maybe they are fun, but they aren’t games you’ve heard of. It would have been better if they could have gotten rights to real games, though I’m not sure the plot would work with a gorilla as the hero. The voice characters are also very prominent, but not exactly A list: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch, and Jack McBrayer, and the characters are made to look a lot like the actors, so you know who they are.
The plot itself works and it moves pretty quickly, with the slow spots occurring as they enter a game area or explain aspects of a game (watching someone else play a video game just isn’t that exciting). It is easy to watch and not bad at all, it just isn’t that good. Some kids might really like it. And it was nominated for an Oscar for best animated film, though that doesn’t really say that much since Disney could slap their name on just about anything and get a nomination in a field with so few choices (another Disney effort, Brave, won that year). I have to give this movie a C+.
Written: 21 Sep 2013