Film Review: Wreck-It Ralph

I like kids films. I’m even starting to enjoy Disney again, which is good since they now own everything I’ve ever loved (Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars). Their animated films are finally getting better – Tangled was a good start and Wreck-It Ralph is delightful. The setup is all there in the trailer – the bad guy from an ‘80s 8-bit arcade game has had enough of being an outcast and quests through other games to win a medal and the respect of his pixelled pals.

I very much enjoyed John C Reilly as Ralph – a sad, yet hopeful voice like a dog left outside a supermarket. The film opens with him attending a support group for game villains (including Zangief and Bowser). A zombie has his heart torn out to make a point –my kind of film. The cheery conceit of game characters having their own lives after hours is done so much better than in Tron, plus you can coo over forgotten game characters from your childhood.

Ralph blunders through a Halo-esqe Duty Calls first-person shooter (it looks amazing) and nearly destroys Sugar Rush, the racing game in which he is redeemed and finds friendship and all the stuff you’d expect.

It’s funny (apart from an epically unfunny and dead silent minute when the bullied “glitch” racer gives a string of tiresome duty = doody gags. Not one child laughed: this is because in the UK we often pronounce the letter T and don’t find turd jokes as funny as the writers), there are gun battles (with the female hero of Duty Calls, voiced by Jane Lynch), love and candy car races. Gosh, everything really. It also looks amazing, moving between comic pixellation to gorgeous 3D dreamscapes. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q6DDm-3urE&w=560&h=315]

If only Cineworld could focus even a single film I’d be able to tell you how good the Paper Man  short was at the beginning. I liked it, but couldn’t really see it. Imbeciles.