Wreck-It Ralph
Another film that just kinda happened on a whim, but one I’m still glad to be talking about nonetheless. My first official Disney film that I’ve reviewed and surely not the last, I think this movie still leaves a significant impression on all those who see it, especially those who’re game fans (like myself). It manages to blend being an homage to classic gaming culture while also creating its own unique world with fun and likable characters practically seamlessly. Ever since I was a kid watching this movie for the first time on the big screen I really enjoyed it, and while I still enjoy it to this day, I have started to notice a few things here and there that could be pointed out as imperfections or flaws. None of them movie-breaking mind you (or should I say movie-wrecking?) but still worth mentioning as they can occasionally take you out of the experience if you’re an adult like I am now and wasn’t when I first saw this film.
Of course as this will be a comprehensive review I will be going over spoilers if you haven’t yet seen the movie. Since this film’s twist is one of the things I also have a bit of an issue with, naturally I’ll be going over it in detail. You have been warned.
Wasn’t I saying I liked this movie though? Yes, in fact I do like this movie, but let’s get into it. So insert your quarters and start your candy engines, let’s punch our way into Wreck-It Ralph!
We open the film with narration on what our main character Wreck-It Ralph (played by Mr. Cellophane himself, John C. Reilly) goes through in a typical level of his arcade game ‘Fix-It Felix Jr.’ Turns out it isn’t very fun from his perspective, even if it is for the players and/or his counterpart and good guy Fix-It Felix (played by Jack McBrayer). Eventually we dissolve into the Bad-Anon meeting that Ralph is actually in where he’s describing this whole thing and we see just how in-depth the filmmakers are willing to go to develop a functioning arcade universe. This whole scene is full of classic bad guys from retro arcade games such as Zangief and M. Bison from Street Fighter, Bowser from the Mario series, Dr. Robotnik from the Sonic series, Clyde from Pac-Man, etc. Although, while it’s a lot of fun to just have the novelty of seeing each of these characters on screen together and interacting with each other, none of the characters in the scene outside of Ralph himself actually play a major role in the events of the film.
While some people could see this as a bit of a let-down, I personally appreciate the film for doing this as opposed to making the cameo characters the focus. In the end, this movie is out to tell its own story that just so happens to be in the environment of an arcade. This is what’s most important to me when it comes to movies like this, that the story and characters are the main focus instead of making the audience reenact the DiCaprio meme of pointing at the screen going “Oh-oh, I know that character!” This is also where other movies such as Ready Player One for example fell flat for me as it’s main focus was on cheap cameos with bland characters being our link between all of them. Not only does this movie lean into its own story and characters to an engaging and entertaining degree, it also took a lot of work to fully develop its world in a way that’s easy to follow and fun to watch. Although, we’ll go into more detail on that later.
In this meeting though, Ralph lets slip that he’s tired of being the bad guy, and based on how people treat him, we as the audience can totally identify with it. Although, ultimately good guys and bad guys are just how games work, especially most of these arcade games that we see, so his fellow bad guys try to remind him that there’s a certain balance in the game world that can’t be messed with. Once he leaves and goes back to his game though, we get a clearer picture of how people see him as a bad guy, with random passersby including Frogger from…well…Frogger zipping past him as they’re afraid of him hurting them in some way and very unlikable Surge Protectors stopping him in his tracks to security check him. Upon return his fellow game-mates are having a party without him with fireworks, cake, ice sculptures, booze (in 2024 that would’ve earned this movie a PG-13), the works.
When he goes up to check out the scene, everyone is still super afraid of him including Felix. One thing I should mention about Felix as well is that I like how he’s portrayed as a kind of detached White person where he’s somewhat aware of how much of a jerk he’s being to Ralph but tries to cover it up by giving him little things here and there. He just has the benefit of being surrounded by a huge group of intolerant Nicelanders who look so much worse than him by comparison. He’s the only one who decides to talk to Ralph when he comes up to take a look at the party, he’s the only one who tries to engage him in casual small-talk, and he’s the only one to offer him a slice of cake. In the end though, he still refuses to reckon with why Ralph feels compelled to do what he eventually does and what part he may have in that until the third act which makes him more of an interesting and dynamic character than just the goofy good guy side character.
However, the party goes horribly wrong when one of the partygoers named Gene (played by Raymond S. Persi) tells Ralph off saying that Ralph can’t be a good guy like Felix and can’t win a medal since he’s just a bad guy and that’s all he’ll ever be. This then causes Ralph to destroy the cake in anger and vow to get himself a medal to rub it in the rest of these jerkbags’ faces. It isn’t until Ralph comes across a space cadet named Markowski (played by Joe Lo Truglio) in the backroom of the video game Tapper that Ralph has an epiphany. Markowski, in his bug-fueled hysteria, mouth vomits that his game, Hero’s Duty, gives its victors a medal. So, Ralph (unintentionally) knocks out Markowski and steals his armor to sneak into Hero’s Duty and win himself a medal.
Once there, we’re introduced to Sergeant Calhoun (played by Jane Lynch) who I really wish had some ‘harder’ writing. Don’t get me wrong, she’s already pretty intense, so much so the movie acknowledges it later, but I would’ve loved to see her swear more and have more adult quips throughout the movie. She’s already not in it that terribly much, so it’s not like she would’ve been spouting that many lines kids couldn’t repeat, and they already get away with a little bit with her character by having her prospective husband being eaten by a giant mechanical insect. What makes this scene more scarring (though they don’t show it on screen) is that they reveal in the movie that whatever these bugs eat - they become, so by eating her SO she ended up having to shoot and destroy a horribly mutated mechanical bug version of him. But beyond these moments in the movie, we aren’t given much else beyond some watered down quips they give her which may have sounded hard to begin with, but were made more Disney-friendly in post. In the end it comes across as a bit awkward more than anything badass. Although I suppose I can’t complain too much, even though she doesn’t go as far as I would’ve liked her to, she does give this movie a nice edge.
After Ralph realizes he’s not cut out for Hero’s Duty and conversely Felix and co realizing that Ralph is missing, Ralph decides to cut out the middle player and just get the medal himself when the game isn’t being played. Yeah, apparently Hero’s Duty was only played once during the entire day of the arcade being open, because Ralph never has to fight techno-pests again until the climax unless you count his encounter with the one bug that attacks him on his way to Sugar Rush. That’s one thing I noticed watching this film again in my adulthood, that much of the details in this film are cut down to keep the story moving forward. When King Candy finally finds Ralph later in the movie after being unable to do so for so long previously it takes like 1 to 2 minutes of movie time, when Ralph goes to interrogate Sour Bill about Vanellope it takes him a few seconds of screentime to find him.
Now, this may have something to do with the film’s screenwriters. I discovered upon rewatching the movie that one of the film’s screenwriters is actually Jennifer Lee whom you may know as a co-writer/co-director of Disney’s top modern moneymaking giant: Frozen. Since that movie is primarily a fairy tale where the details aren’t as important when compared to the characters and message, it’s likely that she brought a similar kind of energy to this film. Not to say that this is a problem, though I suppose you could see it that way, but more that as a viewer you’re not supposed to focus on these nitty-gritty aspects of the movie and instead relate to the situations, the characters, the moral, and revel in the creative world-building the movie offers. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of creative worldbuilding in this to tide you over, and that’s one of the things I enjoy the most about it.
In fact, Game Central Station was also heavily influenced by New York City’s Grand Central Station.
Moving back to the story, Ralph gets his medal but activates a baby bug and gets himself and said bug launched into Sugar Rush where he loses his medal and officially meets the dirty homeless child Vanellope von Schweetz (played by Sarah Silverman). Before I continue with the story, I have to mention how Vanellope can be kinda annoying which some viewers may be put off by (including myself), but as we later learn she’s a glitch and outcast by the rest of the characters of Sugar Rush in the name of ‘safety’. You could infer as a viewer that by incessantly irritating Ralph and refusing to leave him alone when they first meet, she’s just wanting to interact with someone who doesn’t see her as a mistake and wants any sort of connection with another person. Although, as soon as she discovers Ralph’s medal hanging from the top of the tree he’s climbing to get it, she steals it from him so she can use it to enter the random roster race and get a chance to be one of the racers in tomorrow’s game.
However, King Candy (played by Alan Tudyk) doesn’t allow it and does whatever he can to stop Vanellope from racing. We’ll get more into that later, but for now just know that King Candy doesn’t want Vanellope racing for some reason. In the meantime, Felix and Sergeant Calhoun are following Ralph’s trail to track down the bug that was in Ralph’s shuttle he took to Sugar Rush and destroy it. It’s here that we get a deeper explanation of the phrase ‘going Turbo’ means. Up until now, the movie has mentioned how the characters in the arcade shouldn’t ‘go Turbo’, that it’s ultimately a bad thing that you shouldn’t do, but we didn’t know what it meant until now. As it turns out, when the arcade first opened, there was a super popular racing game called Turbotime and the main character of the game, Turbo, loved being the center of attention. This is until a rival racing game was introduced and the gamers started ignoring Turbo and his game which made him jealous, so Turbo abandoned his game and tried to overthrow the new game which caused the arcade owner Mr. Litwak (played by Ed O’Neill) to unplug and remove both games from the arcade.
Quick sidenote, I like how Mr. Litwak, while not a driving force in the film, is portrayed as a father to each of the games in his arcade. He treats each of the games under his care as if it were his own child and legit hates to see one of them go, and I really like that.
You best believe this is going to be important in the future.
Back at the main story, Ralph and Vanellope form an alliance where Ralph agrees to help her procure a kart to compete in the random roster race where Vanellope will do her best to win, acquire the cup and Ralph’s medal, and give that medal back to him so he can live the good life. What I like about their relationship is that they kinda love and hate each other at the same time, and it’s shown that they’re really the only two characters that truly understand each other, so it makes sense that they would bond as well as they do. They go through some ups and downs, they make a kart together, it turns out Vanellope doesn’t know how to drive so Ralph teaches her, they escape from King Candy and his officers, and they have a grand ol’ time while doing it. That is until they’re about to set off to finally race. While Ralph’s alone, King Candy finds him and tells him the reason he doesn’t want Vanellope racing is because if Vanellope becomes a racer, the gamers will see her glitching and think the game’s broken causing the game to get unplugged. Even better, glitches can’t leave their games so when the game gets unplugged, she’ll die with it.
This truly impacts Ralph and changes his outlook on the race, because once King Candy leaves and Vanellope returns, Ralph smashes the kart to prevent her from racing as he thinks he’s saving her life. It’s shot as a really emotionally impactful moment, but now that I’m older, it’s just another third act breakup to me. It’s obvious Ralph is going to realize the error of his ways and make amends shortly after, so it’s not like this is anything especially new. Before I’m too hard on this scene though, I will say that it is the next logical step for these characters to take in their stories as Ralph is still trying to be the hero of his own and, as King Candy said, “Make the tough choices” no one else can make. While it is properly built up and effective for what the movie is trying to do, since I have seen this trope done before in several other movies, I just can’t seem to tear up at it like I used to when I was younger.
Ralph then returns to his game where he finds Gene sitting alone in the penthouse suite with a martini and he explains that everyone left since Felix never came back and Mr. Litwak will be pulling their plug the next morning since Ralph wasn’t there the whole time the arcade was open and got the game put out of order. Since the reason Ralph went on this quest in the first place was to get himself a medal and get recognized by the rest of his game characters, he was expecting shock and awe from everyone upon his return and fanfare at his great accomplishment. Once he finds this though and how he essentially destroyed his own game by doing what he did, he realizes that it’s just not worth it. In the end, he’s still the essential glue that holds this game together and without him there to play his role, whether people respect him for it or not, everything falls apart. I like that in realizing this, Ralph rips off his medal, the whole reason he set off on this journey in the first place, and throws it away. Some movies may not do something like this since it feels regressive and makes people wonder what the point of everything up until now even was. Although, this movie makes it worth it by making up for it in character growth, which in the end is more important than any medal.
It’s also then that Ralph sees the Sugar Rush console from across the arcade and sees Vanellope’s picture is on the side of it. Huh, interesting. So he goes back to Sugar Rush and questions King Candy’s lacky Sour Bill (played by the film’s director Rich Moore) and forces him to explain why if Vanellope shouldn’t exist, she’s displayed prominently on the game itself. Sour Bill explains that King Candy tried to delete Vanellope’s code and locked up everyone’s original memory of her character to make her out to be this sort of pseudo-villain of the game. Also if Vanellope races and crosses the finish line, the whole game will reset and her code will be restored. While everything up until now has felt like the filmmakers had done a lot of research on games and retro game culture to make things seem more believable, this is the only part where I think they just shrugged and said, “Yeah, sure, why not?”
Don’t worry, we’re getting there…
With this knowledge, Ralph goes to the Fungeon (hehe) to break Felix out of prison whom Sour Bill put in there after Felix was left behind by Calhoun, and have him fix Vanellope’s kart. This is where Felix experiences the most growth he’ll have in the movie as he’s initially happy to see Ralph until he remembers all the things he’s been through to try to find him. He gets super flustered and angry until Ralph explains his side which helps Felix understand why this all happened. This then leads the both of them to break Vanellope out as well and get her to the race so she can be a real racer. Before I go on though, I’d like to talk a bit about Felix and Calhoun as a couple.
When they first meet, Felix takes an immediate liking to her by complimenting her looks and admiring how the game’s graphics look on her. This begins a sort of unlikely romance between the two of them which is honestly both kinda cute and kinda funny. In terms of classic gaming, this is essentially the equivalent of Mario falling in love with Samus which just makes the whole thing even more funny. Over time you grow to want to see them together, it’s just when Felix calls Calhoun a ‘dynamite gal’ that she freaks out since that just so happens to be the same thing her first love called her and she kicks him out. Of course they end up patching things up again because movie climaxes are great for that kind of thing. In the end though, it’s also really cute to see them together at their wedding too.
So they go off to the races, the cybugs attack, and it’s finally revealed that King Candy was actually Turbo in disguise the whole time! Yeah. Was this really needed? In the end they were already building up King Candy up to be the antagonist of the movie, but did he have to be Turbo? I will give this twist some credit though, unlike some other Disney twist villains, such as Roarke from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, there was a logical progression to this reveal with clues and hints throughout the film. They showed these clues in a variety of ways including how King Candy was familiar with the phrase ‘going Turbo’ even when he logically shouldn’t have been, how his attitude towards Vanellope racing was always less concern and worry for her well-being and more anger and frustration at her potentially stealing his thunder, the fact that he was able to access the game’s code for himself, the fact that the entry point to the game’s code was in his castle of all places, and the fact that Vanellope’s code box was clearly shoved to the side and ignored.
Although, even with all of these clues the filmmakers clearly tried to include to make the transition more believable, it’s still just kinda underwhelming. In the end our big villain is just a decaying narcissistic has-been Speed Racer? That’s it? Seriously? I think it would’ve worked better if they tried to keep him as just a minor obstacle to Vanellope’s goals and not much else, but upon his reveal they try to make him seem like this big intimidating super villain and I just don’t buy it. My faith is somewhat restored in this reveal when Turbo gets eaten by a cybug later, but that’ll come in due time. If that weren’t the case, this just would’ve been disappointing.
Vanellope does her best to finish the race, but the overrun of cybugs at this point is just too great and they destroy the finish line before she can cross it. At first they try to escape but Calhoun reminds us that cybugs can be pacified with a beacon, which causes Ralph to remember the Diet Cola volcano. He steals Calhoun’s hover board and goes to smash all of the Mentos above the caldera into it, until he’s stopped by the newly mutated Turbo. This is when my faith in this twist is somewhat restored, because cybug Turbo is legit pretty disturbing to me, and dare I say scarier than the Pennywise spider in It: Chapter 2. They also blend mechanical cybug parts with candy pieces like in the case of Turbo’s King Candy disguise which is pretty cool. So, they end up having their own little boss fight on the top of the volcano until Ralph decides to sacrifice himself to save Sugar Rush, which Vanellope also sees and glitches her way to his rescue. It’s also clear that in this moment Ralph has sufficiently learned his lesson for the movie since he repeats the Bad Guy affirmation from the Bad-Anon meeting in the intro showing that he now completely accepts his role in life. Sure he thinks he’s about to die, but that just proves even more how much he’s grown. Also it’s also a bit of a copout how Vanellope saves him at the last minute, but to be real, it’d be much crazier if a kids’ movie didn’t do this.
Also, I couldn’t not show you a picture of cybug Turbo. It’s just too cool.
The day is saved, each of our heroes goes back to their respective games, and we wrap up the movie with a closing narration from Ralph at another Bad-Anon meeting discussing what’s gone down after the events of that one night. We see how Fix-It Felix Jr. has come back into the public eye by having the homeless game characters help them out on their bonus levels. The Nicelanders and Felix have also started being nicer to Ralph and even gave him a place to live along with the other homeless game characters. Of course Felix and Calhoun also got married as I mentioned and without any cybug interference. Then Ralph mentions how his favorite part of his day now is getting thrown off the roof at the end of each game, because now he gets a great view of Sugar Rush once everyone lifts him up. He can see Vanellope racing from across the arcade and how much the gamers love her, and they smile and wave at each other. Sure time essentially has to stop when this happens or the person playing has to sit for an uncomfortably long time watching nothing happen on screen, but heck, it’s still a cute way to end this movie which I still like even after all these years.
While I’ve grown to see a few more problems with this movie, it’s not enough for me to say that it’s bad. In fact, there are both things that I’ve noticed since I’ve gotten older that weaken the experience, and things I’ve grown to notice that strengthen it, so it kinda balances out. That I think is a good summary of what this movie is: a good balance. A good balance between references and storytelling, between details and worldbuilding, between character and connections, and between spectacle and substance. I’m sure I’ll continue to watch it several more times in the future, and if you haven’t watched it yourself, I highly recommend it for this week’s weekend movie night you have coming up.
I’d personally give it a 4/5 Marios for the ratings I like to hand out. Surely if you’re a fan of games, movies, or both, I have a feeling Wreck-It Ralph will find its way into your heart.
(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)
(Each of them are owned by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)
(I am just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)
(Or video games for that matter)
(Yet)
