Wreck-It Ralph: First Attempt Salvaged!

For the record, I lost this post, by accidentally deleting it, then found it after rewriting it from scratch.  I am going to put it up, just to compare the two finished products, written hours apart.  See the other post for the images.

Disney has done it again. With a fantastic blend of nostalgia and sugar-coated fun for the whole family, Wreck-It Ralph is a set to be a another hit for the Mouse.

With a stellar cast featuring John C. Reilly (Wreck-It Ralph), Sarah Silverman (Vanellope Von Sweetz), Jack McBrayer (Fix-It Felix, Jr.), Jane Lynch (Sergeant Calhoun) and Mindy Kaling, there is alot to love about this film.

The plot is pretty heart-warming. The whole thing takes place inside the various arcade games down at Litwack's Arcade. Wreck-It Ralph, is a wrecker. He's really good at wrecking stuff. He is also the bad guy in the arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr. He wrecks an apartment building every game so that Felix can fix it with his magic golden hammer. The thing is, that Ralph isn't a bad guy. He's just doing his job. But, because he's different, the other inhabitants of his game treat him different. Instead of living with them in their building, he lives at the dump, surrounded by all of the bricks, and rubble created by destroying the building every day. He doesn't ever get to eat pie, or get invited to their parties. Poor Ralph is lonely. He just wants to be included. So when he sees that there is a party going on to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the game, he invites himself to the party, much to the chagrin of the other characters.

And of course, without meaning to, he wrecks it. This starts his quest to obtain a medal so that he can be a good guy like Fix-it Felix Jr. And I have to give special mention to Jack McBrayer, whose super sweet, ultra nice guy portrayal adds alot of fun to the film.

Ralph's quest to earn a medal take him from his own video game into the world of Hero's Duty, a modern FPS game where a platoon of super soldiers lead by Sargent Calhoun, tackle a swarm of ravaging cy-bugs each and every game. Ralph is in fact able to obtain a medal, but he soon looses it again when he is unexpectedly jettisoned out of Hero's Duty, and finds himself in a the saccharine sweet game Sugar Rush, a candy coated kart racing game, accidentally transporting a cy-bug with him.

He is soon introduced to Vanellope Von Sweets, a saccharine sweet little pop tart, who steals his medal in order to fulfill her own goals, namely of one day being allowed to participate in the Sugar Rush kart race.

Sweetz, who in the grand tradition of family movies, just wants to play in all the reindeer games, but because she's different (she's a glitch, and occasionally phases in and out of existence) the other racers shun and mistreat her. Eventually realizing that Vanellope is a kindred spirit, Ralph helps her build a kart and teaches her to drive. Meanwhile Felix and Sgt Calhoun are tracking Ralph and the cy-bug in an effort to return them to their respective games before the arcade opens for the day. In a hilarious sub plot, romance soon blossoms between these two protagonists. In the end, everybody gets what they want, and all is well with the world of the arcade, this is a Disney film after all.

Special mention to the fun video game based humour of this film. I know I appreciated it! Specifically the first scene, a A Bad Anonamous meeting for the various villains of the video game arcade, featuring appearances by Zangief and M.Bison of the Street Fighter franchise, Bowser from the beloved Super Mario Brothers franchise, Kano from Mortal Kombat, and Clyde, the orange ghost from Pac Man. There was alot of other fun references to video game culture that anyone with a working knowledge of video games can appreciate.

I also have to comment on the fantastic blend of animation styles on display in this film. Everything from a cute modernization of 3 dimensional 8-bit graphics for Fix-It Felix characters to the ultra realistic HD graphics of Hero's Duty are served up in a manner that they blend seamlessly, and everything makes perfect sense.

I actually enjoyed this film so much that I went back to see it a second time a few days later, and the second time around I took my two and a half year old daughter, the thief, as I thought she might appreciate it as her first ever trip to the movies. I consider this to be the ultimate stamp of approval for a film. And as the lights went down in the theatre, and the classic Disney castle appeared on the big screen, her eyes lit up, and she immediately leaned over to give me a kiss. Turns out, she liked it too.

Wreck-It Ralph: Another Disney Masterpiece

The Mouse has done it again with another fantastic animated film.  There is alot to like about this fun, family friendly movie, and a big part of that is the stellar cast.  Featuring the voice talents of John C. Riley (in the title role of Wreck-It Ralph) Sarah Silverman (Vanellope Von Sweets), Jack McBrayer (Fix-it Felix Jr.), Jane Lynch (Sergeant Calhoun), and Mindy Kaling, the film has lots of humour that the kids will love, and plenty of references that will go right over their heads to land squarely in adults laps.
The plot is pretty adorable and heart warming. The whole thing takes place inside the various video game consoles down at Litwack's Arcade.  And all of its characters are the inhabitants of the various video games. 

In the opening scene, A Bad Anonymous meeting attended by a veritable who's who of video game villain's (including Bowser of Super Mario Brothers, Zangief and M. Bison of the Street Fighter franchise, Kano from Mortal Kombat, and chaired by Clyde, the orange ghost from Pac Man), we are introduced to Ralph.   He is a character from the game Fix-It Felix Jr.  Ralph is a wrecker.  It is his job to wreck an apartment building every game so that the game's hero, Felix, can fix it.  The thing is, while Ralph is the bad guy, he isn't actually a bad guy.  He is just doing his job.  But because he is different, the other inhabitants of his game treat him differently, except for Felix, who is always super nice to everyone.  Ralph is forced to live in the dump, amidst all the broken bricks he generates wrecking the building every game.  He never gets to eat pie, or gets invited to parties, and at the end of every game, while Felix is awarded a medal, Ralph is tossed off of the building to land in a mud pit.  Unhappy with this existence, Ralph embarks on a quest to earn a medal of his own in order to gain the acceptance of the other inhabitants of his game. In his search for a medal he travels to Hero's Duty, an ultra modern HD first person shooter, where he encounters Sergeant Calhoun, a tough as nails soldier who leads the assault on a horde of voracious cy-bugs.  Ralph manages to find a short cut to earn a medal and is soon after ejected from Hero's Duty, along with a rogue cy-bug.  He soon finds himself in Sugar Rush, a candy coated Kart racing game.  He quickly looses his medal to Vanellope Von Sweets, a saccharin sweet little pop tart who just wants to be a real racer, but because she is a "glitch" the other racers won't let her take part in the game.
Meanwhile Calhoun and Felix have set out to return Ralph to his game, and destroy the rogue cy-bug before it can multiply and destroy every game in the arcade.  Unexpected romance soon blooms between Felix and Calhoun.  Ralph soon realizes that Vanillope is a kindred spirit and offers to help her enter the big race, first building her a kart, and then teaching her how to drive.  Trust me when I say that heart warming hilarity ensues.  In the end, because it's a Disney film, everyone gets what they deserve, and they all live happily ever after.  Life lessons learned.

I actually enjoyed this film so much that I decided go back and see it a second time.  The second time, I took my two and a half year old daughter, the thief, because I thought she might enjoy it. This was her first ever movie on a big screen, my ultimate seal of approval.  As the Disney castle appeared in the opening credits, her eyes lit up and she immediately leaned over to give me a big hug and a kiss.  She sat through the whole thing, and was super excited by the candy land landscapes of Sugar Rush. Verdict: She loved it, and that's good enough for me.

Brave, the latest offering from Pixar

Since I am working out of town and away from my family for the summer, I have plenty of free time to see all the big summer movies that catch my eye.
This time around, I decided to see what Pixar would do with their latest film, Brave.  I know what your thinking.  That's a kids movie.  You're right.  It is, but I have always appreciated the beauty and incredible production values that the Disney/Pixar partnership have brought to the table, so I figured that this film would be worth seeing. 

Set in the Highlands of Scotland at an undisclosed time in the middle ages, Brave is the story of young Princess Merida, Daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor.  Merida is a strong willed, vibrant soul who wants to be free to make her own decisions in life.  Her Parents have other plans, as they feel that she is of an age to be married.  It is their desire to find a suitor to be chosen from amongst the clans that owe fealty to her father, thus cemeting the aliances that hold the kingdom together, and establishing the dynasty of a new King.  While tom boy Merida has her Father wrapped around her little finger, she and her Mother are often at odds when it comes to her expected behaviour and future path in life.

Central to the plot is the strained relationship between the princess and her mother, a story that I'm sure many young women, and their mothers, can relate to.  Knowing what I did about the movie from the various trailers I had seen, I was a more than a little surprised to see the actual direction that this central conflict took.  Pleasantly surprised.

Since this is a Disney movie, I was happy to see them include a wealth of Scottish folklore and elements of magic throughout the piece.  The bear fixated Woodcarver (read: witch) and the cutsey wil-o-wisps add a nice traditional touch to this coming of age story.

Pixar once again raises the bar by which all animation is measured.  The scenery, textures, physics, and characters in this films are ridiculously well crafted.  Everything is just so vibrant and fluid in stunning 3D that they leap from the screen right into your heart.  Merida's unruly mane of red curls earns special mention, as I can only imagine the time and effort that went into the animation process for something that has almost zero impact on the story itself.  Yes, of course, estectially speakng, the willful Scottish lass should be a ginger, but these untamed tresses have to be seen to be believed!

Great for a night out for the family (assuming your kids are older than mine), if you like Disney and Pixar, Brave is an experience that shouldn't be missed.