Rich Moore's Wreck-It Ralph is a charming, legitimately heart-warming film that unfortunately misses the mark and falls flat on its face. The first half hour and last twenty minutes of Wreck-It Ralph is a sheer joy. However, everything in between collapses in on itself as the eponymous Wreck-It Ralph becomes a secondary supporting character in his own film. Here's the basic idea of the film: in a world where video game characters come to life and socialize after their arcade has been closed à la Toy Story, Wreck-It Ralph, the villain of a classic arcade game, decides that he has had enough of being a Bad Guy and sets out to become a Good Guy. To do this, he invades other video games in the hopes of earning a hero's medal. This is a great concept that lends itself to some truly breath-taking animation, some impressive character arcs, and numerous video game celebrity cameos. However, the film is hijacked by an annoying little "glitch" named Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by the egregiously miscast Sarah Silverman) when Ralph wonders into a new racer called Sugar Rush. The film then becomes about HER quest to be accepted by the other racers. Ralph just tags along for the ride. I'm not saying that Vanellope didn't have a place in the film's story. It's just that the film is named after RALPH. It should be about RALPH. I went to this movie because I was interested in RALPH'S story. Wreck-It Ralph is a film in desperate need of a round of script re-writes. It's a shame, really. This film had so much potential.
6/10
As a fan of animated films, I was both disappointed and surprised at the film as I expected it to be either a good film or an awful film. Sadly, it's an okay movie with some highs (the relationship between Ralph and Vanellope) and some lows (the whole evil king/racer subplot). The animation is nice, but the story is kind of cliched. At least it's better than what the trailer shows. I felt that it was Toy Story got drunk and met Despicable Me at a party. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting analogy. But ultimately, WRECK-IT RALPH was a missed opportunity to do something great.
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