So did the movie live up to my expectations?
***SPOILERS****
So at first I REALLY wanted to see it because Eggman was in the trailer and I am a huge Sonic fan (some day I'll upload a photo of my Sonic curtains!) so it got my attention straight off the bat. Then my friends in America went and saw it and made me hate them because they said it was so good.
The story revolves around Ralph, the bad guy in Fix it Felix. When the arcade shuts down for the night and the game characters go about their business he is always on his own in his dump. On the anniversary of Fix it Felix (30th at that!) he "gate crashes" the party only to be told he isn't wanted. So he goes to prove that even bad guys can win a medal.
He wanders into the game "Heros Duty" and finds the medal but then wakes up all the bugs in the game and ends up in an escape pod with one of them being flinged off to the game "Sugar Rush". Vanellope, a glitchy racer from the game, steals his medal and uses it to enter the race for a place on the avatar list in her game.
Ralph then has to help her not only to win the race and get his medal back but also to save her life.
First off thankfully it didn't rely on any of the "big name" classic characters, most were blink and you'd miss them. It was fun playing a game of name that reference in my head!
The story it self was really quite wonderful. These characters are like actors playing out a part, unfortunately for the bad guys no one cares what they really feel and it takes another reject, albeit not a BAD guy just a "glitch", to make people see that Ralph has feelings just like anyone else.
It thrived in its simplicity, I think Brave had a problem of over thinking what they wanted to do, and though it worked very well if you thought about it too much there were bits of the story that made you scratch your head (or at least I have scratched my head on why Meredith had to be right but that isn't the point.) Wreck-it Ralph had a simple story set out in the opening scenes that was easy to relate too.
I think other then Up! this might be my favorite kids movie in a long time! And it is because of the simple, warm-hearted nature of the story.
The actual animation was brilliant, I loved how they brought to life retro game styles without ruining them. The jerky retro movements and the pixelated splash marks as Ralph destroys the cake. It had the whole cinema cheering, and I really mean people did cheer! They cheered at the animations, at the references and as the story progressed got louder and louder in their enjoyment.
Even the "glitch" was brilliantly done on Vanellope.
Plus each game had their own style, and it really did make the world of difference. Everything looked different, which seeing as Fix it Felix is 30 years old and Heros Duty was brand new it would look different! It would have been very easy for the whole style to be samey, but it really wasn't.
The villain was great, he brought so much comedy to the film as well as being easy to understand and not taking over the film. The film wasn't about the bad guy, it was about the friendship of Vanellope and Ralph. The backstory of the villain was given to us before we even knew who the villain was, which stopped it getting bogged down with the fact there was a villain. It also kind of opens the door to explain to kids what a computer virus is.
The same can be said about Sargent Calhoun. Her story was dripped too us slowly so that by the end we were happy for her, but there didn't need to be a big part of the film taken up by explaining her. The story was about Ralph and Vanellope and even though everyone was explained by the end of the movie you never get taken out of the movie to have something explained to you.
I have to say it is one of those movies I wouldn't be able to have a favorite character in no matter how much I watched it, they were all so wonderfully written. And the voice actors were brilliant as well!
Even though I wouldn't give it a perfect 10/10 I wouldn't be able to tell you a fault if I tried. Even as a retro game fan I wouldn't want MORE of any retro well known characters, it would ruin the film. I wouldn't want anything else explained about any of the characters as it would have made the film stodgy.
Why isn't it a 10/10 then?
Well even though I loved it, wasn't bored, and was sad when I realized it was over, I have to say it didn't get me over excited either. I loved it, but it wasn't special. It was different, but it didn't stand out overly. It felt like one of Pixars shorts, it felt a little like they were making it as a tribute to retro games and "bad guys" but half way through forgot that Ralph was a bad guy so forced a point were he had to be a bad guy.
It is a film that needs to be watched and it is a film that will be loved.
From me it'll be 8/10. As everything it might go up on second viewing, it probably won't go down. It is a lovely film, one of the best for a long time.
Oh I so loved this movie!
ReplyDeleteI agree it was brilliant that they didn't dwell on the actual retro characters but it did have everyone watching oo-ing and aa-ing :) brilliant fun for adults as well as children! It is this kind of film I REALLY miss!