Wreck-It Ralph

No, don't wreck it! If it gets any worse, it loses my recommendation!

Ralph and all his virtual companions (Courtesy of Disney)

Everybody wants to be included, even the digital villain from 80's arcade games. In Wreck-It Ralph, kids line up for 30 years to play Fix-It Felix, where Felix's magical hammer repairs all the damage Ralph causes in the game. When everyone leaves for the day, all the characters of every game in the arcade travel to Game Central Station, a sort of gathering place located in the power strip all the games are plugged into. 

Hmm...inanimate characters assumed to be controlled only by humans come to life when not seen. Why does that sound so familiar? Oh well, back to the modernized Toy Story rip-off. Ralph doesn't quite understand why Felix always gets medals for his efforts, but he himself is forced to reside in the dump and live alone in the digital world of Fix-It Felix. Ralph tries to mingle with his virtual residents, none of whom want anything to do with him. He is sarcastically told by one of the programs in the game that if he wins a medal, he can come stay with the rest of the programs.

Starved for inclusion, Ralph goes to a game similar to Halo, and maneuvers his way to a medal. Instead of making his way back to the Fix-It Felix game, he winds up in Sugar Rush, which is basically a racing game in Candyland. There, he meets a glitched avatar named Vanellope (Yes, Vanellope. Not Penelope. I don't get it either). Initially made out to be villainous, we begin to fee some sympathy for Vanellope's plight, and Ralph's involvement in trying to help Vanellope leads to the biggest twist in an animated movie I've ever seen. 

Aside from the twist and the visual beauty behind this movie, Wreck-It Ralph wasn't groundbreaking storytelling. I laughed, more than once, but the 1 hour and 40 minute runtime felt almost like 140 minutes. Much of the content seemed purposeless. There were too many characters, especially for a kids movie, and I wasn't able to get invested that well in their stories. While the second half effectively improved on the first, this movie is only barely recommendable. 

Let's take a look at Toy Story and Toy Story 2. Both of these movies were quick (under 90 minutes), hilarious and memorable, and told great stories. Then look at Toy Story 3 - still great, but definitely the worst of the three incredible movies. Why? It took too much time. When I go into a movie like Toy Story or Wreck-It Ralph, I only want to watch 100 minutes of content if they can be filled wisely and efficiently. If not, streamline it down to a pretty hour and 20 minutes. Toy Story did, and look how much it is still admired today. If the inevitable sequel to Wreck-It Ralph can follow the example of storytelling made by the original Pixar gem, I might have a more enthusiastic review for it than I do for this one.

So to sum up the race for Best Animated Feature - I've now seen three (Brave, ParaNorman, and this). Now that I've seen this, I'm a bit disheartened that it got a nod over Rise of the Guardians, but there's no going back now. Out of these three nominees, I still would give the win to ParaNorman, with Brave as a distant 2nd.

Rating: 3/5