Wreck-It Ralph: It's Hard Out There For A Villain

Animated movies just keep getting better and better. Each year, the storylines get more intricate and the animation gets more sophisticated, until we have to accept that these movies aren't just for kids anymore. Pixar seemed to have a monopoly on award-winning animation (and Brave is still the most likely Oscar winner this year), but Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, which is also an Oscar nominee, proves that the Best Animated Film category is more hotly-contested than ever.

Wreck-It Ralph is set inside the world of video games in an arcade. Each game is inhabited by a cast of characters that follow the gamers' instructions, but when the arcade is closed, they are free to live their lives and hang out with characters from other games. Our hero, Wreck-It Ralph, is actually the villain in a game called Fix-It Felix, Jr. The game's premise is that Ralph indiscriminately wrecks the building that all the other characters live in, and the gamer has to help Fix-It Felix, Jr. use his golden hammer to repair all the damage. If the gamer succeeds, Felix gets a medal and everyone throws Ralph off the roof of the building.

Ralph is tired of being a villain - he doesn't get to live in the apartment building with the other characters and has to live by himself in the town dump. Everyone is scared of him and he is so big and clumsy that he can't help but break things whenever he tries to walk into the building. Things come to a head when Ralph isn't invited to celebrate the game's 30th anniversary, so he storms out of Fix-It Felix, Jr. to see if he can win a medal in some other game and return a hero.

Wreck-It Ralph weaves together several plot lines as Ralph wanders into different games, and features delightful references to classic arcade games. I am not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination but I was still able to appreciate the references to Pac Man, Mario Kart, and other games that have become pop cultural touchstones. The animation is splendid, recreating a varied spectrum of video games and completely immersing you in Ralph's strange but wonderful world. Of course, voice acting is a crucial element of any animated movie, and Wreck-It Ralph is chock-full of fantastic performances. John C. Reilly is sympathetic and hilarious as Ralph, Jack McBrayer is the obvious choice for the nice but naive Felix, Jane Lynch is marvelous as a strict sergeant from a violent alien-shooting game, and Sarah Silverman is adorable as Vanellope, a young "glitch" in a Mario Kart-esque game who becomes Ralph's unexpected ally.

Wreck-It Ralph occasionally gets bogged down in exposition but that is only to be expected when you are inventing a brand new world and have to make sure the audience is aware of all the rules and restrictions that are in play. The dialogue is whip-smart, full of puns and double entendres to keep both children and adults entertained, and every scene is loaded with inspired and creative situations. The movie's resolution is executed with flair, tying up all the loose ends and giving us a charming tale about how everyone has their part to play, even the villain of a video game.