Film: Wreck-It Ralph

I was fairly apprehensive about this film going in. I'd seen that trailer so many times I could almost say it word for word. A lot of the characters, especially Sarah Silverman's Venelope, seemed really irritating. Honestly I feared a cuteness overload that would anger the video game nerd inside of me. Thankfully like the best of Disney this film is capable of being genuinely sweet and very funny in equal measure.

Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the villain in a Donkey Kong style video game, Fix-It Felix Jr, spending all day destroying an apartment building before being thrown off the roof when Felix (Jack McBrayer) wins. On the 30th anniversary of his game, Ralph decides he's sick of being the bad guy and ditches his game to attempt to win a medal in others. His quest takes him through a violent first person shooter, where Jane Lynch's fantastic Calhoun is introduced, and a cutesy racing game, Venelope's domain. However without Ralph his game is seen as broken and if he doesn't come back soon it will be shut down for good, making all the characters homeless. So Felix ventures off to get him back.

For a Disney film, the story is very well developed. The villain is mentioned early on and slowly built to, never taking the spotlight from our 'hero'. Truth be told it's a fairly standard kid's film plot about accepting who you are but it's dressed up enough to make it feel fresh.

Ralph is a very complex character, realising as the story progresses that sometimes the right thing to do isn't the nice thing. John C. Reilly makes the larger than life character feel very real and down to Earth, you truly feel for him as he is rejected by his peers.

Venelope is a very interesting addition to the story, a 'glitch' in the software who just wants to be a real racer. She can at times ham home the film's message a little too much but most of the time she's just very sweet. Silverman embodies her with a insane cuteness just about shy of sickening. Her scenes with Ralph are some of the film's best, although I did find myself fearing they were setting up a creepy romance at several points. The candy themed racing game, Sugar Rush, is also the most inventive area in terms of design. Featuring devil dogs as guard dogs and doughnuts as cops along with food themed race courses, its pretty clear the animators were having a blast.

Jack McBrayer as Mario ripoff Fix-It Felix and Jane Lynch as Calhoun are great additions to the cast, Felix being very sweet and Calhoun a kick-ass military woman. Their unlikely team up is hilarious as is their budding romance; I particularly like Felix praising her high definition graphics. Alan Tudyk can get a little hammy as the villain but I feel this is intended, in the style of classic OTT game villains.

A heartwarming film that is one of the best animations I have seen in a really long time, if you're a video game or Disney fan it's a definite must see. If not go see it anyway, you'll probably still love it.