“My name is Ralph, and I’m a bad guy.” Delivered with a sense of robust melancholy by actor John C. Reilly, these are the first words we hear from the titular character of Disney’s new movie, “Wreck-It Ralph.” They define his existence. For 30 years, Ralph has been the villain of a popular arcade game called “Fix-It Felix Jr.” As in “Donkey Kong,” the premise of “Fix-It Felix Jr.” revolves around Ralph destroying a tall building that Fix-It Felix, well, fixes with the help of a golden hammer. When Felix reaches the top of the building, its residents reward him with lush praise, a medal and, best of all, a pie while Ralph gets kicked to the muddy curb. Ralph is in a rut, and now he wants change.
Much like Ralph, Disney too has been stuck for the past 30 years. Nobody churns out childhood dreams quite like it. Every year, there they are — princesses, princes, magical mentors, talking animals, villains with sinister smiles and songs so fantastically catchy, they make “every moment red letter.” The plots have become so familiar, anyone could name the tropes off the top of his head: poor girl/boy finds her/himself in a rut, poor girl/boy finds a godmother, genie or other enchanting figure, poor girl/boy finds the love of her or his life, poor girl/boy transforms into princess/prince/happy hunchback. They’re all the same.
Ralph is not. Though he is a burly schlub in the same vein as Quasimodo from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” or Sully from “Monsters, Inc.” and the appearance of his story vaguely recalls “Toy Story,” there is something unique and refreshing about “Wreck-It Ralph.” Even the beginning of the film works more like a Pixar experience than your typical Disney flick. It begins with a short, “Paperman” — an understated story about a listless clerk who meets his ideal woman. Animated in pristine black and white with an emotionally magnetic score, “Paperman” at first seems at odds with the vibrant, bustling world of “Wreck-It Ralph.”
Cacophonous kids, eight-bit chips, high-pitched squeals and contemporary pop music all populate the world of “Wreck-It Ralph.” It’s a noisy and nostalgic universe where arcades are still hip and video game characters move in their characteristic, syncopated steps. But it’s nearly silent for Ralph. He lives alone, in a dump of bricks where he watches the citizens of his game party without him. He’s had enough. He can be a hero. All he needs is a medal for proof. So he sets off on an adventure, meeting familiar and strange characters, cross-cutting between the vastly different worlds of the first-person shooter “Hero’s Duty” and the saccharine-coated, anime-esque race game “Sugar Rush” where he meets both his foe, King Candy, and his eventual friend, the spunky Vanellope (voiced by an impeccably nuanced Sarah Silverman).
Like any of the several games involved in the movie, the plot is complex and riddled with obstacle after obstacle. One minute, Ralph must defeat killer, viral bugs. The next, he is decorating a candy-coated go-kart while Felix falls head over heels for the busty star of “Hero’s Duty.” But, for all the convoluted twists and turns, director Rich Moore masterfully weaves all these elements together in a tale that is deeply personal as well as deeply transformative for both the audience and the characters.
From the minute details of something like Q*bert’s unintelligible dingbats speech (or the cameo from Skrillex) to the script’s clever wordplay, Disney has a film that may be as profoundly perfect as Ralph is profoundly flawed. He is lonely, bitter, sarcastic, naive and, at times, selfish. The movie is steeped in gamer jokes, riddled with subplots and manic in its emotional range. In other words, “Wreck-It Ralph” shouldn’t work. But, then, you see Ralph slow-motion dive into a pile of Mentos so that he might save the only friend he’s ever had, and you realize this is the best Disney magic.
By the end of the movie, Ralph is a different person. How could he not be after diving into all those Mentos? However, Ralph’s transformation is not the only dramatic evolution. Unlike the somewhat lackluster performance by Pixar’s “Brave” this summer, “Wreck-It Ralph” showcases Disney’s most mature aesthetic achievement in recent years.
Contact Jessica Pena at [email protected].
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If I had a nickel every time a movie review used the word “masterfully”. . .