Wreck it Ralph

I'm a Disney nut. I would say I'm a huge, mega Disney nut but I have met my mother and comparatively, I am somewhat of a fan. My mom has a little shrine to that cheerful mouse in her home and she spends a large majority of her free time at Disneyland. She is a mega fan. For the most part, I really enjoy Disney movies but I have to admit that in the last few years, the movies that Disney has put out without Pixar have been somewhat sub-par. "Enchanted," and "Tangled" were pretty good but otherwise, a good deal of their movies have just been forgettable. It's really a shame. I recently watched a documentary about how the Walt Disney Studios kind of lost their way after acquiring Pixar because they saw how hugely successful the Pixar style was and wanted to get a piece of the action. they fired all of their regular animators, hired all digital animators and waited for the money to start rolling in... but it didn't. They had lost the Disney heart which is what people were really looking for when they went to the movies. Yes, the Pixar style was impressive because we had never seen anything like it before but in a couple years, everyone would be doing it and how is a studio supposed to stand out then? Substance.

I am glad to say that "Wreck it Ralph," is a beautiful Disney dream marriage between the digital style and the Disney heart. The graphics are visually stunning but at the same time, you find yourself getting lost in the story. I absolutely loved the attention to details in each of the video games. Everything within the various games was true to the time and style of that game. Characters from a 1980s game didn't move in the fluid motion that the brand-spanking new game characters did. I loved that everything in the 8-bit games, stayed 8-bit. If someone spilled a drink, there wasn't a big round splash, there was a square splash! It is obvious that a lot of thought went into this movie and also a lot of time spent in the arcade. For research of course!

The voice acting was spot on. Go figure that Jane Lynch could be intimidating, John C. Reilly could play the big doofy guy with the heart of gold, Sarah Silverman could be an annoying little kid and Jack McBrayer could be the simpleton good guy with a hard on for the scary lady in the combat game. I loved the unconventional (for Disney) love story with the lady sweeping the mister off his dainty little feet.

This movie was an absolute delight even if you've never played an arcade game in your life. Although it does help with some of the jokes and references to have a love for the games. Go see it!