Wreck-It Ralph

[Gail Strafer]

Any of you guys see this movie? For anybody who's a gamer I would say it's definitely a must-watch, especially if you are a child of 80s and 90s gaming like I am.

Basically, the hero of this story is Wreck-It Ralph, the bad guy of a 1982 arcade game called Fix-It Felix, Jr. The game is something of an analogue to Donkey Kong, with Ralph being a stand-in for Donkey Kong and Felix being a stand-in for Mario. Ralph has been working as the bad guy for 30 years at this game, and he hates how he always gets thrown off the building at the end of each game, and no one likes him in his game. He wants to become a hero too.

So he decides to venture to other games in the arcade in order to achieve something that will get him the recognition he wants. However, his actions threaten the entire arcade as he starts wrecking other things outside of his own game. It's a big problem, because if you mess around with stuff outside your game, the players will think the game is glitched and the arcade operator unplugs the machine, destroying everybody inside the game.

To me, it feels kind of like Toy Story, except with video game characters instead of toys. But hey, that's awesome since Toy Story is awesome too. Just about every character in the movie is likeable. Even when you run into annoying characters you eventually warm up to them too.

The best part by far though is all of the references to 80s, 90s, and even 2000s gaming. I'm amazed how many licensed characters show up, even if they're only around briefly. You've got Ken, Ryu, Zangief, and M.Bison from Street Fighter II, Q-bert from Q-bert, Bowser from the Mario games, and even Robotnik and Sonic show up. The sad thing is though almost all of them are one-scene only, or they're background characters without speaking roles. But I suppose only so much could be done, since otherwise it would distract from the main plot.

There's also a ton of references to games from the 80s and 90s. Some are obvious, others are blink-and-you'll-miss-it. For example, in one part the famous Konami Code comes into play, and in another you can see a character running into Sonic and he responds by blinking and dropping rings everywhere like in his games. My favorite bit is when Ralph is at a bar for gaming characters and you see pictures of all the people who have visited it in the past. You can see Sonic, Chun Li, Tails, Samus, and tons of other people on the wall. It's really hard to list all of them though, and you'll definitely have to watch it again and again to spot them all.

The great thing is that the movie is still a very fun watch even with all of these little things going on in the background. You don't have to be a gamer to love this movie. All of the gaming rules that matter (if you die outside of your game you die for real) are spelled out very clearly for the audience, with most of the subtle references just for the devoted gamers.

I highly recommend it as a watch, and I'm definitely buying it on Blu-Ray once it comes out.

[Alpha Omega]

I've seen this a few times, and I think my favorite reference in the movie (which is really well hidden) is that Ralph is a bad enough dude to save the president.

[Echo]

I saw this a few days ago. wonder how Sonic managed to get that public announcement job? I'M GONNA WRECK IT! *Beats Gichii's car into a million pieces*

[Giichi Twinkieland]

*Giichi appears wearing Fix-It Jr's outfit*

I CAN FIX IT!

*hits the pieces and the 1969 Ferrari Dino is back again*

Hehehehe! Now it's time for the Nicelanders to throw you off the tower...