Wreck-It Ralph
Year: 2012
Rating: PG
Length: 101 minutes / 1.68 hours
One year after the release of the book Ready Player One, Disney also jumped onto the video game setting with Wreck-It Ralph (2012). Both have an astonishing number of licensed characters, even if they’re relegated to cameo status most of the time. The larger difference between the two is that Wreck-It Ralph examines the virtual world from the villain’s perspective. Redeemable villains have been all the rage for some time, so providing video games as a space to contextualize the concepts of destiny and cultural expectations was a perfect fit.
Plot-wise, I enjoyed the video game universe Wreck-It Ralph created—even if there are undoubtedly some plot holes if you take it too seriously. I felt the Sugar Rush section of the film was a little long, but only because it had to deal with an entire other subplot with Vanellope (Sarah Silverman). Sure, feeling like you don’t belong because you’re a glitch parallels Ralph’s (John C. Reilly) journey, but there’s almost too much to unpack there after having spent half the film jumping around to other video games.
To flip the Shakespeare quote around, “Some are born villains, some achieve villainy, and some have villainy thrust upon them.” While other films like Megamind (2010) cover the first two parts of this, Wreck-It Ralph asks whether video game villains are forced to be the bad guy. In the timeless battle of good versus evil, there’s always the need for evil so good has something to fight. Of course, Ralph asks whether this is fair, considering that he always has to be the loser. Strangely enough, the positive message here (and with the glitch subplot) is that we must love ourselves, even if nobody else does.
A positive self-worth story wrapped in a fun video-game setting, I give Wreck-it Ralph 4.0 stars out of 5.
