Wreck - it - Ralph is the perfect example to me of why great cute kiddie movies can be enjoyed by anyone and bad cute kiddie movies can only be enjoyed by children. Don't get me wrong this movie definitely falls into the former it's got a great cast and a beautiful art direction with fun and exciting visuals and like all Disney films it has memorable colorful characters ya just wanna hold onto forever. It's just plain to see that this movie works as a kids movies because it ignores a lot of mind blowing out of the box ideas in favor of a simple cute little story divided up among a few well written characters with video game jokes and candy puns galore.
I'll get this out of the way now, the movies biggest problem is complexity, because it has to be accessible to a younger audience they have to cut out of the cute interesting story to explain and re-explain all the rules of the world around them. Details and conflicts that are important to the story but the movie doesn't seem to have the balls to work in subtly because the kids need to be able to follow too. To put it simply the world is that of classic arcade games, the movie takes place in an old arcade and though we briefly see people outside the games the story focuses on the characters within an old school 8 - bit platformer, a cutsie candy coated racing game, and a swarm infested sci-fi first person shooter. Wreck - it - Ralph, the antagonist of a game called Fix - it - Felix, is sick of being the "bad guy"and getting no recognition for the hard work he puts in every day and the hard life he lives being shown no respect. He starts game jumping throughout the arcade and eventually befriends a little girl named Vanellope who is desperately trying to be a part of a racing games that looks like Candy Land.
I won't spoil the rest but for what it's worth this is a good movie. Despite its problems it has loveable characters, a good story, and a lot of funny nerdy video game jokes from all manner of retro games. Nerds like myself will get a kick out of a lot of what they sprinkle in throughout this movie. What makes it great is what makes all these Disney and Pixar movies great (I mean the good ones... I mean not Cars or the Rat one) characters you immediately connect with. Characters you want to see succeed because you can identify with their struggles.
This isn't exactly the masterpiece Toy Story for video games I was hoping for but for my money it was a great animated movie. Everyone should see it at one point or another.
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