Wreck-it Ralph Review

• 24th Jun 2013

Disney’s latest sees the animation studio venture into gaming territory with a tale of resident bad guy Ralph who acts as antagonist in a more classic arcade game Fix-it Felix Jr. The game is simple. Ralph stands atop a high-rise building and smashes away while Felix works his way up from the bottom, fixing the damage in order to win the game and therefore a medal.

At the end of the day, true to Toy Story form, the games pretty much come alive – existing in an otherworld behind the curtain (or within the wiring and plugging system). The characters all take a break, hang out, and do pretty much whatever it is they do to blow off steam until the arcade opens again the next day.

Raph though is pretty much left to his own dump heap with barely a friend in the world.  He attends therapy and yearns to be the “Good guy” for a change. A change his co-workers aren’t keen for him to take on. But one day when pushed too far he decides to run amok and endangers the entire gaming system by invading other games in order to get a medal.

The world itself is fairly inventive and there are numerous cameos from various of the more famous SEGA and Nintendo games as well as classic arcade likes. The story though seems fairly content to stick to a few of the world.

In the end while WIR has colourful design, it’s all lacking decent gags and character interplay – instead plodding from one moral lesson to the next until the inevitable action climax.  One more for the kids, than the big kids who know their games.

Steven Hurst