The Tudyk Trilogy: Wreck-It Ralph (part 1)
Aug. 2nd, 2015 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsVideo game movies. Just those three words conjures up images of the worst films Hollywood has had to offer, be it Bob Hoskins as Mario, Freddie Prinze Jr. fighting cat aliens, or much of Uwe Boll's oeuvre.
But whereas Hollywood has long had trouble adapting actual video games into good movies, films built around the concept of video gaming as a whole have had a less spotty record. That's not to say that they're all good, but let's just put it this way: Tron is still somewhat fondly remembered some thirty years on for its innovative CG work.
You could say that it left behind quite a Legacy ;-)
(High Def Digest)
When Disney decided to to finally bring their long-percolating idea for a video game movie to fruition, unlike with most other video game movies, most people simply just accepted that it was going to be decent at the very least... After all, this is the Lasseter era of Disney we're talking here. Sure enough, Wreck-It Ralph managed to earn itself $180m in the US, and even got an Oscar nomination, where it would find itself on the wrong end of one of the most divisve moments in the Best Animated Feature category's history not involving Legos. So, let's take a look, shall we?
After an 8-bit styled WDAS logo (with an appropriately chiptuned version of the Steamboat Willie music, even), we open on a shot of 3 old-school arcade machines (but aren't they all old-school? ;-)) Sitting between traditional arcade mainstays Space Invaders and Pac-Man is a game called Fix-It Felix Jr. We hear the familiar (to those of a certain age, anyway) tinkle of a quarter being dropped in, and we see a simple animation of a big guy dressed in red going to sleep in his stump, which then rudely gets shoved to the dump by a bulldozer.
While this is going on, the voice of John C. Reilly (depending on your taste in film, that guy off of Chicago, or Ricky Bobby's racing partner) introduces us to our titular character. As Ralph's voiceover is explaining that he's got a little bit of a temper, he's not taking his stump being literally sent to the dump very well, and we see an apartment building being constructed in its place, and populated by little people (as in, they're literally less than half his height). He explains: "I'm a wrecker... I wreck things... professionally," as on-screen he heads over to Niceland Apartments and delivers his ultimatum: "I’M GONNA WRECK IT!"
Ralph then climbs up the building, and uses his really huge fists to smash a window and toss one of those little people off screen, before climbing to the top and wrecking himself a spot at the top of the screen (along with more windows), like a low-rent King Kong... or Donkey Kong, if you will ;-) As Ralph is explaining that "fixing's the name of the game... literally", some of the other little people call out for help, which they get from a handyman named (what else?) Felix. Felix is another small person (though a bit bigger than everyone else), dressed mostly in blue and carrying a golden hammer. He's essentially a Mario-type guy (minus that Italian accent ;-)) We get to see some gameplay: Felix repairs windows by hitting them with his hammer (HUH.) while avoiding bricks being dropped by Ralph, and picking up pies left by Nicelanders for power-ups, and it looks, well, like your typical arcade game of the early 80s. Ralph explains that Felix does his job well, but "if you got a magic hammer from your father, how hard can it be?"
After completing the level, Felix gets a medal, while the other Nicelanders throw Ralph off the roof into a puddle of mud, as his voiceover rants: "Are there medals for wrecking stuff really well? To that, I say, HA!... And no, there aren't." We pull out from the screen to show some kiddies oohing and aahing at the realistic animation, before then going into a timelapse illustrating the changes that have happened in the arcade over the past 30 years he's been going about his job, as Ralph rants that "It becomes kinda hard to love your job when no one else seems to like you for doing it."
In the present day, the proprietor of the arcade shuts off the Open sign, and once he's out of sight, the chick on the Dance Dance Revolution screen informs everyone about it. Over at the Street Fighter cabinet, Ryu and Ken decide to head off to Tapper's (we'll head there later), as we zoom into the Felix screen to reveal a fully CG world, which must have been mind-blowing in the original 3D, as the denizens of the game go about their after-hours business, and Ralph explains how things are like after work: the Nicelanders and Felix head back to their apartments, while Ralph heads to the dump, with the bricks and his stump (even knocking over the bush in front of the building by merely patting it :-D), and he looks up at the apartments and sees Felix hanging one of his medals on his wall, and gets a bit jealous of the adoration Felix gets from the other Nicelanders...
And at this point, we finally see why Ralph's been narrating his life story: He's at a meeting of Bad-Anon (Slogan: "One game at a time"), a support group for videogame villains, with a bunch of really famous ones in the mix, such as Clyde, Bowser, M. Bison (OF COURSE!), Eggman (Robotnik, to certain older fans :-)) and Zangief. Zangief relates a story about himself crushing a man's head with his thighs, adding: "I say, 'Zangief, you are bad guy, but this does not mean you are bad guy.'" A zombie also chimes in with his two cents: "You must love you"... which leads to him getting his heart ripped out...
Yes, in a PG film :-)
(Disney Screencaps)
Clyde reveals this is actually the first time Ralph's been to one of these meetings. There are two reasons for that: 1) It's the 30th anniversary of his game tonight (he's congratulated on this milestone by someone who prefers to be called Satine :-D), and 2) he doesn't want to be the bad guy anymore, prompting a big reaction from everyone else at the meeting. We also learn about some in-story jargon: Going Turbo. We'll learn more about that later, but suffice to say, going Turbo is a really big deal here. Ralph: "Is it Turbo to want a friend? Or a medal? Or a piece of pie every once and awhile? Is it Turbo to want more out of life?" Zombie: "Yes" :-)
Clyde's like, "Well, you're a bad guy, deal with it" before having everyone recite the bad guy affirmation: "I'm bad, and that's good... I will never be good, and that's not bad... There's no one I'd rather be than me." Ralph doesn't care for the affirmation, as everyone disperses out of the meeting room... or rather, the Ghosts' hideout in the Pac-Man maze :-) Ralph grabs himself some cherries before boarding the train out of Pac-Man with his fellow villains, and we see them traveling along the power cable to a big power strip, not unlike one you might see in an office. In the world of Ralph, this power strip is no less than a train station, bustling with after-hours activity.
The scene in "Game Central Station" serves to show what Ralph has to deal with on a regular basis: "random" security checks from the surge protector ("Anything to declare?" "I hate you" "I get that a lot" :-D), and everyone running away from him. We also get to see and hear Sonic give a PSA for game characters, reminding them that "If you die outside your own game, you don’t regenerate. Ever." Next to the entrance to Felix, we see a bunch of homeless characters. One of them is an orange sphere with two legs and a snout, and some of the old-school gamers in the audience probably already recognize him: the titular character of the once-popular puzzle game Q*Bert. Ralph shares a cherry with the gang (shades of Aladdin, perhaps?)... before getting hit with another security check :-D
At the top floor of Niceland Apartments, the 30th anniversary party is going on in full swing, with Nicelanders drinking and dancing away and Skrillex spinning some tunes (like Kool and the Gang's Celebration... HUH.) as Ralph arrives at his game's station (in a train trolley rather ill-suited for him :-)) and sees fireworks above the building. Looking through a pair of bottles, he notices the party and manages to spot Pac-Man, and this really gets him riled up...
Back at the party, we get our first good look at Felix, voiced by Jack "Kenneth" McBrayer (and looking a whole lot like him too!) as he's asked to the dance floor. In a nice touch, the Nicelanders all move in the classic jerky limited 8-bit fashion :-) The doorbell rings, and Felix is expecting a certain red cap-wearing plumber, so a mustachioed Nicelander heads over to the door where he's in for a rude awakening. A quick look at everyone's alarmed reactions to Ralph's unexpected arrival shows that Sonic is one of the other guests here, but anyways, another random Nicelander tells Felix to turn him away, so Felix goes out to talk to Ralph... and it quickly gets very AWK. WARD. This awkwardness is broken up by another one of the guests, a turtle named Glen, telling them they're bringing the cake out soon, and since Ralph's never had cake before ("No one ever seems to throw it out, so it never ends up in the dump") he decides to barge in for a slice. Uh-oh...
Ralph bumps his head on the ceiling, and drops a big chunk of it right on to Felix. Of course, since he is in his game, he regenerates, fit as a fiddle (his words :-))
After breaking the little stair step thingy, Ralph greets the Nicelanders by name, though the only one you'll need to care much about is the mustachioed one, named Gene (storyboarder Raymond Persi). Gene doesn't like Ralph's presence, but Ralph makes the case that he's technically a big part of the game... as a Nicelander named Mary wheels in the cake, in the shape of the building, with little figurines of Felix and the other Nicelanders on the roof. While Mary's describing the cake, Ralph can't help but notice the little figurine of himself standing in the mud...
Ralph: "What’s the flavor of that mud that I’m stuck in there?" Mary: "Oh, chocolate" Ralph: "Yeah... Never been real fond of chocolate" Mary: "Well, I did not know that."
Ralph's also not very fond of the fact that his figurine's standing in the mud, rather on top of the building with the others, so he takes it out of the mud and places it on the rather crowded rooftop, which precipates an argument with Gene, who basically thinks it's ridiculous for Ralph to even think about getting a medal, because "only good guys win medals, and you, sir, are no good guy." He mockingly offers to let Ralph live in the penthouse if he did, but also adds "it will never happen, because you’re just the bad guy who wrecks the building," even slamming the Ralph figurine head first back into the choco-mud, as if to underline it. As if to prove his point... Ralph ends up smashing the building-cake, with the frosting even splattering in an 8-bit fashion (!) Ralph decides to take up Gene's challenge, and threatens to return with a medal so good, "it will make Felix’s medals wet their pants!" :-D As he leaves, one of the other Nicelanders wonder if he's even serious about this, but Gene reassures him: "where is a Bad Guy gonna win a medal? Of course he’s not serious..."
And now, we head to Tapper's. Ralph's never been more serious about anything, so he's gone straight to the bar for advice on getting a medal, but Tapper straight up tells him that he doesn't think such a game exists. Tapper has to serve some more patrons, so we cut to a shot showing the Tapper cabinet in all its 8-bit glory, and as with Q*Bert, this was another actual 80s arcade game :-)
(Disney Screencaps)
Back with Ralph, Tapper suggests looking through lost and found, which after Ralph shoos away a cockroach, reveals even more gaming references: A Mario mushroom, a Metal Gear Solid exclamation mark (replete with sound effect!)... and Zangief's undies (EW!)
Ralph's interrupted in his train of thought by a really big and heavily-armored soldier mindlessly and repeatedly walking into the wall :-D Ralph snaps him out of his catatonic state, and he reveals he's only been plugged in a week, and he's already sick and tired of his routine of climbing a building and fighting bugs. Ralph's indifferent to his plight, but immediately perks up when he hears there's a medal at the end of it all, and asks to check out his game. Soldier: "No. Look, only the bravest and the best serve in our corps..." And then he freaks out upon seeing that roach on Ralph's shoulder, and runs into the wall so hard he dislodges his helmet :-D :-D
Ralph brushes off the roach with a smirk, as we cut to the dazed soldier getting locked up in the broom closet wearing nothing but Zangief's undies :-D Ralph's wearing the soldier's outfit, which in spite of its ginormous size, is still an ill-fit for Ralph, as it hilariously bulges out with a BOING! :-D
Ralph emerges from Tapper's into Game Central Station, which at 5 minutes to opening, is mostly deserted, with only a couple stragglers heading to their games. After avoiding the attention of the surge protector, Ralph looks for other soldiers, and finds them heading into a game called Hero's Duty. While trying to head over there, Ralph manages to trip over Q*Bert, and he briefly puts up his visor to tell him to keep quiet about this, and then manages to run into the wall before entering the game, leaving Q*Bert all curious and confused.
Coming up: What if Sue Sylvester traded her megaphone for a BFG?
But whereas Hollywood has long had trouble adapting actual video games into good movies, films built around the concept of video gaming as a whole have had a less spotty record. That's not to say that they're all good, but let's just put it this way: Tron is still somewhat fondly remembered some thirty years on for its innovative CG work.
You could say that it left behind quite a Legacy ;-)
(High Def Digest)
When Disney decided to to finally bring their long-percolating idea for a video game movie to fruition, unlike with most other video game movies, most people simply just accepted that it was going to be decent at the very least... After all, this is the Lasseter era of Disney we're talking here. Sure enough, Wreck-It Ralph managed to earn itself $180m in the US, and even got an Oscar nomination, where it would find itself on the wrong end of one of the most divisve moments in the Best Animated Feature category's history not involving Legos. So, let's take a look, shall we?
After an 8-bit styled WDAS logo (with an appropriately chiptuned version of the Steamboat Willie music, even), we open on a shot of 3 old-school arcade machines (but aren't they all old-school? ;-)) Sitting between traditional arcade mainstays Space Invaders and Pac-Man is a game called Fix-It Felix Jr. We hear the familiar (to those of a certain age, anyway) tinkle of a quarter being dropped in, and we see a simple animation of a big guy dressed in red going to sleep in his stump, which then rudely gets shoved to the dump by a bulldozer.
While this is going on, the voice of John C. Reilly (depending on your taste in film, that guy off of Chicago, or Ricky Bobby's racing partner) introduces us to our titular character. As Ralph's voiceover is explaining that he's got a little bit of a temper, he's not taking his stump being literally sent to the dump very well, and we see an apartment building being constructed in its place, and populated by little people (as in, they're literally less than half his height). He explains: "I'm a wrecker... I wreck things... professionally," as on-screen he heads over to Niceland Apartments and delivers his ultimatum: "I’M GONNA WRECK IT!"
Ralph then climbs up the building, and uses his really huge fists to smash a window and toss one of those little people off screen, before climbing to the top and wrecking himself a spot at the top of the screen (along with more windows), like a low-rent King Kong... or Donkey Kong, if you will ;-) As Ralph is explaining that "fixing's the name of the game... literally", some of the other little people call out for help, which they get from a handyman named (what else?) Felix. Felix is another small person (though a bit bigger than everyone else), dressed mostly in blue and carrying a golden hammer. He's essentially a Mario-type guy (minus that Italian accent ;-)) We get to see some gameplay: Felix repairs windows by hitting them with his hammer (HUH.) while avoiding bricks being dropped by Ralph, and picking up pies left by Nicelanders for power-ups, and it looks, well, like your typical arcade game of the early 80s. Ralph explains that Felix does his job well, but "if you got a magic hammer from your father, how hard can it be?"
After completing the level, Felix gets a medal, while the other Nicelanders throw Ralph off the roof into a puddle of mud, as his voiceover rants: "Are there medals for wrecking stuff really well? To that, I say, HA!... And no, there aren't." We pull out from the screen to show some kiddies oohing and aahing at the realistic animation, before then going into a timelapse illustrating the changes that have happened in the arcade over the past 30 years he's been going about his job, as Ralph rants that "It becomes kinda hard to love your job when no one else seems to like you for doing it."
In the present day, the proprietor of the arcade shuts off the Open sign, and once he's out of sight, the chick on the Dance Dance Revolution screen informs everyone about it. Over at the Street Fighter cabinet, Ryu and Ken decide to head off to Tapper's (we'll head there later), as we zoom into the Felix screen to reveal a fully CG world, which must have been mind-blowing in the original 3D, as the denizens of the game go about their after-hours business, and Ralph explains how things are like after work: the Nicelanders and Felix head back to their apartments, while Ralph heads to the dump, with the bricks and his stump (even knocking over the bush in front of the building by merely patting it :-D), and he looks up at the apartments and sees Felix hanging one of his medals on his wall, and gets a bit jealous of the adoration Felix gets from the other Nicelanders...
And at this point, we finally see why Ralph's been narrating his life story: He's at a meeting of Bad-Anon (Slogan: "One game at a time"), a support group for videogame villains, with a bunch of really famous ones in the mix, such as Clyde, Bowser, M. Bison (OF COURSE!), Eggman (Robotnik, to certain older fans :-)) and Zangief. Zangief relates a story about himself crushing a man's head with his thighs, adding: "I say, 'Zangief, you are bad guy, but this does not mean you are bad guy.'" A zombie also chimes in with his two cents: "You must love you"... which leads to him getting his heart ripped out...
Yes, in a PG film :-)
(Disney Screencaps)
Clyde reveals this is actually the first time Ralph's been to one of these meetings. There are two reasons for that: 1) It's the 30th anniversary of his game tonight (he's congratulated on this milestone by someone who prefers to be called Satine :-D), and 2) he doesn't want to be the bad guy anymore, prompting a big reaction from everyone else at the meeting. We also learn about some in-story jargon: Going Turbo. We'll learn more about that later, but suffice to say, going Turbo is a really big deal here. Ralph: "Is it Turbo to want a friend? Or a medal? Or a piece of pie every once and awhile? Is it Turbo to want more out of life?" Zombie: "Yes" :-)
Clyde's like, "Well, you're a bad guy, deal with it" before having everyone recite the bad guy affirmation: "I'm bad, and that's good... I will never be good, and that's not bad... There's no one I'd rather be than me." Ralph doesn't care for the affirmation, as everyone disperses out of the meeting room... or rather, the Ghosts' hideout in the Pac-Man maze :-) Ralph grabs himself some cherries before boarding the train out of Pac-Man with his fellow villains, and we see them traveling along the power cable to a big power strip, not unlike one you might see in an office. In the world of Ralph, this power strip is no less than a train station, bustling with after-hours activity.
The scene in "Game Central Station" serves to show what Ralph has to deal with on a regular basis: "random" security checks from the surge protector ("Anything to declare?" "I hate you" "I get that a lot" :-D), and everyone running away from him. We also get to see and hear Sonic give a PSA for game characters, reminding them that "If you die outside your own game, you don’t regenerate. Ever." Next to the entrance to Felix, we see a bunch of homeless characters. One of them is an orange sphere with two legs and a snout, and some of the old-school gamers in the audience probably already recognize him: the titular character of the once-popular puzzle game Q*Bert. Ralph shares a cherry with the gang (shades of Aladdin, perhaps?)... before getting hit with another security check :-D
At the top floor of Niceland Apartments, the 30th anniversary party is going on in full swing, with Nicelanders drinking and dancing away and Skrillex spinning some tunes (like Kool and the Gang's Celebration... HUH.) as Ralph arrives at his game's station (in a train trolley rather ill-suited for him :-)) and sees fireworks above the building. Looking through a pair of bottles, he notices the party and manages to spot Pac-Man, and this really gets him riled up...
Back at the party, we get our first good look at Felix, voiced by Jack "Kenneth" McBrayer (and looking a whole lot like him too!) as he's asked to the dance floor. In a nice touch, the Nicelanders all move in the classic jerky limited 8-bit fashion :-) The doorbell rings, and Felix is expecting a certain red cap-wearing plumber, so a mustachioed Nicelander heads over to the door where he's in for a rude awakening. A quick look at everyone's alarmed reactions to Ralph's unexpected arrival shows that Sonic is one of the other guests here, but anyways, another random Nicelander tells Felix to turn him away, so Felix goes out to talk to Ralph... and it quickly gets very AWK. WARD. This awkwardness is broken up by another one of the guests, a turtle named Glen, telling them they're bringing the cake out soon, and since Ralph's never had cake before ("No one ever seems to throw it out, so it never ends up in the dump") he decides to barge in for a slice. Uh-oh...
Ralph bumps his head on the ceiling, and drops a big chunk of it right on to Felix. Of course, since he is in his game, he regenerates, fit as a fiddle (his words :-))
After breaking the little stair step thingy, Ralph greets the Nicelanders by name, though the only one you'll need to care much about is the mustachioed one, named Gene (storyboarder Raymond Persi). Gene doesn't like Ralph's presence, but Ralph makes the case that he's technically a big part of the game... as a Nicelander named Mary wheels in the cake, in the shape of the building, with little figurines of Felix and the other Nicelanders on the roof. While Mary's describing the cake, Ralph can't help but notice the little figurine of himself standing in the mud...
Ralph: "What’s the flavor of that mud that I’m stuck in there?" Mary: "Oh, chocolate" Ralph: "Yeah... Never been real fond of chocolate" Mary: "Well, I did not know that."
Ralph's also not very fond of the fact that his figurine's standing in the mud, rather on top of the building with the others, so he takes it out of the mud and places it on the rather crowded rooftop, which precipates an argument with Gene, who basically thinks it's ridiculous for Ralph to even think about getting a medal, because "only good guys win medals, and you, sir, are no good guy." He mockingly offers to let Ralph live in the penthouse if he did, but also adds "it will never happen, because you’re just the bad guy who wrecks the building," even slamming the Ralph figurine head first back into the choco-mud, as if to underline it. As if to prove his point... Ralph ends up smashing the building-cake, with the frosting even splattering in an 8-bit fashion (!) Ralph decides to take up Gene's challenge, and threatens to return with a medal so good, "it will make Felix’s medals wet their pants!" :-D As he leaves, one of the other Nicelanders wonder if he's even serious about this, but Gene reassures him: "where is a Bad Guy gonna win a medal? Of course he’s not serious..."
And now, we head to Tapper's. Ralph's never been more serious about anything, so he's gone straight to the bar for advice on getting a medal, but Tapper straight up tells him that he doesn't think such a game exists. Tapper has to serve some more patrons, so we cut to a shot showing the Tapper cabinet in all its 8-bit glory, and as with Q*Bert, this was another actual 80s arcade game :-)
(Disney Screencaps)
Back with Ralph, Tapper suggests looking through lost and found, which after Ralph shoos away a cockroach, reveals even more gaming references: A Mario mushroom, a Metal Gear Solid exclamation mark (replete with sound effect!)... and Zangief's undies (EW!)
Ralph's interrupted in his train of thought by a really big and heavily-armored soldier mindlessly and repeatedly walking into the wall :-D Ralph snaps him out of his catatonic state, and he reveals he's only been plugged in a week, and he's already sick and tired of his routine of climbing a building and fighting bugs. Ralph's indifferent to his plight, but immediately perks up when he hears there's a medal at the end of it all, and asks to check out his game. Soldier: "No. Look, only the bravest and the best serve in our corps..." And then he freaks out upon seeing that roach on Ralph's shoulder, and runs into the wall so hard he dislodges his helmet :-D :-D
Ralph brushes off the roach with a smirk, as we cut to the dazed soldier getting locked up in the broom closet wearing nothing but Zangief's undies :-D Ralph's wearing the soldier's outfit, which in spite of its ginormous size, is still an ill-fit for Ralph, as it hilariously bulges out with a BOING! :-D
Ralph emerges from Tapper's into Game Central Station, which at 5 minutes to opening, is mostly deserted, with only a couple stragglers heading to their games. After avoiding the attention of the surge protector, Ralph looks for other soldiers, and finds them heading into a game called Hero's Duty. While trying to head over there, Ralph manages to trip over Q*Bert, and he briefly puts up his visor to tell him to keep quiet about this, and then manages to run into the wall before entering the game, leaving Q*Bert all curious and confused.
Coming up: What if Sue Sylvester traded her megaphone for a BFG?
