Friday my Wife and some of our friends went to see the new Disney animation studios film Wreck it Ralph. This has been on my radar for quite some time and its also fairly rare for my wife and I to agree on a film to see together so we had to go.
I am going to keep this review as spoiler free as I can, so you don't have a ton to worry about in terms of me giving away the plot.
The movie is Disney's first jaunt on their own in a zone id like to call "Pixar Country." The animation style and tone are very Pixar-esque. The movie also tonally feels like the first Toy Story film. Its hard to put a pin on why, but I believe the first thing that comes to mind is that they use a lot of solid colors and shapes. Toy Story was chosen as Pixars first film because Toy's are relatively simple to render. Toy Story one also has a lot of close up shots because scenes further away from the camera are simply harder to render, or were at the time. If you walk through Toy Story 1 through Pixars later films you see the evolution of 3D, wider shots and more detail. Wreck it Ralph visually feels like a film from the middle of the early Pixar run. All that to say, its not a bad feel, its just something I noticed.
The movie is jam packed with video game callouts and cameo's and if you are not careful, you will miss scenes where Chun-li and Cammy walk by discussing something in the background of the film. The featured cameo's and characters seem to be more Retro than modern. All the game worlds we experience in the film are Disney creations and one such modern game is called "Hero's Duty." The other games in the movie are for the most part retro callouts. I imagine the target audience for this film is people of my age and my kids as I totally know the characters from Street Fighter, Sonic, Mario, Pacman & QBert. (I don't have kids, but many in my demographic do).
Oh right and the film is good too. It wasn't Toy Story 3 or The Incredibles awesome, but it was very good. I would also describe it as super cute. I wasn't aware the movie would take place 80% in a video game themed Candy World. It's a very well done and all, its just also super cutsey. The jokes in the candy world are funny and worked on me as well as the audience.
Someone on the Itarwebs somewhere noted that Wreck it Ralph is the best Street Fighter Movie. Some truth there as most are terrible and this movie is good and does feature Zangief as a side character with some screen time.
This movie is a no brainer if you have kids and love video games. If you want a "smiling good time" and love video games you should watch this movie. If you don't like either of those things, pass this up and watch the original Street Fighter with Raul Julia and Jean Claude Van Damme. It's not very good but people do punch and kick each other, something this movie omits however Ralph does pummel many things. Just not other people.
I am going to keep this review as spoiler free as I can, so you don't have a ton to worry about in terms of me giving away the plot.
The movie is Disney's first jaunt on their own in a zone id like to call "Pixar Country." The animation style and tone are very Pixar-esque. The movie also tonally feels like the first Toy Story film. Its hard to put a pin on why, but I believe the first thing that comes to mind is that they use a lot of solid colors and shapes. Toy Story was chosen as Pixars first film because Toy's are relatively simple to render. Toy Story one also has a lot of close up shots because scenes further away from the camera are simply harder to render, or were at the time. If you walk through Toy Story 1 through Pixars later films you see the evolution of 3D, wider shots and more detail. Wreck it Ralph visually feels like a film from the middle of the early Pixar run. All that to say, its not a bad feel, its just something I noticed.
The movie is jam packed with video game callouts and cameo's and if you are not careful, you will miss scenes where Chun-li and Cammy walk by discussing something in the background of the film. The featured cameo's and characters seem to be more Retro than modern. All the game worlds we experience in the film are Disney creations and one such modern game is called "Hero's Duty." The other games in the movie are for the most part retro callouts. I imagine the target audience for this film is people of my age and my kids as I totally know the characters from Street Fighter, Sonic, Mario, Pacman & QBert. (I don't have kids, but many in my demographic do).
Oh right and the film is good too. It wasn't Toy Story 3 or The Incredibles awesome, but it was very good. I would also describe it as super cute. I wasn't aware the movie would take place 80% in a video game themed Candy World. It's a very well done and all, its just also super cutsey. The jokes in the candy world are funny and worked on me as well as the audience.
Someone on the Itarwebs somewhere noted that Wreck it Ralph is the best Street Fighter Movie. Some truth there as most are terrible and this movie is good and does feature Zangief as a side character with some screen time.
This movie is a no brainer if you have kids and love video games. If you want a "smiling good time" and love video games you should watch this movie. If you don't like either of those things, pass this up and watch the original Street Fighter with Raul Julia and Jean Claude Van Damme. It's not very good but people do punch and kick each other, something this movie omits however Ralph does pummel many things. Just not other people.
