Wreck-It Ralph MOVIE REVIEW

This family film starts off strong with clever writing, but starts to bore during the second half.


Wreck-It Ralph takes the characters from Fix-It Felix Jr. and other famous video games and builds a movie around them to show what happens when the arcade closes.  Ralph (John C. Reilly), the villain in the game Fix-It Felix Jr., is big and uses his fists to destroy an apartment building while Felix (Jack McBrayer), the hero, is a handyman who repairs the building for the Nicelanders, who are the people who live there.  When the lights are out at the arcade, the Nicelanders throw parties for Felix while Ralph is alone in the junkyard he calls his home.  Ralph leaves the game in search of a gold medal through the power cable and heads to the surge protector that is called Grand Game Central with hopes of finally being accepted by the Nicelanders.  He then travels to Hero's Duty, a game where you are led by Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) in a mission that involves killing hordes of cybugs and if you make it to the top you are awarded with a gold medal.  Upon getting the gold medal, Ralph is attacked by a cybug that takes both of them out of Hero's Duty and into another game called Sugar Rush Speedway.  Here Ralph meets Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), a girl that brings glitches but wants to be a race car driver.  Ralph helps Vanellope with her driving in hopes that she will win her race and in return get Ralph's gold medal back.

The starts off really entertaining with witty lines, video games references, and lots of classic video game characters.  But once Ralph gets to Sugar Rush Speedway, the story becomes a little boring at times with the only redeeming factor being Sarah Silverman as Vanellope.  I think John C. Reilly and all of the other voicing efforts are spot on and match each character very well.  Silverman's Vanellope is young, cute, and funny which kids and adults will eat up.  I really wish that the witty creative dialogue from the first half of the movie would have continued in the later half, but unfortunately it didn't.  The animation is great and kids are going to love this movie.  Adults on the other hand will enjoy the movie and the video game references, but like myself wish there was a little more.
...AND SIMPLY PUT A GOOD FAMILY FILM. B


Cast: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk
Director: Rich Moore
Rating: PG for some rude humor and mild action/violence
Wreck-It Ralph out November 2 is Now in Theaters.