Plain and simple, Disney's WRECK-IT RALPH is a hoot. But as much as it's being pushed as the Roger Rabbit of videogame movies (characters from many of the most familiar games make appearances in a it), the film actually owes as much to familiar candy and dessert products as it does new and vintage games. The premise is simple: after 30 years of being the unlovable bad guy in the arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr., Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly as the perfect schlub) decides he'd like to be the one earning medals and the affection of players. So he abandons his game and heads off into other games, including Sugar Rush, a game set in a world made of sweet confectionary items and infected by a cute "glitch" character named Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), who is being hunted by other characters in the game for reasons unknown.
Not being much of a player of modern games, I was impressed how many old-school games were represented in WRECK-IT RALPH. But the biggest threat in this universe is being unplugged because the game stops working. Ralph leaving his game means people can't play, so the other characters in his game (including the Jack McBrayer-voiced Felix) know the danger of his not returning.
Some of the best early moments are those where Ralph is trying to cope with his feelings of inadequacies, both at a group therapy session of Bad Guys (who aren't all bad guys) and at his own game's 30th anniversary party, which he isn't invited to. There is something in Reilly's voice that makes him essential in selling Ralph as a sweet man who occasionally loses his temper and breaks almost everything he touches.
On his adventures outside his own game, he wanders into a more modern game that pits human soldiers led by Sgt. Calhoun (voiced by Jane Lynch) against bug-like aliens that take on the traits of anything they eats. He manages to retrieve a much-coveted medal, but in the process unleashes the bugs into Sugar Rush, a car-racing game that sends pixie-like, little girl drivers through scenery made of sweets. Silverman is the perfect foil for Reilly, as she sasses and insults him with a playful venom. Even her character talks out of the side of her mouth like Silverman does sometimes.
Eventually, all of the main characters end up in the land of candy, and all hell breaks loose, as it should. There's nothing particularly complicated about WRECK-IT RALPH, but it does score points for being about the healing power of friendship, and for smartly using such actors as Alan Tudyk, Mindy Kaling, Joe Lo Truglio, Ed O'Neill and even Dennis Haysbert in clever ways.
Director Rich Moore has logged in a lot of time helming such shows as "The Simpson" and "Futurama," so he's used to his humor working on several levels at once. There are as many jokes that will go right over the heads of youngsters as there are ones that will hit them squarely between the eyes. My favorite animated works tend to do that. The focus on RALPH is laughter and not necessarily story, although both are in fine for here.
Two footnotes: I went into my screening of WRECK-IT RALPH not realizing it was in 3-D, and I'll admit, I was more impressed by the 3-D in the MONSTER INC. reissue trailer than I was by anything in the feature. Some of the Sugar Rush car chases look especially great in 3-D, but this movie will work just as well without the added dimension. Particularly impressive was the short film PAPERMAN that plays before RALPH. It's a cute, funny love story about the magical powers of paper airplanes. Make sure to get to the theater on time so you don't miss it.
