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About
Wreck-It Ralph is a family computer animated film was About a Villain named Wreck-It Ralph that he was rebels against his role and dreams of becoming a hero. He travels between games in the arcade, and ultimately must eliminate a dire threat that could affect the entire arcade, and one that Ralph himself inadvertently started[1].
History
John Lasseter, the head of Walt Disney Animation Studios and executive producer of the film, describes Wreck-It Ralph as “an 8-bit video-game bad guy who travels the length of the arcade to prove that he’s a good guy.”[2]. In a manner similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Toy Story films, Wreck-It Ralph featured cameo appearances by a number of licensed video-game characters. For example, one scene from the film shows Ralph attending a support group for the arcade’s various villain characters, including Clyde from Pac-Man, Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Bowser from Super Mario Bros[3]. Rich Moore, the film’s director, had determined that for a film about a video-game world to feel authentic, “it had to have real characters from real games in it.”
Characters
Wreck-It Ralph
Wreck-It Ralph (simply known as Ralph) is the main protagonist. Ralph is a heavy-handed “wrecking riot” with a heart. For 30 years, he’s been doing his job as the bad guy in the arcade game Fix-It Felix, Jr. But it’s getting harder and harder to love his job when no one seems to like him for doing it. Suffering from a classic case of “bad guy fatigue” and hungry for a little “wreck-ognition”, Ralph embarks on a wild adventure across an incredible arcade-game universe to prove that just because he’s a bad guy doesn’t mean he’s a “bad guy.”
Vanellope von Schweetz
President Vanellope von Schweetz was the central character of the video game Sugar Rush. Not only was she the lead character, she was also the world’s princess. However, at some point, an old racing video game character named Turbo, hijacked Sugar Rush, turned himself into a character named King Candy, and tried to delete Vanellope’s code (but couldn’t), turning her into a glitch. Once Vanellope became a glitch, King Candy was free to rule the kingdom, having all the inhabitants of Sugar Rush’s memories of Princess Vanellope locked away. However, if Vanellope was to ever cross the finish line in an official race, her codes will be restored and the throne will be hers once more. To prevent this from occurring, King Candy, with the help of his minion, and Vanellope’s former assistant, Sour Bill, had the citizens of the game believe having a glitch race could lead to the game being unplugged. Due to this lie, Vanellope was repeatedly tormented and ostracized by the game’s citizens, most notably the racers, led by Taffyta Muttonfudge. Vanellope was able to find sanctuary within Diet Cola Mountain, a volcano that towers over the land of Sugar Rush that also homes an unfinished bonus track.
Fix-It Felix, Jr.
Fix-It Felix, Jr. is the hero and the titular character of the arcade game Fix-It Felix, Jr., where he saves an apartment building, and its inhabitants, from being destroyed by a hulking man named Wreck-It Ralph. To everyone in Niceland, the town within the game, Felix is the poster boy for goodness. Felix himself is very polite and kind to everyone he meets, even Ralph. According to Ralph at the beginning of the film, Felix’s magic hammer was given to him by his father, Fix-It Felix, Sr. The hammer has the ability to fix anything and everything, and can even heal an injured character.
Sergeant Calhoun
Sergeant Tamora Jean or T.J Calhoun serves as the non-playable protagonist in her first-person shooter arcade game Hero’s Duty, the newest arcade game in Litwak’s Arcade. According to her cohort, Kohut, Calhoun has been programmed with the “most tragic back story ever.” On the day of her wedding to her true love Dr. Brad Scott, Calhoun forgot to complete one of her highly important perimeter checks. As a result, a Cy-Bug breaks into the wedding chapel as they’re exchanging their vows and devours Brad, Calhoun screaming in anguish as she opened fire on the monster. The tragedy left Calhoun with a hardened heart and bitter outlook on life. Fortunately, her now-husband Felix manages to change her back into a very sweet and loving woman.
King Candy/Turbo
Left: King Candy | Right: Turbo
King Candy was originally known as Turbo, a video game character from an old unplugged racing game called TurboTime. He was considered an extremely popular racer that loved the attention from players, but when a new racing game called RoadBlasters got plugged in, that game got more attention than Turbo. Being jealous, Turbo abandoned his own game and decided to take over the new one, and as a result, he ended up causing both the new racing game and his own, to become unplugged for good. His actions were nicknamed “Game-jumping” and “going Turbo,” which was something that the video game characters were encouraged not to do (as dying in a game that a character is not native to results in their permanent death, and even worse abandoning his game and trying to take over another resulted in both being shut down), which is something that Ralph does later to try to become a good guy. Unbeknown to anyone, Turbo actually somehow escaped his game before it was unplugged, and thus escaped termination. He remained dormant until years later, where he hijacked Sugar Rush and turned himself into King Candy, with the aid of Sour Bill. He then began to tamper with the game’s codes by trying to delete Princess Vanellope’s code, but instead this turned her into a glitch. With Vanellope now a glitch, King Candy was free to rule the candy kingdom.
Reception
Wreck-It Ralph received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 86% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 163 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10. The site’s consensus reads: “Equally entertaining for both kids and parents old enough to catch the references, Wreck-It Ralph is a clever, colorful adventure built on familiar themes and joyful nostalgia.”[4] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 72 based on 36 reviews, indicating “generally favorable reviews” [5]. The film earned an “A” from audiences polled by CinemaScore [6].
Fandom
Search Interest
[1]Wikipedia – Wreck-It Ralph"
[2]Entertainment Weekly – Disney’s D23: Secret lives of video game characters revealed in ’Wreck-It Ralph"
[3]IGN– The Familiar Faces of Wreck-It Ralph"
[4]Rotten Tomatoes – Wreck-it Ralph"
[5]Metacritic – Wreck-It Ralph"
[6]The Wrap – Wreck-it Ralph at The Wrap"