Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Another animated kid's film presents itself to me. While I'm waiting for heavyweights like The Hobbit and Lincoln, I guess this will have to do. Pop in the DVD and am underwhelmed by Disney's announcement that for my convenience, I will have to sit through their ads or go to main menu - no control over skipping a particular trailer or fast-forwarding through a boring part. I really hate it when companies do this with their DVDs. Hate it. This isn't starting well at all.
But. Then the film starts with  Ralph, voiced by John C. Reilly doing a voice over and we're treated to some classic gaming graphics to represent what the humans see, and then suddenly we're in game and seeing everyone in their glorious three-deeness. Then things really get going. In spite of my early misgivings at what I saw in front of me, I'm liking this film.
Now, in all due fairness, I was expecting to like this film. The buzz around it has been that it has something for kids, whom it is aimed at, but also a little something-something for the adults who "have to" sit through it with them. There are lots of classic arcade references, not to mention appearances by some of the classics - Pac Man and the ghosts, the various denizens of the multitude of Mario games, and Q-Bert. For all I know all of the characters are from real games - zombies, fighting games, driving games, dancing games, first-person shooters. Pretty much all the genres that I'm aware of are there except maybe flight simulation games and the old-school side-scroller space shoot-em-ups.
Is this still a kid's movie? Yes. Is the plot predictable? Yes. But is it executed well? With excellent animation and fun characters? Yes and yes. Even thought I didn't get to see the blu-ray3D version - whatever the hell that is - I liked it. Hmm, I'm picturing some kind of crazy disk that doesn't require a mchine to play. You put it on a tabletop or other flat surface and you spin, like you would a coin or a top and a holographic image appears - it's like magic! It's blu-ray3D! Well, I've got news for you people, I have it under good authority from Charleton Heston that this technology is a sure sign that we're on the path to the apes ruling the world.
John C. Reilly doing the voice of Ralph was perfect. I really can't think of anyone better for it. The other voices were good, too, but not necessarily irreplacable. Jane Lynch might have been. Her tough-as-nails space marine reminded me a bit at times of her coach character on Glee (in a good way) and I'm not sure that anyone else could have pulled that off, but I kind of think that Peri Gilpen might have come close. Sarah Silverman was the voice of Vanillope and while she was good, I think any enthusiastic actress could have pulled that off. The same goes for Jack McBayur as the voice of Felix, he's certainly got that "I'm slightly dumb and plenty gullibe, but a helluva nice guy" voice down, but a lot of actors can do that, though maybe not as recognizably so. The one voice that I guess is completely replacable is that of Alan Tudyk as King Candy, but not because he was so-so (he was rather quite good), instead it is due to him doing a voice. I didn't know that was Tudyk until I saw his name in the credits. In some ways, that makes him my favorite voice for a character in the film. I was thinking as I watched the production credits that it's too bad that all of these big time animated films only use big stars in the main roles speaking as themselves. It would be so much more entertaining to not be thinking of all the other roles I have seen them in, and if the animated version onscreen looks anything like them. There are tons of unknown actors that would do a wonderful job and all I would picture would be the character in front of my face. Or even have the big stars try on another voice as if they were actually cast in a film instead of just reading a script in a recording studio somewhere. This is not a complaint about this film really. This is a comment on the nature of the beast.
And in case you were wondering if there were any easter eggs in the credits (which would be appropriate given the time of year) there is, but so minor and not germaine to the story per se. What is totally worth watching for those of you that skip the extras is the short film Paperman. Very sweet.

Wreck-it Ralph on IMDb