Wreck-It Ralph

'Wreck-It' Ralph is a bad guy and very good at it. But that's not to say, he's not also a throughly decent bloke. However much he pounds buildings and scares their inhabitants in an effort to steal their gold, he's only following orders.  

This is not some inner-city protection racket, but the coin-operated world of the electronic games arcade.  Ralph's nefarious role is strictly a role-playing day-job and by night he's an amicable chap who simply wishes for greater recognition. When his game 'Fix-It Felix' celebrates its anniversary, Felix and the inhabitants of the building fail to invite Ralph to the festivities. Misunderstood or not, he has a habit of destroying almost anything he touches. The self-help group he attends isn't helping. Perhaps if he had a medal for doing something brave, he'd start to get a little more respect?

But as Ralph goes 'rogue', there are unintended consequences. Characters from various games start to invade each others' territories. If deadly bugs from a modern alien-infestation warfare game 'Hero's Duty' appearing in the eastern-anime-style driving game 'Sugar Rush' wasn't bad enough, the very absence of Ralph could mean the game is 'boxed' forever. As the borders between game-realites breakdown, Ralph teams up with Sugar Rush's Vanellope to defeat King Candy, a monarch with a sinister secret and Felix seeks the help of Hero's Duty ass-kicking marine Sgnt.Calhoun to stop disaster from spreading But will Ralph be the cyberverse's greatest hero or its greatest threat? 

It's not often we feature full-on family fare in the hallowed halls of Impact, but there is something about Wreck-it Ralph that will surely pull at the nostalgic regions of your heart and remind you of endless days in front of a screen, blasting pixels to smithereens - whether that be in your childhood or merely last weekend.

Essentially this is Toy Story meets Tron, the kind of self-referencial outing that is hard to get right, but pays off in more than just tokens when the balance is acheived. Wreck-it Ralph manages to walk that pixel-generated line very well and should have enough action for the kids while enough knowing asides and nostalgic footnotes for the odler audience. The quality of the CGI animation is high, giving each game 'realm' a distinct feel. From the genuinely scary Hero's Duty landscape where we see Ralph encounter some significantly creepy creepy-crawlies to the vivid bubble-gumliness (it's a word, live with it!) of Sugar Rush, it feels as if we're actually travelling through the differing games of a real arcade. 

The voice talent for this Disney outing is pleasingly diverse. John C. Reilly is Ralph, Sarah Silverman is Vanellope, 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer is Felix with Glee's Jane Lynch in great form as Sgnt. Calhoun. There's able support from the likes of Alan Tudyk, Dennis Haysbert and Ed O'Neill. This one of the things that Disney does well - matching performer to character - allowing the persona to be amped up to comical degrees but leaving space for something personal to shine through.

Kids will enjoy the animated anarchy for what it is - busy, fluid and silly withh ocassional tugs on the heart-strings and with plenty of jokes that teens and pre-teens can safely get - but without adults feeling as if they are in enfant-terrible territory. If there are moments around the middle of the film where the pacing is a little off, it's forgivable. The movie itself ultimately packs a lot into a packed 103 minutes, sending some life-lessons about finding respect and never giving up, that won't overburden the little ones or have adults rolling their eyes.

If you've ever picked up a hand-set or found yourself addicted to anything from Pong to Q-bert to PacMan to Gears of War then this is the film with which to console yourself.

Glorious fun for gamers of all ages...

9/10

Disney's Wreck-It Ralph opens across the country on February 8th

(It's also worth mentioning that the rather sublime 'Paperman' animated short is also attached to many prints of Wreck-it Ralph. This silent story of a man and a woman and a piece of matchmaking paper in timeless New York is possibly the most romantic thing you're likely to see at the multiplex all year... but it's also been made available (perfectly legally) below... enjoy.