All I Want for Christmas Is…

I have a very unhealthy obsession with Wreck-It Ralph. For me, it was such a perfect combination of nostalgia, humor, and graphical beauty that I just want to see it over and over again (…well, I would if I wasn’t so cheap). Whereas I agree with some of the reviewers out there that the second act was too focused in one area, I have to say that my favorite part of the movie was in Sugar Rush because I am a racing game fanatic at heart. The fact that Sugar Rush is basically a brighter, more saccharine Mario Kart also adds to its case: if Disney were to release Sugar Rush as an actual console game, I would buy it in a heartbeat. However, for the time being they seem content to leave it as a web browser game, which is all fine and good and I will continue to tell myself they’re using it as a measure to see how popular a full-scale release would be. That doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had, though.

A couple weeks ago, I ran across this video and it had me literally on the brink of tears from laughing so hard. Watchers of the movie know that King Candy is a little bit of a sore loser, but what would happen if he was forced to play against three other human players? I’d like to think it would be something like this.

As long as I’m talking about Sugar Rush, I can’t forget to mention the scarily catchy theme song that AKB48 performed. I still find myself humming it at random points in the day… S-U-G-A-R! Jump into your racing car! (You’re welcome for the earworm.)

I’m Gonna Wreck It! (A Wreck-It Ralph Review)

Friday night I saw the highly-anticipated Disney film Wreck-It Ralph, and, above and beyond anything else I say here, I totally recommend this movie. It is adorable and geeky and heartwarming.

A brief plot teaser/synopsis: Wreck-It Ralph has been the bad guy in his video game for 30 years now, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy. He’s just doing his job. When the other characters in his game refuse to see it that way, he sets out to prove them wrong by winning a hero’s medal in a different game. But his actions have far-reaching consequences, and he is forced to decide whether the medal is worth risking his life, his new-found friendship with young Vanellope von Schweetz, and every game and character in the arcade for.

Now let’s move on to specifics.

First of all, there is an animated short before the movie called Paperman, and it is beautiful. The animation is done in a way that it appears both like CGI and traditional animation, and the story and score are both quite lovely.

Now that that’s out of the way, what about the actual movie? Well, I thought the video game references were really well done, and that they work on a sliding scale—the more you know about gaming culture, the funnier they are (at one point a character uses the Konami code to surreptitiously access the base code of his game), but it’s still really funny if you’re pretty ignorant of gaming like me, and I think they’d still be funny to a total newb.

Plot spoilers after the jump.

Trailer Tuesdays: Wreck-It Ralph

It’s that time again! Let’s look at another trailer. This week, it’s Wreck-It Ralph.

Wreck-It Ralph looks like it’s going to be a great movie from Disney and much like Toy Story seems to be geared toward those of that our older and, in this case, have played the old video games and continue to play the new ones. That doesn’t mean that this movie won’t be relatable to a younger crowd—if anything it should hopefully introduce them to many of the old classic games.

The idea that games have lives and personalities when the game is on or off is a popular one and one that I adore. It reminds me greatly of the TV Show Reboot. Does anyone remember that? It was on Toonami for a while. Anyway, I’m looking forward to Wreck-It Ralph let’s hope it’s fun, funny, and gives the old video games the respect they deserve.