Disney Film: Wreck-It Ralph

Finally, I have something to post about, something that comes from me, instead of just being my take on some news or something pointed out on another blog.

I took my boys to see Wreck-It Ralph yesterday.  I can't say I had any burning desire to see it.  It just didn't excite me that much - a big video game bad guy who gets tired of being a bad guy and makes friends with a little girl.  Sounds forced.  Like they looked at the success of the Toy Story franchise, and thought, what can we do that's like THAT?  And came up with lovable video game characters - but then thought they'd give it a little twist and go the other way with the unlovable video game character instead.

And for the first part of the movie, that's exactly what I was thinking.  But, like a lot of stuff seems to go with me, at some point, maybe around the 1/3 finished point, it went from being mild entertainment to actually becoming engaging.  Sucking me in.  I started to like the way Ralph was thinking.  I started to feel sorry for him.  I was rooting for him.  It had me guessing as to what was the truth of the situation he found himself in when he sort of crashed into a racing game called Sugar Rush.  The little girl, Vanillope, voiced by Sarah Silverman, was funny and likable after a rough start, and I found myself laughing and caring about the character.  Ralph's game nemesis, Fix-it Felix, was also funny, and it was interesting to see him come to understanding about Ralph's existence. 

So I ended up liking the movie quite a bit.  No, it didn't quite have the heart of most Pixar releases, but I think it stacked up favorably to their latest, Brave.  But it was a fun, entertaining animated feature and I was glad I saw it.  And for the 10-12 year old set, my boys liked it from the beginning.

The short that preceded it, called Paperman, was also fun, and well done.  It involved a young man and a young woman's encounter over a piece of paper, and then he sees her again, and tries to get her attention by using paper airplanes.  Cute.  Maybe not Pixar-cute, but entertaining.

On another note, we did see a preview for the first of The Hobbit films, to be released in December.  Looks good.  I wanted to see a preview for Les Miserables, but that one was not among these coming attractions.  Both of those are MUST-SEE's for me.

*****