I'm gonna wreck it! Well, hopefully not this review for the "Ultimate" Collector's Edition for Wreck-It Ralph. You could use the phrase, "I'm gonna wreck it!" more for championing a cause or about to start having fun or possibly if you are actually angry and going to wreck something. I'm using it to describe the Ultimate in Ultimate Collector's editions of the some how not from Pixar Wreck-It Ralph.
For those needing a reminder about the plot or missed seeing it in theaters I'm reviewing it right now. Wreck-It Ralph is the bad guy from the Fix-It Felix Jr. video game, after 30 years of being the bad guy he wants something more out of life. He sets on a quest to recover a gold medal proving himself more than just a bad guy. To do this he travels to other video games via a "game central station", which allows for plenty of cameos from well known game series. Through Game Central Station he travels to two new video games Hero's Duty, the latest action shooter epic and Sugar Rush, a candy based racer. In his quest for a medal he encounters Vanellope von Schweetz, a cute racer in Sugar Rush and finds he shares similar problems of nonacceptance with her. Their goals become the same after some robbery and hi-jinks, but Ralph's game might be shut down if he doesn't return to it in time. Whose going to play a game with no bad guy? Ralph also might have opened the door way for an even worse situation from how he got his medal from Hero's Duty.
This was surprisingly an amazing video game film and to come from all places, but Disney Animation? At first glance you might think it was Pixar, but Disney Animation has pulled off an amazing tale of retro and current gaming. It created 3 separate eye-catching game worlds, each with it's own style. Fix-It Felix Jr's 8-bit style retro arcade game. The heavy duty, gun-totting, Alien-like rip on shooters Hero's Duty. Finally, there's Sugar Rush, a candy and desert racer that makes your mouth water as you look at it, so tasty. I even like the lesser set pieces like Game Central Station and Tapper's Root Beer Bar, please look for the video game caricatures in the back near the rest-room. Each world mentioned has it's own unique style to scope out and get lost in. You'll want to play theses games if they were real.
Hell, I've pleaded with Disney on this site to make Sugar Rush a real arcade unit. Imagine battling it out on in car made of marshmallows and marzipan, a pepper-mint race track below you, touching your cookie wheels. Candy based projectiles at your finger tips, where hot fudge could end you.
Rich Moore, who also thinks a Sugar Rush game would be sweet, deserved this year's Oscar for animated feature, much more than Brave's co-directors? read more on that here. Moore with the great vocal talents of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Alan Tudyk as the silly King Candy gave us a multi-talented jump into video game greatness.
Now other than the lenticular cover with tiny little embossed Wreck-It Ralphs around it what does this ultimate collection have? Extras unbound my friend. Pause becomes intermission after a five second countdown on the Blu-ray disc. Nerd supreme, Chris Hardwick sporting a chess t-shirt for no apparent reason will be throwing trivia and movie facts to you every time you pause the film. Yes, you can disable it or you can just keep it paused and watch all of it, there's about 10 to see. Only other odd thing than the Chess t-shirt instead of a Wreck-It Ralph shirt that Chris should be wearing is how the camera angle switches on him for no reason, fire the director of those segments.
My favorite section has to be the Alternate & Deleted Scenes. Some scenes show how radically different the film could be. King Candy was at first made of corn? A game where monetary vaule is based on Facebook Likes. Felix and Ralph were going to hang out more like a buddy movie? "Everything's All Good" , might have been a catchphrase. Then there's an animatic that made laugh until I almost cried and would have never been allowed in the final version. Vanellope being unliked by the other racers could have taken a much darker turn with "stepping on Taffyta's hands so she couldn't crawl away if she was dying n the street," just a night time thought by Vanellope, but still.
Let's talk title screen, it's the Wreck-It Ralph arcade unit, you can see the original Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade unit playing on it's own while selecting where to go or what extras to see. One of those is Bit by Bit: Creating the Worlds of “Wreck-It Ralph", this is a great short doc on how the different worlds were created for the film. They show the animators were so animated they even created a candy kingdom in their offices.
Paperman is on board too. Watch Paperman's director John Kahrs, because he'll be developing the technology behind the film and I don't doubt a future Disney film.
Wrapping it up is video game commercials featuring the different worlds featured for the film. I love the evolution of what you get free on your birthday, with photo I.D.
Wreck-It Ralph is a great story filled with hardship, acceptance, loneliness with memorable characters, great worlds to visit and angry man who hits things with his over-sized fists.
-Next time wear an arcade shirt Chris Hardwick, maybe the features arcade from the film, what does chess have to do with this movie?
This review copy was provided by the publisher for review.
