Got Game

I'd like to say we avoided the shopping mall on Black Friday... but yeah, we went there. 

We finally got to see Wreck-It-Ralph, which was playing at the mall's multiplex. Like Brave, the other animated movie we had seen in the last week, we were slightly underwhelmed by the film... it was fun, but I guess our expectations were too high (mine for Ralph, Sarah's for Brave). 

As expected, the best part of Ralph was seeing the recreation of the old-school video games... the ones that I sunk many a quarter in back in the Chuck E. Cheese days of the early 80s. There was a certain charm and quirkiness to these games, and I think the movie captured a bit of that spirit... even in the fictional title game. Ralph does his best Donkey Kong (I think they even game a cameo to that mullet-haired King of Kong game-master), and Fix-It-Felix is our man Mario. The voices for the movie were wonderful... the always pleasant John C. Reilly plays Ralph... I think I have yet to "see" him in a bad film--his voice brought the quality of this mainstream Disney fare up a notch... Jack McBrayer from 30 Rock does his best "golly gee whiz" for Felix, and Glee's Jane Lynch does her best Sue Sylvester in combat gear as Sergeant Calhoun--here's a fun trailer I just found with her giving a bit of history about gaming and the movie:



Calhoun represents a character from the second wave of games, which upped the pixels and violence... in real-life, this is the time I began to lose interest in video games... I preferred the quirky, stylishly designed Japanese 8-bit creations (still hold a soft spot for Q-Bert, Dig Dug, and Pac Man.... all represented in this movie, by the way). Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing these characters from different ages and style interact. Where I thought the film started to drag was getting stuck in Sugar Rush, a candy-coated, children's game, which holds much of the plot and action for the movie... I think I would have preferred to see more turbo-ing... or, not to give anything away, game-jumping.

For the most part, Wreck-It Ralph was fun... the filmmakers obviously had a love for the subject matter. Celebrating that old school vibe, I double-checked and yes... that was members from the old Buckner and Garcia band who perform the title song... I still remember their early 80s cash-in Pac Man Fever... I have to admit, I have that album somewhere... and I still enjoy doing the Donkey Kong...