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...

Game Changer

I've got chills... they're multiplying... but it's honestly more because of the election than Hurricane Sandy... having said that, it looks like there are a number of school closings in the Berkshires, so I am unsure what my day is going to look like tomorrow... 

Today was spent catching up on some work, the gym, the World Series (currently watching) and Meet The Press. While watching the latter (great roundtable discussion), I saw a preview for this upcoming film, which looks really entertaining... I hadn't heard of it before:

Wreck-It Ralph is Disney's newest 3D CGI movie, and it looks like a fun ride through some familiar territory for me... video games! Of course I'm talking about the "old school" days, when I handed over much of my free-time to such characters as Ms. Pac Man, Q-Bert, and Donkey Kong. Ralph in this movie is reminiscent of the king Kong... a bad guy, preventing the character from fixing a building in their game. The twist is that Ralph is having an existential crisis... he tires of his "job" and wants to be recognized as a good guy. From the trailer it looks like he jumps into a number of different games to find his way... what a creative concept, and fun to see some familiar games from the old days making cameos. 

The New York Times has a cool article in today's edition about how the filmmakers strived to make the old school video game look like it did back in my middle school days... wonder if my buddy Ralph Baer has heard about this film... Here's the link to check out the article.

Huh... just when you think it's "game over" for the movies, there is a whole slew of interesting, creative concepts on the way... from presidential biopics (Lincoln and Hyde Park on Hudson); the awesome James Bond, Daniel Craig (Skyfall); to movies about shih tzus-! (Seven Pyschopaths)... all look pretty entertaining.

Speaking of which... the San Francisco Giants just swept the Detroit Tigers! Wow, talk about getting your game on...

Related Links:

disney.go.com/wreck-it-ralph


"Disney’s New Hero Is So 1982: How ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Revisits Retro Video Games," New York Times, October 26, 2012