While 2012's Wreck-It Ralph is far from Pixar's most accomplished achievement, it was a fun tale of friendship and nostalgia as our two lovable heroes romped their way through a variety of games, both modern and retro. Despite the appeal of its characters, the ending hardly cried out for a sequel, but the world created by Rich Moore and his team of animators offered endless possibilities with which the story could be taken. With demand for 80's and 90's nostalgia at an all-time high, you have to wonder why a sequel took a whole six years to arrive. While one of the main appeals of Wreck-It Ralph was seeing a bunch of familiar characters from your childhood weaved into the story and placed into everyday situations, this follow-up takes Ralph and best pal Vanellope out of their pixelated comfort-zone and into a brave new world of pop-up ads and nightmarish comment sections.
Six years have also passed for arcade-game villain Ralph (John C. Reilly) and glitchy Sugar Rush racer Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), who both enjoy a routine-based life of doing their video game duty by day and knocking back root beers together at night. But while Ralph finds comfort in familiarity, Vanellope longs for something different. In an attempt to cheer up his best friend, Ralph creates a special new track in Sugar Rush, but the stunt backfires when the steering-wheel breaks in the real world and Vanellope is left without a game. However, the shiny new arrival at Litwak's Family Fun Centre and Arcade - the internet - may offer a glimmer of hope in the form of eBay, where one user has a replacement steering-wheel up for auction. So, the two friends venture into this digital metropolis of corporate logos and dead-eyed avatars to buy the part, only they don't have any money to back up their winning bid.
Of course, there's always money to be made on the internet if you know how, and with the help of Yesss (Taraji P. Henson), the algorithm at video site BuzzzTube, Ralph racks up the likes and hearts by becoming a viral sensation. Vanellope's friendship with Ralph is tested when she discovers dangerous open-world racing game Slaughter Race and finds a like-minded friend in bad-ass racer Shank (Gal Gadot). There's a message about the dangers of toxic friendships in there somewhere, but the sweet relationship developed more carefully the first time around is often drowned out by the sheer noise of this online world. There are many great ideas here, such as Alan Tudyk's KnowsMore, an search engine who is always over-eager to predict what you're going to say, and Bill Hader's J.P. Spamley, a click-bait pop-up ad who acts like a desperate, down-on-his-luck salesman. A detour into a Disney fan-site initially reeks of self-promotion, but the company sends itself up rather well, conjuring up an inspired moment involving the entire roster of Disney princesses. Ralph Breaks the Internet is fun and packed with creativity, but struggles to find its heart amidst all the eye-catching chaos.
Cute, talking animals are, of course, nothing new when it comes to Disney. Whether they are an anthropomorphic swash-buckler or a wide-eyed human's sidekick, I couldn't name one of Disney's animated output that didn't feature a cuddly creature. Their latest, Zootopia, may seem much more of the same then, with it's richly-imaged world of upright rabbits, polar bears, hippos and the like, all living together in harmony in the titular metropolis. You can put away your preconceptions however, as Zootopia is without doubt the corporate giants bravest and most relevant picture to date, and one with a strong message for its young audience that will hopefully rub off on at least a few viewers.
Young, determined bunny Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) grows up in the rural Bunnyburrow, a small town in a larger world where predators and prey have evolved to live together peacefully. Her parents hope she'll grow up to appreciate the quiet life of selling carrots and raising a family, but she has other ideas, and hopes to one day travel to the big city of Zootopia to become a police officer. Despite facing prejudice due to her gender and her size, she eventually graduates from Police Academy top of her class, and is soon in Zootopia fulfilling her dream. But when she arrives, her colleagues instantly doubt her ability as the precinct is traditionally made up of more formidable animals, and is quickly assigned to parking duty by Chief Bogo (Idris Elba).
Frustrated at the clear-cut discrimination, Judy decides to be the best parking attendant there ever was. It is while she is stamping every vehicle with a ticket the second they're in violation that she learns that prejudice goes both ways, meeting the seemingly down-and-out fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), the exact kind of prey Judy suffered physical harm from as a child. Her suspicions turn out to be true, and Nick is indeed a 'sly' fox, but comes to learn that he acts like a fox because society treats him and expects him to be like one. Begging for a chance at something more challenging, Bogo gives Judy the task of tracking down missing person Mr. Otterton with an ultimatum that she must resign if she fails. Suspecting his street-smarts may be of an asset to her investigation, Judy blackmails Nick into helping her, and uncover a series of bizarre incidents where predators are returning to their primal state.
While it may sound like a heavy-handed educational piece on the folly of racism and pre-judgement, it actually isn't, as Zootopia is also an explosion of imagination for the vast majority of its 110-minute running time. Judy's arrival at Zootopia, as she is whisked through an array of eco-systems, designed to sustain the many different kinds of inhabitants, is a complete joy. While some jokes fail to hit the mark, like the Godfather gag that may have been funny thirty years ago, others are ingenious. It may seem obvious to employs sloths at the DMV, but the scene is still laugh-out-loud even though they played it in it's entirety in the trailer. But Zootopia isn't memorable for its comedy value, but the way it delivers its message. Without being preachy or overly-sentimental, the film actually feel frustrated at society. We have surely evolved past pretty prejudice and stereotyping, so what drives the hate? The film hints at fear induced, which is a bold statement on its own.
With 'retro' very much in fashion these days, and the children of the late 1980's and 1990's now reaching an age where one can get nostalgic about one's childhood, it is the perfect time for there to be a film that harks back to early games consoles. After all, consoles such as the NES, Sega Mega Drive and the SNES, although now very amateur when compared to recent incarnations, were the godfathers of mass mainstream gaming, and a key form of entertainment growing up for the likes of me (I was born in 1984). Wreck-It Ralph, Disney's latest colourful crowd-pleaser, portrays both the demise of blocky finger-bashers, as well as celebrating their retro appeal. It's hook is that its main character, Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly), is a bad guy. He spends his days destroying an apartment block with his over-sized hands, while the hero of the game, Fix-It Felix, Jr. (Jack McBrayer), uses his magic hammer to fix Ralph's destruction, and therefore winning the game.
Fix-It Felix, Jr. is an old-school arcade game in a similar vein to Donkey Kong, a simple premise, existing solely for it's retro charm amongst modern shoot 'em-ups and dance-mat games. Treated badly by the game's inhabitants due to being the thug of the game, Ralph decides to leave to win a golden coin, cementing himself as a hero. He sneaks into a Halo-like alien shooter called Hero's Duty in which a tough female commander Calhoun (Jane Lynch) narrates to the player, but gets himself into trouble by accidentally taking an alien into another game during his escape with a golden coin. He lands in Candy Land, a colourful racing game with a similar sickeningly sweet feel to Mario Party, where glitch outcast Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) steals his coin and uses it to buy an entry into the main race. Seeing potential disaster for his game, the ruling King Candy (Alan Tudyk), tries to put an end to Vanellope's entry, but Ralph wants his coin back, and the only way to do that is to help her win.
Like the majority of Pixar's, sorry, Disney's output (John Lasseter acts as executive producer), Wreck-It Ralph has the ability to appeal to adults, as well as giving the squirts enough colourful imagery to keep their minds busy between whatever they get up to these days. Although it derives much of its humour from a reliance on the audiences' knowledge of retro computer games, the film has enough playful adult humour to appeal to a wider audience, and is most importantly sweet enough to engage the audiences emotions. Yet for people like me, who grew up on the likes of Super Mario World, Street Fighter II and Duck Hunt, Wreck-It Ralph proves to be an oddly touching lament of a time when games generally had a very basic premise, but were executed with such a charm and addictive quality, that they were entirely endearing.
An early scene that borders on genius sees Ralph in an AA-style meeting for computer game bad guys, with Bowser, Zangief and Clyde from Pac-Man offering support for our titular hero. Upon revealing himself as longing to play the hero, the group erupts, with Clyde going into panic mode the same way he did in Pac-Man. It's a celebration of computer game ticks, with the apartment-folk from Ralph's game moving in a sudden, glitchy fashion, and Felix making a boing sound when he jumps. In fact, it's this ingenuity that leads to the tragic story of Vanellope, who is a glitch in the system, who's potential participation in Candy Land could lead to the player's giving up on the game, causing it to go out-of-order and entering arcade obscurity. Facing this catastrophe, the games inhabitants can at least escape with their lives before the power switch is flipped, but Vanellope cannot exist outside the game, and will die with it.
It's this gentle sentimentality that makes Wreck-It Ralph so enjoyable. Pursuing Ralph is Calhoun and Felix, two contrasting game characters from two entirely different generations (Felix is smitten with her hi-def look), and start a bizarre love story that is as ridiculous as it is oddly touching. Thankfully, it is these types of moments and characters that you take away from the film, and not the overly familiar themes and narrative. Although the setting is unfamiliar and exciting, the plot shares a lot with the likes of Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Toy Story 3 (2010), and climaxes with a staple car-chase, something that seems to plague kiddie-film these days. But Wreck-It Ralph is undeniably irresistible and really quite clever, and although I would have liked to see more game-hopping ingenuity, there is enough here to sustain until the inevitable sequel comes along.
Six years have also passed for arcade-game villain Ralph (John C. Reilly) and glitchy Sugar Rush racer Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), who both enjoy a routine-based life of doing their video game duty by day and knocking back root beers together at night. But while Ralph finds comfort in familiarity, Vanellope longs for something different. In an attempt to cheer up his best friend, Ralph creates a special new track in Sugar Rush, but the stunt backfires when the steering-wheel breaks in the real world and Vanellope is left without a game. However, the shiny new arrival at Litwak's Family Fun Centre and Arcade - the internet - may offer a glimmer of hope in the form of eBay, where one user has a replacement steering-wheel up for auction. So, the two friends venture into this digital metropolis of corporate logos and dead-eyed avatars to buy the part, only they don't have any money to back up their winning bid.
