Wreck-It Ralph: Retro in 21st Century Style!

Here is wonderful example of how to perfectly blend pencils with vectors. Walt Disney Animation Studio’s upcoming movie titled Wreck-It Ralph, seems to have the perfect amount of animation and video gaming together under one project. Styled as an 80’s era arcade game, the few teaser photos we have seen already seem like a unique and interesting story exists behind it. This movie seems to have the same magical feel Toy Story had with the only exception being the toys in this movie are video game characters. FirstShowing.net provides us with some information as to who is actually voicing these characters and bringing them to life.  Right away we see there will be comedy involved with this flick with the caliber of comedic voice actors this movie has lined up. The likes of John C. Reilly and Jack McBrayer (30Rock) are this fictitious game’s antagonist (Wreck-It Ralph) and protagonist (Fix-It Felix) respectively. Comedic ladies round up part of the supporting cast with Sarah Silverman and Jane Lynch (Glee) playing other characters inspired by classics, but that were created just for this movie.

https://www.facebook.com/WreckItRalph

            From the few photos Disney has provided us with, on their official Wreck-It Ralph Facebook page, we start to see the era’s of gaming this movie intends to bring together. The teaser poster, provided by Facebook, and shown in this blog post is clearly a nod to the era that inspired Ralph, the main character and the 8-bit level of gaming graphics that were state of the art back then. When you think about it, this movie brings the history of computer graphics and animation and tells the story through today’s standard level of animated graphics and high definition. In other words, retro is cool again. In my opinion, Disney has found a way to link generations of gamers with a creative and unique story.

Those who have played on the old Atari or the original Nintendo or even the Sega Genesis generation can automatically find happiness in hearing “real-life” game characters will appear in this movie as well. According to a lengthy (but worth it) Entertainment Weekly article by Anthony Breznican we find out that characters from the Street Fighter, Pac-Man, and Sonic the Hedgehog franchises all have cameos at some point in this movie. This is the magical feel I was talking about when comparing it to the Toy Story franchise. The fact that old characters that some of us grew up with either playing as or playing against can find a new home in a newer generation’s eyes is fantastic.

Hopefully I really do hope this film lives up to its potential. Not just because it is the ultimate mix between animation and video gaming (although we here at Pencils and Vectors fully support this), but because it is a type of story we have not seen Disney (not counting Pixar) do in quite a while. For you see, the Wreck-It Ralph story was not pulled from some old fairytale or fable, but instead it comes fresh from the minds at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. If you are any bit a gamer as I am, then you too should be as excited as I am for the November 2012 release this film has been slated for.

As always, we would love to hear your take on this film’s story. What do you think about the premise, is it a great idea or is it missing something? Are there any other characters you would like to see make cameos in this film apart from those that are already planned? Does this movie already bring back childhood memories or is it far from it? Any and all comments and thoughts are always welcomed with us. We look forward to hearing from you!

Staying Afloat in an Ocean Full of Apps

            How does an app maker or an app-making company stand out in sea filled with hundreds of thousands of apps in the market? With Apple boasting it has over 500,000 apps available for one to choose, their tag line ‘there’s an app for that’ makes virtual sense. They realized that with so many apps it’s hard for apps to stand out, let alone users scroll through all of them, that they even had to create software in order to help solve that problem. With their Genius software, it helps you decide what apps you may like by providing recommendation based on apps and other downloads you already own. And in case you were wondering, Apple isn’t the only high volume app market out there. In order to stay competitive against Apple, the Android market needs to provide the same amount of selections they have of apps. According to an article written back in January, the Android market had just made it to housing 400,000 apps.  It may still be a hundred thousand away from Apple’s total, but we all know that in today’s digital day and age that number can catch up in mere months.

http://www.cultofmac.com/76993/app-is-the-word-of-the-year-according-to-americas-linguists/

            With so many apps out there, developers have to ask themselves, how are we going to get noticed? There’s a solution for that (no app pun intended); at least Electronic Art’s founder, Trip Hawkins seems to believe so. In an article written by Eric Caoili for Gamasutra.com, Mr. Hawkins believes that the only solution for apps to be truly successful out on the market is by having a publisher work behind the brand. He believes a shift in the app-gaming industry is inevitable. App games may take note from their platform and console cousins to get a publisher behind them in order to have a shot at success.

            Mr. Caoili points out in another article on how a small developer named Spry Fox had to partner with a Disney subsidiary. With Spry Fox’s Triple Town title getting low usage marks when compared to other games on Facebook, they were worried it would not survive out on the smartphone market. They decided to let Playdom take over publishing for this title with aim of attracting more users and making their gaming a viable success. Since Playdom already has around 15 million monthly users on their gaming website, it’s going to exponentially increase Triple Crown’s reach from the 150,000 users they had originally on Facebook.

            Future app-makers don’t get discouraged. While it’s inevitable that some app-making companies out there will begin to partner with publishing giants in order to stay afloat. It doesn’t mean that app industry will close its doors to the indie and one-man-show developers. After all, that’s the beauty of this platform, the fact that anyone can make a game and put it out there and can still produce a giant hit is wonderful. Not every app is destined for greatness, but a great app can come from anywhere. What apps out there do you think are going unnoticed in today’s gaming society? Share with us by commenting below and let us know your thoughts on this issue as well.