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!