Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph follows the title character (John C. Reilly), a video game villain, as he grows tired of his nefarious reputation and endeavors to change his reputation, with his ongoing efforts inevitably wreaking havoc in the crowded arcade within which he resides. There’s little doubt that Wreck-It Ralph fares best during its opening stretch, as the movie, which opens with an irresistible sequence revolving around a self-help group for video game baddies (including Street Fighter‘s Zangief, Super Mario Bros.‘ Bowser, and a ghost from Pac Man), boasts a pervasively lighthearted feel that’s heightened by both the stellar voice work and the lightening-fast pacing. It’s only as the narrative proper begins to kick in that Wreck-It Ralph begins to lose its hold on the viewer, with the thinness of the plot growing more and more problematic as the film stumbles into its colorful yet almost egregiously loud midsection – as filmmaker Rich Moore, working from a script by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee, eschews smaller character moments in favor of over-the-top and exhausting action sequences. The progressively uninvolving atmosphere is exacerbated by an emphasis on familiar and downright stale elements (eg Ralph’s friendship with a scrappy outsider named Vanellope), and it’s subsequently not surprising to note that the movie peters out to a distressingly demonstrable degree in the buildup to its frenetic and overwhelming final stretch. (It goes without saying, too, that the film is mostly lacking in the heart that one has come to associate with Disney’s animated endeavors.) The end result is a passable yet disappointing effort from the so-called Mouse House, with the movie unable to live up to the almost impossibly high bar set by modern Disney releases like Winnie the Pooh and Tangled.

**1/2 out of ****