BACKGROUND
After the smashing success of Tangled in 2010, the Walt Disney Animation Studios needed to prove that they wouldn’t be going back to their mediocre film releases of the 2000s.
With the 2006 purchase of Pixar Animation, the Disney Studios now had more resources at their disposal, not to mention John Lasseter being named the Chief Creative Officer of both animation studios. Disney didn’t have to follow their tried-and-tested method of basing features on fairy-tales or novels; they could do something different, and this time, make it work. That’s exactly what they did with their 2012 release: Wreck-It Ralph.
When I first saw the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph and saw it was about video games, I was sceptical. I’m not much of a gamer so I thought the whole story would be completely lost on me and there was no way it would be able to keep me interested. But we watched it at the cinema during its release and I actually really liked it. It had emotional moments and important messages that struck a chord with me, and I thought the whole video game premise was incredibly clever.
Wreck-It Ralph is very different to the majority of Disney animated features that came before it, but it started a precedent for Disney not to just do the same type of movie; that they could come up with unique concepts and those movies could still be hits with audiences. Apart from Frozen (2013), which is a phenomenon all of its own but still based on a fairy-tale, although twisted, Disney have continued to push the boundaries of story-telling and have moved away from their popular Broadway-style princess film territory to make memorable, popular films around independent characters going on hero’s journeys, discovering things about themselves and exploring the world around them. Disney had tried this in the 2000s, during their “Post-Renaissance Era” but had been unsuccessful for whatever reason. In the 2010s, they found it was finally working.
PLOT
Wreck-It Ralph begins by showing us the character of Wreck-It Ralph (or just Ralph), who is the villain in the 80s arcade game, Fix-It Felix Jr. He is struggling to accept his lot in life, and wants to be the good guy for once, because he doesn’t feel inherently bad. After finishing “work” for the day, i.e., when Litwak’s Arcade has closed, Ralph attends a “Bad-Anon” meeting with various other video game villains, but doesn’t get anywhere. After seeing the other characters in his game, the Nicelanders and Fix-It Felix Jr. (or just Felix), having a party to celebrate their game’s 30th anniversary, Ralph invites himself over there, not wanting to be left out. He isn’t treated well by the Nicelanders and snaps, smashing cake all over the apartment. He makes a deal that if he can prove that a bad guy can get a hero’s medal, then he can live in the Penthouse apartment, and not the dump.
Ralph sees a soldier from the new game Hero’s Duty having a breakdown, telling him that it’s bad in there, even if you do get a medal. Ralph just wants a medal, so steals the soldier’s costume and heads in to the game via Game Central Station, the hub where the video game characters can go in to other games, though, as Sonic the Hedgehog warns, if you die outside your game, you won’t regenerate. Ralph heads in to Hero’s Duty, a first-person shooter game, a bit like Halo, in a dystopian world where you have to shoot “cy-bugs” and their eggs to prevent an invasion. Ralph immediately finds himself overwhelmed. After he disrupts the first-person shooter, a robot with a screen to them, a little girl playing the game in Litwak’s Arcade to us, the game is reset and Ralph takes the opportunity to climb the game’s tower. He receives his hero’s medal, even though he didn’t really earn it, but wakes the cy-bug eggs. He stumbles into an escape shuttle, with a cy-bug, and ricochets around Game Central Station before entering the über-sweet land of Sugar Rush, a kart racing game. At the same time, Sergeant Calhoun, the leader of the Hero’s Duty crew, and Fix-It Felix have seen Ralph in the shuttle, and figure out he’s gone into Sugar Rush. Calhoun and Felix follow; Felix to get Ralph back to their game so they can continue their lives as normal, as currently, their game is “out of order” and will be unplugged if it can’t be fixed, and Calhoun going to check the cy-bugs don’t start invading Sugar Rush.
Ralph crash-lands in a lake of taffy, and loses his medal up a candy-cane tree. He climbs up but before he can reach it, it is snatched away by Vanellope von Schweetz, a Sugar Rush character with a “glitch”. She races away, using the medal in lieu of a gold coin so she can enter the random roster race, to find out who will be able to race for the arcade-goers the next day. King Candy does not want Vanellope to race, and is annoyed to find she has managed to enter it. Ralph barrels in, demanding his medal back. Eventually, he is detained within a cupcake and taken to King Candy’s castle, where he orders Ralph to leave the game, as he doesn’t want anyone “going turbo” and taking over his game. Ralph runs away to confront Vanellope. Except, as he’s about to, he sees that Vanellope’s kart is being destroyed by the other racers. He scares them off to help her. They make a deal that if Ralph helps her build a new kart, then she will win the race and return his medal. They go to the mini-game kart builder where Ralph helps build the kart, until he breaks the containers, spilling candy all over her kart. Luckily, Vanellope loves it! As King Candy and his guards are chasing them out of the area, Vanellope and Ralph head into Diet Cola Mountain, her secret home. Ralph builds her a track, so Vanellope can practise racing.
King Candy has not managed to scare off Ralph, so goes into the game’s programming and adds the medal into his character’s code so he can return it to Ralph. When he does this, he implores Ralph to tell Vanellope not to race, as he believes that if she becomes part of the race roster, then the players will see her “glitching” and will think the game’s broken. When it gets unplugged, the other characters will be able to take refuge in Game Central Station but Vanellope, being a “glitch”, will not be able to leave and will die with the game. Ralph, having just received a homemade hero’s medal from Vanellope, is torn over what to do, but tries to explain to her that she can’t race or she’ll die. When this doesn’t work, Ralph destroys her kart. Vanellope is devasted, simply telling him “You really are a bad guy” before running off in tears.
At the same time, Felix is falling in love with Calhoun. Felix tells her about Turbo, and the phrase “going turbo”. Turbo was the main racer in a popular game, until a new racing game got plugged into the arcade. Jealous, he entered the new game in his 8-bit form, disrupting the new game’s more modern format. Both games were considered broken and were both unplugged. He is presumed to have gone down with the games, and has not been seen since. Calhoun soon leaves Felix, after he calls her “a dynamite gal”, something her husband-to-be called her before he was eaten by cy-bugs on their wedding day. Yes, Calhoun is programmed with the world’s saddest backstory! Felix walks to King Candy’s castle to find Ralph, but is thrown into the “fungeon” (fun dungeon).
Sour Bill, King Candy’s sidekick, tells Ralph that King Candy messed with Vanellope’s code, trying to delete her from the game, but failed, causing her “glitch”, and locked up the other characters’ memories so he could take over the game. Ralph realises everything Candy said to him earlier was a lie, so Ralph crashes in to the “fungeon” to save both Felix, and Vanellope who has been chained up too. He encourages Vanellope to race, and get over the finish line to reset the game. She starts the race late, but manages to get to second place without too many issues. Calhoun then arrives to say that the cy-bugs are everywhere, and they start to consume Sugar Rush. Calhoun tells everyone not racing to evacuate, and tries to shoot as many as she can until Vanellope gets over the finish line.
But King Candy is horrified to find Vanellope close to taking the lead, and tries to push her off the track. When Vanellope “glitches”, it is revealed that King Candy is in fact Turbo! GASP! He took over Sugar Rush after he put the other two racing games out of order. Vanellope manages to tactically “glitch” and moves into first place, away from him, and King Candy gets eaten by a cy-bug. As Vanellope nears the end, the cy-bugs start to take over the finish line and she crashes, out of surprise. Ralph realises they can’t get the game to reset and tries to take her out of the game, but King Candy was right – she cannot leave. Calhoun says the game is doomed without a beacon, a beam of light that is in Hero’s Duty, to attract and kill all cy-bugs between resets of the game. Ralph has an idea and rushes over to Diet Cola Mountain. There are Mentos at the top of it, so Ralph punches the top of the mountain to try and get the Mentos to fall into the boiling Diet Cola below.
When he is one punch away, King Candy, now a cy-bug, because cy-bugs become what they eat, attacks Ralph trying to stop him from saving the game and Vanellope. King Candy flies him up high and says they should watch Vanellope die together, but Ralph breaks free, not caring what happens to him, and falls to the top of the mountain, delivering one last punch, which sets off the Mento-Cola reaction, creating the beacon. The cy-bugs fly towards it and are destroyed, including King Candy. Vanellope has raced over to catch Ralph in her kart. Thanks to her “glitching” she makes good time and he is saved. Felix fixes the finish line, and they push her kart over it, where it is revealed that Vanellope is actually Princess Vanellope, ruler of Sugar Rush. She jokes that she will execute anyone who was ever mean to her, before deciding that she’d rather just be herself, “glitch” and all, making Sugar Rush a democracy instead.
In the epilogue, we find that Ralph has returned to his game. The Fix-It Felix Jr. characters have become nicer to Ralph, and they build him a house within the dump so he no longer has to sleep in a pile of bricks. They have also taken in the “game less” characters, like Q*bert, and given them homes and a “job” within the bonus round of the game. Vanellope is a popular choice of racer within Sugar Rush, and the gamers love her “glitch” as it helps them win! Felix and Calhoun get married, with Ralph as best man, and Vanellope as bridesmaid. Finally, and most importantly, Ralph has realised that he’s happy being himself. The best part of Ralph’s day is when he gets thrown off the roof in his game, because he can see Sugar Rush clearly, and sees Vanellope happy with her racing career. He knows that he can’t be such a bad guy because he has a friend like her.
CHARACTERS & CAST
Wreck-It Ralph spends the whole movie on a journey of self-discovery. He doesn’t like being thought of, and treated, as an everyday arcade game villain, where he’s either ignored or dismissed. This is what leads him to attend his first “Bad-Anon” meeting at the start of the film, because he doesn’t want to be the bad guy anymore. The other villains just tell him that they’ve all felt that way before, but have now come to terms with it and he needs to as well. When he returns to his game and finds they are throwing a 30th anniversary party without him, he feels upset and angry, deciding to prove he can be a hero and get a medal as evidence. Though Ralph does successfully get a medal, he doesn’t really get it for being brave or completing Hero’s Duty; he’s actually terrified of it and cheats to get his medal. Once he meets Vanellope in Sugar Rush, soon he realises that this little girl needs his help to be accepted in her game, and they bond over the fact that they’re both treated as outcasts. Ralph gets taken in by King Candy, and ends up destroying Vanellope’s kart, with Vanellope saying that he really is a bad guy, and that hurts him. By the end of the movie, he mends his relationships with Vanellope and Felix, and proves himself a hero when he stops the cy-bug destruction, even though he almost pays the ultimate price for it. Ralph has quite the journey, and eventually realises that all he can be is himself, and that he has to accept that. Though he may be a game villain, it doesn’t mean he’s not worthy of friendship or happiness, and that he isn’t inherently bad; he has many sides to him, like everyone.
The design for Ralph was changed many times during production. Originally, the animators wanted to make Ralph in 8-bit for the entire movie, but they decided that he wouldn’t be lovable enough in that form. Ralph then became an animal dressed a bit like a hobo, and then a big white gorilla. It took around five or six re-designs before Ralph finally became human, as he needed to resonate with the audience to get the viewers rooting for his end-goal[1]. John C. Reilly, known for his varied film roles such as Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002) and Step Brothers (2008) with Will Ferrell, is the voice actor for Wreck-It Ralph, as the team at Disney felt that Reilly could be both comedic and dramatic, and would make Ralph likeable. I think Reilly did a great job with the character.
Vanellope von Schweetz is kind of bratty, but very funny, with most of her opening scene featuring her making jokes about “hero’s doody”, which I think were added to the script purely to make kids laugh, though I know plenty of adults who laugh out loud at those too! Vanellope is a “glitch” within the Sugar Rush game, so she is isolated from most of the other game characters, being seen as either a threat or a nuisance, depending on who you ask. When her go-kart is destroyed by the other racers, you instantly feel sorry for Vanellope, as she is essentially being bullied just because she’s a bit different. It’s very heart-warming to see Ralph swoop in and scare the others off, as we know that the two have a similar problem in their respective games. Vanellope also learns to accept herself as she is by the end of the movie like Ralph does; she spends most of her time trying to control her “glitch” but then finds she can use it to her advantage and that instead of suppressing it, she should be learning how to use it more consistently. I like how after the game has reset at the end, she becomes a princess and learns she was the original ruler of Sugar Rush, but decides she just wants to be herself exactly as she is. Ralph and Vanellope have a great friendship, both helping each other out in times of need and learning from their mistakes. Vanellope is voiced by stand-up-comedian-turned-actress Sarah Silverman. Her iconic voice is perfect for Vanellope, as well as her comedic timing, making Vanellope lovable and easy to relate to.
Then, there’s Fix-It Felix Jr., the hero to Ralph’s villain. Though the other game characters seem to deliberately exclude Ralph, Felix isn’t like that. He doesn’t know how to act around Ralph, it seems, because Felix looks awkward about the party, like he wants to be kind to Ralph and invite him, but he knows the Nicelanders won’t like it. Felix isn’t mean to Ralph at all; he’s very positive, and upbeat, wanting to be friends with everyone, but it’s not that easy when everyone around him doesn’t want anything to do with Ralph. Felix is a bit irritating at the start of the movie because he believes his own publicity, accepting all the attention, praise and credit from his other game characters, but he does go to find Ralph. Felix wants Ralph back to get the game back to working order, but I believe Felix also wants to understand why Ralph left and try to amend his own behaviour. Felix then goes on his own journey, where he realises that not everyone’s life is perfect, not everyone is put up on a pedestal to be admired. He also does not become the hero at the end of the movie; Ralph is the one to save Sugar Rush, so I think Felix is humbled by that. Most importantly, Felix finds love with Sergeant Calhoun, something he was not expecting when he set off to find Ralph that day. Felix is voiced by Jack McBrayer, another very recognisable voice! McBrayer is potentially best known for portraying the roles of Kenneth Parcell in 30 Rock (2006-13) and Dr. Goodwin in The Middle (2013-18).
As I mentioned, Felix and Calhoun are married by the end of Wreck-It Ralph, but their relationship isn’t smooth-sailing. Sergeant Calhoun is the lead character of Hero’s Duty. She’s a strong, brave, independent woman, and does not tolerate fools, like Ralph, going in and destroying her game! She only follows Ralph into Sugar Rush to monitor the cy-bug invasion that could occur as one escaped from Hero’s Duty with him. Calhoun then finds herself liking Felix whilst stuck in the “Nesquik-Sand” in Sugar Rush; it’s a funny scene, especially as when the “laughy taffy” vines start to get lovey-dovey, she fires shots from her gun and they soon shrink away! When Felix calls her a “dynamite gal”, something her deceased fiancé said to her before his untimely death, she is horrified and throws Felix out of the space cruiser, leaving him on his own. The two are reunited at the time of the cy-bug invasion. Once Ralph sets off the beacon, destroying the cy-bugs, Felix kisses Calhoun on the cheek. She pulls him up to her face level, and we all expect him to get a sharp slap round the face – but he doesn’t get one; instead, she kisses him back. Aww, cute. They’re a strange couple, but they make it work, somehow! Jane Lynch, off the back of four seasons of Glee (2009-15), playing cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, voices Sergeant Calhoun.
Then, there is the actual villain of Wreck-It Ralph: the surprise villain of King Candy. At first, King Candy seems overly enthusiastic and overly protective of his kingdom. He doesn’t want Vanellope to race, because he claims that her “glitching” will put the game out of order and just wants Sugar Rush to go back to how it was, before these other game characters came in and ruined it! Little did I know that a big twist was to come. We learn that King Candy messed with Vanellope’s code in the game programming to try and delete her but it ended up just making her “glitch”, and that the only reason he doesn’t want her to race is because she’ll reset the game and he’ll no longer be King. I thought that was it, but it got worse! We then discover that he’s Turbo, the jealous racer from long ago. That was a brilliant plot twist from Disney. I’m very in-the-moment when I watch movies, not wanting to try and work things out before they’ve happened, so I didn’t see it coming, but maybe some people did. I just thought it was clever! Actor Alan Tudyk voices the character of King Candy. He was inspired by comedian Ed Wynn, who had voiced the Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951). The character of the Mad Hatter was also a reference point for the design of King Candy, and it’s very plain to see[2]! Alan Tudyk won an Annie Award for his voice work on this movie. He has had voice roles in many more Disney animated movies since, basically becoming Disney’s “good-luck charm”, like John Ratzenberger is to Pixar, by getting a role in every new release!
That’s it for the main characters in Wreck-It Ralph, but there are many others. Some other voice artists worth mentioning are Modern Family (2009-20) actor Ed O’Neill as Mr. Litwak, the arcade owner, and The Office (2005-13) actor and writer Mindy Kaling as Taffyta Muttonfudge, one of the Sugar Rush racers. Both would go on to voice roles in Pixar films: O’Neill as Hank in Finding Dory (2016) and Kaling as Disgust in Inside Out (2015). Fun fact: the two doughnut-shaped policemen in Sugar Rush are named Wynnchel and Duncan, referencing two American donut chains – Dunkin’ Donuts and Winchell’s Donut House. There are almost 200 characters in the movie, including some from “real” video games, such as Bowser, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, and my personal favourite, Q*bert[3]. I don’t know much about video games – though I was disappointed to find Crash Bandicoot didn’t get a cameo – so I’m sure a gaming fan can spot many more than me! One that many people commented was missing, though, was Mario. This was due to the fact that Disney couldn’t find a good enough reason to include him in the story, and wanted to do the character justice. It’s also possible Mario would’ve pulled focus away from the main characters.
PRODUCTION
Disney had to create five different “worlds” for Wreck-It Ralph: the retro arcade game of Fix-It Felix Jr., the sugar-filled racing game of Sugar Rush, the more modern shooter game of Hero’s Duty, and then Game Central Station, the characters’ portal to other games, and Litwak’s Arcade, where these are all based. Game Central Station, the portal for all the arcade games, but really a power strip or extension lead in real-life, was inspired by New York City’s Grand Central Station, unsurprisingly. It’s a large space, and feels like a train station, with it also having grubby-looking subway-style areas, with graffiti sprayed on the walls. Litwak’s Arcade is obviously the most real of the worlds, based on arcades from the past and present. It’s a dark area, with just light coming from the door, but with flashing lights coming from every game station. It’s fascinating to see how the video game characters perceive these real gamers, and to see how their actions affects the real-life players[4]!
The world of Fix-It Felix Jr. was based on a sketch by director Rich Moore. It resembles a small, quaint town, with a little train and lights in the trees like Central Park. It is an 8-bit game, so it consists of simple repeating patterns, square shapes, and simple, clean landscapes. No complex animation was required here, but I like how authentically the characters move, by bopping, making staccato movements, and never moving diagonally, always on a grid. The high score for Fix-It Felix Jr. is displayed as 120501, a nod to Walt Disney’s birthday: 5th December 1901. Hero’s Duty was made to look aggressive, with sharp lines and triangular shapes, to really a place so different to Ralph’s game. He had to be seen to be completely out of his depth. Hero’s Duty is hyper-realistic and is the most high-definition of all the games. There are strobe lights, mist shoots, ash falling from the sky, with something happening in every shot. It’s very busy and action-packed. They also made simple colour choices, by making the area dark, with orange to show the good guys, and acid green for the bad cy-bugs. For Sugar Rush, initially the team struggled to get away from the overused tropes of sugary lands like Candyland and the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel, so they went in a different direction; they looked at Gaudi’s architecture. His designs almost looked like cracked candy to them. Art Director Mike Gabriel asked for a candy model of Sugar Rush to be made, which was then used as a reference point for months. The land had to look appealing to everyone, so it’s very colourful, with soft shapes, and fantasy elements.
Wreck-It Ralph is an original story idea, however, in the 1990s, there was an early version of a film based around video games being developed, called High Score. For whatever reason, this did not go forward. In 2006, a movie called Joe Jump also themed around video games was being worked on at Disney, but again, this did not go ahead[5].
In 2008, Rich Moore joined the Walt Disney Animation Studios after working for animation studio Rough Draft Studios for a number of years. Soon after his arrival, John Lasseter approached him about directing a new movie for Disney. Lasseter suggested basing the movie around video games, with Moore agreeing as he liked gaming. Neither of the concepts from the older story ideas were considered; it was a brand-new idea. Producer Clark Spencer said he loved the concept as he grew up being a big gamer, and he liked that the initial idea about going behind-the-scenes of video game characters, in a similar way to Toy Story (1995), by seeing what toys get up to when their owners aren’t around.
It was decided early on that they wanted a Donkey Kong dynamic for their two main characters of Ralph and Felix, with Ralph being the villain, like Donkey Kong, and Felix, like the hero of Mario. It’s clear that the design of Ralph was partly inspired by the gorilla character of Donkey Kong, and Felix is kind of similar to Mario, in that he’s small, but upbeat and positive, working hard to defeat the villain’s destructive ways. Originally, Felix was going to be the protagonist of the whole movie, with the plot structure already being decided just a month or so into development. But then, it was decided that the plot might be stronger if they had the 8-bit villain of Wreck-It Ralph having an existential crisis, so the film was re-structured around this new idea[6].
Obviously, there were some other changes between the movie we know today and how it was doing production. Firstly, there were deleted scenes detailing Ralph being thrown into the prison of the then-military-style Hero’s Duty. Ralph would be persuaded by a new prisoner, a lazy, surfer-dude kind of person, to break them out and go to a relaxed new online game called X-Treme EZ Livin’ 2. Ralph would be left alone and end up in Sugar Rush. After things went wrong there, Ralph then did travel to X-Treme EZ Livin’ 2. The game was meant to be a mixture of The Sims and Grand Theft Auto. These scenes were dropped as there is no game like this, and it would’ve been on Mr. Litwak’s laptop in the arcade, so they felt it would’ve been too complicated to have a different way for arcade characters to get in there, with cheat codes and things like that.
Another unused concept was that Vanellope’s home was actually in the abandoned nugget mines of “Mount Fudgsuvius”. There wasn’t any Diet Cola or Mentos, but it would’ve still erupted at the end of the movie. In this deleted scene, Felix is already with the duo, and Ralph and Vanellope would have been trying to explain to Felix what it was like to be an outcast and not have everyone love you. Also, there were going to be individual mini games to get different parts to rebuild Vanellope’s kart, and King Candy would show up at the start of each one to make them harder, but Ralph’s “wrecking” would help Vanellope win[7].
MUSIC
The score for Wreck-It Ralph was composed by English composer Henry Jackman, who had written the score for Disney Animation’s previous release, Winnie the Pooh (2011) and would go on to do the score for Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Strange World (2022), also for Disney. He has won and been nominated for other awards too, for example, a nomination at the BAFTA Awards in 2014 for Best Film Music for Captain Phillips (2013). Jackman researched for the Wreck-It Ralph score by revisiting video games from his youth, as he had to be in touch with the vast world of video game music, which varies from many different genres, such as pop, rock, heavy metal and electronic music[8]. I like the music in Wreck-It Ralph but only one piece really stands out to me and that is the instrumental piece titled “Wreck-It Ralph”. It plays during the scene where Ralph is leaving the game Pac-Man after his “Bad-Anon” meeting. It’s electronic and bouncy, and sounds very video-game-like.
There are also a few songs in the movie, though none are sung by any of the characters. Apparently, a song was written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez but it was cut. The Lopez duo would go on to write the songs for Frozen (2013), the Disney animated release to follow Wreck-It Ralph, so I doubt they were too disappointed[9]! Wreck-It Ralph features three original songs, as well as incorporating three tracks from other artists. The song “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang is played at the party at the start of the movie, in the Nicelanders’ penthouse suite. It’s a classic song, perfect for a party, so not much to say on that one really. Another one is “Bug Hunt (Noisia Remix) by Skrillex. This was an original song by Skrillex which was remixed specifically for the opening of the Hero’s Duty game. It is perfect for that game. Plus, Skrillex even has a cameo in the movie – as the DJ at the anniversary party. The biggest surprise addition to the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack to me is the use of Rihanna’s “Shut Up and Drive”. It’s a great song, and works really well in the scene of Vanellope learning how to race on her Ralph-built Diet Cola Mountain track.
For original songs, the best one is “When Can I See You Again?”, written by Adam Young, Matt Thiessen and Brian Lee, and performed by Owl City – the American band that had that big hit “Fireflies” back in 2009; I heard that song so much around then! “When Can I See You Again?” fits in with Owl City’s electronica style of music, as well as the video game brief. It does only play as the first song of the End Credits, but I watch the credits until the song is finished without fail, because it’s so good. Then, there is the song “Sugar Rush”, which is played intermittently in the scenes within Sugar Rush. It was written by Jamie Houston and Yasushi Akimoto and performed Japanese girl group AKB48. It’s very much “bubble gum pop”, which fits the tone of the game very well. I like the parts of it you hear in the movie, mostly just the chorus part, but I don’t particularly like the full song! The full song is the second song to play during the End Credits. Finally, there is the song, “Wreck-It, Wreck-It Ralph”, written by Jamie Houston, and performed by Buckner & Garcia. It’s the third song in the End Credits, so I hadn’t heard it before! It’s a bit weird, kind of electronic, to match the 80s vibe of the game Fix-It Felix Jr., as it tells the storyline of the game itself, but it also almost sounds a bit country. I’m not a fan of it, personally. Buckner & Garcia released an album in 1982 called Pac-Man Fever, with each song in the album being themed to a classic arcade game so it makes sense for them to feature in Wreck-It Ralph’s soundtrack.
RECEPTION
A first look at the first five minutes of Wreck-It Ralph was revealed at the D23 convention in the summer of 2011, where it was confirmed to be released in November 2012. Wreck-It Ralph was released in November 2012, along with the short Paperman. The movie was received well by many critics, who praised the artistic styling and cleverness of the whole theme of the movie, along with the entertaining plot and nostalgia factor, thanks to the retro video game references. Though some critiques were more negative, with them claiming that this was Disney trying to pull off a Pixar concept and failing in comparison[10]. A “mockumentary” titled Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives was made to promote the home media release in 2013. It follows the fictional journey of child gaming prodigy, Garlan Hulse, trying to reclaim his title as the high-score holder on Fix It Felix Jr. as a down-on-his-luck adult.
Regardless of the critics’ opinions, Wreck-It Ralph was a hit at the box office, making $471.2 million worldwide against a budget of $165 million. It had a brilliant opening weekend, staying at Number 1 for one week, until the James Bond movie Skyfall (2012) was released. But that didn’t matter, because Wreck-It Ralph was still nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013. Though it lost out to Pixar’s own release of the year, Brave (2012), Wreck-It Ralph did win the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, along with music and directing, as well as winning the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie of the Year.
LEGACY
Wreck-It Ralph was such a success for Disney Animation that they decided to make a sequel: Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). The sequel would prove to be even more popular than the original with many viewers, though I personally prefer the first one. Apart from that, the Wreck-It Ralph franchise isn’t all that big, at least not compared to other Disney animated hits. Both movies had their own video game releases, and the characters feature in other Disney-aligned video games, such as Disney Infinity and the Kingdom Hearts series. Ralph and Vanellope have made cameo appearances in episodes of television series, such as Futurama (1999-present), and The Simpsons (1989-present). Rich Moore worked on both series before joining the Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2008.
At the Disney Parks, both Vanellope and Ralph used to feature in the annual Once Upon a Christmastime Parade at Walt Disney World during the festive season for many years. Until 2023, when, although Vanellope still appears in her sugar-covered kart, Ralph is no longer on the gingerbread house float; Clarice the Chipmunk has taken his place. They also used to both feature in the annual Mickey’s Boo To You Halloween Parade, with Ralph riding in a truck carrying a load of candy corn and Vanellope pedalling a float of a candy train with a huge container of gumballs on the top, however, Ralph was removed from this parade in 2023. Wow, what did Ralph do to deserve that? They both used to meet and greet guests in the now-closed Magic of Disney Animation building at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort soon after the film was released, before moving to a different location, this time at Epcot. Ralph and Vanellope did also meet guests at the other Disney Parks soon after their movie’s release, such as at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, however, they are now much rarer to encounter. The Wreck-It Ralph characters are appearing in the Harmony in Color Parade at Tokyo Disneyland to celebrate the park’s 40th anniversary.
There have been rumours, circulating for years, of a Wreck-It Ralph-themed attraction coming to the US Disney Parks, with some even expecting one to be announced at the D23 Expo in 2022; it never was. Permits were apparently filed in 2020 for a Wreck-It Ralph attraction to replace Stitch’s Great Escape at Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, but there has been no further news on this. Many people also wish for Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland Speedway to be rethemed to Sugar Rush, but this is also not confirmed. A real Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade game was built, though, for guests to play within Disneyland’s Tomorrowland[11]. These machines have since been removed.
Recently, it was announced that Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters at Tokyo Disneyland will be closing at the end of 2024. The area will house an attraction themed to Wreck-It Ralph instead, with an apparent storyline around defeating sugary bugs that have taken over the Sugar Rush game, courtesy of the evil King Candy. This indoor interactive attraction is due to open in 2026.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Wreck-It Ralph turned out to be a hugely successful film, becoming the 14th largest film of 2012 at the worldwide box office, which is good going, seeing as releases from Pixar had been dwarfing those from Disney Animation for years. It’s even more impressive when you consider that audiences loved it despite it not being a traditional Disney movie with the usual format and structure, like the popular movies of Disney’s “Renaissance Era”. It cemented the future of Disney Animation, which, more or less, is still continuing today[12].
Though Wreck-It Ralph is an entertaining film, with a clever concept, memorable characters, and amusing jokes, it is also a journey of self-discovery. It reminds us that we shouldn’t let labels define us; we are all different and we aren’t just one thing, or one emotion, all the time. As the “Bad-Anon” meeting motto goes: “I’m bad and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no-one I’d rather be than me.”
Wreck-It Ralph teaches its viewers to accept themselves as they are, just as Ralph and Vanellope learn to do, and if the gaming theme doesn’t already pull you in, then Disney hoped that message would do it instead. It certainly worked with me!
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.
[2] Credit: Chris Morgan, ’20 facts you might not know about ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, YardBarker.com, 11th November 2022.
[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.
[4] Credit: Disney, “Bit by Bit: Creating the Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).
[5] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7th November 2022.
[6] Credit: Disney, “Bit by Bit: Creating the Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).
[7] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).
[8] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7th November 2022.
[9] Credit: Chris Morgan, ’20 facts you might not know about ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, YardBarker.com, 11th November 2022.
[10] Credit: Christopher Orr, ‘‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Aims for Pixar…and Misses’, The Atlantic (online), 2nd November 2012.
[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.
[12] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7th November 2022.
The Disney Purist 