Wreck-It Ralph’s two lead characters are Ralph, a villain of 30 years in a Donkey Kong-style game called Fix-It Felix, and Vanellope Von Schweetz, a racer in a candy-themed Mario Kart take-off called Sugar Rush. Ralph is a bad guy dreaming of becoming a knight in shining armour, while Vanellope is a damsel in distress (she suffers from a ‘glitch’ and is picked on by the other girls) who dreams of a seemingly impossible life. The hero and heroine are in place, and they are living in their own personal ‘ordinary’ worlds.
Ralph is repeatedly told that being bad is inherant to his identity. Even at the Villains Anonymous meeting he attends at the start of the film he is forced to accept this message through the group’s affirmation, “I’m bad, and that’s good. I’ll never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.” He is called to action to be more than he is good. His original quest is to get a gold medal, which he associates with being a hero and not a bad guy.
Vanellope, whose essential nature as a glitch makes it impossible for her to transcend her position in life. The only way for her to get rid of her glitch and become ‘complete’ is to participate in a race, but if she does that, the gamers playing in the real world will think the game’s broken. The game will be shut off and Vanellope, whose glitch makes it impossible for her to leave the game, will die with it. Both she and Ralph are hopelessly trapped by the identities enforced upon them, both waiting to cross the threshold and be called into their adventures.
Both act as a mentor to eachother, both understanding what it means to be alone. Keeping things in order is the film’s antagonist, King Candy (later revealed to be game-hopping retro racer Turbo), has adjusted Sugar Rush’s code to wipe the kingdom’s citizens’ memories and infect Vanellope with her glitch. Candy provides both Venallope and Ralph with a number of challenges, some easily identified and some more sneaky. He also leaves ralph with a life-changing decision, an ordeal of epic proportions, allowing the re-birth metaphorically of Ralphs choices.
In Wreck-It Ralph’s final act, Vanellope is taking part in a race that will decide which of Sugar Rush’s characters will be available as playable avatars to the gamers the next day. However, the race may not be finished, because the CyBug that Ralph inadvertantly brought in from Hero’s Duty when he landed in Sugar Rush has bred, and its offspring have taken over the Sugar Rush kingdom.
The film concludes with the game being reset and the destruction inflicted by the CyBugs being undone. Peace is restored to Sugar Rush, just as it is in Sleeping Beauty, and Vanellope’s true, regal identity is revealed. Her reward is being able to race, while ralphs is accepting himself for who he is – a bad guy with a good heart. They return to their normal lives, however with a new approach to every-day society.
The first moral of this story is a simple but important one – it’s about not treating people like single dimensional characters (all the more eloquently expressed by the use of characters in a video game).
The second moral that comes through the film: Not to let others define you. When we fixate on what others think of us and see ourselves through their eyes all the time, we give them a lot of power over us. We need to be ready to define ourselves and break free of imposed stereotypes.
The third there is the value of breaking out of our comfort zone. That it is too easy to get used to the way we do things and get things done. That there is much to be learned and gained from trying a new way to achieve our objectives, even though that new way and those new experiences may scare us at first. being careful when you think you’re doing something for someone else’s own good, and recognizing the value of other people’s life experience.
One of the biggest challenges was the different worlds, mostly because they were so different in design language. For each one we had this notion that you had to feel you went into one Cineplex and then came out and went into another one. It was something John Lassetter was very specific on – he wanted each world to feel very unique and very different. The lighters working on Wreck-It Ralph could experiment using a new rendering system dubbed Figaro that provided interactive, real-time lighting. “It has the new BRDF, our new materials, and the area lights in it,” Lusinsky says. Early in production, the lighting team, then about five artists, began working with the layout artists creating animatics.
This piece is exemplary because it takes a spin on the whole idea of a ‘bad guy’, and sometimes video game villains aren’t inherently bad. While it doesn’t follow the monomyth to a point, it successfully blends new techniques and styles with older, more classic ‘disney’. Along with this, Ralph, Felix, Sergeant Calhoun, and Vanellope von Schweetz spans multiple game genres and periods of history from the 8- Bit beginnings (Wreck-It Ralph) to the kart racing ’90s (Candy Crush) to the current high definition first-person shooters of today (Hero’s Duty).
These are very different game worlds that open up cool bonuses that gamers (and most people today do play games) can enjoy, and combines a range of ages – making it a movie for more than one age group.
