A 3D computer animated film from former
American director of The Simpsons and
Futurama, Rich Moore, for
in-house Walt Disney Animation Studios (who recently released the fabulous
Bolt and Tangled) couldn’t be a disappointment.
After a hard day at the office (or inside a
video console for this matter), the lights go off in the building (or in the
games arcade) and the workers go home (as the characters of the video game Fix-It Felix, who stop acting for the
gamers and go home after a long day at work). They all pass through Central
Station, a central hub where all the games consoles connect, traveling through
the physical cables of the consoles where the games’ characters get their last
train to go home. Felix (Jack McBrayer, Kenneth from 30 Rock), the hero of this game, goes to his penthouse, and Ralph
(voiced by John C. Reilly), the game’s villain goes to the dumps where he
sleeps. But Ralph is tired of living in the dumps. He is tired of being the
villain and wants to be ‘the good guy’ like Felix. So he embarks on an
adventure to win a medal (only with a medal will he be accepted by his Fix-It
Felix colleagues as ‘the good guy’), breaking the rules of gaming and entering other
games which are not his. A bunch of characters from other consoles also end up
in Sugar Rush, a karting game in a
landscape of sweets where chocolate lakes abound, looking for Ralph and the
Cy-Bug, who infiltrated the game, to
prevent it from damaging the system. Jane Lynch (Glee) voices Sergeant Tamora
Jean Calhoun, a tough sergeant looking for the Cy-Bug, who ends up falling in
love with Felix. And Sarah Silverman plays Venellope, a glitch in Sugar Rush
who Ralph tries to help win her much desired race.
I confess that I still like cartoons and children's movies - it's one of my I'm-still-a-child-kind-of-moments that makes me feel I'm still a kid, with no problems, no bills, no job to go to... I'm just a child for that hour and a half, and I can roll into a ball as if I was on my mum's lap and nothing would hurt me, and watch those colourful characters (not the factual pale ugly colours of real life pictures with skin and bone) bump their nose against a wall and laugh at it. But this is not just a children's movie. You don’t have to like video games or animation
to like this film. If you value originality and creativity this is the film for
you. It has been thought of to its most minimal detail with such an inventive
ability and meticulous creative attention that it’s a blast of imaginativeness.
From the counselling support group for all the villains in the games, who go to
therapy to talk about their problems, to the Coke hot springs with Mentos,
which make it bubble, to the setting and characters of Sugar Rush, such as the chocolate éclair dogs (their dribble being
the white cream of the eclairs) and Venellope’s car wheels which are made of cookies
or the trees like candy sticks or a homeless game character in Central Station
with a sign saying ‘unplugged’. For all of this and more, it’s worth to go see
it.
I confess that I still like cartoons and children's movies - it's one of my I'm-still-a-child-kind-of-moments that makes me feel I'm still a kid, with no problems, no bills, no job to go to... I'm just a child for that hour and a half, and I can roll into a ball as if I was on my mum's lap and nothing would hurt me, and watch those colourful characters (not the factual pale ugly colours of real life pictures with skin and bone) bump their nose against a wall and laugh at it. But this is not just a children's movie. You don’t have to like video games or animation
to like this film. If you value originality and creativity this is the film for
you. It has been thought of to its most minimal detail with such an inventive
ability and meticulous creative attention that it’s a blast of imaginativeness.
From the counselling support group for all the villains in the games, who go to
therapy to talk about their problems, to the Coke hot springs with Mentos,
which make it bubble, to the setting and characters of Sugar Rush, such as the chocolate éclair dogs (their dribble being
the white cream of the eclairs) and Venellope’s car wheels which are made of cookies
or the trees like candy sticks or a homeless game character in Central Station
with a sign saying ‘unplugged’. For all of this and more, it’s worth to go see
it. 
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