Disney Revival Rundown: ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ 

Welcome to the Disney Revival Rundown! This week, we at Rotoscopers are analyzing some of the most recent Disney animated films, and what makes each one so great. At the end of the series, we will have a fan vote to determine which is the best of them all!

is probably one of Disney’s biggest surprises over the last few years. The film was Disney’s first non-fairytale CG film that convinced me that Disney was capable of telling a great original story not based off a fairytale and opened the door to many more risky projects like

”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.”

is one of those Disney films that has been in development for quite some time before it eventually hit the big screen in 2012. The concept for the film was originally developed in the late 80s. It didn’t work out and over the years Disney reworked the story several times. In the 90s the film was called

) joined the team the film really started to come together to become the movie we all know and love today. While all the old versions of the film were completely different from one another, it looks like

isn’t the first non-fairytale Disney film in our Disney Revival Rundown series, it’s probably the film that stands out most next to

. The film manages to tell an incredibly fun and original story in a rather clever way. And even though the concept is very similar to Pixar’s

Disney managed to give their own spin on the concept and make it work. Another strength of this film is that it appeals to many target audiences. It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl, if you’re 9 or 55 years old, if you’re a big gamer or if you haven’t played a game in years, this film has characters that will appeal to different kinds of people and has a story that will connect with different people in many different ways.

The film has a great set of characters and amazing group of voice actors. Because most of the voice actors are comedians they got to do a lot of improvisation in group recording sessions, which led to a lot of fantastic improvised lines. The voices fit the characters amazingly and the main characters look like they were designed after their voice actors. By having a character like Ralph and Vanelloppe as friends and Felix and Calhoun as a couple, Disney created some interesting dynamics that we hadn’t really seen before in a Disney film.

so great is its incredible production design and animation. I have to admit that many Disney films over the last few years had quite a fantastic art direction, but once again

stands out.  For this film they had to create four completely different worlds that looked and felt unique from one another, as opposed to designing one world that looked and felt believable. The amazing crew behind the film managed to design characters that all looked like they came from their respective worlds, from the angular and cartoony looking Ralph to the hyper-realistic looking Sergeant Calhoun. By assigning different art directors to each world, they incorporated different design styles and ideas into the different worlds. The animators also managed to create different movement for each and every character. The Nicelanders move very blocky, like they would in a 8-bit game from 30 years ago, and the soldiers in Hero’s Duty move as realistically as they would in a modern first person shooter game.

is that it has tons of game cameos and the main games in the film, Fix-It Felix Jr., Hero’s Duty, and Sugar Rush, are based off actual real life games but they don’t actually use real game characters and worlds as the main setting of the film. By introducing the new characters, fans of the actual games don’t get upset about how the characters they love are portrayed in this film, but rather enjoy a fun film about new characters featuring cameos from the game characters they love. By using some existing games in the film, we also got some other clever moments, like Ralph going to Tappers to get a drink after an exhausting day of work and the Bad-Anon meeting held inside the little Pac-Man room.

managed to become a huge success. The film made $471,222,889 in the worldwide box office and critics loved it. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award, but lost it to Pixar’s

In various interviews, Rich Moore has revealed that he is interested in doing a

sequel. He discussed possible story lines and game characters that could make a cameos in the sequel. Moore revealed that he is interested in exploring online gaming in a possible sequel and that he would love to have the characters Mario and Tron make cameos in the sequel. According to several sources the sequel’s story is currently being developed.

, a sequel just isn’t necessary. Every time I watch the film, I leave satisfied and happy and I’ve never really felt the need for more adventures with these characters. All the characters are very well developed and I would prefer to see Disney brings us films with new stories and characters rather than rehashing films that were perfect already.

is probably the most unique, original, and fun film Disney released in the last few years. The film turned out to be a huge success thanks to its great characters, clever story, and fun cameos.  It is one of the films that opened the door to more risky projects like last year’s

. This is the film that convinced many people that Disney could do more than just great fairytale musicals, the film that truly convinced me that Disney Animation is back, and the film that made me very excited to see what the future will bring for the Walt Disney Animation Studios.

My favorite thing about this movie was its focus on Friendship. There’s nothing wrong with romance but friendship is also worth writing about. Also, Jennifer Lee is awesome. And Brave taking home the Academy Award is one of the most frustrating things that I’ve seen.

I love this movie but after viewing it multiple times I found that most people like it for 2 things. 1 is the cameos, that’s what was publicized the most and 2nd is really the intro and the ending. The middle is the one big negative because once they land in Sugar Rush the film just slows down immensely. Plus the abundance of Candy Jokes made it feel like a different film. And I find it sad that most people just like the film cause of the cameos alone, or call it the best modern Disney film because they can’t get their nostalgia glasses off to see a good story.

I was so shocked by how much I loved this movie! I mean I loved the heart it has and every time I watch it I just totally laugh and cry almost every time I mean its that good!!

This is one of the Disney films that I watch the most, it has excellent replay value.

It did sting a little that it didn’t bring home the Oscar (though it was nice to see Pixar recover from Cars 2) but that shouldn’t make anyone think less of this film. It’s fun, smart and has a lot of really good messages for young and old. Quintessential Disney.

I found it strange that one of Pixars weaker films beated out one of Disneys stronger films at the Oscars.

Wreck-It-Ralph has better characterizations and story than Brave. Maybe that Brave has more universal appeal, as the story and ”not so complex” characters are more familiar for a wide audience. Srsly, wasn’t Pixar supposed to do pretty risky, but unique stories back then? (Im optimistic for Inside Out, TGD and some upcoming sequels however.) Wreck-It-Ralphs theme is pretty niche who is not that appealing for a wide audience, but mostly for gamers.

I don’t disagree, Wreck-it Ralph is a better film but Brave is still pretty good and I guess it had the academy voters on its side. I’d like to see Big Hero 6 win this year to make amends.

Thats very likely that Big Hero 6 or HTTYD2 is going for the win, mostly because the academy voters prefer the more highlighting mainstream-films than the more exotic ones like Song of the Sea and Princess Kaguya according to this source: http://tinyurl.com/oscar-votes-cartoonbrew

But thats another story. The most important thing for the non-winners like Wreck-It-Ralph and Princess Kaguya will be remembered for many decades to come for good reasons. (Im still awaiting for the scandinavian DVD-release of Princess Kaguya)

For me, Wreck-It-Ralph is my personal favorite of the Disney Revival. I really like how the characters are written, especially Ralph. Ralph as a multidimensional character and the process of his character development does alot what makes the story work.

The settings are very creative, but settings should have been bigger and the video game theme even more universal. Most of the story is centralized around the arcade/8-bit era of video games. The movie could have explored the gaming subject on a even bigger scale. (Maybe too much for the movie it self, but that would work for the sequel. HTTYD2-vibes?)

Wreck-it Ralph is one of the Disney’s finest animated feature films. The worlds in Wreck-it Ralph is so beautiful and diverse. I just can’t stop loving it!

It’s funny, this movie’s playing on ABC Family right now as I type this (and they’ve strangely hacked the crap out of it too – little bits keep getting cut out, and they surprisingly even cut out the “Felix tries to break the bars on the window/Why do I fix everything I touch?” scene completely – the reason might be that the film has a 2 hour slot and they just HAVE to make room for commercials).

I think this film is alright. I really like the concept, and the world Disney creates inside the arcade is possibly the most creative world I’ve ever seen in a Disney film – all the interconnected worlds, each with their own personality and look – I’d much rather return to this universe over Arendelle. It really makes me scratch my head reading some negative comments on this film across the internet merely writing it off as a “formulaic bore” or “thoroughly forgettable” when it has such an interesting setting.

Then again, when most of that setting is left behind for the majority of the film in favor of a somewhat-standard candy-themed setting, it kind of makes sense. I agree with a comment below saying it slows down considerably once it reaches Sugar Rush. I hate to say it, but after the fun first ten minutes in SR, it starts to get somewhat dull for me – there’s just not enough unique about it to keep my intrigue I had with the first act. While it doesn’t abandon the video-game conceit at that point, something just feels kind of plodding to me about the second act – it feels lacking in energy. And then the “Shut Up and Drive” montage hits, and… really, they couldn’t have stayed out of corporate family film territory and done something more creative than a run-of-the-mill training montage with the first song the filmmakers could find with the word “drive” in the title? It seems like a minor nitpick, but it really bugs me.

This probably bothers me more than others, but I think it feels especially formulaic as it gets to the third act, (SPOILERS) right down to the trademark Disney magic-sparkly revitalization of Sugar Rush when it resets. (END SPOILERS) I know this is a Disney film, but I kind of wish it had broken out of that mold a little more than it did – it certainly starts out that way (that zombie-heart-rip-out made my jaw drop when I saw this in theaters the first time) but then by the end with the irredeemably-evil over-the-top villain and damsel-in-distress needing to be saved (I know, the general set-up is in a lot of movies, it just felt kind of tired to me here), it feels too typical to me – it does bring what people want out of a typical Disney film, but I wanted something a little different. The story is fine – I think my main hang-up, other than the familiar “betrayal” trope, is the focus on racing, which strikes me as somewhat been-there-done-that – the other things going on in the film don’t feel like enough to change this for me.

Overall, I think it’s decent, cute, pleasant enough, and unfortunately a little forgettable, which, given this concept, really does shock me, but I think the major focus on a less-memorable candy-world is the main culprit. I don’t want to sound heartless, I did see it twice in theaters when it came out, and I do still find parts of it genuinely sweet, but looking back after the initial hype, the overall product leaves me a little “hmm…” Not bad, just not great – and I hope they can make a sequel or something to give this world further exploration.

I can’t wait to see the review for BH6! I’m so looking forward to the Oscars tonight!

A lot of people take issue with the fact that it kind of shifts from Ralph to Vanellope…and if I hated her, I would completely understand. She’s actually my favorite Disney character period, so I’m okay with it.

Overall it seems to have been shunted to the back burner. Couldn’t find a lick of merch for it last year at Disney World, you’d think it came out in the 70’s. A sequel would be interesting, but not really necessary. Unless it was a television show.

It’s been almost two years (to the day!) and i’m still bitter about Brave winning…this movie would have been better but personally I was pulling for ParaNorman.

I didn’t like this movie so much the first time I saw it mainly because I found Vanellope too bratty and rude.

Sadly, watching in 2015 was a bad idea. Not only did I laugh less than I used to, but it just came off as a mean-spirited attempt by WDAS at being hip like everyone else trying to be DreamWorks, toilet humour, out-of-place product placement and all, with no time to put the Game Central Station to reasonable use. I didn’t even laugh this time. Every single joke became outdated quickly.

Eh, I prefer Frozen, which too forced in some toilet humour to get that PG rating but felt more like a true Disney film otherwise.

I can agree with this – I actually watched Frozen and this film back to back and really enjoyed Frozen more (despite my issues with it). Some aspects, especially Jane Lynch as Sgt. Calhoun, already felt dated despite being only two years old, and those crude humor moments with Ralph’s halitosis or “vurping” really didn’t do it for me – even the gaming references felt kind of forced: why is an NES controller in a 1997 game made by fictional company? How does Ralph know who Lara Croft is when she’s never been in an arcade game? It also felt really formulaic and forgettable in general compared to Frozen’s grand scope. Ultimately, I think it was better when it was new and hyped-up, now it’s just kind of okay to me – I don’t know if I can really see it being a beloved classic in 10 years (but that’s just me).

Don Hall & Chris Williams: ‘Big Hero 6′ Sequel a Possibility, But Not Yet in Development

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