Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph is a 2012 American 3D computer-animated fantasy-comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 52nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The film was directed by Rich Moore, who has directed episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama, and the screenplay was written by Jennifer Lee and Phil Johnston from a story by Moore, Johnston and Jim Reardon. John Lasseter served as the executive producer. The film features the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch. The film tells the story of the eponymous arcade game villain who rebels against his role and dreams of becoming a hero. He travels between games in the arcade, and ultimately must eliminate a dire threat that could affect the entire arcade, and one that Ralph himself inadvertently started.

Wreck-It Ralph premiered at the El Capitan Theatre on October 29, 2012, and went into general release on November 2. The film has earned $471 million in worldwide box office revenue, $189 million of which was earned in the United States and Canada; it was met with critical and commercial success, winning the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and receiving nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Wreck-It Ralph was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 5, 2013.

Plot
When Litwak's Arcade closes at night, the various video game characters leave their normal in-game roles and are free to travel through the power cables. The characters within Fix-It Felix, Jr. celebrate its titular hero, but loathe its villain, Wreck-It Ralph. At a support group for game villains, Ralph reveals his desire to stop being a villain. Isolated from his game's 30th anniversary celebration, Ralph believes he can be accepted by earning a medal, just as Felix does in their game. He learns he can find one in the first person rail shooter Hero's Duty and enters the game. He collects the medal between game sessions, but accidentally hatches a Cy-Bug, one of the game's enemies, which clings to Ralph as he stumbles into an escape pod that launches him out of the game. Meanwhile, with Ralph missing, a player reports Fix-It Felix, Jr. to Mr. Litwak, who marks it as malfunctioning. Fearing that the game will be unplugged, leaving its characters homeless, Felix leaves to find Ralph.

Ralph crash-lands in Sugar Rush, a candy-themed kart-racing game. As he searches for his medal, he meets Vanellope von Schweetz, a glitchy character who uses the medal to buy entry into a race that determines the game's daily roster. The other racers, including the game's ruler King Candy, refuse to let Vanellope participate, saying that she was never intended to be part of the game. Sympathetic toward the friendless Vanellope, Ralph helps build her a kart and teaches her how to drive. Meanwhile, Felix enters Hero's Duty and encounters Sergeant Calhoun, the game's no-nonsense leader, who warns that Cy-Bugs will destroy any game they enter. As the pair search for Ralph and the Cy-Bug in Sugar Rush, they separate when Felix, enamored with Calhoun, inadvertently reminds her of her late fiancé. Calhoun finds an enormous clutch of Cy-Bug eggs underground, and Felix becomes imprisoned in King Candy's castle.

Desperate, King Candy hacks the game's code to retrieve Ralph's medal and offers it to him, claiming that letting Vanellope race would be disastrous for both her and the game. Fearing for her safety, Ralph wrecks her kart and returns to his own game, but finds everyone has fled, expecting the game to be unplugged in the morning. Ralph then notices Vanellope's image on the Sugar Rush cabinet and realizes King Candy lied to him. He returns to Sugar Rush, rescues Felix and Vanellope, and has Felix fix the wrecked kart, allowing Vanellope to enter the race. When she catches up to King Candy, her glitching reveals that he is actually Turbo, a rogue character from an older racing game who sabotaged a newer game out of jealousy, causing both to be unplugged. As the two race, the Cy-Bug eggs suddenly hatch and begin to consume the game. Vanellope escapes from Turbo, who is consumed by a Cy-Bug.

The populace flees Sugar Rush, but Vanellope cannot pass through the exit because she is a glitch. Calhoun remarks that the game cannot be saved without a beacon to attract and kill the Cy-Bugs. Ralph heads to Diet Cola Mountain, an unfinished game track, where he plans on collapsing its Mentos stalactites into its cola pool to cause a blinding eruption to use as a beacon. Before he can finish, Turbo, merged with the Cy-Bug that had consumed him, carries Ralph into the sky. Ralph breaks free and dives into the mountain, intending to sacrifice himself to start the eruption on impact. Vanellope uses her glitching to save Ralph, and the eruption draws Turbo and the Cy-Bugs to their destruction. Vanellope crosses the finish line, restoring her memory and status as Princess Vanellope, the game's ruler and lead character. Felix and Ralph return to their game in time to save it from being unplugged. Calhoun and Felix marry, and the characters of Fix-It Felix, Jr. gain a new respect for Ralph.

Cast



 * John C. Reilly as Wreck-It Ralph, the villain of Fix-It Felix, Jr.
 * Sarah Silverman as Vanellope von Schweetz, a racer/glitch in Sugar Rush
 * Jack McBrayer as Fix-It Felix, Jr., the hero of Fix-It Felix, Jr.
 * Jane Lynch as Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun, the lead character of Hero's Duty
 * Alan Tudyk as King Candy, the ruler of Sugar Rush/Turbo, the former star racer of TurboTime. King Candy's vocal stylings are based on comedian Ed Wynn.
 * Mindy Kaling as Taffyta Muttonfudge, a racer in Sugar Rush
 * Joe Lo Truglio as Markowski, a soldier from Hero's Duty that Ralph meets in Tapper's
 * Ed O'Neill as Mr. Litwak, owner of Litwak's Family Fun Center & Arcade
 * Dennis Haysbert as General Hologram, a general in Hero's Duty
 * Adam Carolla as Wynnchel, an éclair who is a member of the Sugar Rush police station
 * Horatio Sanz as Duncan, a doughnut who is a member of the Sugar Rush police station
 * Rich Moore as Sour Bill, King Candy's sour ball henchman

The cast also includes the Fix-It Felix, Jr Nicelanders, Edie McClurg as Mary, Raymond Persi as Mayor Gene, Jess Harnell as Don, Rachael Harris as Deanna, and Skylar Astin as Roy; Katie Lowes as Candlehead, Jamie Elman as Rancis Fluggerbutter, Josie Trinidad as Jubileena Bing-Bing, and Cymbre Walk as Crumbelina DiCaramello, racers in Sugar Rush; Phil Johnston as Surge Protector, Game Central Station security; Stefanie Scott as Moppet Girl, a young arcade-game player John DiMaggio as Beard Papa, the security guard at the Sugar Rush candy-kart factory; Raymond Persi as a Zombie, Brian Kesinger as a Cyborg (based on Kano from Mortal Kombat); and Martin Jarvis as Saitine, a devil-like villain, who attend the Bad-Anon support group; Tucker Gilmore as the Sugar Rush Announcer; Brandon Scott as Kohut, a soldier in Hero's Duty; and Tim Mertens as Dr. Brad Scott, a scientist and Sgt. Calhoun's fiancé in Hero's Duty (voiced by Nick Grimshaw in the UK release).

The film features several cameos from real world video game characters including: Root Beer Tapper (Maurice LaMarche), the bartender from Tapper; Sonic the Hedgehog (Roger Craig Smith); Ryu (Kyle Hebert), Ken Masters (Reuben Langdon), M. Bison (Gerald C. Rivers), and Zangief (Rich Moore) from Street Fighter II; Clyde (Kevin Deters) from Pac-Man; and Yuni Verse (Jamie Sparer Roberts) from Dance Dance Revolution. A character modeled after dubstep musician Skrillex makes an appearance in Fix-It Felix, Jr. as the DJ at the anniversary party of the game.

Video game cameos and references


In addition to the spoken roles, Wreck-It Ralph contains a number of other video game references, including characters and visual gags. The video game villains at the support meeting, in addition to those mentioned above, include: Bowser from the Mario franchise, Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Neff from Altered Beast. Additionally, the game cabinet of the Fix It Felix, Jr. arcade game is stylized to strongly resemble the cabinet of the original Nintendo Donkey Kong arcade game, with Ralph and Felix taking similar poses as Donkey Kong and Mario, respectively. Characters from Q*bert, including Q*bert, Coily, Slick, Sam, and Ugg, are shown as "homeless" characters and later taken in by Ralph and Felix into their game (Q*bert also speaks to Felix at one point using the signature synthesized gibberish and word-balloon symbols from his game, called Q*bert-ese). Scenes in Game Central Station and Tapper's bar include Chun-Li, Cammy, and Blanka from Street Fighter, Pac-Man, Blinky, Pinky, and Inky from Pac-Man, the Paperboy from Paperboy, the two paddles and the ball from Pong, Dig Dug, a Pooka, and a Fygar from Dig Dug, The Qix from Qix, Frogger from Frogger, and Peter Pepper from BurgerTime. Additionally, Lara Croft and Mario are referenced, but not seen.

Additional references are based on sight gags. The residents of Niceland and the bartender from Tapper are animated using a jerky motion that spoofs the limited animation cycles of the sprites of many eight- and sixteen-bit arcade games. King Candy uses the Konami Code on an NES controller to access the programming of Sugar Rush. Throughout Game Central Station is graffiti that includes "Aerith lives" (referencing the character of Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII), "All your base are belong to us" (an Engrish phrase popularized from the game Zero Wing), "Sheng Long Was Here" (referencing an April Fool's joke around a made-up character Sheng Long from Street Fighter), and "Jenkins" (a nod to the popular Leeroy Jenkins meme from World of Warcraft). There is also a reference to the Metal Gear series when Ralph is searching for a medal in Tapper's Lost and found, finding first a Super Mushroom from the Mario franchise, and then Metal Gear's "Exclamation point" (with the corresponding sound effect from the game). Mr. Litwak wears a black and white striped referee's shirt, a nod to the iconic outfit of Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day. One of the songs in the credits is an original work from Buckner and Garcia, previously famous for writing video game-themed songs in the 1980s. The Walt Disney Animation Studios opening logo is animated in an 8-bit pixelated fashion, whereas the Walt Disney Pictures closing production logo appears in a glitched state, a reference to the kill screen from many early arcade games such as Pac-Man.

Production
The concept of Wreck-It Ralph was first developed at Disney in the late 1980s, under the working title High Score. Since then, it was redeveloped and reconsidered several times: In the late 1990s, it took on the working title Joe Jump, then in the mid-2000s as Reboot Ralph.

John Lasseter, the head of Walt Disney Animation Studios and executive producer of the film, describes Wreck-It Ralph as "an 8-bit video-game bad guy who travels the length of the arcade to prove that he’s a good guy." In a manner similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Toy Story films, Wreck-It Ralph featured cameo appearances by a number of licensed video-game characters. For example, one scene from the film shows Ralph attending a support group for the arcade's various villain characters, including Clyde from Pac-Man, Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Bowser from Super Mario Bros. Rich Moore, the film's director, had determined that for a film about a video-game world to feel authentic, "it had to have real characters from real games in it." Moore aimed to add licensed characters in a similar manner as cultural references in Looney Tunes shorts, but considered "having the right balance so a portion of the audience didn’t feel they were being neglected or talked down to." However, Moore avoided creating the movie around existing characters, feeling that "there’s so much mythology and baggage attached to pre-existing titles that I feel someone would be disappointed," and considered this to be a reason why movies based on video game franchises typically fail. Instead, for Ralph, the development of new characters representative of the 8-bit video game was "almost like virgin snow," giving them the freedom to take these characters in new directions.

Before production, the existing characters were added to the story either in places they would make sense to appear, or as cameos from a list of characters suggested by the film's creative team, without consideration if they would legally be able to use the characters. The company then sought out the copyright holders' permissions to use the characters, as well as working with these companies to assure their characters were being represented authentically. In the case of Nintendo, the writers had early on envisioned the Bad-anon meeting with Bowser as a major character within the scene; according to Moore, Nintendo was very positive towards this use, stating in Moore's own words, "If there is a group that is dedicated to helping the bad guy characters in video games then Bowser must be in that group!" Nintendo had asked that the producers try to devise a scene that would be similarly appropriate for Mario for his inclusion in the film. Despite knowing they would be able to use the character, the producers could not find an appropriate scene that would let Mario be a significant character without taking away the spotlight from the main story, and opted to not include the character. Moore debunked a rumor that Mario and his brother character Luigi were not included due to Nintendo requesting too high a licensing fee, stating that the rumor grew out of a joke John C. Reilly made at Comic-Con. Dr. Wily from Mega Man was going to appear, but was cut from the final version of the film. Overall, there are about 188 individual character models in the movie as a result of these cameo inclusions.

An earlier draft of the screenplay had Ralph and Vanellope spending time going around the game world to collect the pieces for her kart for Sugar Rush, and at times included Felix traveling with the pair. During these scenes, Ralph would have lied to Felix regarding his budding relationship with Calhoun, leading eventually to Ralph becoming depressed and abandoning his quest to get his medal back. At this point, a fourth game world, Extreme Easy Living 2, would have been introduced and was considered a "hedonistic place" between the social nature of The Sims and the open-world objective-less aspects of Grand Theft Auto, according to Moore. Ralph would go there to, wallowing in his depression, and would find happiness by gaining "Like It" buttons for doing acceptable actions in the party-like nature of the place. Moore stated that while it was difficult to consider dropping this new game world, they found that its introduction in the second half of the film would be too difficult a concept for the viewer to grasp. They further had trouble working out how a social game would be part of an arcade, and though they considered having the game be running on Litwak's laptop, they ultimately realized that justifying the concept would be too convoluted. Line art sketches and voiceover readings of the scene were included on the home media release of the film.

The film introduced Disney's new bidirectional reflectance distribution functions, with more realistic reflections on surfaces, and new virtual cinematography Camera Capture system, which makes it possible to go through scenes in real-time. To research the Sugar Rush segment of the film, the visual development group traveled to trade fair ISM Cologne, a See's Candy factory, and other manufacturing facilities. The group also brought in food photographers, to demonstrate techniques to make food appear appealing. Special effects, including from "smoke or dust," looks distinct in each of the segments.

Release


The film was originally scheduled for a release on March 22, 2013, but it was later changed to November 2, 2012 due to it being ahead of schedule. The theatrical release was accompanied by Disney's Oscar-winning, animated short film Paperman.

Marketing
The first trailer for Wreck-It Ralph was released on June 6, 2012, debuting with Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Rock of Ages. This also coincided with the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo, for which Disney constructed a mock aged arcade cabinet for the fictional Fix-It Felix, Jr. game on display on the show floor. Disney also released a browser-based Flash-based version of the Fix-It Felix, Jr. game as well as iOS and Android versions, with online Unity-based versions of Sugar Rush and Hero's Duty. A second trailer for the film was released on September 12, 2012, coinciding with Finding Nemo 3D and Frankenweenie.

To promote the Blu-ray/DVD release of Wreck-It Ralph, director Rich Moore produced a short film titled Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives. Set within the movie's universe, the mockumentary film was designed as a parody of The King of Kong.

Home media
Wreck-It Ralph was released on Blu-ray Disc (2D and 3D) and DVD in North America on March 5, 2013 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. The film was made available for digital download in selected regions on February 12, 2013. Wreck-It Ralph debuted at #1 in Blu-ray and DVD sales in the United States.

Box office performance
Wreck-It Ralph grossed $189,422,889 in North America, and $281,800,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $471,222,889. It is the 14th-highest-grossing film of 2012, the fourth-highest-grossing 2012 animated film, and the fifth-highest-grossing film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.

In North America, the film debuted with $13.5 million, an above-average opening-day gross for an animated film released in November. During its opening weekend, the film topped the box office with $49.0 million, making it the largest opening for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film until 2013, when it was surpassed by Frozen ($67.4 million).

Outside North America, Wreck-It Ralph earned $12 million on its opening weekend from six markets. Among all markets, its three largest openings were recorded in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($7.15 million), Brazil ($5.32 million with weekday previews), and Russia and the CIS ($5.27 million). In total grosses, the three largest markets were the UK, Ireland and Malta ($36.2 million), Japan ($29.6 million), and Australia ($24.0 million).

Critical response
Wreck-It Ralph received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 86% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 168 reviews, with an average score of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads: "Equally entertaining for both kids and parents old enough to catch the references, Wreck-It Ralph is a clever, colorful adventure built on familiar themes and joyful nostalgia." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 72 based on 36 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The film earned an "A" from audiences polled by CinemaScore.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, "More than in most animated films, the art design and color palette of Wreck-It Ralph permit unlimited sets, costumes and rules, giving the movie tireless originality and different behavior in every different cyber world." A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "The movie invites a measure of cynicism – which it proceeds to obliterate with a 93-minute blast of color, noise, ingenuity and fun." Peter Debruge of Variety stated, "With plenty to appeal to boys and girls, old and young, Walt Disney Animation Studios has a high-scoring hit on its hands in this brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed toon, earning bonus points for backing nostalgia with genuine emotion." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times said, "The movie's subversive sensibility and old-school/new-school feel are a total kick," while Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "With a mix of retro eye-candy for grown-ups and a thrilling, approachable storyline for the tykes, the film casts a wide and beguiling net." Conversely, Christopher Orr of The Atlantic found it "overplotted and underdeveloped."

Soundtrack
The film's score was composed by Henry Jackman. The soundtrack also features original songs by Owl City, AKB48, Skrillex, and Buckner & Garcia.

Video games
In addition to the Flash version of the Fix-It Felix, Jr. game, Disney released a tie-in side-scrolling platform game called Wreck-It Ralph for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo DS, to mostly negative reviews. The arcade style side-scrolling game was produced in collaboration between Disney Interactive and Activision and serves as a "story extension" to the film. Taking place following the events of the film, players may play as Wreck-It Ralph or Fix-It Felix, causing or repairing damage, respectively, following another Cy-Bug incident. Game levels are based on the locations in the film like the Fix-It Felix, Jr., Hero's Duty, and Sugar Rush games as well as Game Central Station. It was released in conjunction with the film's release, in November 2012.

In October 2012, Disney released fully playable browser-based versions of the Hero's Duty and Sugar Rush games on the new official film site. A mobile game titled Wreck-it Ralph was released in November 2012 for iOS and Android systems, with a Windows Phone 8 version following almost a year later. Initially, the game consisted of three mini-games, Fix-it Felix Jr., Hero's Duty and Sweet Climber, which were later joined by Turbo Time and Flight Command. The game was retired on August 29, 2014.

Ralph also appears in Sega's Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed as a playable guest character. Ralph and Vanellope appear as playable characters in Disney Infinity as well; the Disney Store released their individual figures on January 7, 2014. A combo "toy box pack" of the two figures with Sugar Rush customization discs was released April 1, 2014 from the Disney Store.

Future plans
In an interview on October 25, 2012, director Rich Moore said that he and Disney have ideas about a sequel that would bring the characters up to date and explore online gaming and console gaming. Moore stated that many of the crew and voice cast are open to the sequel, believing that they have "barely scratched the surface" of the video game world they envisioned. He also stated that he plans to include Mario and Tron in the sequel. In a 2014 interview, the film's composer Henry Jackman said that a story for the sequel is being written.