No man that totally happens irl.Originally Posted by Shauna
No man that totally happens irl.
Shauna only ranks Toy Story @ #18? I think we know who was behind the 9/11 attacks.
THANKS, SHAUNA.
But seriously thanks, that movie was alright but not #3 quality. I am with you all the way in it being a good movie but not really having too much to say on it.
Someday I'm gonna have to do a list like this for my own entertainment.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
Luckily we'll all have died of old age before it's finished.
Considering how many movies I'd have to watch, yeah, probably.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
Only 4 more entries with which to redeem yourselves at the current criminal omission of at least 2 films.
You may, or may not, be happy by the end of this list.
May not is probably much more likely, as we are unable to please everyone. Or anyone.
Also, if you chose to do something like this, there's only 50ish Disney classics and all the Pixar. NOT 2 MANY. We went above and beyond with the terrible sequels, but that was just for the laughs (and tears).
Yeah, Toy Story is just OK to me. Agreeing with Shauna: it has all of the elements of being something great, but it really lacks spirit or something. Toy Story 2 and 3 are wonderful, though.
On a complete sidenote, every time someone is talking with Aulayna and uses the word "May" repeatedly I giggle a little because one of her nicknames being May, short for her FFXIV character name Mayrissa Fablestay.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
These are both part of the 50ish classics.
I can understand if one of them isn't on there, but if the other one isn't on there then... I don't know if we can be friends anymore.
NO PRESSURE!
Maybe we can still be friends. We'll see.Tomorrow might be your day!
4.
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Matt ranked it at 1. Shauna ranked it at 16.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5
Matt: Right, it's game time. Get it, because this move is about video games, heh. I am funny, laugh. Anyways, this is my #1.
Wreck it Ralph for me is an exceptional movie. Minus the fact it has all the video game cameos and references it has at its heart it's all based on Video Games. When I had to decide if this would make number one I had to decide, does this beat away dogs to the #1 spot? It does. I'll break this down into categories cause this will be looooong... First the setting/environment and then the characters.
#1 – Setting / Environment
Starting off with the setting and environment this movie. Everything is based on a video game. It would be considering its set in an arcade. It's funny that I've never, and will never experience the joy of waking up early in the morning with a pocket full of change running to an arcade to play video games. It's primarily an American, 80s kid thing that I am neither of. For those wondering, this is another reason why I'm not a fan of retro gaming. I never had that connection until the N64 and I only saw games getting better at that point so why go back.
So being set in the arcade we see games come and go, but we only really see the environments of 4 Games. Fix it Felix Jnr, Tapper, Hero's Duty and Sugar Rush. One criticism I will hear about this movie and accept is that it's very narrow considering the multitude of games that it could contain, but it think it keeps the story concise. The area of Fix it Felix Jnr is linked to the retro gaming environment. Basic looking, basic gameplay. Nothing too taxing which is standard from 30 year old games. Tapper is the same, but we are only very briefly in this bar. Not much to say here.
Hero's Duty is where the movie opens up for me. Throwing Ralph into a modern game is amazing. Several things are contrasted from Wreck it Ralph here. Firstly, the gameplay is different from “one guy destroy a building” to “AN ARMY OF ALIEN BUGS WANTS TO DESTROY EVERYTHING”. Next the music, from charming loops of music to dubstep, Inclusion of guns and we see exactly how “violent and scary” games are these days. Comparing Hero’s Duty to Wreck it Ralph shows how much both gaming, and our culture has changed in the last 30 years.
Second big point of call here is Sugar Rush. There are three main things in sugar rush. Sweets, Go Karting and the Japanese Style. I'm not a major sweet nut, but Go Karting and Anime are two things that I've been brought up with and love to death. Mario Kart is my second favourite franchise behind Zelda, and I love seeing all the aspects I love about Mario Kart in Sugar Rush. Shortcuts, obstacles, weapons, ridiculous circuits it's all in there in the short time we actually see kart racing. One thing you may not have caught is that the song “Sugar Rush” is sung by Japanese idol group AK-0048. All of the characters are stylised to look like children but I believe this is a chibi art style employed by the artists which can be supported by the theme song being in Japanese. I'm a big fan of the entire sugar rush environment and everything about it, even if we spend 60%+ of the movie in there,
#2 – Characters
4 main characters, one main overarching villain. Standard format. Playing with the characters we have though is what makes the characters goods. I'll run down the list of my least to most favourite
King Candy
King Candy is a jerk wad. Ruling over the candy kingdom, he wants the game to run according to the program. This is the normal for most games, sticking to what they are designed for and rarely deviating from the path. King Candy is an enigma wrapped in a sugary outer layer. He wants the program to run smoothly, and needs to be the bad guy to do it. He does this by testing Ralph's resolve towards the end of the movie. Then that twist – that he was a virus that had affected sugar rush and knocked Vanellope out from her rightful place as ruler of the candy kingdom – at the end before the final boss. I actually didn't see if coming in the cinema when I first saw this and was genuinely surprised and shocked. It all plays well and goes to establish his power hungry character.
Fix it Felix Jnr.
I had a think about this. I feel that there isn't much to Felix's character, at least when compared to the others on this list of good guys. Felix is a nice guy, a supposed direct parallel to Ralph. Felix is down pretty low because outside of the interactions with the other characters, he doesn't really have a character himself. He's the one in this list that goes through the least development. He's nice to a fault and this gets him in trouble often, the moments that he does make an appearance are always either awkward or hilarious (see party / laffy taffy).
Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun
Not going to lie, I had to look up her name. I call her Space Marine Chick. If she heard me call her that though she would murder me. I have voiced my complaints about previous female Disney characters in that they traditionally have a lot of development before stepping aside at the last moment to let the men fight it out. Space Marine chick takes the helm as leader of her squadron and chases after danger herself. In scenes where she could be considered to act feminine (example – after the laffy taffy scene with Felix) she tends to brush them off and traditionally break the gender stereotype. Perhaps one of my favourite female Disney Females ever, just for the fact that she is totally in charge of every situation she's involved in.
Ralph
Ralph's not #1? Yeah, I love Vanellope but he's a close second. Ralph is the one on this list that goes through the most development. He starts the movie upset with his dead end job which is immediately relatable. He's hated for doing his job and wanted to be appreciated. Interacting with those people that he works for made it worse and he runs out to find something to win their approval. #officelyfe. Queue attempting to win reward elsewhere and failing, causing issues down the line before meeting Vanellope. Meeting Vanellope, lying to her about his intentions and then being wrecking everything in site until they come to a deal. Ralph finding an ally for the first time ever, breaking into the factory and destroying everything in sight in a great scene for me because Ralph thinks he's trashed everything again, but really he's created something just for Vanellope when she has nothing of her own. It's touching how excited over something that he thinks is a failure. His “Liar Reveal” stage where he's given his medal back by King Candy to realise his actions hurt everyone that depended on him before coming back and trying to resolve the issues. All before the Final Boss fight where Ralph gains the closure that he doesn't need the approval of everyone. Just one person is enough.
This is a great message, especially to me. As a nerdy kid, I feel like my childhood was terrible because I played games. I was an outcast and people would spend all their time hanging with their friends. For the longest time I thought my childhood was crap because of this, but I had friends that shared my interests so in retrospect, I too found the closure I needed to accept my childhood wasn't awful. Here's an interesting thing to note. Wreck it Ralph, Bolt and Toy Story are my top 3, and all are about closure of who you really are. Think about that.
Vanellope
Time for a massive wall o' text on Vanellope. Nah, I'm not gonna do that to you this time. Vanellope goes through two major scenes of development. 1 – Ralph wreck the car and she's upset. 2 – Ralph fixes the car and she forgives him. Other than that it's business as normal for her. Vanellope is a bratty kid, but in all the right ways. She's wise cracking, but also very childish. She's intelligent, but also cocky. She's easy to forgive and shows genuine excitement for most of the movie. She's a very genuine character. Consistently funny and just pulls it all back before she reaches into the “Annoying” category of bratty kids.
I've pretty much covered everything above related to story, but the story of accepting who you are is a big hit for me, and features as a key point in each of my top #3. Ralph accepting who he is and willing to sacrifice everything to save Vanellope, the one person that cared about him made me cry. The twist with King Candy actually caught me off guard, Generally Vanellope, Felix and Space Marine Chick doing their business, the video game references, the hidden messages, the ending credits, the music the EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS MOVIE. I do wonder “When will I see you again” Wreck it Ralph.
Shauna:Wreck-It Ralph. It is a movie that has lots of video game stuff in it. What more could you want from a movie?
I apparently wanted more from it as I ranked it anywhere except #1.
Nah, I think this a great little film. It is a bright and colourful movie, with characters that I couldn’t help but fall in love with, just a little bit. Although, Fix-It Felix could never be anyone except Kenneth the Page in my mind, which made for some interesting viewing. It blends comedy light-heartedness and serious excellently, leaving me coming out the other end feeling happy with what I just experienced.
Right, let’s get to it.
The video game setting was a pretty cool one. I feel like they could have rested on their laurels a little bit and let the video game excitement carry it a lot more than they did. Nope, they had a solid plot with a great cast peppered with so many video game Easter eggs. They just enhanced an already excellent movie-watching experience. It really was great, though, seeing a whole host of random video game characters just floating around in the background. Always catch something new on a subsequent rewatch. Eventually I’ll have spotted them all!
There are some excellent comedy moments in this, particularly from the character interactions. Ralph and Vanellope play off each other very well. Speaking of Vanellope, I was genuinely surprised that she didn’t annoy me more. She had all the makings of a character I could easily hate, but I didn’t. She tugged on my heartstrings when she wasn’t making me giggle with her childish commentary. Back to the comedy stylings. I also really liked the visual puns (would this even be the right term? Eh) in Sugar Rush - the oreos made me laugh more than I’d care to admit, as an example. Some of the video game related jokes were great as well – as terrible as it is, Calhoun being programmed with the most tragic backstory ever will never not make me grin. Speaking of, Felix and Calhoun are pretty good too, although I feel like they were designated a little bit to comic relief back up. But that’s fine, it works well within the film.
As expected, I also got a number of swift punches to my general feelings area from this film. Ralph tends to be the cause of many of my sad feelings. Whether it’s because he’s being a massive jerk because he wants the best for Vanellope, or when he is accepting who he is… it all makes me very sad. Admittedly there were one or two tears shed. Ralph is a solid character himself, starting off doing things selfishly and thinking only within his tiny little game world, but coming to care about someone else, and being willing to give everything up for that little girl… great.
Overall, this is a fantastic movie. It’s not my favourite, but it is super fun and the soundtrack is not too bad either if you care about that sort of thing. If you passed on this one, I’d say you should give it a go. My Mum, who went into this expecting to hate it, found something to enjoy about it, then you can too!
Yeah, I just watched this for the first time last week. Excellent movie. I was worried that it was only popular because VIDYA but it had a great story.
I love Sugar Rush. SO PRETTY. I wish it was a real game.
They sure pulled one over on us! Get the nerds interested with a vidya backdrop, actually make it about touching things and stuff.
Oh man, what a rip-off. xD
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