The Medium Entertainment Review: Wreck-It Ralph

There's an important distinction to make about Wreck-It Ralph versus other video-game inspired movies. This is a movie that definitely makes the story take precedence over the video game world it's set in. It has some references to well known video games, but most of those are done within the first 20 or so minutes (almost all within the bad guys anonymous meeting we've seen so much of in all the trailers). So admittedly those expecting a movie completely jam-packed with nods and inside jokes about gaming might be dissapointed as the large majority of the movie takes place in the candy coated world of the Sugar Rush racing game. But the story while pretty predictable, is cleverly told and the characters are all very entertaining and peppered with great performances from the entire cast. It doesn't quite reach the heights of Toy Story, which it so clearly borrows a lot of its inspiration from, but it gets pretty close. In fact those who have grown up more on video games than traditional toys may feel more of a connection to this, as it certainly works as Toy Story for the gamer generation. This is not just the best video-game movie ever made (because let's face it, that's not exactly a high-bar), it's one of the better animated films I've seen in the last few years, especially compared to the recent disappointing efforts of Pixar lately like Cars 2 & Brave (and frankly I don't have much hope for Monsters University while we're at it). Hopefully this will get at least one sequel because I'd be very excited to see it's take on more video game worlds.

That's it for today, but I certainly plan on renting the much anticipated Halo 4 so look for my impressions on my next post, most likely on Wednesday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Epic