wreck-it ralph [2012]

i've always wanted to know what happens when the arcade closes its door for the night.  all that buzz.  all that activity from the games.  do they sleep too?  turns out yes and no.  for ralph is the bad guy in a 30 year old video game, the ogre who destroys the building that is saved by the eponymous hero of the game, fix-it felix, jr.  ralph is tired of getting the bum rush and wants to be the hero and get a medal for his heroism.

quite a concept and one that is strafed by similarly themed films like the toy story series where we learn the lives and thoughts of the playthings of our world.  turns out ralph is a likable guy.  makes friends easily enough.  has his routines which are shaken up when he enters a first-person shooter game to get the medal inside.  by jove he does that indeed. 

then he loses it to a 'glitch', an imperfectly coded character in car racing game called sugar rush.  the gist of rush is that everything is made out of candy.  the ambiance is a mixture of the chocolate room from willy wonka's chocolate factory and tokyo hyper-cute hello kitty.  ralph befriends the glitch who really isn't a glitch at all but the victim of turbo, a villain who went rogue from a different game, and who batched all the racers memories so he can be king candy.

no, i'm not making this up.  imagine reading the script for the first time.  imagine it.  without busting a gut.  and forking over the dough to get this thing made.  all's well that end's well.  ralph gets a life lesson, and some dignity, while the glitch is really the princess of sugar rush.  who'd'a guessed it.

i promised nick i'd take him to see this movie.  i kept my word.  it's not a bad flick.  not as funny as some of the pixar movies.  entertaining enough.  we had to sit thru oodles of trailers and a behind the scenes making of les miserables.  it was during the latter when nick turned to me and asked, daddy, check your watch and tell me when the movie is supposed to begin.  the movie started soon enough.