By Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
There is a certain kind of person who is a dedicated-to-the-end gamer. Who watched avidly as pinball gave way to Pong, as arcade games gave birth to home systems, who has spent years in the company of Mario and Luigi, locked in "Mortal Kombat" with "Sonic the Hedgehog."
I am not that person.
But I still enjoyed "Wreck-It Ralph." And if you're the sort of person who grew calluses from playing "Space Invaders," is on a first-name basis with the "Pac-Man" characters and thinks Chuck E. Cheese is actually a fine place for your anniversary dinner, you might absolutely love it.
The picture takes place inside a video game, where Wreck-It Ralph is sick of being the bad guy in something called "Fix-It Felix Jr." He breaks things, the uncomplaining Felix puts them back together, and on and on it goes until the quarters run out.
So Ralph makes a break for it, and jumps into another game, hoping to hit the reset button and change his life.
REVIEW
Wreck-It Ralph
Who: With the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk. Directed by Rich Moore.
Rated: PG; contains bathroom humor and some scary violence.
Running time: 93 minutes.
When: Opens Friday, Nov. 2.
Where: Area theaters.
Grade: B
Of course it's not that easy. And before too long the characters from several cyber-worlds have gotten mixed up together. Ralph is stuck in a kiddie game ruled by an evil king, and everybody is under attack from giant shape-shifting cy-bugs.
It's a comical, pop-culture casserole. The sticky-sweet kids' universe seems to be made up out of parts of the Candyland board game and the old "Perils of Penelope Pitstop" cartoon, while the alien insects (and the pumped-up soldiers pursuing them) are right out of "Aliens."
And through it all stumbles big, clumsy Ralph.
It's fun, although the movie doesn't have as much fun as it could. The characters still mostly look like CG cartoons, instead of video-game denizens. And Ralph comes from an older, first-gen world; it would have been terrific if his animation were more crudely retro, too.
But the terrific John C. Reilly does a fine job with this lovable lug's voice, and Jack McBrayer is perfect as the gee-golly-whiz Felix. And while Sarah Silverman is only chirpily annoying as Ralph's little-girl sidekick, Alan Tudyk gives the eccentric king the gulping giddiness of Ed Wynn.
Best of all is Jane Lynch as the soldier in charge of the cy-bug exterminating force, a tough-as-Kevlar warrior whose drill-sergeant obscenities are safely and amusingly euphemized into PG-friendly nonsense.
If you're a gamer, another level of humor opens up, as a variety of characters make surprise appearances throughout the film. (Not Mario and Luigi, alas, who wanted too much money. But hey, you try getting a plumber on short notice.)
True, the script is a little slack in parts, and way too reliant on poop jokes, and a little of Silverman's bratty baby-voice goes a very long way. But the candy-coated sequences are incredibly inventive, and for a Disney-grown product the film takes some risks (even including a sly shot at the company's constant princess worship).
For anyone with a grade-schooler and a free Saturday, it's a pretty safe and painless bet. And a great excuse to go up to the attic later, and see if you can dig out your old Atari 2600.