Wreck-It Ralph Review - A Retro Turbo-Tastic Classic!

*This review is largely spoiler free, but read cautiously if you haven’t seen the film yet*

It's been a long wait. It's been an arduously long wait. But Walt Disney Animation Studios' 52nd animated feature, and one of its most unanimously praised ones in decades, Wreck-It Ralph, has finally hit the UK. Disney landed the film with an uphill battle: die-hard animation fans (myself included) harboured resentment at the delay and casual viewers - including many a friend of mine - have given up waiting and pirated the film - we don't endorse that, but it is a cold, hard fact that Disney need to wake up to. So, the question I posed to myself as I walked into the cinema on Saturday morning was a simple one: is it worth the wait? And the answer I arrived at within minutes was a resounding yes.

Disney Release New Wreck-It Ralph Clips

Us poor blighters in the UK are still to even see Wreck-It Ralph in cinemas (don't even get me started on Finding Nemo 3D, which doesn't arrive until March!), but Disney are already promoting the films impending home video release in the US. As such, the Mouse House have rolled out a series of new clips from the film - so UK fans can check out a little bit more of the film, given that their excitement levels have likely waned slightly since November.

New Wreck-It Ralph TV Spots as the Release Draws Closer!

As the US release of Wreck-It Ralph (2nd November) draws ever closer, the advertising is reaching frenzy levels, as Disney are going all out on promoting what promises to be a big hit for the Mouse House.

New Wreck-It Ralph Featurette and Clip Showcase New Footage

IGN have brought us a brand new featurette featuring the voice cast, musical talent and filmmaking crew of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph. The featurette has words from the cast and crew - including John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman and Jack McBrayer, director Rich Moore, Skrillex and Owl City!

It features a lot of new footage, - particularly of Felix and "Sugar Rush" - it's just another great entry into Ralph's great marketing campaign. Check it out above.



We also get a new clip from the Halo-themed world of "Hero's Duty" that Jane Lynch's Sergeant Calhoun inhabits. You can definitely here Skrillex's... well, very un-Disney, music coming across. Less funny, but it shows the breadth of diversity that Disney's latest is going to have.

Finally, check out another Wreck-It Ralph viral ad here - this time for "Sugar Rush" itself!

Wreck-It Ralph is released on 2nd November in the US, and 15th February in the UK.

New Wreck-It Ralph Poster and TV Spots

A couple of weeks ago we got a concoction of fantastic new posters for Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, showing the film's characters alongside classic video game icons. Today, via Disney Movies UK's Twitter feed, we get another wicked new poster for Disney's 52nd animated feature.

The poster combines the classic characters that we've seen previously, such as Sonic and Q*bert, and the film's leading original quartet of Ralph, Vanellope, Felix and Sergeant Calhoun. Another great poster in the great advertising campaign of the great looking Wreck-It Ralph. Why yes, I am looking forward to it!

To further whet our ever more insatiable appetites, we also get two great new TV spots for the film! The spots, while funny, highlight the film's emotional core surprisingly well. They show Sarah Silverman's character, Vanellope von Schweetz, as rather sweet and helpless, as opposed to how annoying she's came across as in the trailers - we also get the first proper look at Vanellope's car from "Sugar Rush"! Not forgetting our first real look at Jane Lynch's Sergeant Calhoun.

Check out the Jane Lynch introduced TV spot below, and head here to watch the "Game Changer" spot, which helpfully has embedding disabled.



The TV spots also finally give us Wreck-It Ralph's rating: PG, unsurprisingly. Directed by Futurama and The Simpsons veteran, Rich Moore, Wreck-It Ralph is due out in America on 2nd November, and the UK on 15th February, 2013.

UPDATED - Wreck-It Ralph TV Spot

Now that the London 2012 Olympic Games are underway, Disney have released a seemingly Olympic themed TV spot for their latest animated feature, Wreck-It Ralph. While the film is set inside the world of video games, this TV spot (above) features some real-life games, specifically wrestling.

The video is interspersed with footage from the trailer we saw at the start of last month and features Glee's Jane Lynch, who lends her voices to the tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun in the film, and a very hands-on Jack McBrayer, (30 Rock) who voices Fix-It Felix, Jr. in Ralph.

It doesn't really show us anything new, but it's pretty funny - because, honestly, who doesn't love Jack McBrayer? Disney are handling the marketing for Wreck-It Ralph very well thus far, and it certainly looks phenomenal; the Mouse House surely have another winner on their hands.

Wreck-It Ralph is still a while off though, and hits US theatres on 2nd November, and arrives here in the UK (at the moment) on 15th February, 2013.

UPDATE

Disney continue the advertisement with another two Olympic themed TV spots, this time showing Jack McBrayer playing the Fix-It Felix, Jr. arcade game, and trying his hand at Gymnastics. Check the latest Wreck-It Ralph TV spot outs, embedded below.

Brilliant First Wreck-It Ralph Trailer

One day early, and following on from the reveal of the first stills yesterday, the first trailer for Disney's Wreck-It Ralph (above) has arrived online, and it's fantastic.

Introduced by the voice of Ralph, John C. Reilly, and packed full of great cameos ranging from Mario's Bowser and Sonic's Dr. Eggman to a Pacman ghost, the trailer is a great sign. It's funny, the animation is brilliant and it definitely has a Toy Story vibe to it! I'm also loving Game Central Station. Really, I'm just completely in love with this film!

The characters, the story, the voices, the animation; everything looks brilliant, following on from strong efforts with Bolt and Princess and the Frog and hits with Tangled and Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-It Ralph looks like it can be the film to once and for all re-establish Disney as the home of animation. Welcome to the Third Golden Age of Disney Animation.

Wreck-It Ralph is due to be released on 2nd November in the US and 15th February here in the UK - that seems so long away now though.

Via MSN Movies.

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The First Four Wreck-It Ralph Stills

Ahead of the release of the first trailer this Friday, Disney have released the first stills from their 52nd animated feature film, Wreck-It Ralph. USA Today bring us four new stills from the highly anticipated animated film, which is said to do for video games what Toy Story did for toys.

The above still sees the film's main character, once video game villain, Ralph (John C. Reilly) seeking to mend his ways by handing out Pac-Man cherries to out of work video game characters from Q*Bert, and is our first real look at the film's protagonist in computer animated form. Loving the 8-bit inspired design of Ralph and the great, vibrant atmosphere of the still.

The scene at the top is playing out inside a power strip (above), which is "their [the video game characters] answer to Grand Central Station as they travel into one another's video games."

Two other images introduce us to the characters of Sgt. Calhoun (Glee's Jane Lynch, above) and Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman, below), the former being a hard-as-nails soldier in Halo looking game, Hero's Duty. The latter is a young girl character from the Mario Kart inspired game Sugar Rush, who becomes like a little sister to the repentant Ralph.

I'm loving the range of these stills and Wreck-It Ralph looks set to be another fantastic addition to the Disney canon, hopefully continuing that Third Golden Age we've talked about.

Check out the images and some accompanying snippets at USA Today, and view them in hi-res above (via Dutch blog, Animatie. Keep an eye out here for the posting of the trailer as soon as it's online!

Wreck-It Ralph is due out on 2nd November in the US and 15th February, 2013 here in the UK, and will be paired with Disney's latest buzz-generating short, Paperman.

First Look at Wreck-It Ralph

Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, we have been treated to our first look at Disney's 52nd animated feature film, Wreck-It Ralph. The next film out of the Disney animated canon revolves around a video game villain, the titular Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly), who leaves his own video game with the goal of proving he's a good guy really.

After leaving his game and jumping to the Halo-esque FPS, Hero's Duty (above), the former villain is enlisted to help fight the "constant battle against the marauding horde of Cy-Bugs" by Sergeant Calhoun (Glee's Jane Lynch)

Moving on to the next game, Ralph inadvertently wreaks havoc in the third gaming world of Sugar Rush (above) - a confectionery coated racing world. Throughout these worlds, Ralph encounters other characters, voiced by Jack McBrayer and Sarah Silverman.

The concept art you can see here vividly shows the three very distinct and vibrantly different worlds that the latest Disney animated film will explore. Personally, they look pretty great to me and I can't wait to see more from Wreck-It Ralph.

Small Fry Bios

The second Toy Story Toon, Small Fry, is currently playing with Disney's The Muppets in the US and while those of us here in Europe and the UK will have to wait until February to see either, Disney and Pixar are promoting Small Fry now by revealing bios for some of the new characters that the short introduces on the official Toy Story Facebook page.

In Small Fry, Buzz is left behind at a fast food restuarant and finds himself in a support group for abandoned kid's meal toys, so Pixar have released some bios and images of these extremely eccentric characters (below).

Neptuna, Queen of New Nautica
For centuries, Queen Neptuna ruled the peaceful ocean kingdom of New Nautica.
When her undersea home was defiled by corporate industrial waste and discount chain stores, Neptuna formed The Mermaid Battle Squadron to protect the ocean from future pollution and exploitation.

T-Bone, Leader of the Steak Force
Fearing the healthy, life-extending agenda of the evil Vegitenarians, the government established the Steak Force, a commando squad of heroic robots dedicated to mandating a meat option for every meal. Sponsored in part by The American Meat Council.

Funky Monk
Spiritual mentor to Rappin' Robin and Lil' Juan, Funky Monk always keeps it real and on the down low. Be it a rap battle between his boys and Producer P John or hooking up a guest-spot on the next MC Maid Marion single, Funky Monk has got your back. See Funky Monk in the CGI animated film "Rappin' Robin in the Hood 3D," only in theaters.

Condorman
When comic book artist Wiley Wilkins is given the opportunity to act out the pages of his greatest cartoon creation, “Condorman,” he jumps at the chance! Will Condorman defeat the evil Krokov and win the heart of the beautiful Natalia Rambova? Find out when Condorman swoops into theaters, Summer 1981.

Bozu, The Ninja Clown
Circus clown by day, 15th century ninja from feudal Japan by night, Bozu is a master of silent entertainment. Armed with his balloon katana and a cream pie, this Ninja Clown is sure to have even the grumpiest Circus audience members in stitches!

More are likely to follow, so stay tuned.

Short Fry Clip

With the release of Disney's The Muppets edging ever closer, after recently premiering, (although it, annoyingly, doesn't open until February over here in the UK), Disney and Pixar are looking to promote the Toy Story Toon that goes along with it.

Short Fry, the follow up to the Toy Story Toon, Hawaiian Vacation, (which showed with Cars 2) will be opening soon and, following on from some images and words from the short's director a few days ago, we now get a thirty-odd second clip. The short looks very funny and very good, as is to be expected from Toy Story and from Pixar; we also get our first proper look at Glee's Jane Lynch's character.

First Look at the Next Toy Story Toon

Disney's The Muppets, opening in cinemas very soon, is set to be preceded by the latest continuation of the Toy Story franchise, the Toy Story Toon, Short Fry. As such, Disney and Pixar have released a couple of images from the short film, giving us a flavour of its story, to promote Pixar Canada's first Toy Story short.

USA Today gives us one image (above), and Stitch Kingdom provides us with another (below). The plot of the short is a retelling of The Prince and the Pauper, when Buzz is accidentally swapped for his Happy Meal toy equivalent. The images also provide us with our first look at the pint-sized Buzz (voiced by Day & Night director, Teddy Newton, who also voiced Chatter Telephone in Toy Story 3) and Glee's Jane Lynch's character (the mermaid with her back to us below).

USA Today also has an interview with the short's director, Angus MacLane, who says, of the abandoned toys: "These toys' existence is about being really popular before the meal and then being totally forgotten about,".

MacLane also adds, of Buzz being Juxtaposed into the support group for these toys, that "There's something funny about having the action hero have to deal with something very mundane like escaping from an awkward social situation,". He also passes some comments on the short's voice cast and message.

Head on over there to read the whole interview. Thanks to The Pixar Times for the news.

Out of D23: Next Toy Story Toon named Small Fry, and more details

Courtesy of The Pixar Times' live blog from the D23 Pixar Shorts Panel, we now know that the next Toy Story Toon (due to play before The Muppets on November 23), will be called Small Fry and that it will be directed by Angus Maclane

The short is apparently a Prince and the Pauper story revolving around Buzz and that Glee's Jane Lynch will provide a voice in the short.

Still relatively little to go on, but if it's half as good as Hawaiian Vacation was, we're in for a treat.

Also, from this live blog, we have learned from La Luna director, Enrico Casarosa, that the short WILL be shown with Brave next year.



We also get the above video, a look at the Disney legends ceremony, including an interview with everyone's favourite frog.