Wreck-It Ralph Response

Wreck-It Ralph is one of the first movies that Disney used to begin their recent trend of having villains or “bad guys” as protagonists in movies. The protagonist in this movie is, of course, Ralph, the bad guy who climbs up the building, destroys it, and throws bricks from the top at Felix in the arcade game “Fix-It Felix, Jr.” If the player is able to control Felix to fix the building and climb to the top, Ralph is thrown from the top of the building into the mud.

Living life as a villain is not very easy. The other characters in the game make Ralph live in the junkyard, where he sleeps on a mountain of bricks, and uses some as blankets too. Also, the other characters throw a party to celebrate the thirty-year anniversary with Felix, but Ralph is the only character in the game to not be invited. Ralph lives in a lonely world, where no one appreciates the work he does as the villain, and since this life has been his for thirty-years, one can only picture how he must feel.

Throughout the movie, Ralph travels to another game trying to earn a medal. While he is at a bar called “Tapper’s,” which is also a game, Ralph hears there is a medal at the end of the game “Hero’s Duty.” When Ralph enters the game, it is clear that he is no match for what he is up against; however, he is able to run ahead and climb the tower to get the medal that is inside. He accidentally steps on one of the robotic bug’s eggs, gets attacked, and leaves (with the bug) with an escape pod that blasts him into yet another game. Ralph does not want the medal so he can have the glory. Instead, he sees earning a medal as the only way to be able to make friends and have a better life.

Wreck-It Ralph brings a new prospective to use when watching villains. This movie goes very well with the topic of villains who deserve sympathy versus villains who do not. While Ralph is technically the villain of his game, he does not want to be a villain. He wants to have friends, acceptance, and appreciation just like any other person or, in this case, video game character. Since Ralph displays such human desires, the audience grows sympathy for him.

However, on the same note, the movie also depicts that there are villains who are not so humane and do not deserve sympathy. When Ralph lands in the escape pod, he is inside of a game called “Sugar Rush.” This is a racing game in a candy-based world. In this game, Ralph discovers that King Candy, apparently the ruler of the kingdom when Ralph shows up, is really a character from another game that got broken and shut down. The character, Turbo, came into this one and hacked the programming so that the former princess would appear as a glitch. Then, when the game is under attack by the robotic bugs, Turbo is going to let this game world get destroyed, rather than helping by trying to reset the game to get rid of the bugs. If he resets the game, he dies. He would much rather have everyone in the game he took over leave and die than do that himself. This is a villain that has no concerns other than himself and he does not earn any sympathy from the audience. This is showing that there are such things as true villains as well, and not every villain will be a good guy if you look from their point of view.

Since Ralph winds up saving the entire videogame, he manages to become the hero and the villain at the same time. He is able to get the appreciation and acceptance that he deserves from the people in his own game and others.