tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post1034924144645134510..comments2023-11-05T02:01:53.847-06:00Comments on Antagony & Ecstasy: DISNEY ANIMATION: S-U-G-A-R, JUMP INTO YOUR RACING CARTimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09491952893581644049noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-71625607253411930602016-09-10T03:45:22.858-05:002016-09-10T03:45:22.858-05:00Out of curiosity, will the re-review slated for su...Out of curiosity, will the re-review slated for summer of 2016 be hitting any time soon? Eager to see further analysis on both this and Big Hero 6.Jessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15428190509160272221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-37410706753719140242015-02-14T19:20:09.903-06:002015-02-14T19:20:09.903-06:00I agree with your earlier comment Tim, about havin...I agree with your earlier comment Tim, about having a 'Disney' film from Pixar and a 'Pixar' film from Disney and I guess that it's a matter of taste that I have since bought Brave on DVD and haven't bothered with Wreck It Ralph. I enjoyed it but it didn't leave much of a lasting impression and I agree that it doesn't seem to 'fit' with any of the other films. The King Candy/Mad Hatter thing bothered me too, only because it pulled me out of the film every time he spoke, as I wondered how the original voice actor could possibly still be alive, and then after I realised it definitely wasn't him, couldn't understand why they sounded so alike. I became horrified that they might have some strange reveal that he IS the mad hatter somehow in a weird universe joining mash up between Alice and WIR but thankfully that didn't happen (could you imagine it?)<br /><br />The only other thing that REALLY bothered me was the incessant product placement in the film. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't recall ever having seen that in a disney animated film before. That might simply be because they're so rarely set in the present day, but I was horrified to see the 'camera' literally zoom in on a discarded Subway brand drink after a kid had finished playing and walked off shot. King Candy's central processor thing (the thing he modified to remove Vanellope, I forget the name of it had one) had the Nintendo logo prominently displayed on the side and of course the 'Nesquik-sand' that Calhoun and Felix almost died in (although at least they turned that into a dimly amusing gag). The whole business cheapened the film for me as, deluded I may be, I try to pretend Disney isn't some cold corporate machine but a legitimate source of childhood wonder and this disgusting sell out really irritated me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-75481336989008267022013-02-11T00:02:11.663-06:002013-02-11T00:02:11.663-06:00I agree with the *general* point of not really thi...I agree with the *general* point of not really thinking their scenario through, but the *specific* point about Vanellope's impending powerless doom I wasn't worried about so much: I just read it as "and <i>it will never be turned back on again</i>", which seems a perfectly threatening fate without any real need to argue over whether the characters suffer a discontinuity when the power goes off &c &c.<br /><br />Mostly I was worried about what is going to happen when they try to attach this to Kingdom Hearts. That's a terrifying piece of metafiction just waiting for David Lynch to be brought on as consultant.Not Fenimorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05135812849405775125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-54856063971690059772012-12-14T18:27:08.982-06:002012-12-14T18:27:08.982-06:00What I liked about the movie is that none of the c...What I liked about the movie is that none of the characters is too perfect. Ralph has a soft heart but also lies and cheats on his quest to get respect. Felix is brave and heroic even outside his game but hasn't spent any thought on those less lucky, as he finds out in the movie. And Vanellope is bratty at times and sweet at others and has lovably small goals. Only Calhoun is sorta perfect, but her no-nonsense, no-surrender character wouldn't be believable if she didn't do everything possible to evacuate the civilians out of Sugar Rush in the end. I've seen things done much worse in many movies that took themselves more seriously.<br /><br />As for things being "too Disney" or "copying Pixar"... I think just having a positive message doesn't make a movie bad, but I think Disney's real error was the outdated recipes it used again and again. I think the movie did well catching what was good in older Disney movies as well as in Pixar ones, while in the end going its own way. Look at Ghibli movies, and you'll find Hayao Miyazaki following recipes as well when he tries to put some elements in almost every one of his movies.<br /><br />It remains to be seen what Disney does next. They already had tried some new ways from time to time, but even though some (including me) liked them, they returned to their old recipes afterwards. Let's hope "Wreck-It Ralph" is not followed by endless copies, but by movies just as willing to try new things when the old ones no longer work.Ambi Valenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03488247852564879628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-68544750904301280612012-11-06T12:52:08.927-06:002012-11-06T12:52:08.927-06:00I'm glad to hear that you liked the movie. The...I'm glad to hear that you liked the movie. The movie certainly wasn't without its problems but I found that overall it had more than enough heart to sort of gloss over those rough patches.<br /><br />I also agreed with you about how un-Disney it felt, sort of. I remember thinking to myself during the movie. "You know, this really doesn't feel like a Disney movie." I do feel like they kind of returned to their roots with Vanellope's identity as a princess but even then it felt a bit tacked on.<br /><br />Regardless of how "Disney" WIR was I do have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. My girlfriend, who I experience these movies in a more pure (see "less critical") light than me absolutely loved it. She was moved by a lot of the characters and surprised by at least one plot reveal.<br /><br />Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned what kind of place this positive movie puts Disney in. This makes, to my eye, the fourth success they've had in a row. (Talking critical success here, we all know that <i>Winnie</i> was a bomb financially.) I'm not saying we're in some sort of "Second Renaissance" or anything but I haven't left the movies disappointed with a WDAS picture in the last four years which isn't something I could've said for the four prior to it.Rob Nivenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14485496971433728722noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-75904662080793456032012-11-06T12:50:28.254-06:002012-11-06T12:50:28.254-06:00Speaking on your pointing out of some of the holes...Speaking on your pointing out of some of the holes in logic: there are most probably many arcade cabinets made of the same game, yes? So, does each and every one of them contain a parallel dimension with all those characters? <br /><br />So... is Ralph still just a villain in the other thousands of cabinets? <br /><br />I realize this is nitpicking to an extreme, but these kind of details will most likely eat at me. They already do, and I haven't even seen it.The.Watcherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06746957245529915320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-29479972379066100622012-11-06T12:06:34.485-06:002012-11-06T12:06:34.485-06:00My wife and I left Wreck-it Ralph feeling pretty m...My wife and I left Wreck-it Ralph feeling pretty much the same, which is quite an unusual occurrence.<br /><br />Frankly, Disney and Pixar are beginning to bleed together into one lesser company. I'm growing really tired of Lasseter's tics: the third act action setpiece, the obligatory sad moments with a character looking downcast as the violin swells and we abruptly stop enjoying ourselves for a moment of dignified solemnity, and the general feeling that I've seen all of this one too many times.<br /><br />The parts of Wreck-it Ralph that weren't Toy Story 3 were actually pretty fun, and I wish the film had just been content to be a more lighthearted adventure-comedy. Why everything has to go for the aforementioned solemnity is beyond me.<br /><br />I counted at least three major plot threads in this movie, at least one of which could easily have been jettisoned. Ralph's struggle for acceptance by the NPCs was one. Vanellope's struggle for acceptance by the other racers was another (and resonated thematically rather well). King Candy and all of that was yet another, and really irritating. Finally the Hero's Duty bug problem, and the attendant mortal peril. That's an awful lot of plot for one movie, dontchathink?<br /><br />Speaking of mortal peril, did anyone find it as irritating as I did the way that the movie hamfistedly told us that characters won't regenerate if they die in another game? More to the point, when did that ever become a relevant issue? <br /><br />It's just symptomatic of everything in this movie being way too pumped up, emotional, and life-or-death for it's own good. I'm thinking that if WiR had aimed for Wallace and Gromit level tension, it would have worked much better than aiming for Toy Story, and been a hell of a lot more fun.<br /><br />And incidentally, Tapper is my favorite arcade cabinet game of all time, so I squeebled quite loudly during that scene. ^_____^<br /><br />David Greenwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03666205737413060006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-6747481944839446632012-11-06T10:34:48.809-06:002012-11-06T10:34:48.809-06:00I think my feelings about Wreck-It Ralph are simil...I think my feelings about <i>Wreck-It Ralph</i> are similar to yours, in that I liked it quite a bit, but I'm totally unsure of how it "fits" with the rest of the Disney Animated Features canon. <i>The Princess and the Frog</i>, <i>Tangled</i>, and <i>Winnie the Pooh</i> all feel part of the Disney narrative, but <i>Wreck-It Ralph</i> doesn't quite match the rest, like <i>Bolt</i> or <i>Lilo & Stitch</i>. I dunno, Disney films and the Present Day are strange bedfellows to me. <br /><br />Liked it for what it was, though; I was afraid it was going to be one big Pander To All Of The Gamers!-fest, but it eventually settled in and acted like a proper film. Also, the main arcade-goer was a young girl, so kudos to Disney for that. Andrew Testermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17636448677366233823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-31756915537146984902012-11-06T08:46:13.696-06:002012-11-06T08:46:13.696-06:00On the contrary, I though the foreshadowing in Her...On the contrary, I though the foreshadowing in <i>Hero's Duty</i> was very structurally sound writing. My reference to sight gags was strictly in terms of <i>Sugar Rush</i>.<br /><br />But beyond that, I had mostly the same reaction as you did to King Candy's reveal: I knew going in that he was The Villain, but I did not know why, and so in the middle when it seems to be raising all those hard questions, I found myself wondering how they'd find a way to make such a complex situation as easy as "people we like vs. people we don't". And, well, they did.<br /><br />Your mention of <i>Brave</i> reminds me that we've basically had, this year, Pixar making a Disney film, and Disney making a Pixar film. I think Disney did a better job, but <i>Brave</i> is still more interesting to me despite/because of its flaws, and way the hell more pretty.<br /><br />My own favorite animated feature of 2012 remains, comfortably, <i>ParaNorman</i>, but that is of course neither here nor there.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09491952893581644049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-50838989693820860432012-11-06T07:58:04.688-06:002012-11-06T07:58:04.688-06:00I REALLY liked Wreck-It Ralph! So many dominos set...I REALLY liked Wreck-It Ralph! So many dominos set up, and I feel it was all worth it. You think all the stuff in Hero's Duty was just fun sight gags(bug turn into anything it eats, the big light the bugs are attached to, etc), but the way it all builds up in the climax is brilliant! I teared up a few times, not gonna lie. That said, I was disappointed with the direction the story went. When King Candy told Ralph about the dilemma with glitches and the hard decisions he had to make, I had no idea where the movie was gonna go. Here's a morally complex idea, the hard center of what's been a sweet treat. Things just got very interesting!<br /><br />Buuuut it was all a lie and King Candy is a big bad guy and happy smiles for everybody at the end, whee. And it works(the last 20 minutes are the best section of the film, with it's big racing/action set pieces and all the sub-plots and ideas finally coming to a head), but I do feel it went in a less interesting direction. I feel like there was a level the movie couldn't get pass, so it used a cheat code to skip the final stage. It's a 8/10, when it possibly could have been a 9/10. I think Pixar probably would have went all in and did something with that.<br /><br />But its definitely better than Brave, and the best animated film I've seen all year.Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12219137212221355997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-52860435335114657822012-11-06T06:13:24.501-06:002012-11-06T06:13:24.501-06:00I would be happy to take credit for the reasoning,...I would be happy to take credit for the reasoning, but I actually picked it up while reading one or another of the making-of articles I checked out before writing: apparently in an early stage of development, the characters <i>were</i> always seen in 8-bit, and the animators felt this made Ralph hard to sympathise with.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09491952893581644049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-9556521892686681342012-11-06T03:51:46.741-06:002012-11-06T03:51:46.741-06:00I just had this weird idea that Disney would make ...I just had this weird idea that Disney would make a game based on this movie, which then becomes more popular than the movie and spawns several sequels, then they decide to make a Movie Based on the Popular Video Game Series Wreck-It Ralph.<br /><br />I've seen others complain about the non-8-bitness of some of the characters but your reasoning for Disney doing that makes sense, and I can't imagine many of the kids under 10 even know what a NES or Genesis even is.caerphotohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08126464462656422279noreply@blogger.com