Wreck-It Ralph

Rich Moore’s 2012 animation ends an idea Disney carried for about twenty-five years, from High Score in the late 1980s through Joe Jump to Reboot Ralph in the mid 2000s. The clearest trace is in the movement. The residents of the Fix-It Felix Jr. world are animated with a clipped, stuttering motion that imitates the limited cycles of old sprites, and a character who leaves his own game loses that stiffness. The film says who belongs to which machine through movement rather than dialogue, the best thing to point out to a child watching it. The second thing is expectation. Rights to real game characters were cleared one by one and roughly a hundred and eighty-eight models made it in; Nintendo was enthusiastic enough to send notes on how Bowser should hold his teacup. But that parade is largely over after the first stretch, and most of the film takes place inside one invented game, Sugar Rush. Mario is absent not over licensing money but because nobody could find him a job in the story. Moore recorded John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman together in one room rather than separately, which is where their overlapping rhythm comes from. Not for you if you want the cameo parade to last the whole film.