Aah the arcade.
I wonder when that one is going to bite the dust completely. Or perhaps it
already has bitten the dust? Not quite sure. I have never been too much of a
gamer. I do remember having a ting, pokey little arcade at the top of the hill
we lived on though. I always loved the idea of going there – yearned to, in
fact – but Mom was adamant. I guess it was for the best. I’m pretty sure the
deprivation is not the source of any psychological problems, so there you go.
Anyway. It’s funny really, just because the film was released recently, one
automatically assumes it is set in the present day, though of course there is nothing preventing it from
being set a few decades back… God I’m on a good old ramble tonight, aren’t I?
Don’t be mad. It’s all related to the film in hand. Sort of.
Well,
whenever it may or may not be said, Wreck-it Ralph is set in a universe where
at least one arcade in particular is still going strong. Sure, there are daily
concerns about “work” and survival – if your game goes “out of order” or you’re
too unpopular, you get the plug pulled on you and you have nowhere to go – but basically,
the show must go on. In this particular case, the show is the game.
Now we all
know that every story needs to have a villain but Ralph, the particular villain
of the story, is not really happy with his lot. He doesn’t want much, just a
friend or two, and maybe a decent place to live that is not a dump. A literal dump.
His fellow characters tell him to just embrace who he is and “get on with it”
as it were. However, one day, Ralph simply has enough. And as anyone who is
familiar with the game knows – he has a bit of a temper on him. An argument
with his fellow game characters ends in a wager of sorts: if Ralph can win a
medal of some sorts, they will let him come and live in the big house. Thing
is, in this game, Ralph can’t win a medal. The solution seems simple enough to Ralph:
find another game to win a medal in. However, as you can imagine, as Ralph
moves from game to game in search of his medal, every move he makes has
unforeseen and sometimes disastrous consequences. Let’s hope Ralph turns out to
be as good at fixing things as he is at wrecking them…
First of
all, I need to commend Disney on this one. But then again, they have been at
this business for a while, so they sure know how to mix ‘em, as it were. It is
the perfect blend of adult content vs. being suitable for younger viewers. I
mean, if nothing else, seeing the arcade games alone should put a warm fuzzy
feeling into the heart of any red blooded gamer. And shall I tell you
something, even if you’re not a gamer. Anyone who knows me knows I’m no gamer
by any definition of the word but even I saw stuff I recognised. If you were
even remotely into arcades – you’re going to love it. Trust me.
I was
ranting and raving in my post just above about the messages and stuff in the
film. Let’s have a gander at this one. Basically, the film tells us, you can
actually be happy where you are (oh come on, that’s not a spoiler. You totally
knew that was the way it was going). It’s all about changing your attitude. Oh
and keeping lines of communication open. It’s all very recession – politics. I
mean think about it, the usual message is that if you work hard enough, you can
change everything. The film gently reminds us that sometimes, we don’t need to.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this is a bad message at all, but after all
the economic turbulence we have been through lately, I really thought the
message was quite poignant. Very make do and mend. And of course, it’s not like
some things don’t change rather drastically. In fact, true blue Hollywood,
there is a love interest thingy going on in there (whereby a typically “masculinised”
single woman is “feminised” by love – but the relationship has so much comic
value, I can actually forgive them for that. Besides, don’t sharpen your claws
too much ladies, I don’t want to give too much away, but let me just say there
is the idea of a female president floating around in that movie too. I like
that idea. I really do =)
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