Wreck-It Ralph.
First of all, I thought it was excellent. The reason I went into the theatre with low expectations was because of Disney's recent history in... well, everything. Now while I like a lot of Pixar movies, if I were to be honest, I would say that most of them (bar Finding Nemo and Brave) didn't have the same impact that Disney did back in their prime.
With that said, Wreck-It Ralph completely proves that Disney still can have that passion in them that lit up their older movies. It's very, very clearly Disney, not Pixar, when you get down to the writing and artstyle. Right off the bat you'll notice that, unlike Pixar, not one blade of lollipop grass is misplaced. The attention to detail is absolutely incredible, and you can tell that they really put an unbelievable amount of work into this thing. The drama too felt more authentic than a lot of Pixar's more movie-esque drama, and once again, in a common Disney-fashion, it can almost bring you to tears at certain parts; I think it's because Disney are definitely risk-takers when they put effort into something like this, and something as simple as Ralph hanging Vanellope on the tree branch as he smashes the car, rendering her entirely powerless to watch all her hopes and dreams destroyed not a few feet from her by her only friend, the only one capable of creating what he destroyed is subtle, but powerful imagery that a company like Pixar would most likely water-down on. It takes itself very seriously, and I love that.
Another great part about this movie is that it knows exactly how much is enough. For example, the cameos, while only appearing in a few select scenes, felt real. It felt like they each had their own story and purpose, but we were following Ralph's. The bad-guy meet was established as a regular occurrence, happening two or three times throughout the film, so even in the long gaps between, you could always feel their presence in the game world. Along with the cameos, the mocks were truly awesome. The writers were clearly experienced gamers, because every reference, every subtle and non-subtle joke was perfect and the furthest thing from contrived; I praise the writers so much on this. Hero's Duty, the obvious take on Call of Duty mixed with Gears of War was also hilarious, even right down to the way they mock typical console FPSes being a "camera on wheels."
Something this film had that I hadn't seen for a long, long time, is a classic, genuinely good plot-twist in regards to Turbo at the end. It was perfectly set up, it was referenced very subtly throughout the movie, but no one would have ever seen it coming.
Despite all this however, it does have some minor flaws. Even though the pacing was very good, I think it could have filled out the two hour mark with all the material they had, instead of cramming it into an hour and 45 minutes. The drama is where this gets hit the most. Take the Lion King as an example: it really took its time with the drama, feeling like an incredibly desirable and natural progression. With Wreck-It Ralph, we have a nice progression, however the drama - as well as other seems - often feels cut a bit short, pretty much due to the fact that the whole thing seems a little compressed. There are a few miniature plot-holes here and there, none of which are worth mentioning though because of how unimportant/forgettable they are. I've actually forgot most of them, but they did cross my mind a couple times when watching the movie.
I know it almost sounds like I'm bashing Pixar here, I'm not. From my perspective though, they have a tendency to be very 'safe.' Some of their movies I just plain don't like (I've spoken my dislike for Toy Story many times), but I also think some of them are near masterpieces. The problem I have with Pixar though is that for the vast majority of their films, they feel... what's that... unimpactful. They're very nice to watch, but most of them ((with the exceptions listed earlier) don't have that fantastic, classic memorability you get from a serious Disney production. Even Wreck-It Ralph has that scent of warm Disney magic that I don't think Pixar has, and that's one of the things I like most.
) and Once-Ler's relatives... such relationships always grossing me out.
Seriously though, by the end of it, all my muscles were twitching. Had quite a bit of trouble getting to sleep afterwards.
