Wreck It Ralph
Student Screening

Wreck-It Ralph

co-presented by the Dartmouth Film Society
February 06


(A limited, in-person screening for Dartmouth students.) Tired of Bad Guy typecasting, Ralph takes matters into his own massive hands and journeys through multiple generations of video games to prove that he can be a hero.

20/21 Hop Film

Welcome to pop nirvana, a headlong rush through classic arcade games and Nintendo standards that's not too busy playing spot-the-reference to keep delivering plenty of laughs and heart. This film may deploy the Pixar formula shamelessly, but the world of video games — particularly for those who feel affection for them — is uniquely immersive and director Rich Moore employs equal parts sweetness and wit in this high-scoring joyride.

With relentless momentum, the story moves fluidly between several richly imagined gaming environments, all connected by a power strip that serves as Grand Central Station. Ralph's adventures eventually land him in Sugar Rush, a Candyland cart-racing game, where he teams up with Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), a fluttering "glitch" who dreams of glory but lives in exile from the tyrannical Willy Wonka-type who lords over the circuitry.

Nominated for Best Animated Feature, Wreck-It Ralph soars by building carefully conceived, elaborately detailed video game worlds and imbuing them with nostalgia, friendship and the existential crises that come with age. As a villain and a glitch, Ralph and Vanellope come together as outsiders in their own homes, strangers to their peers and, really, who couldn't relate to that? D: Rich Moore, US, 2012, 108m

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