November 2, 2012

Four years ago, the animated movie Wreck-It Ralph was released to theaters with with seemingly two goals: pay tribute to retro arcade video gaming, and make everyone who watched it feel like giddy little kids.

Video game movies aren’t always masterpieces. Come to think of it, none of them are. Sure, there have been some critically “okay” attempts at greatness like 1995’s Mortal Kombat and that Prince of Persia one with Jake Gyllenhaal, but on the whole, video games prove to be a very difficult medium to translate to the big screen.

The 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph avoided that movie trend by having the setting be inside of a video game world, rather than condensing a game world to film. Still arguably a video game movie, the arcade adventure was the only one of its kind to be both well-loved by critics and the public.

Wreck-It Ralph told the story of an arcade game villain named Ralph who gets fed up with playing the bad guy in his game. Wanting to be seen differently by his peers, Ralph goes on a quest across multiple arcade games to earn a gold medal, a prize usually reserved for a hero character. Peppered throughout the movie are numerous retro arcade character cameos from gaming past.

Ralph wasn’t always a hit with everyone. The film had been pitched and reworked for nearly two decades before it was considered being made into a movie. Even the movie’s eventual director, Rich Moore, didn’t see the potential at first.

“I originally thought was a really terrible idea for a movie. I mean, video game characters have no free will. They have this computer program that tells them what they’re supposed to do and when they’re supposed to do it.” Moore said. “Who would want to watch a movie about a bunch of characters doing something like that?”

Moore ultimately came up with the idea of a rogue video game character that didn’t want to play his intended role. Moore pitched the idea to Walt Disney Animation and the studio quickly greenlit the project.

It doesn’t seem like Disney will be regretting their decision anytime soon with a confirmed sequel coming out in 2018. Until then, we’ll have the Assassin’s Creed movie to look forward to (please be good, please be good).

What do you think? Is Wreck-It Ralph the best video game movie? Is it disqualified for not being based on a game property? Give us your best comment down in the comment section below and share your thoughts.