Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the villain of a vintage 8-bit arcade game. His singular purpose is to smash buildings while the heroic, user-operated Fix-It Felix, Jr. (30 Rock's Jack McBrayer) repairs them for points. It sounds like a mix of Rampage and Donkey Kong, classic arcade-era stuff.
Ralph is tired of being the bad guy, he has played this same role for 30 years and it's time for a change. He attends a support group for fellow arcade villains, joined by real video game villains like Sonic The Hedgehog's Dr. Robotnik and Street Fighter II's Zangief, which inspires Ralph to embark on a journey through other games (via a power-strip, see second photo below) to find his calling as a hero.
It's a standard but justifiably classic story idea with an imaginative set-up and, as these brand new images confirm (click to enlarge), it's embracing the variety of design offered by the evolving video game culture of the last 30 years. Older readers and retro enthusiasts will note the cameos by Q*bert, the aforementioned Zangief and his Street Fighter II co-star Chun Li. We also see what appear to be gateways to other famous video games, including Pac man, Burger Time and Dance Dance Revolution.
The other images also show Ralph's encounters with Sgt. Calhoun (Glee's Jane Lynch) in a Halo/Gears of War-style game called Hero's Duty and the cutesy Vanellope von Schweetz (comedienne Sarah Silverman) in candy-themed game called Sugar Rush.
There's imagination to spare and a great voice cast (even before you knew the cast, I bet you looked at Ralph and heard Reilly's voice), with direction from Simpsons/Futurama alum Rich Moore, consider this high on my most anticipated list.
Wreck-It Ralph is released in the US on the November 2nd 2012 with a UK release date, maddeningly far behind on February 15th 2013.
Source: USA Today
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