All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Now that Brave has been and gone and disappointed me, I can focus all of my animation attention on the upcoming Wreck-It Ralph. The story line looks fantastic; the idea of a character from a video game jumping around between arcade games, the villains support group, these things are pure imagination and the reason I fell in love with fiction as a child. But beyond a good story, which we have come to expect of producer John Lasseter, there are several things about this movie that are making me anticipate it a little more:
- Rich Moore, the director, has a resume that's a little more varied than is generally seen in a major animated film. He has worked on Me and My Shadow, Futurama
, The Critic
and Drawn Together
, so I think we can expect something a little more gritty whilst still family oriented. With Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman providing voices, this isn't your average animated flick.
- Wreck-It Ralph is this generation's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
. Co-operation from the gaming world in this movie makes it so much more interesting than just having a cast of completely fictional characters; fiction within fiction adds another layer of humor. Various gaming companies have opened their copyright strongholds, for a fee of course, so that their characters can cameo in the interests of making a fun flick.
- The accompanying short film will be Paperman, a black and white short directed by John Kahrs using both traditional and computer animation. The film premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2012 and pre-dates Dreamworks' upcoming attempt at merging styles.
- The music is being provided by Henry Pryce Jackman, who among other things worked on the music for The Dark Knight, X-Men First Class, and most recently Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Working with him is Skrillex, MTV's Electronic Dance Music Artist of the Year in 2011.
While waiting for Wreck-It Ralph to hit cinemas this November you can download the browser-based game from iTunes or play it online.
