Wreck-It Ralph

Imdb synopsis:
A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.

The one thing that Mr. E and I don't do often enough is watch kids movies. We're so caught up in being "in the know" and "up to date" with what the mature movie-goers are seeing that we've overlooked our love of all things magical and innocent. Which is weird because we're basically still kids at heart- home-made presents and themed movie nights and all. But I digress.

Wreck-It was nostalgic. We certainly weren't part of the generation that was introduced to video games, but we're staunchly in the one that came after. We grew up with joysticks, evolved with graphics, rooted for our favorite characters and games and systems. We have our favorites- adventures for me, first-person shooters for Mr. E- and our guilty pleasures (Just Dance is our JAM.). So to see a movie that successfully blended our two favorite pastimes was pure bliss. And it certainly helped that the story was good too!

I was really impressed with the way Wreck-It drew inspiration from video games that everyone knows and loves to create a movie that could span generations. The characters (even those vaguely mentioned or shown just once) were believable, the environment was universal and FUN. Too often you hear about violent video games, evil characters, killing and raising undead and so on. But video games are more than that- they're interactive learning platforms, linking generations and people that previously had a hard time communicating. Although Wreck-It Ralph was targeted for kids, it wouldn't surprise me to see a broader age audience.