Wreck-It Ralph (formerly Reboot Ralph)

[Disney's Divinity]

I cannot imagine this film actually looking right as a handdrawn film. It has to go into so many game environments and all videogames were CG. Right from it's conception it had to be CG and honestly if it weren't I'd probably be upset it was handdrawn.

I don’t think it would be hard for an animated film to stylistically change per environment, but I agree that the concept is better-suited to 3D which is why the fact that this is a CG film has never bothered me.

[Sotiris]

Yesterday, as part of the “Inside The Walt Disney Studios” presentation, director Rich Moore talked a bit about the plot of the movie and gave a few details about how everything works and who the characters are. The movie centers on a character named Wreck-It Ralph, who is a building-smashing bad guy from an 8-bit game “Fix It Felix Jr.” Desperate to become a hero, he decides to leave the 8-bit world and find a different video game universe where he can be the protagonist. He does this by going to game central station (which, to us, just looks like a simple power strip). Ralph uses these to travel from game-to-game around the arcade.

One of the games that Ralph enters is called “Hero’s Duty,” which is an alien shooting game that looks suspiciously like Halo. This is where Sergeant Calhoun (voice by Jane Lynch) lives, an aggressive leader who is trying to defend her world from an invasion. Another world that Ralph enters is the Mario Kart-esque Sugar Rush. It’s a car racing game in a land of desserts, and Ralph at first finds that there’s nothing really there for him in his quest to become a hero, but it turns out that Sugar Rush holds a dangerous secret that could end the arcade. It’s in this game that Ralph meets Vanellope von Schweetz, an adorable little girl character who is voiced by Sarah Silverman. Moore also promised that the game would feature many real videogame characters that we know and love making cameos in the film. As part of the presentation they also showed off the first four minutes of the film, which was a mix of both completed animation (mostly the 8-bit scenes) and concept art.

The footage begins with a scene straight out of an 8-bit videogame. A voice-over begins from Ralph himself (the voice of John C. Reilly). He talks about how the world of videogames are filled with good guys and bad guys, and considering he can’t walk down a street without causing structural damage he is definitely the bad guy. The good guy is the game’s titular character: Fix it Felix Jr. (voice of Jack McBrayer). In the game we see Ralph stomp onto the screen and jump onto a brick building. As he makes his way up to the roof he smashes the sides and windows. Out of the corner comes Felix who says, “I can fix it!” As Felix makes his way up the building quickly fixing the damage, Ralph comments that he could do just as good a job if he had a magic hammer that he got from his father. At the end of the level Felix is giving a medal, and Ralph laments that there are no medals for the sweet source of wreckage. As people crowd around Felix congratulating him, Ralph falls off the building and lands face-first into a pile of mud.

The camera then pulls out of the video game world and we see a title card that reads “1983.” Though it’s still in concept art, the camera goes back further and further as time passes, leaving the arcades as part of history. Ralph talks about how he misses characters like those from Asteroids and Centipede, who he hasn’t seen in years. A title card comes up reading “Today” and Ralph says, “You have to do your job even when people don’t like you for doing it.” We then cut back to a non-8-bit animated Felix who is being carried into the building we saw him fix and is treated like a hero. Ralph is forced to go to the dump, which is where he lives (referred to by Ralph as “the lonely island of despair on the outskirts of humanity.” He says that it looks uncomfortable, but that it’s actually fine, as he pulls up a chimney to rest against and covers himself with garbage as a blanket. From his spot in the dump Ralph can see right into Felix’s apartment, which is filled with people as he tells them stories and everyone laughs. Ralph says that he really wants to be the good guy.

The scene cuts and we discover that the voice-over we’ve been hearing is actually from a group therapy session that Ralph is attending with some other famous video game bad guys. One of the members of the group calls out to Ralph saying, “You’re nothing but a two-bit thug!” Ralph responds,“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m 8-Bit!” One of the ghosts from Pac Man, who is moderating the circle chat, says that he needs to take it one game at a time. After Ralph sits down another villain, named Tigor (not sure if this is an original character or not), stands up. He talks about how just the other day he had ripped off someone’s leg and then proceeded to beat the them with their own leg. Tigor then says without him there wouldn’t be anybody to rip of someone’s leg and beat them with it. He says, “You bad guy, but not bad guy.” A zombie then perks up and talks about the dangers of labels and how hard they are to change. Sitting next to him, Kano from Mortal Kombat reaches in and pulls out the zombie’s heart, saying, “Can’t change that!”

Finally, the Pac Man ghost has everyone stand up and recite the meditation: “I’m bad and that’s good. I’ll never be good and that’s not bad. There’s nobody else I’d rather be than me.”

Source: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/wreck-it ... 26349.html

[Disney Duster]

The new logo makes me feel like it's so un-Disney...but I still kinda like it, I just hope it somehow...gets more of a Disney feel. I don't like the character designs, and I don't think they look very Disney, but, well, I'll wait for more. Sorry guys. : (

[Sotiris]

Larger image of the characters.

[Sotiris]

[DisneyDude2010]

The new logo makes me feel like it's so un-Disney...but I still kinda like it, I just hope it somehow...gets more of a Disney feel. I don't like the character designs, and I don't think they look very Disney, but, well, I'll wait for more. Sorry guys. : (

Duster I do kinda get what your saying. Of course it's not a typical Disney film but It's a good direction for the company to be going in! I've been reading that since the small success of TPatF and the bigger success of Tangled, Disney is working it's butt of to produce it's best animated features since the 90's (It just goes to show it's working when Tangled does better than Dreamworks MegaMind and Pixar's Cars 2) I personally have no doubt this movie will be amazing and hopefully it will be Disney's answer to the Toy Story Trilogy. I think it's good that Disney are producing original movies. I think it's good Disney does do a mixture of different movie types and create classic, original stories. Hopefully If this movie does well i would love to see KotE and then Snow Queen!

[Sotiris]

Back at the hat, an animator told me: "We haven't started animating on Wreck-It Ralph yet, but everything else is in work ..."

Source: http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... lives.html

[Disney Duster]

I agree with you DisneyDude. I just think that they can be very, very original, and yet, somehow, feel more Disney than it does now. I mean, magic and nature has been apart of almost any Disney film, no matter how different or original. But I will wait and see if maybe it feels quite Disney as more comes. I really hope it does.

[Sotiris]

"Wreck-It Ralph will actually have a number of different art directions. As our title character moves from his original 8-bit game to a more modern shooter game, you'll see the art direction of this movie change. Likewise when Wreck-It Ralph moves to the world of an elaborate kart racing game, you'll see the art direction of this movie change yet again," Moore explained.

"And who will Wreck-It Ralph interact with after he leaves his 8-bit world?," you ask. Well, when this 9-foot-tall behemoth enters the game world of Sugar Rush (which is modeled after a Mario Kart racing game), he then meets Vanellope von Schweetz, who will be voiced by Sarah Silverman.

"My character is kind of a reject in her own game. The other characters in Sugar Rush won't let her play. So she's kind of a kindred spirit for Wreck-It Ralph. In that Vanellope also wants to break out of her rut and see what other games, what other worlds might be out there," Silverman said.

One character who doesn't want anything to change -- ever -- is Fix-It Felix, who is voiced by Jack McBrayer, that Emmy-nominated scene-stealer from NBC's "30 Rock."

"My character has control issues. He's gung-ho about always being the good guy. And when Wreck-It Ralph decides to change his routine and go off in search of new worlds to explore ... Well, let's just say that Fix-It Felix Jr. doesn't handle this news all that well," McBrayer laughed.

Source: http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief ... -quot.aspx

[LySs]

WDAS Looks to Really Up Its Game with "Wreck-It Ralph"
http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief ... -quot.aspx

"Wreck-It Ralph will actually have a number of different art directions. As our title character moves from his original 8-bit game to a more modern shooter game, you'll see the art direction of this movie change. Likewise when Wreck-It Ralph moves to the world of an elaborate kart racing game, you'll see the art direction of this movie change yet again," Moore explained.

I like the idea of different art directions, especially of an 8-bit animated world.

Maybe it'll turn out something like this?
<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SPlQpGeTbIE" frameborder="0"></iframe>

[Sotiris]

The next film Lasseter presented was Wreck-It Ralph. Set in the world of old-school 8-bit video games, Wreck-It Ralph promises to reveal the behind-the-screen lives of video game characters. Although Wreck-It Ralph is a bad guy, he longs for acceptance, and goes on an odyssey to redeem himself.

Rather than present an early trailer or "sizzle reel," Lasseter instead offered the first four-and-a-half minutes of the film, in a combination of animation, story reels, and still images. The clip opened with a sequence from a typical 80s video arcade game, Fix-It Felix Jr. As a morose voice described the scene, sad sack villain Wreck-It Ralph attacked the "Niceland Apts." building. Punching holes in the faade and breaking out the windows, Ralph perched on the roof and rained down bricks on the unwary below. A cartoon balloon filled the screen, as the residents cried in unison, "Fix it Felix!"

On cue, Fix-It Felix Jr, arrived, carrying his hammer. The jaunty little character quickly scrambled across the faade, nimbly dodging Ralph's shower of bricks, hammering out repairs. He even found time to collect a pie from a grateful apartment dweller, causing his helmet to glow and his speed to increase. In no time at all, he was on the roof, flattening Ralph, and earning a medal from the 8-bit residents of the Niceland Apts.

The morose narrator, we quickly realize, is Wreck-It Ralph himself. In a world of heroes and villains, his destiny is to be defeated again and again by the popular Fix-It Felix Jr. And why not, since Felix has that magical hammer, given to him by his dad?

Storyboards detailed the next sequence, as the arcade moved through the decades, newer games replacing old, finally bringing us up to the present day. Surrounded by the latest in video games, Fix-It Felix Jr. still remains. After hours, characters in the games are free to move about. Wreck-It Ralph makes his way to Bad-Anon, where a circle of folding chairs in a drab room holds a group of suspiciously familiar characters. To the crowd's delight, Bad-Anon turned out to be a twelve-step program for classic video game villains. As the group held hands, they promised each other to improve, one game at a time.

There was laughter and applause as the clip came to an end. Lasseter acknowledged the warm reaction, saying he loved the idea behind Wreck-It Ralph. To further explain the November, 2012 release, he introduced director Rich Moore, of the Simpsons and Futurama.

Moore bounded onto the stage, clearly excited to share the further adventures of Wreck-It Ralph. He explained that the characters in all the games could move through cables, eventually meeting up at Game Central Station. From there, Ralph was destined to take off on his adventure of a lifetime. Along the way he would find himself in a first person shooter game with a hard bitten platoon fighting alien bugs, as well as in a deceptively sweet looking racing game called Sugar Rush.

Moore proudly announced his voice cast, calling them world-class comedy actors. Academy Award nominee John C. Reilly was heard as Wreck-It Ralph. 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer will be Fix-It Felix Jr. Jane Lynch of Glee plays Sgt. Calhoun, and Sarah Silverman is Vanellope von Schweetz in Sugar Rush. Moore played a clip of Jane Lynch barking out orders as Sgt. Calhoun. "I won't lie-I was frightened," Moore confided.

Source: http://www.laughingplace.com/News-PID513910-513912.asp

[DisneyDude2010]

WDAS Looks to Really Up Its Game with "Wreck-It Ralph"
http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief ... -quot.aspx

I like the idea of different art directions, especially of an 8-bit animated world.

Maybe it'll turn out something like this?
<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SPlQpGeTbIE" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Let's hope it doesn't turn out like this
<iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QH2-TGUlwu4" frameborder="0"></iframe>

[Disney Duster]

Hm...it would be very, very hard on the eyes to see a film that had very many minutes of screentime that was actually as 8-bit as those videos...this is a challenge for Disney.

[Sotiris]

Here's a video of the Wreck-It Ralph arcade at the D23 Expo.

[PatrickvD]

Oh this looks awesome. Just like the games from my childhood. Kudos, Disney!!

[TheValentineBros]

Is it me, or does the song sound really catchy. And plus, I just like the nostalgia factor when it comes to its arcade games. Props to Disney!

[Sotiris]

Is it me, or does the song sound really catchy.

The music was added by the uploader of the video. The mock-up arcade did not have any music. Here's another video of the arcade to see the difference.

[Disney Duster]

It looks kinda Disney...but really only Wreck-It-Ralph does...Fix-It-Felix looks a little too Mario to me...and it could be more of a fun game than that. Oh well. It still looks promising through all my complaints! At least now I can see it shouldn't hurt our eyes to watch for awhile!

[robster16]

I'm sure you guys have probably seen this, a short film using an animated pixel technique, to give you an idea of a possible look and feel of animated pixels!

<object width="420" height="345"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YKXnbWx5BbA?ve ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YKXnbWx5BbA?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="345" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

[Sotiris]

I'm sure you guys have probably seen this, a short film using an animated pixel technique, to give you an idea of a possible look and feel of animated pixels.

Yes, I've already posted this on page 4 of this thread.