As glorious as working in the videogame industry is said to be, the titular character of Disney’s latest animation feature is suffering from an extreme case of low job satisfaction.
From the glow of an arcade screen, Wreck-it-Ralph spends his days smashing up an apartment complex like a human Donkey Kong, all so that players can trade a quarter for the chance to fill the shoes of Fix-It Felix Jr., repairing the damage with his magic hammer while scaling to the top of the building, leaving Ralph tossed off the side and laying in the mud below.
When the arcade closes each night, Ralph is also left to watch Felix celebrated as a hero while living the solitary life of a videogame villain.
As with Pixar’s Toy Story series, Wreck-it-Ralph creates a world where familiar characters come to life when no one is watching. Here however, they are free to leave their arcade cabinets and socialize with one another, traveling via the electrical cord of their machines to a central hub, the power bar connecting all these games and characters.