Wreck it Ralph - Analysis

Disney, released 2012


         I chose this movie because it is one that my daughter and I both absolutely love. Many people seem to have intense and very differing opinions on Wreck it Ralph. There are definitely some things that struck me as hard to swallow in regards to teaching diversity and anti bias lessons that I will go into detail on below; but as a whole, I think the movie has a positive overall message to share.

A quick plot summary:   

        Ralph is a ‘bad guy’ he lives inside of an arcade game where his job is to smash up a building as Fix-it-Felix follows behind and repairs the damage with his magic hammer. 

(later in the film Felix realizes his ability to 'fix' everything is not always an asset!)

        Ralph lives in the garbage dump and is completely ostracized from everyone in his game. He goes on a mission to prove that he can earn a medal and be just as ‘good’ as Felix so he doesn’t have to live in the dump anymore.

         Ralph leaves his game and embarks upon his journey to earn a medal. Ralph takes a medal from a war type game, Hero’s Duty, and inadvertently brings an infestation of robotic bugs to the “Sugar Rush” game. The military leader of Hero’s Duty, a woman named Seargant Calhoun, follows in search of the bugs.

        Upon Ralph's entry into the candy themed racing game Sugar Rush he stumbles into the adorable, Vanellope Von Schweetz; a little girl who, like Ralph, is an outcast, considered an accidental glitch in her game. She steals his medal to enter a race and their journey together begins. She must win a race to be accepted and earn back a coin, which she promises to give to Ralph as his medal.

        At the end of their journey of many ups and downs Ralph discovers that Vanellope was never a glitch after all but an original character who King Candy deleted from everyone’s memory. After Ralph kills the bugs and saves the day he decides he belongs in his game and has a job to do; he invites all the outcast and disregarded players from other games to join a bonus level in his game “Wreck it Ralph” and builds himself and the new players homes. 

         As I mentioned, there were many biased undertones. Firstly, Ralph is a very stereotypical depiction of a lower working class white male; he’s in fact almost Neanderthal like in his appearance and mannerisms. He’s made fun of throughout the movie for being smelly and having bad breath, it’s even referenced at least twice, that I noticed, that Ralph is a heavy drinker. Ralph is the epitome of every stereotype of a ‘big dumb grunt worker’.  

         Drinking in children’s movies is somewhat of a personal pet peeve. Just off the top of my head I can think of Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and more recently Tangled that depict drinking; I’m certain there are many more but even with an internet search I was unable to find a comprehensive list. In Wreck it Ralph specifically, Ralph goes to “Tapper’s”, which is one of many retro game references; upon leaving he encounters an intoxicated soldier from Hero’s Duty. When Ralph leaves the game and doesn’t show up for the first time during game play of Fix it Felix, Felix states, “He probably fell asleep in the restroom of Tapper’s again.” It was a quick and subtle statement that was completely appalling to me. Fortunately I watch many movies now that I loved as a child, like Goonies, and notice things like this that completely evaded me as a child. I’m certain most children wouldn’t notice the reference to being ‘passed out in the bathroom of a bar’, still it was not only inappropriate but offensive due to Ralph’s status as a ‘bad guy’ and ‘grunt worker’.

         The depiction of Ralph as an outcast, over indulgent drinker whose only job is to smash things and lives in a garbage dump is extremely classist in my opinion. The movie seemingly makes light of itself and references ‘racial profiling’ when Ralph is stopped for a ‘random safety check’. I actually appreciated this reference and think it’s a good example of the way the movie balances the obvious stereotypes throughout.

         King Candy could easily be viewed as the typical negative stereotype of a flamboyantly gay male. While it is not made blatantly clear that he is in fact gay, such as having a same sex partner, he speaks with a high pitched lisp, dresses flamboyantly and has his castle decorated all in pink. Ralph jests him about his ‘pink castle’ and King Candy states that clearly is it salmon; which only adds insult to injury that he’s acting defensive and ashamed. 

        I found an excellent blog in which a man, Chris Bogia, expresses his painful experience of growing up as a gay child whose only relief was found through gaming. He was ecstatic about seeing Wreck it Ralph, only to be devastated by the homophobic biases depicted. At one point Ralph calls King Candy a “nelly wafer”, the blogger points out that ‘nelly’ used to be a common gay slur. I was also very offended the first time I saw the film at the obvious depiction of a ‘crazy flamboyant king’ with no other apparent positive connotation towards the LGBT community. I, as well as Chris Bogia,  was surprised by the many ‘gay friendly’ and actual gay/lesbian actors in the film not being offended or speaking up against the seeming biases.    

        I can see where some may take issue with seeming sexism in the film as well. Felix becomes infatuated with Calhoun based solely on her ‘beautiful face’. 

        Later the otherwise super strong, hardcore character of Calhoun becomes suddenly smitten with Felix when he ‘rescues her’ in a Tarzan like moment. It was slightly insulting to see an otherwise overtly strong female character be made to appear helpless. The best example of sexism that I encountered was a reel girl blog pointing out that all of the advertisement posters in her city depicted the secondary (at best) characters who are all male despite the obvious female characters who are much more pertinent to the story.

        To counter these sexist stereotypes however is the awesome (I think) character of Vanellope. While many may call her a brat, I see her as spunky, sassy, independent and strong. There are many times that she is put down or discouraged to follow her dreams and she insists that on the inside she KNOWS who she is no matter what anyone says. At the end of the film Vanellope is realized as the actual true princess of Sugar Rush; she is magically transformed into a fancy beautiful princess with a big poofy dress. Just as I became disenchanted and offended that they dare change the adorable untraditional character the following happens:

(skip to 1:09 and stop at 2:32 for relevant clip, the sound is unpredictable as well, SORRY!)

        Vanellope is then immediately questioned about what the people of Sugar Rush would do without a princess she says she will be the leader, but was “…thinking more along the lines of a constitutional democracy. ‘President Vanellope Von Schweetz’, has a nice ring to it don’t ya think?” (AWESOME!)

        In my research I stumbled upon a boy, Perry S. Chen who is an award winning, 12yr old, child movie reviewer. In his review of Wreck it Ralph he maturely notices the social commentary the movie is posing about classism. His only complaint, which I find very cute, is the predictable mushy stuff. After all, what 12yr old boy wants to see romance in their otherwise engaging, action packed cartoon movie?

        I think it’s also important to mention that Wreck it Ralph was highly nominated including an Oscar and Golden Globe as best animated picture. It won several awards as well, not the least of which is the very telling “Kids’ choice award”.

        My daughter, who is 11, loves Wreck it Ralph. She also doesn’t like the mushy stuff but greatly appreciated that Vanellope was unique, smart and didn’t do the typical “girly princess” stuff. She loved that Ralph found his place without changing who he was and that even though he didn’t really seem to have any friends he was always thinking of others and kind; like sharing his cherries with ‘homeless characters’ and later building them homes.

                   
References:

Wreck it Ralph, Disney 2012
  www.gamefaqs.com, NeotheLight, 2012
disney.wikia, Hey1234, 2012/JaDangerz, 2012
  www.commonsensemedia.org, Caroline Knorr, 2010
 charredlot.tumblr.com, charredlot, 2012
www.huffingtonpost.com, Chris Bogia, 2012
www.urbandictionary.com, DurtyWilly, 2008
reelgirl.com, Reel Girl, 2012
www.perryspreviews.com, Perry S. Chen, 2013
www.imdb.com, 
www.youtube.com