Wreck-It Ralph Review

I admit I didn't want to go see this movie. I'm not a big fan of kid music or kid movies. And last night as I hurried my girls through the needed activities to get to the movie on time, I was even grumpy about it. I complained to my husband "Why do I commit to these things?"

"Because you know it means a lot to them," he assured me, then sent us on our way, not-so-secretly delighted to be left in a mostly empty house. I wanted to change places with him, I really did. But I was in full-blown martyr mom mode and soldiered on.

So we got our seats and I passed out the water bottles and Halloween candy I'd shoved in my purse so we didn't have to pay for snacks. And, grudgingly, I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to sit through this kid movie.

But of course it wasn't just for kids. I was pleasantly drawn into the story and enjoyed the humor. What Toy Story did for the secret life of toys, this movie does for the secret life of video game characters. Did you know they can travel between games via the power cords in the arcade? And adults will definitely identify with the references to the history of arcades and the development of video games from our generation to now.

I'm not going to tell you a lot about the story because it's better if you don't know much about the back stories of these characters. (And yes, video game characters do have back stories.) But I will tell you what my seven year old piped up on the way home: "Mommy, that story was about how it's good to be exactly who you are."

She did a very good job of boiling down the whole movie into one line. It is a story about being exactly who you are, and believing in who you were programmed to be in spite of glitches that might throw you off track. (This will make even more sense after you see the movie.) I don't know about you, but that's a story I want my kids to see. Heck, it's a story I need to see.

To print off a variety of Wreck It Ralph activities for your kids, just click on this link:
http://www.wdsmediafile.com/disney/wreckit-ralph/fpk/

And here's the trailer: