It is now I get to the Wreck-it Ralph’s selling point: the licensed video games cameos and references. These attributes were heavily advertised during Wreck-It Ralph’s marketing campaign. Even the DVD/Blu-Ray covers flaunt characters like Sonic, M. Bison and Clyde alongside the main cast as if they play significant roles in the story. In Part 1 I stated how Wreck-It Ralph did not turn out to be the next generation’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Now I need to expand upon such claim and explain what I mean exactly. Among the many amazing aspects that make Who Framed Roger Rabbit a masterpiece is its celebration of the golden age of American animation. It features everyone: Dumbo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi, Mr. Toad, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, Yosemite Sam, Tinker Bell, Piglet, Kaa, Droopy Dog, Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, Felix the Cat, Pluto, Goofy, The Road Runner and Coyote, the Brooms from Fantasia, and the Penguins Waiters from Mary Poppins to name a few.
The film features Donald and Daffy Duck in a dueling piano contest and for the first and only time so far, Bugs Bunny and Micky Mouse together in the same scenes. The latter event was and still remains an unprecedented, unbelievable crossover. The mascots of two large rival companies—Disney and Warner Brothers—coming together to mess with the film’s protagonist. It stunned audiences at the time who grew up with said characters and never thought they’d see the day where both characters shared the big screen—and with the ever-growing rivalry between said companies increasing in modern times (largely due to their clashing superhero licenses) it becomes even less likely to occur again anytime soon.
To have even hoped to achieve such massive feat, Wreck-It Ralph would have needed to had Nintendo’s Mario and SEGA’s Sonic interacting with and/or helping out Ralph in the same scene…and also have come out in the 1990s. Yeah, by 2012, SEGA and Nintendo’s rivalry had long since died down—mostly due to SEGA dropping out of the console war—and even appeared together in several crossovers like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Brawl arguably beat Wreck-It Ralph to the punch as the ultimate video game crossover celebration—and on the proper medium as well—with the newer Super Smash Bros. games wholly surpassing any of Wreck-It Ralph’s prior achievements.
It’s worth noting that Mario doesn’t actually appear in Wreck-It Ralph—being merely referenced by Felix as a late party guest. Contrary to popular belief, Mario’s absence was not due to Nintendo forbidding his use and/or asking for too high a licensing fee—but due to Wreck-It Ralph’s creative team being unable to find an appropriate place for the famous video game character and opting to leave him out as a result. It’s a very surprising, respectable decision that placed Wreck-It Ralph’s story over marketing as Mario’s appearance in trailers would have most certainly increased the film’s ticket sales.
So, what licensed video game characters actually do appear in Wreck-It Ralph? Well, there’s a wiki page that gives detail to every single cameo, so rather than sound like a broken record, I will just go over some of its most noteworthy examples. Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter II are shown having a conversation about going to Tapper’s universe after work. Later on, Ralph visits Tapper and there’s Ryu drinking in the back (a nice continuation of the gag). The film does a great job at fleshing out Tapper’s limited world—which they make clear to be the root beer variant—adding a restroom section with a lost-and-found and an artistic picture wall of famous video game characters like Chun-Li, Sonic, Q*Bert, and a Space Invader alien among other Easter eggs. The film even shows an overhead sprite view of the game, including pixilated Tapper versions of Ryu and Ralph. While digging through Tapper’s lost-and-found in search of a medal, Ralph comes across a Super Mushroom, a pair of Zangief’s briefs, and a surprise Metal Gear Solid exclamation point that I remember getting the loudest laugh from the audience, including myself, when seeing it in theaters.
Ralph also visits Pac-Man’s world, but unlike Tapper, the audience only gets to see the maze’s overhead sprite view and the Ghost’s base—the latter being used for the BAD-ANON meetings (Pac-Man himself does make an appearance at Fix-It Felix Jr.’s 30th-anniversary party, getting a funny jaw-drop gag in). Oddly enough, his design is less modernized than his ghost enemies. The BAD-ANON scenes highlight Zangief as one of the members despite not actually being a bad guy in the games. Zangief being a villain is a misconception owing to him originally being from the USSR (later changed to the Russian Federation) and being portrayed as a bad guy in both Street Fighter’s underrated 1994 feature film and North American TV series. Yet the true reason behind Zangief’s “villainous” portrayal is because the film’s screenwriter Phil Johnson always had a difficult time defeating Zangief in Street Fighter II as a boy and as such, always personally considered him a bad guy.
The Zangief in Wreck-It Ralph actually gets a prominent speaking role, feeling awfully similar to his film version who is a genuinely nice, albeit dimwitted guy simply doing his job. Aside from Zangief, Clyde, Kano—who happily rips out a zombie character’s heart to emphasize their point—and M. Bison (the only BAD-ANON member voiced by his current games’s voice actor) also get speaking roles. I love how these members interact with one another. Their scenes have a bunch of small, extra touches such as Kano and the zombie both laughing at the heart ripping trick, Zangief saving Ralph a seat on the tramcar back to the game station, and Bowser cheerfully waving goodbye to a witch member. It’s just really sweet to see these “bad guys” act in such a wholesome, supportive manner.
Sonic gets his own speaking role as a digital billboard, reminding characters of their world’s dangers similar to his “Sonic Sez” PSAs from the 1990s cartoon show (the film misses out on a grand opportunity for Sonic to say “that’s no good” here). Additionally, the blue hedgehog makes various cameos scattered randomly throughout the film. Sonic doesn’t say or do anything in these parts—save for a humorous moment where Ralph hits Sonic and knocks out all his Rings—he’s simply there in the background making an appearance. Q*Bert has a more plot-relevant, minor role as one of game station’s homeless residents, getting in a fun gag where Felix tried communicating with Q*Bert through his native speech bubble language.
Wreck-It Ralph’s least inspired method for referencing licensed game characters is when it throws out name references for the sake of referencing them. Examples include Ralph sarcastically claiming he’s Lara Croft to a security guard and Felix mentioning Mario being late to the 30th-anniversary party. These remarks just feel forced in to please and, ironically, end up being more cringe-inducing as a result. The strangest and most frustrating of these forced name references, however, is when Vanellope refers to Ralph as Portal’s GLaDOS after remarking he doesn’t build things, he breaks them. Not only does this make little sense within context since GLaDOS’ central role in the Portal series is building infinite testing sites as testing is programmed to be addictive to her, but it’s made even worse by Vanellope’s mispronunciation of the name—calling Ralph “Gladys” (and yes, Valve Corporation confirmed this was an intentional, albeit horribly executed reference to GLaDOS).
While several licensed characters get minor supporting roles and lines, the majority end up being nothing more than background appearances, quick gags and/or verbal references during the film’s first hour. Wreck-It Ralph’s remaining forty minutes are largely absent of any references and/or cameos—focusing primarily on its original cast and setting—with only the epilogue providing some final throw-ins (including an awesome end credits montage of Ralph and co. traveling to various licensed game worlds—my favorite being when Ralph and Vanellope help Ryu wreck the bonus stage car). This made Wreck-It Ralph’s biggest advertising selling point its biggest weakness during initial viewing. Yet if one can get over any initial disappointment and revisit the film looking past its limited licensed game roster, then Wreck-It Ralph's other aspects may end up shining much more brightly.
LINK TO PART 4: Going Beyond Mere Cameos and References
LINK TO PART 4: Going Beyond Mere Cameos and References
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