Just saw Wreck-It Ralph last night. That was a hefty shot of nostalgia, pointed right at the arcade generation (which I definitely am), I'm sure somewhere on the internet someone is already hard at work detailing and cataloging every single cameo and game reference in that movie. Because that's what the internet is for.
However, Ralph is more than just nostalgia bait fortunately, and it's actually quite a good movie. Although it probably sets the record for the highest licensing fees (or product placement depending on who's paying who) and it's not just video games. However, almost all of the fanservice (no, not that kind of fanservice) can be found within the first quarter of the movie and the rest of it focuses on Ralph's story with original characters and game worlds. So you get your nostalgia hit to start you off, then you can ride that through the movie's pretty visuals and great humor. I'll avoid spoilers and not go into details, but I will say that I loved it all and it had a great sense of humor and a story that was interesting (but also surprisingly dark at times.)
The voice-acting casting choices were probably the high point of the movie for me. Casting Kenneth from 30 Rock as Fix-it Felix was absolutely perfect (and no, I don't mean Jack Mcbrayer, Felix is clearly being played directly by Kenneth). Sarah Silverman was another great pick for Venelope Von Sweet, a character who could have been
really annoying but ended up being terrific. Ralph himself was great, but was almost outshone by the really colorful and insane characters he's surrounded by, but he makes up for it by being extremely likable.
Of course, the high point of the movie for NJ was at the very start: the Paperman animated short thrilled the hell out of her. She's a big fan of 2D animation and hopes to see more 2D (or quasi-2D as the case may be) stuff from Pixar in the future.
