Wreck-it Ralph

A much-needed break from princesses, Disney presents Wreck-it Ralph as a hero who doesn’t need a princess. As a guy who is not particularly interested in love stories in general, I thought this is a very important movie for Disney to make. It helps create some sort of diversity between movies that target a larger audience.

One of my favorite points that this movie makes is that you don’t need to marry a princess or a prince charming to be happy in life. Ralph shows us that there is far more to life than just finding someone to marry. Ralph ended up finding his happiness by realizing that he wasn’t a bad guy deep down; he was a caring and understanding person. He showed this when he helped Vanellope ultimately beat the real bad guy Turbo who was posing as King Candy. Ralph helps Vanellope out of pure compassion and sympathy which truly show his real colors, and the backbone of his happiness.

Another thing this movie shows really well in my opinion is the lesson that life isn’t black and white; there is an inevitable gray area where right and wrong or good and bad can be seen in different ways. Generally, kids look at the bad guy in a video game, television show, or movie as being one sided. This movie shows the young viewers that people who do bad things aren’t always bad people. This lesson (although it may be a bit difficult for children to learn) is an important one.

Outside of the young viewership, there is a bigger lesson to be seen here. People in the criminal justice system get judged by the worst thing they have done. Many criminals are good people who made a huge mistake. The justice system generally punishes criminals harshly and doesn’t rehabilitate these criminals nearly enough. Wreck-it Ralph shows that people cannot always be judged just by the mistakes they make. Ralph knocks down houses, but is it really his fault? He is programmed to knock the houses in his game down. Luckily Ralph had proper guidance on his journey and was able to prove himself as kind and benevolent. However, in real life, many people are “programmed” to commit crimes by being born in impoverished areas or growing up with negative role models. These people don’t always have the conviction and support to become good members of society and often fall into trouble. This movie speaks volumes to the necessity to rehabilitate those who may not have had the perfect circumstances growing up and to not judge them based solely on their actions.

The last point that I’ll touch on is the necessity of pushing yourself against all odds that this movie shows us. Vanellope was told that she could never race because she was just a glitch. Many characters at this point give up or become dejected. Vanellope never stopped, she kept trying to race and put everything she had into it. Her eventual crowning as champion, although cliché showed that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish the impossible.