If you can make successful movies from video games or even Disneyland rides, why not make an animated movie about video games. Thus we have Wreck-It Ralph, the latest animated movie from Disney.

Ralph (very nicely voiced by John C. Reilly) is the bad guy in a fictional video game that is always wrecking a building. Then Fix-It Felix, Jr. (Jack McBrayer) comes along and fixes Ralph’s damage. After doing so Felix is praised and fetted by the residents of the building. Meanwhile, poor old Ralph goes back to his lonely, boring dump. He’s been doing this for 30 years and wants a change. He wants to be the hero for once.

So he leaves his video game and gets into another where he can be a hero instead of a villain. Then he gets involved in another game, called Sugar Rush, helping a big-eyed, jinxed girl named Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) win a car race and become a fixture in her game.

The humour is broad, the animation is excellent and there’s enough cleverness here for kids and parents to both enjoy it. The first half or so is especially entertaining, while the second half lapses into more traditional Disney territory. Video game addicts will enjoy all the inside references to a wide variety of video games.

A bonus for parents, more so than kids, is an excellent six-and-a-half minute short, Paperman, about love blossoming in a rapid transit station, preceding the main feature.

Rating: three deer out of five

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Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.