Tuesday 19 November 2019

Film Reviews: Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Character Analysis


 Fig. 1: Theatrical release poster for Wreck-It Ralph (2012).

This essay will investigate two opposing characters from Rich Moore’s Wreck-It Ralph (2012); the titular protagonist, Ralph, and the film’s eventual antagonist, King Candy. This will be done by examining and comparing traits including the characters’ personal histories, worldviews, their inherited worlds, their wants versus their needs, their internal and external traits, conflicts, changes of value, and overall story arcs.

Wreck-It Ralph revolves around the eponymous character and his life as part of arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr. Dissatisfied with his role as the game’s villain and how it negatively impacts his life both in and outside of the game, Ralph leaves in effort to fit in elsewhere and to become a hero in the same fashion as Fix-It Felix himself. Eventually, Ralph enters racing game Sugar Rush, where he meets Vanellope Von Schweetz, an outcast like himself who is forbidden from racing due to her erratic glitching. Sugar Rush’s citizens are overseen by King Candy, later revealed to be Turbo, a malicious character who attempted to outrun the obsoletion of his own game by fleeing to Sugar Rush, usurping Vanellope’s role as ruler and tampering with the game’s code which resulted in her developing her glitch. Unfortunately, due to Ralph’s absence and his accidental unleashing of bugs within the arcade, his game and many others are threatened to have their plugs pulled for good. Ralph and Vanellope work together to fend off Candy; Vanellope takes back her role as princess Ralph returns to his own game, except that he’s now revered and appreciated by its residents and he is content with his job.

The personal history of a character will sometimes attempt to serve as an explanation for their behaviour and motives; Ralph’s programming to be a villain character in Fix-It Felix Jr. has the other characters ostracising him from their society within the game, even outside of operating hours when Ralph continuously tries to prove his good nature - this is worsened by their comparative favouring of beloved hero character Felix. Ralph, therefore, doesn’t live with them in the penthouse, but rather outside in a dump. Evidently, this causes Ralph to begin to despise his job out of shame for being a villain and to become notably jealous of Felix’s status and the popularity it bestows upon him. 


Fig. 2: Ralph is unhappy with his status as the game’s villain and the fact that it causes him to be hated (2012).

King Candy, on the other hand, was formerly known as Turbo before the events of the film. He came from an older racing game called TurboTime, which, at the time of its release, was the most popular game in the arcade. Eventually, its popularity declined after the installation of newer games including RoadBlasters – Candy’s refusal to share the spotlight and awareness that his game was likely to be abandoned for the newer ones led him to flee TurboTime to infiltrate the other games, the first of which being RoadBlasters. His absence from TurboTime and forced glitching of the game caused them both to have their plugs pulled as they were deemed permanently out of order. As a result, Turbo was presumed dead until it was revealed that he’d actually survived the ordeal and broken into Sugar Rush before seizing control in way of forcing Vanellope out of her role and tampering with the game’s code. Unable to fully remove Vanellope from the game, Candy used to his advantage the damage he had managed to cause to manipulate the residents of the game into believing that he was their king and turning them against Vanellope.

The inherited worlds of the characters, then, are those which they live in. The world that Ralph lives in is named the Niceland, and its residents are those that Ralph is programmed to hold a grudge against. This in itself stems from the fact that the Nicelanders built their apartment building on top of Ralph’s home, a forest, and banished him to a dump on the building’s outskirts – Ralph’s job is to demolish the building while Felix repairs it, and, upon the player’s success, the penthouse’s residents throw Ralph from its roof so the game can begin again. This is what causes Ralph to become miserable and for the residents to despise him; the citizens declare that if Ralph wants to be seen as a hero and appreciated, he must do as Felix does and acquire a medal like the ones that Felix obtains at the end of each game.

Candy’s world is that of Sugar Rush, a racing game with a candy-themed appearance and layout. There are many playable characters available for the player to choose from, each also having a design pertaining to the candy aesthetic. Candy is its ruler, having forcibly assumed Vanellope Von Schweetz’s role. Before doing this, however, Candy’s world was that of the TurboTime game, itself being an 8-bit racing game that eventually lost the favour of the arcade’s visitors due to the installation of the newer racing game RoadBlasters. 


Fig. 3: Candy is the ruler of Sugar Rush at the beginning of the film (2012).

In a more overaching sense, these two smaller worlds are part of a bigger one inside of the arcade that the machines themselves are based in. Each of the arcade’s games are connected to a virtual world called the Game Central Station that functions as a gateway for characters to traverse between different worlds or congregate as they please; if a game is unplugged for good and rendered defunct, its residents flee and seek refuge in the station. The Game Central Station is where Ralph goes to meet other game characters and to travel between games in search of a medal – it’s also where Candy (as Turbo) allegedly escaped the unplugging of both TurboTime and RoadBlasters.

The personal worldviews of these characters are consequently their outlooks on these worlds that they live in and their role within them. In Ralph’s case, he starts out being fairly jaded and visibly ashamed of his role as the game’s villain, as he’s tired of being an outcast and of the mistreatment he receives from the Nicelanders (even despite his efforts to make friends and prove to them that he’s a nicer person outside of the game’s operating hours). Ralph, then, believes that the world – or more specifically, the game that he comes from – is unfair in its treatment towards him. This belief that it’s unjust spurs on Ralph to take the Nicelanders’ advice and pursue the objective of obtaining a medal from other games to prove that he’s a hero.

Candy’s personal worldviews, on the other hand, are more based in the fact that he seems to think that he is owed he limelight due to his past popularity in the arcade as Turbo. This can be inferred through his willingness to interfere with other games and his own no matter the cost and having been so desperate to remain in said spotlight that he ended up crashing both TurboTime and RoadBlasters (and, towards the end of the film, he almost succeeds in bringing the entire arcade to a standstill). It’s also visible through the fact that he chose to become a figure of authority and royalty within the world of Sugar Rush.


Fig. 4: King Candy, or Turbo, infiltrated RoadBlasters and brought both TurboTime and RoadBlasters down by doing so (2012).

In terms of the characters’ wants (also referred to as their goals), Ralph and Candy are somewhat similar in that they both want the approval and to become significant in a positive light to those around them. They begin to differ when considering Candy’s motives and method of getting what he wants (and how far he’s willing to go) – Candy is much more aggressive and is ultimately malicious, causing as much destruction as possible and ends up being consumed by such goals. Ralph, on the contrary, simply wants a nicer life and to be seen as more than just a villain, and gradually becomes more self-aware about the damage he causes throughout the film and attempts to make amends for it. He doesn’t allow himself to be blinded by his goals.

These wants can be contrasted with the characters’ needs, of which the character might not always be conscious of. Ralph is a character that needs some form of friendship in acceptance following the scorn he receives from the penthouse residents. He ends up finding this company within Vanellope, and later overcomes his personal struggles enough to make amends with and eventually befriend Felix and his girlfriend Calhoun. Towards the end of the film, Ralph is also on better terms with the Nicelanders. Candy, however, is driven by his wants and therefore needed to learn to accept the fact that his game wouldn’t remain popular forever and that the popularity he did gain would’ve been fleeting regardless due to new video games coming out and replacing older ones on a constant basis.

Ralph and Candy’s interval versus external traits are that which contrast their appearance with their personality. Both of these are reversed for the characters in a sense as Ralph’s appearance makes him look incredibly intimidating but he’s actually well-intentioned, and Candy’s appearance makes him seem friendly in contrast to his actually devious personality. This allows the audience to be deceived by Candy, thus making the reveal of his true identity and the villainous status attached to it much more effective. 

These characters are also defined by their flaws. Ralph’s is his physical strength; while it proves useful in certain situations and is the core of his job as a functioning villain in Fix-It Felix Jr., he is also much too strong for his own good and seems to be unaware of his own strength in most cases as he causes extensive amounts of damage without even intending to in some cases. This, combined with his tendencies to lash out when angry or upset, is what causes him to be seen in a not-so-favourable light. Another flaw of Ralph’s is that his good-heartedness and slightly lowered intellect makes him somewhat gullible; as such, he upsets Vanellope by destroying the kart they made together to prevent her from racing after Candy manipulated him into believing that as Vanellope is a glitch, she should be forbidden from racing; Ralph is thoroughly convinced that what he’s doing is for the right reasons.


Fig. 5: Ralph destroys Vanellope’s cart after being manipulated by Candy, using his brute strength to do so (2012).

Candy’s flaws, meanwhile, lie in his inability to accept that the children visiting the arcade have long since moved on from TurboTime, his desperation to maintain his popularity, and his incredibly jealous and vindictive personality. His selfishness and conceited desires lead to him destroying his own game, RoadBlasters, and almost Sugar Rush (and to an extent the rest of the arcade after a bug outbreak unwittingly caused by Ralph that Candy attempts to use for his own gain). Not only that, but this causes Candy to be eaten by and then transform into one of aforementioned bugs – he is then tricked by the bug extermination protocol as it lures him to a lava geyser, and, since video game characters cannot regenerate outside of their own games, Candy is killed. As such, Candy’s flaws are ultimately his downfall as they cost him his life.


Fig. 6: Candy’s longing for fame ends up being his downfall (2012).

The conflicts that the characters face can be both internal and external; for Ralph, his external conflict is that with the Nicelanders, but his internal conflict is mostly related to his morality and his wanting to be a good person despite the fact that his role in Fix-It Felix Jr. has him programmed to act against this. Candy’s conflict is mostly external, since he has no qualms with manipulating and endangering others (and, to an extent, himself). Both of these characters have a standoff with one another at the end of the film, again acting as a literal, external conflict. 

Ralph’s value change within a scene can be seen culminating most clearly in the moment that he makes peace with never truly being a hero because of his role in his game. This happens during his standoff with Candy after the infestation of bugs (unwittingly released by Ralph himself earlier on in the film) take over Sugar Rush. Ralph accepts that the Nicelanders, while they may have gained a newfound appreciation for him, have no choice but to see Ralph as a villain in the context of their game – this is because Vanellope declares Ralph as her hero, and that is meaningful to him, and Ralph realises that he doesn’t need a new job or a new life to be a better person.

A slightly lesser value change could be said to happen to Ralph midway through the film. This is when Ralph does acquire a medal after destroying Vanellope’s kart and fleeing back to Fix-It Felix Jr. Not only has he already betrayed Vanellope’s wishes and broken his friendship with her, he isn’t even greeted as a hero upon returning to his own game. Ralph finds the penthouse empty barring one citizen, Gene, who informs Ralph that his absence has rendered the game out of order and that has been so long that it’s due to be unplugged – all of the other Nicelanders have already evacuated to the Game Central Station. Ralph suddenly becomes aware of his own selfishness and realises that the price to pay for the hero status is actually losing his own game. 

Candy’s value change during the film comes more from his true identity being revealed as opposed to an actual change in morality. This happens during a race that Vanellope takes part in after fixing her kart. Beforehand, however, Candy’s apparently kindly intentions have already been brought into question when Ralph, when realising his own fault in the abandoned apartment, notices that Vanellope is featured on the Sugar Rush machine’s artwork, whereas King Candy is nowhere to be seen. When racing against Vanellope, Candy repeatedly tries to run her off of the track until her glitching interferes with Candy’s coding and reveals him to be Turbo – this is the moment during which both the audience and other characters become aware of Candy’s true moral standings and of the fact that he is a villain.


Fig. 7: Ralph notices that Vanellope’s picture is on the side of the game’s cabinet, which brings Candy’s motives into question after Ralph becomes aware of his own (2012).

Ralph’s story arc is seen throughout the film when he begins as bitter and unable to make friends, but, through meeting and helping Vanellope, eventually becomes more understanding of the importance of his role as well as making peace with it. His jealousy for Felix and his role as the game’s hero subsides when they form a reluctant alliance and, later, a mutual friendship. By the end of the film, then, Ralph is content in his role, has multiple friends across many different games, and is overall happy with the turn of events. Ralph’s arc is essentially complete in the scene which he decides that he is willing to sacrifice himself in attempts to save Vanellope from being trapped inside of Sugar Rush when it is invaded by bugs and must be reset to ward them off – she cannot leave due to her being a glitch, so Ralph decides to try to free her in the lead-up to his confrontation with Candy.



Fig. 8: At the end of the film, Ralph’s story arc is completed as he becomes as beloved to his game’s residents as Felix (2012).

Ralph’s arc naturally contrasts starkly with Candy’s. Since Candy could not make peace with TurboTime’s loss of popularity and eventual obsoletion, it ended up being a fatal flaw of his and his story arc ended with his death. During his arc, though, Candy’s is essentially a reversal of Ralph’s; where Ralph goes from ‘bad’ to good, Candy is at first assumed to be good but later revealed to have malicious intent with a purposely destructive streak.

To conclude, Ralph and Candy’s characters can be broken down into various elements that allows for understanding of the characters themselves, their motives, flaws, and how these aspects play into their roles at large and the overarching story that they are taking part in. It also allows for a very visible distinction between Ralph’s role as the story’s hero versus Candy’s role as the story’s villain.

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