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Wreck-It Ralph | 2012 | PG | - 2.4.2
Animated feature about the villain (voiced by John C. Reilly) of a video game that wrecks a building which the hero (voiced by Jack McBrayer) continually fixes. After 30 years, the villain is tired of what he does and escapes his game, landing in another game where he fights space bugs as a hero, and in yet another game where he helps a girl race a go-kart on candy racetracks; he also meets a woman (voiced by Sarah Silverman). Also with the voices of Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk and Dennis Haysbert. Directed by Rich Moore. [1:50]
SEX/NUDITY 2 - A man kisses a woman on the cheek and she embraces him and kisses him on the lips passionately. A woman kisses a man on the cheek and gives him a pie. A man blushes and smiles for several minutes at a woman, who sneers at him.
► A teen girl character wears a very short skirt covering only her uppermost thigh along with stockings. A woman wears a tight cat suit that exhibits the lines of a huge bosom and shapely legs (all covered). A male character wears a loincloth and big patches of black furry hair over his chest and legs; we see a bare back, arms, thighs and chest without nipples. A man sleeps in a closet in his briefs and we see his bare thighs, arms and a side view of his bare chest without nipples.
► A bride and a groom stand at a church altar when a swarm of cyber-bugs break through the stained glass window and swallow the groom (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details); the bride becomes a dedicated combat soldier and thinks of her dead fiancé, but does not cry (this scene is replayed later with another man, while dozens of soldiers train their rifles on the church window to prevent the cyber-bugs from entering).
► A woman soldier says that a particularly large cyber-bug is the ugly offspring of Armageddon and Doomsday.
VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - This film focuses on action adventure games with cartoon characters in a video arcade: one character is a man built like an ape with huge forearms and hands that touch the ground and wide bare feet -- we hear that he has a bad temper and that he lives in a city dump and several other characters tell him that he has body odor and bad breath; this character's job is to wreck a high-rise building by pounding on it, which we see him do several times, sending bricks falling and shattering windows (no one is hurt) and throughout the film he pounds on things that include large rocks, a tree stump, a huge jawbreaker candy, the ground, two dungeon doors that fall in, a race car and a mountaintop (they are pulverized).
► In a dark room, large video game soldiers in black armor scream when they see large cyber-bugs; two soldiers faint while their female sergeant calls them "ladies," some cyber-bugs grow machine gun arms and shoot (no one is hurt), a visiting character falls over equipment, breaking some of it, is slapped by the sergeant, and is slapped several times by a robotic chalkboard with arms while other soldiers shoot cyber-bugs with rifles and machine guns that emit space-rays; they shoot cyber-bug eggs that glow green and emit green slime until a large swarm of cyber-bugs gathers into a cloud and leaves.
► In a candy go-kart race on a chocolate track, gumballs fall down from mountains in the manner of boulders (no one is struck): one gumball machine on a mountaintop breaks and releases hundreds of gumballs without doing harm, a driver drives off a mountainside but reappears quickly and is unhurt, two drivers yell at one another and one hits the other's car with a lollipop, and one of the drivers turns into a giant, screeching candy cyber-bug, joined by other cyber-bugs that have become covered in candy; a man outside the racetrack pounds on a high mountaintop releasing Mentos candies into a cola lake causing the candies to explode forming a beacon of light that attracts the candy cyber-bugs and a soldier shoots forcing the remaining cyber-bugs toward the beam, where they all evaporate (a shock wave passes through the scene, resetting the game and repairing damages).
► A large man puts a sour-ball character into his mouth briefly, because the candy won't give him information; disgusted and scared, the candy quickly provides the information about a candy king, the man goes to seek out the king and the king becomes a giant cyber-bug and fistfights the man (the bug-king escapes unhurt).
► In a meeting we see a video game zombie with a hatchet sitting next to a cyborg and it rips out the zombie's slimy heart (no blood is seen); we also see a devil, a dragon breathing a small flame, a T-rex and a rusty robot.
► A character punches another character several times causing him to have black eyes, broken teeth and bruises each time (they heal up immediately every time he touches his face with his magic hammer). A cowardly king wearing glasses asks a man if he'd punch a man wearing glasses and the man punches him, breaking the glasses but not harming him. A woman slaps a man several times as they sink into a chocolate quicksand pit causing vines overhead to descend to get a closer look; the man and the woman climb out on the vines and the woman fires a handgun into the air. A little girl runs a go-kart into a wall and spits out a tooth (no blood is shown).
► A game character finds himself in a land made of candy, sugar and syrups where he falls when he climbs a candy tree, but is uninjured; a cyber-bug from another game drowns in purple syrup, several other characters fall into syrup ponds and are unharmed (we see them covered with green goo), and a large cupcake falls on a goo-covered man and a donut (that's a policeman) chases the man with a chainsaw and later two donut cops on motorcycles chase the man in a car made of candy. Several characters fall through trap doors in a castle (they are unharmed and land in candy rooms); one of the characters is placed into a jail cell near the candy and a friend bashes down the door to save him.
► Mean girls tear apart a little girl's go-kart and a man scares the mean girls away by roaring as he charges toward them; he helps the other little girl make a new go-kart, and then smashes it, because he thinks it will kill her and she cries and calls him names.
► We see a character die and come back to life immediately in a game when another character is too tall for a room and breaks a ceiling that falls on the first character; the second character becomes angry and smashes a cake.
► A video game soldier steals a space shuttle, flies into another video game, and wrecks the shuttle. At a castle, we see a caricature of the Wizard of Oz and guards outside that are Oreo cookies holding long spears; the cookies point their spears at all newcomers and devil dogs run by (we see that they are devils-food donuts).
► A little girl transforms into a princess and tells several other girls that they will all be executed for being mean; they gasp and plead, so she tells them it was a joke and releases them. Two men argue about whether the first man can change from a villain to a hero and win a medal. Characters in several arcade games say that their games are old and will die when someone "pulls the plug." A man tells a security guard that he hates him. Several characters tell a male character that if he dies outside his own video game, he cannot regenerate. During a meeting we hear a video game barbarian say that he crushes skulls like eggs between his thighs. A little girl says that she is so excited by the thought of racing a candy go-kart that she wants to vomit and puke.
LANGUAGE 2 - 4 mild scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms (3 mild), exclamations (shut up, man, I'll be dipped, jeepers, milk my duds, frammin jamming, oh my land, aye yai yai, sweet Mother Hubbard, sweet Mercy, sweet mother of milky monkey toys), name-calling (crazy, nuts, moron, idiot, genius, dumb, stupid, chimp, thief, guttersnipe, numbskull, diaper-baby, traitor, cough-drop, ugly, pile of junk, cavities, warthog, fat, rat, traitor, mistake, accident, stinky brain, gob muncher, rip-off, doid, sick, freak, short stuff, crumb-snatcher, Nilly Wafer, Ms. Fartfeathers, pussy-willows, Gladys, ladies (to men), boogerface, Captain Underpants, old ham hands), stereotypical references to heroes, villains, widows, winners and losers, support groups, police officers, jealous people, children.
SUBSTANCE USE - A video game called "Sugar Rush" mildly suggests that sugar is a "drug" with references to excitement. A man and a woman clink glasses of wine together at a picnic (they do not drink), two men talk about going to a bar and we later see that it serves only root beer from keg taps, a hotel has a bar with a tall back bar filled with colorful bottles of various unmarked liquors, at a party in a bar a man mixes martinis in a shaker and hands the drinks to men and women who drink them, and a man mixes a martini for himself and drinks it alone in the dark.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Video games, heroes and villains, courage, making amends, cooperation, home, friendships.
MESSAGE - One does not need a medal to be a hero.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
Gladiator II - 2.7.2
Wicked: Part I - 3.4.2
Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. - 1.5.3
Emilia Pérez - 6.6.7
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