Wreck-It Ralph

REVIEW: 1.5/5 STARS

This animated cartoon is a cute movie for children and families alike as it follows around the life of a video game character named Ralph. Ralph is animated and lives inside the video game called "Wreck-it Ralph" (same as the movie title) and is considered the "bad guy" in this movie as his role is to destroy/wreck everything in the game. Of course, due to his personality, Ralph doesn't always like being the bad guy, as his better half, Fix-It Felix, is the hero and star of this game and is the one who always get to save the day. After being second best to him, Ralph decides to take matters into his own hands and journey through the different games of the arcade in order to prove his worth and establish himself as a hero in order to erase his "bad guy" nature.

During this movie, you get to meet a variety of different classic video game/arcade favourites such as Pacman and Sonic, which helps this movie cater to all audiences. However, it is the character of Vanellope von Schweetz, from the candy-coated cart racing game, Sugar Rush, that is the real key to the story as her world becomes threatened when Ralph accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that ends up threatening the entire arcade. The audience is left to question, will Ralph really be able to save the day before its too late or are all the characters doomed? 

While the idea to the story was unique (the inside lives of our favourite video game characters), I did not overall find the plot to be interesting and rather similar to most movies, which in the end, could not hold my interest for very long. A movie I'd watch just to say that I've seen it, but other than that, I would not watch this movie again.

Check out the trailer below for a preview!

You can continue the fun by checking out http://movies.disney.com/wreck-it-ralph which is an interactive website that contains a gallery, store, games, and more!

Corpse Bride

REVIEW: 5/5 STARS

Tim Burton's film Corpse Bride is a perfect choice for my special edition Halloween movie review post for this week. As someone who does not generally enjoy the classic horror film, this is a great choice for parents with children especially to watch in order to celebrate the Halloween spirit without scaring their children too much. The animation in this film adds a slight childish nature however still depicting a classic Halloween fright with its characters and the back-and-forth action between the land of the living and the land of the dead.

The movie centers around the main character Victor, who is to be engaged to the beautiful Victoria, with the impression that with this marriage, both families will gain wealth. The secret the audience learns however is that both families are actually poor. Although Victor and Victoria have never met before, it is love at first sight when they do. Through some clumsiness on Victor's part, he accidentally ruins the wedding and finds himself wandering a forest, trying to fix his mistakes. However, due to more foolishness on his part, proposes his vows to a tree and places the ring on a twig. The tree magically (in a horrifying sense) becomes a corpse bride who has now become his wife. Victor faces a series of issues through this movie as he has to come to grips about his new reality and new bride as well as how to get back to his real love Victoria.

I found the animation to be brilliant in this film and the character voices were perfectly cast, as expected from a Tim Burton film. Although the storyline is a bit typical at first, the added scary Halloween twist pulls you in right away and takes you to another world to explore, turning it into quite a unique movie. A wonderful movie to really watch any time of the year, but especially perfect during the time of Halloween to get you into the spirit.

Check out the trailer below for a preview!