Rich Moore Gives WRECK-IT RALPH Serious Depth

Rich Moore spent a healthy part of his youth playing video games, which ultimately paid off when the time came to come up with the story for WRECK-IT RALPH. When I spoke to him on October 17, 2012, the first thing I wanted to know was how he got from video games in general to existential angst in one particular character. His answer was as sharp as it was funny, which was true of the entire conversation, particularly when it came to describing what it was like to ride herd on John C. Reilley and Sarah Silverman as they went off script with material that, as he put it, shined a bit too brightly for a Disney film. He then went on to discuss being true to 8-bit limitations without limiting the animation, and why Pixar’s John Lasseter, one of the film’s executive producers, is always right.

WRECK-IT RALPH is a delightfully imaginative animated tale that rips the lid off of what all those video game characters do when the arcade is closed. The eponymous Ralph has been destroying the same building for 30 years in the vintage game, FIX IT, FELIX!, and the toll of having all his options pre-determined for him has finally caught up with him. Determined to be more than just a guy with oversized hands and a penchant for deconstructing an apartment building, he sets out to become a hero in order to find acceptance from his fellow game characters, even if it means jumping to other games that test the limits of his 8-bit ingenuity. The film stars the voices of John C. Reilly as Ralph, Sarah Silverman as the glitch with a racing dream not necessarily in her code, Jane Lynch as a corpse-slapping commando, and Jack McBrayer as the squeaky clean Felix. Moore directed from a script by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee, based on the story by Moore, Johnston and Jim Reardon. Moore’s previous work includes directing episodes of The Simpsons, and Futurama.