Wreck-It Ralph Ultimate Collector's Edition Review

Without question one of my two favorite movies released last year was Wreck-It Ralph.  The main character’s journey of self-discovery is one that appeals greatly to me.  Though the digital download version of the movie has been available for a few weeks, like many I’ve been waiting for the Blu-ray release of the movie.  Now, in just a few days, on March 5, 2013, it will be released, and I’ve just finished checking out the Wreck-It Ralph Ultimate Collector's Edition.  If you’d like more information about the movie itself, please check out Episode 98 of our podcast.  

Upon opening the Blu-ray set the first impression is slight disappointment.  I know it seems minor, but they only decorated the Blu-ray 3D version of the movie.  The regular Blu-ray and DVD are light blue and grey respectively.  The box cover itself though is a lenticular 3D image containing many of the characters from the movie.  Now, I realize that for the most part a movie sits on your shelf or inside your player - so this is not a huge problem.  The Main Menu of the Blu-ray is designed as if you’re playing the Fix-It Felix, Jr. arcade game.  However the apartment building where the Nicelanders live is moved to the right side of the screen, and on the left is the menu itself. Ralph & Felix are actively playing the game

Of all the features on this Blu-ray, my favorite is Disney Intermission - a specialized Pause feature that Disney has been including on several of their Blu-ray releases.  For Wreck-It Ralph it’s called The Gamer’s Guide to Wreck-It Ralph which covers some of the many easter eggs in the film.  Mention is made of the 120501 High Score on Fix-It Felix which happens to be Walt’s Birthday.  We are also shown the hidden “Disney Codes” inside the Kill Screen at the end of the movie.  There is some discussion about the greatest video game ever... Fatal Assault (hint: it’s not a real thing).  And many other things including Hidden Mickeys and the various video game character cameos in the movie.

If you really enjoyed the theatrical short Paperman it’s available for viewing on the Blu-ray.  For those that don’t know, it’s a sweet little romantic piece involving a man, a woman, and paper airplanes.  There are also a few “deleted” scenes on the Blu-ray, but they’re not really deleted from the movie you know (if you’ve already seen it).  They are scenes from an interim concept version of the movie where both Felix and Ralph are traveling through the video game worlds together.  They also have an introduction by Rich Moore and optional audio commentary.  You’ll also find Commercials for each of the video games, as well as a strange commercial about how to buy Felix’s magic hammer.

Bit By Bit: Creating The Worlds Of Wreck-It Ralph is about the conceptualizing and inception of the movie.  Director Rich Moore talks about how John Lasseter came to talk with him, requesting that he make a movie about the world of video games.  Producer Clark Spencer discusses the “Donkey Kong Vibe” that they set out to give to the core characters.  Phil Johnston discusses their epiphany moment when they realized that the movie should be about the villain not the hero.  They also spend a lot of time discussing the 5 worlds of the game: Fix-It Felix, Jr., Hero’s Duty, Sugar Rush, Game Central Station, and Litwak’s Arcade.

There’s not a huge amount of content on this Blu-ray release, but then again it was only released last year.  So not a lot of content has been generated about it to date.  One feature I might like to have seen was one about the character creation itself as much of the “creation” information on the Blu-ray was about the worlds of the movie not the characters.  Overall, I’m just super excited to own a copy of this movie.  I’m probably going to watch it again tonight if I can fit it in.