Wreck-It Ralph FTW

John Lassater is a man after my own heart.

For ages, Disney has really excelled at princess stories, which, despite all my feminist indoctrination, I still love deeply and cry over with embarrassing frequency. (Even when the princesses aren't really princesses, ahem, Pocahontas.)

But, starting with Toy Story, John Lasseter did something really amazing for children's films. Instead of recycling old fairy tales and fables that were told to keep children in line (be good or your step mother will try to murder you and no one will ever marry you!!) he decided that movies for children should be about children, or at very least about things that matter to children. Why are so many children's movies about trying to find a husband!?! It's not something you really want your 8 year-old to be obsessed with.

John Lasseter doesn't seem to really have all that much to do with Wreck-It Ralph, Disney's new film which just came out this week. He's only listed as an associate producer. But I think he must be credited with a sea change in the culture of children's films, a definite change for the better.

Dreamworks, Pixar's computer-animated-kids-movie-rival, does one thing well: all their jokes are double entendres. The jokes in Dreamworks' films sound silly to children, and dirty to adults, which seems to be the Dreamworks MO for keeping parents entertained. (Shrek was surely the beginning of this seemingly endless progression of fart-joke movies.)

Pixar operates differently and doesn't have to resort to pratfalls to carry the story. Their films are funny, but they are also charming and heart-felt. The humor works for most people because it's universal. They explore the ways that children and adults relate to one another, and how children find their place in the world. Most importantly, I think they also remind adults what it felt like to a child.

The true center of each Pixar film is a family who need each other, even if they're not really related to one another: Nemo, Marlin, and Dory; Andy, Woody and Buzz; Russel, Carl and Dug; Boo, Sully and Mike, the Incredibles; Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater (my least favorite); Remy and Linguini, Wall-E, Eve and all those awesome fat people on that space station.... etc., etc., forever and ever amen.

Enter Wreck-It Ralph. After all I've just said, this isn't actually a Pixar production, but the unmistakable feeling is there. There was a moment, before I saw the film, that I worried it wouldn't live up to the trailer and that it might be an empty promise, or at very least that the plot would fall apart in favor of show-off animation. However, it's impossible not to enjoy this movie. The beauty of this film is in the little, almost imperceivable details that make it feel like a real labor of love. Forget for an instant that the music is perfect, the animation is the best I've ever seen, the storyline is original, and the voice actors are fantastic. Forget that I'm biased by my nerdly love of video games, and my feeling that maybe John C. Reilly is one of the most under-appreciated actors out there today.

There's a sense that this film was created by passionate, creative people who believe entertainment can be both funny and meaningful. It's easy for me to get overly rhapsodic about movies I enjoy (The Goonies, y'all, made me who I am today), but I've seen enough totally crappy films to appreciate the ones that have that extra spark that makes them special. Wreck-It Ralph sort of gets to the core of what a children's movie should be, which is entertaining (also, ADHD-proof) and very smart.