Wreck-it-Ralph: One game at a time

"I'm bad, and that's good. I'll never be good and that's not bad."

This is the very reason why I love bad guys and villains in movies, it's because they are a product of their own histories. It's because they were never meant to be bad guys in the first place. It's because they never wanted to be one in the beginning of the story.

I needed some reference with regards to different kinds of sweets, pastries and candycane lollipops for my book I am currently writing and I remembered Sugar Rush in the movie Wreck-it-Ralph. This is one of my favorite Disney movies and no wonder that the cinematography and the story itself is parallel to the Pixar movies is because John Lasseter, the director of many of the movies in Pixar, was the executive producer of this movie. 

Arcade games? Many of us was still able to connect and experience first hand arcade games and now comes in the game Fix-it-Felix, where the protagonist Felix (Jack McBrayer)  fixes the building that Ralph the bad guy destroys. However the story does not revolve in the heroic acts of Felix but in the frustrations of Ralph (John Reilly)  in being the bad guy and living in the block dumps and not having cakes and fireworks and medals. He wants to prove that even bad guys can earn medals and goes Turbo and went to the game Hero's Duty. At first he thought it was that easy to earn the medal in such game until he realizes his life and the whole game could be at stake if he would not shoot the cybugs and help his comrades. The game was over in less than a minute because of Ralph's recklessness and secretly climbs and enters the building where a shining gold medal awaits him. However things took a turn for the worse when he accidentally flew a spaceship with a cybug in it and crosses over to the game Sugar Rush. 

Here he meets the glitch--Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), who was also in need of a gold medal/coin so she could join the race. Everyone in her game despises her because they said she was never meant to exist in a game--a glitch. The two first had a series of misunderstandings because Vanellope stole Ralph's gold medal and used it so she could join the race. Vanellope decided they should be partners--Ralph would help her get a legitimate race car while Vanellope would win the race so Ralph can get his medal back. 

And so comes the bonding and the development of their friendship with a bonus candy medal saying "You're My Hero" to the bad guy. However another conflict surfaces and their friendship ends until Ralph finally deduces the real reason why Vanellope is a glitch. He helped her get in the race after all and after much combat to the multiple cybugs that almost invaded Sugar Rush, Ralph and Vanellope were able to reset the whole game, while discovering at the same time that Vanellope is a princess and the lead character in the game consul. 

I can watch this film a thousand times and never get bored because the story reflects how bad guys are always mistreated and misunderstood. We meet different kinds of "bad guys" in our lives but we tend not to hear their stories of pain and anxiety. Most of us never tend to understand where their anger really comes from because it takes a lot of effort and time. On my part, this is the very reason why I love bad guys--because they have untold stories that are treasures of knowledge of humankind.

Cars 2: Tow Mater, Average Intelligence

"If he's your best friend, why would you ask him to be someone else?"

This is the exactly why I didn't submerge myself in the dangerous realm of friendship. Observing others forming their own BFF clubs back in high school, I realized one cannot fully be himself as the group will always fall into booby traps like backstabbing, senseless fights and misunderstandings and a political arena of passively dominating each other--may it be in terms of romantic relationships, academic statuses or any other unproductive endeavors.

Somehow these were the kinds of friendship I observed that, of course, have evolved from its simpler value and definition. I began to contemplate on what friendship should truly be about after I watched Disney-Pixar's Cars 2 (2011, directed by John Lasseter and Brad Lewis).

With Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) leading the breathtaking race, Pixar gave a whole new, action-packed James-Bond-like storyline incorported with the quest to define true friendship. At first I was too overwhelmed by the fast pace of the movie, starting with Finn McMissile (Michael Caine, James Bond himself) spying on an illegal mission run by Professor Z (Thomas Kretschman).

Maybe the high-speed chase and the rather complicated plot further muddled by Mater's quite incomprehensible articulation of words buried the simple moral lesson that was unlikely of Pixar. Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed the movie as I also love action-packed ones, and Tow Mater successfully pulled off the humorous atmosphere throughout the movie. I was also amused at how Pixar perfectly portrayed Japan, Rome and London with their respective trademarks, like the geisha in Japan, the Pope in Rome and the Queen in London.

PIXAR @25: Toy Story 3 "The art of goodbyes"

When our loved ones leave we don't really lose them.

Absence. Less talks. Less visits. Silence.

At times when life drives too slowly and the day's too dull it would suddenly hit me hard how much I miss the people I used to see and listen to everyday. At first it's not that really hard to say goodbye, thinking fate will never fail to find a day I would bump into them along the way. It'll only be months after it will finally sink into me how much I long to see them again.

Goodbye is never about giving up, but about moving on while we always reassure ourselves they'll always be in us. What deeply touched me in Pixar's Toy Story 3 (2010, directed by Lee Unkrich) was Woody finally grasping the fact that he'll always be with Andy--even without him by his side--for infinity and beyond.

This should be the second time Woody's (Tom Hanks) friends didn't believe him, and the second time as well Slinky said, "So Woody was telling the truth!" With Sunny Side Daycare Center disguised as a childish mansion, Andy's toys got trapped this time, fueled by bad circumstances, false interpretation and anger.

Almost all the characters symbolized vital moral lessons for modern youth: Jessie (Joan Cusack), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger) portrayed our drawback in analyzing situations because we're blinded by anger, pessimism, and selfishness. Rex (Wallace Shawn), all throughout the Toy Story series, represented the innocently comedy character who always either agreed with others or refused to take sides. Slinky (Blake Clark) always stayed in the "play safe" zone, although he always knew what's right but chose to follow the majority.

Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) portrayed an emotionally-vulnerable character torn between two galactic principles: the importance of staying together and the job of being there for Andy (John Morris). And Woody's moral fiber became the most challenging for us: having the guts to be the outcast. Somehow, it should'nt even take guts for us to be different; it's never a problem if we strongly believe in something the majority doesn't. Woody believed they should never replace Andy with some temporary haven.

While new characters like Lotso Huggin' Bear (Ned Beatty) also shared the sad reality about traumatic pasts and crooked systems and a stranger's deceitful smile, the art of goodbyes took the movie to the real world where everyone can say, "Goodbye is just another word for 'See you later.'"

What's best about them, I believe, is how they always make us look back, and equally move on while we say, "It's still a small world out there."

After all, anyone who became a part of us will always stay with us.

Pixar @25: UP "Cross your heart! Cross it!"

Sometimes promises can take us to "places lost in time".

Whether it's in Paradise Falls or in a life we should've lived years ago, we still want to promise and keep promises, no matter how absurd or impossible they might be. It must've been the timeless culture of spitting out easy words and sleeping over them. Couples break up, politics is an unwanted term of itself, kids fight--all because of broken promises.

Then a little mute Carl (Edward Asner) shows up, only to be forced by a young, adventurous Ellie (Elie Docter) to cross his heart to hitchike to Impossible Mountain. As the story unfolds, we learn the truth about making promises, with Pixar's touching animated feature film Up (2009, directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson).

"Adventure is out there!" From a lovable couple with the strong guts for some paradise hunting, Carl and Ellie dreamed together, saved money for Paradise Falls together, lost together and fantasized together about the place lost in time. Four scores after, with Ellie gone and the adventure book half-forgotten, it was time for 78-year-old Carl to keep the promise and embark on a journey to both a lost utopia and a life he'd forgotten to live all along.

While we witnessed and laughed at his adventures with the guys he met along the way and the obstacles he managed to overcome despite his old fragile age, we also learned how difficult it is to keep two promises at once, especially when time is not on our side and we'd have to choose which one we'll hold on to first. We also saw how determined he was to keep his promise to Ellie, only to tell us how valuable and meaningful promises should be.

Russell (Jordan Nagai), the chubby and earnest boy scout, also shared to us the sad political life of garnering a lot of medals an yet not being strong and experienced enough to survive the "wild life". On the othe hand, he was conditioned to believe how easy life is in the real world, only to finally taste it as more dangerous but more exciting at the same time.

Crossing your heart isn't much of a crime, especially for a kid, except it will define who we are in the future.

UP Fact Sheet

1. Director Pete Docter took the movie to a Broadway and Hollywood caricature style, referring to Al Hirschfeld's works.

2. Square and circle personalities surrounded Up's characters for easy recognition, according to Docter. Carl has a square personality, symbolizing the "blue" emotions of being alone and stuck, while Russell has a circle personality making him opitmistic and simply adventurous.

PIXAR @25: WALL-E "The Secret of Pandora's Box"

It's not apocalypse. It's not the Great Flood. It's not a Nostradamus prediction. It's hope--hidden under all these.

We take a good look at our candy wrappers now, only to foresee these will be part of a colossal Smokey Mountain we've never imagined before: the world. And it can only be as horrible and inevitable as we choose it to be, whether we're aware of it or not.

Pixar's vision, along with every scientist's wonder, also produced a rough sketch of the world scores after, with its innovative release of WALL-E (2008, directed by Andrew Stanton). And it's not based on any written scriptures or wild predictions all telling us we couldn't possibly do anything about it. The movie was based on man's timeless weakness: discipline.

Laid on the metal claws of a charming mute robot named WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class) while the human race searched for its new haven in a humongous space ship far out in the Milky Way, the earthly waste land was peacefully decomposing in methane and carbon monoxide. But not until hardworking WALL-E (Ben Burtt) digged out another color people had long forgotten, and proof of the world's hopeful existence: a green sprout.

The movie, I realized was far more optimistic on several levels. It was not only about the green sprout and the captain's enthusiasm to go back to earth. Even its unique idea that the planet was destroyed by unbelievable tons of human waste still reflects on a promising hope as it rooted from human discipline, a part of our nature that can still be changed.

WALL-E's attitude of being obsessively organized in "cubing" and collecting and arranging things always reminds me of how I used to do the same thing, then getting all upset when my siblings would mess it all up. It must also be a revolutionary break-through with Pixar's portrayal of technology evolution with all the electronic and path-finding chairs and hologram computers, the new "oxygen tanks" of the human race back then.

Hope is not hiding from us, nor is it hiding from the brokenhearted world. We simply have to choose to see and believe in it.

WALL-E Fact Sheet

1. "In the world of animation, pantomime is the thing that animators love best. It's their bread and butter." Although absence of dialogue became one of the challenges for Pixar animators in WALL-E, director Andrew Stanton considered it an exciting one.

2. The man behind WALL-E's voice, multiple Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt, also made R2-D2's voice a timeless wonder.

2. The big innocent bulgy eyes of WALL-E were coined from its likeness with binoculars, according to John Lasseter (creator of Toy Story movies).

PIXAR @25: Ratatouille "Of mice and men"

What we can be is a million times more than what the majority thinks of us now.

It's another wild imagination for Pixar Animation Studios to pick a rat and let him step foot on the most forbidden place for his kind: the kitchen. But it's another lesson we've come to learn as kids: that "anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great".

Ratatouille (2007, directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava) introduces Remy the rat (Patton Oswalt), possessing both the talent and the will to become a chef. With the help of his inspiration and owner of Paris's most famous restaurant Chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett), he always takes the risk, do the rat work of stealing spices and food scraps, and cook innovative cuisines food critiques would always beg for. But of course, achieving the chef toque is no easy task.

Remy represents most of us who are bound by our physical differences and the fear of the majority's approval. But then we learn we can always achieve when we believe and take the risks. We learn not to drop off our dreams too easily just because of what other people think of us.

Just like the monster-kid relationship in Monsters Inc. (2001), we witnessed another impossible friendship from a rat and a human being named Linguini (Lou Romano), and especially this time, he could'nt seriously hear Remy talk. But then it also represents a mysterious bonding that somehow, can never be understood by the majority.

The movie also taught us to appreciate the art of cooking, highlighting Remy's exceptional knowledge about food and his biggest challenge yet in cooking for the grumpy food critique Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole). Except that his biggest problem was simply being a rat and no one could possibly imagine themselves gobbling even a delectable cuisine cooked by a rat.

I remembered my dad saying he doesn't care about who cooked the food he's chomping down, or how it's cooked, as long as he didn't see either and it's delicious. The scene when Remy's whole clan were cooking the Ratatouille dish still chills me to the bone when I remember it. If I would ever eat one, I'll just have to remember what my dad said.

What we look like shouldn't matter in a way, as long as we're determined to say that nobody can ever get in the way to reach our dreams.

Ratatouille Fact Sheet

1. The Pixar filmmakers had to tour Paris and research about its cuisines  and the art of cooking to perfectly portray it in an animated film. 

2.  Earning a total of $621M worldwide, Ratatouille also garnered an Academy Award for Best Animated Film and five record-breaking nominations.

3. Director Brad Bird first had his doubts about the peasant Ratatouille dish, not until the legendary French Laundry chef Thomas Keller took his stand in the unique dish.

4. Remy and Bird had one thing in common: they both had the itch to create new things and "add something new to the world."

5. Ratatouille (stirred chunky stew in French) is a French vegetable side dish made of zucchini, eggplants and tomatoes. 

PIXAR @25: Cars "Right turns, wrong turns"

What we've once thought as wrong turns might've been the right ones after all.

Fame. Fans. The Piston Cup. The life.

 And the wrong turn.

We've never thought cars could actually resemble a face, with their bulgy head lights and their shiny glass windows. We've seen it all in the animated racetrack and in Pixar's Cars (2006, directed byJohn Lasseter and Joe Ranft).

In a million ways we've once encountered what Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) felt. Drunk with the cheering mob, the entitlement pleasure and the cheap medals and metal cups and glass plates, competitions only transpiring in a political arena. Those were the times when we felt we're so up when in fact we're a lot more down. When we've thought this kind of life is simply heaven but then it's simply not.

Thanks to the night-long ride to California and the sleepy Mack (John Ratzenberger), as they led our sportscar hero to the road less taken, where he could find something more than his life in the limelight.

Fix the road, get all the dirt, and sleep in a tranquil, one-room hotel:  at first all these were simply unbelievable for McQueen. All that could go wrong--with all that dirty work and the delay and the serious deliberation that he's nothing but another trouble-making outcast--were all turned upside down after accidentally bumping into Route 66's secret heroes and paradise.

Of all the unexpected places to visit, McQueen found his inspiration from Sally the Porsche (Bonnie Hunt), a bestfriend from a rusty towcar Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and a hero from the legendary but humble Doc Hudson Hornet (Paul Newman).

The fixed road. The slow drive. The life.

And the right turn.

Just as we kids found our childhood path in Pixar movies, so did McQueen, in the inexistent road called Route 66. I'd always laugh at the scene when Mater and Lightning were making fun of the lawnmowers, and his big break from the race witnessing the road's paradise with Sally.

After all, any race is not about winning; it's about coming to realize who you truly are.

Cars Fact Sheet

1. The Pixar creators had to use a technique called "ray tracing" for the cars to reflect their environments to get the real look from real cars.

2. The movie earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature in 2006, and two Academy Awards nominations, with a box-office hit collecting $461M worldwide.

3. The inspiration came from director John Lasseter's childhood memories with his passion for automobiles, with his dad working as a Chevrolet parts manager in California back then.

CARS 2 TEASER TRAILER

PIXAR @25: The Incredibles "No capes!"

Sometimes when our family becomes our weakness, it becomes our strength.

The movie's inpiration coined from director Brad Bird deeply moved me, as, for some reason I could relate to the concept of being torn between two things and thinking there's nothing left but to choose, when in fact I didn't have to at all.

With Pixar's release of The Incredibles (2004, directed by Brad Bird) came another touching but hilarious feature film for worldwide audiences of all ages. And for the first time our childhood characters were all clad as human beings in real superhero costumes. Another first time? They're a family of supers.

To complete the debut celebration, we witnessed how, surprisingly, heroes were despised after the innocent majority decided Mr. Incredible and the rest of the "mutants" destroyed enough of the city and they should stop their work. "Blending in" became the heroes' motto since then as they hid their identities and powers amongst millions of civilians.

As Bob Parr (aka Mr. Incredible, voiced by Craig Nelson) itched for some action and chased his old dream as a famed superhero, he didn't know the price he'd pay for--his family. Suddenly we witness it's not about saving the city we've long perceived in a hero routine, but saving his family instead.

It didn't take long for Bob to realize he could do what he loves without leaving his family behind, because in times when he's weak, his wife and children were his strength.

I was taught that in a family, it's about giving part of yourself to each one while also leaving a part for your self-growth. When both parties have fully accepted it, the concept of sacrifice and difficult decisions would hardly exist anymore.

"I can't lose you again!" This scene when Bob tried hard to say he wanted to work alone because he couldn't risk losing his family again always makes me cry, thinking how his family could weigh a thousand times more than his passion as a superhero.

I'll never forget Edna's (Brad Bird) comical advice as well, saying there should be no cape in Bob's new suit, given the tragic endings of most heroes because of their capes.

Maybe Bob's family did weigh a lot more than his life-long dream, because his wife and kids were already his dream come true.

THE INCREDIBLES Fact Sheet

1. The movie's inspiration came from director Brad Bird, sewing it from his experiences when he struggled to meet the demands of his family and his mounting opportunities in filmmaking.

2. The Incredibles is the very first Pixar feature film to use human cast, with the character's attitutdes adapted from Bird's family members (click here for detailed story).

3. Pixar created Universal Man, a highly "morphable" model capable of creating hundreds of unique background and side characters for the movie.

4. It reaped an Academy Award for Best Animated Film and Best Sound Editing. It also became Pixar's second highest grossing film with more than $629M in worldwide box office receipts.

PIXAR @25: Finding Nemo The shark bait

Curiosity is a booby trap we kids will always fall into.

My royal dream of exploring the ocean even without a swimming lesson finally came true with Pixar's legendary film Finding Nemo (2003, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich). Feeling the ocean waves from its deepest harbors and witnessing the realistic and colorful water creatures in the movie once made me think, "Hey I don't even need an oxygen tank to behold ocean's beauty!"

The Great Barrier Reef

What came with the package tour was an equally memorable lesson for us juvenile kids: that a father's overprotection is never an exaggeration.

We're represented by Nemo (Alexander Gould), a clown fish we and all other naïve fishes have thought of as funny because he's a clown fish. He's part of our club who's hypnotized by peer pressure, trapped by curiosity and imprisoned by his young and vulnerable mind, all preventing him to understand his father Marlin (Albert Brooks).

While the movie gave the final verdict of finding us all guilty, its theme focused more on the father's venture to the ends of the Pacific Ocean just to find his son. We saw how Marlin was too afraid to even leave the Great Barrier Reef, but when he helplessly saw his son pocketed by a diver, he left all his doubt behind and faced the sharks, the dangerous currents, the jellyfish clan, the whales, and the carnivorous birds.

Just like Nemo we'd tried to stow away from home not analyzing enough what we're doing. And when we got into trouble, it would be the only time when we'd miss them terribly and wished we could hide under mom's dress. Even if we'd only locked up in our room we'd hear our parents crying in the other room as well, realizing how they must hurt more whenever we close the door on them.

Finding Nemo taught me well how to understand and love my parents more, even at times when I think they worrry too much. 

I would always remember the forgetful but optimistic Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the character my mentor Ms. Josephine Bonsol always equates herself to, and the scenes when Marlin and Dory were asking for directions from an amazing school of fish.

Somehow, it must be an incurable disease for us kids to always think we're Superheroes who can do everything and anything, but we'll only fall into booby traps all day long if we don't accept the truth that we're not.

FINDING NEMO Fact Sheet

1. A "wave" of personal experiences from director Andrew Stanton patched up the movie story. It was from his childhood memories of visiting his dentist with an aquarium, the ocean as his front yard and his parenting challenges that made Finding Nemo alive.

2. Nemo's Lucky Fin, according to Stanton, represents our limitations as kids that always make our parents worry too much about our safety.

The legendary Pixar Pinoy Animator: Nelson Bohol

3. The legendary tankscape of the aquarium raised the Filipino pride with lay-out artist Nelson Bohol, Pixar's Pinoy Animator and Supervising Production Artist. He also contributed his exceptional talent in the making of Cars, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and WALL-E.

4. Finding Nemo became the highest grossing animated film of all time, collecting over $850M in worldwide box office receipts.

5. It garnered an Oscar for Best Animated Film and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Sound Editing.