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.

Reflections on 100 Days to Heaven

My dad. Drama mode.

Aside from watching Spongebob Squarepants and Mr. Bean, I've finally got to like a teleserye that truly feeds the minds of kids like me, with ABS-CBN's 100 Days to Heaven (directed by Malu L. Sevilla). It seriously makes me cry, laugh like a mad man, and learn the practical approaches in life like "you should manipulate the world first before it manipulates you and buries you alive."

Sofia's (Jodi Sta. Maria) father Andres (Joel Torre) truly moves me to tears, given his situation as a physically disabled man struggling to do his job as a financially-supportive father. With his son Kevin (Louis Abuel) unfortunate enough of having leukemia, he could not sleep at night just thinking about how he could provide for his son's medical needs.

I remember my father every time Andres stays late up at night and pours out his frustrations, saying he feels like a worthless father because of his physical misfortune. I always cry whenever I see him selling rags out in the streets, with all his efforts to earn money for Kevin's treatment. I see my dad in him thinking how caring and emotionally vulnerable he is as well, with his determination to make us successful citizens of the world by always working overtime.

On the other hand, there are a lot more lessons I learn from Madame Anna Manalastas (Coney Reyes) and Anna (Xyriel Manabat). 100 Days to Heaven not only makes me want to love and understand my dad more, but also helps me understand the "art of being the bad guy". Anna shares a lot of reasonable viewpoints about life and its cruel reality we've all overlooked and we take as unreasonable.

In yesterday's episode, Anna was trying to prove to Sofia that she did a big favor to her employees by scolding them and simply telling the truth that they were a bunch of failures. I remembered how my strict teachers back in high school scolded us and I tried to understand their intentions that after all, they simply cared about us, for if they didn't, they wouldn't even bother wasting their time reprimanding us. Maybe it was just the same way Anna did.

I've always loved villains, because they're not bad guys after all. Like what Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) said, "We've all got light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we chose to act on." Anna Manalastas may be that annoying, unreasonable toy empress, but she sure teaches me to look into the other side of bad guys--their good side.

His dreams behind the cowboy suit

Sometimes you have to analyze the nature of others to analyze yours.


A mob boss and a shrink. One engaged in mafia schemes, the other in ginko biloba and ibuprofen overdoses. Without a doubt, both had completely different worlds, but actually shared the same story of loss: the death of their fathers--their heroes.

The comic movie Analyze That (2002, directed by Harold Ramis) seriously confused me whether my tears were brought by crying over Paul Vitti's (Robert De Niro) tragic story, or by laughing off my seat on how he comically hugged his therapist Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal) while crying, looking like 10-year-old kids who just lost their teddy bears. This is the very first movie I watched which taught me how to analyze deeper, that the conflict in any story is not about the entrance of villains, but about their own stuggles with their identities because after all, bad guys never wanted to be one.

Convicted mob boss Paul Vitti (De Niro) itched to get out of Sing Sing Prison, with the Rigazzi mafia trying to kill him. He ended up with a brilliant plan involving West Side Story songs, a catatonic behavior and his therapist Ben Sobel (Crystal). He got his runaway ticket and stayed in Ben's house for everyday therapy.


Paul's story reflect on the Nature vs. Nurture principle. When he was a kid he'd wanted to be a cowboy because his father, also a mob boss, bought him the whole outfit and even made him ride a pony. But then when he was 12 he saw his father murdered right in front of him. All his father's dreams for him as a hero, and not as a mob boss like him, had vanished, with Paul joining the mob since then.

Ben, on the other hand, was freshly grieving for his father and struggled to "reform" the mob boss. As he was "staring into a big hole that he can't fill up", he realized the "assignment" wasn't really a burden; but an eye-opener showing  the effects and implications after one loses a father.


The movie did not only entertain because of its smart and hilarious lines, but also taught a lesson that bad guys, once upon a time, got their own heroes and dreams, too.

"There's a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we're half way there.
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow,
Someday,
Somewhere!"

Thank you to my mentor, Ms. Josephine Bonsol, for teaching me how to analyze that.