MY MOVIE SHELF: Wreck-It Ralph

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 3 Days to go: 5

Movie #437:  Wreck-It Ralph

It’s not immediately obvious — in fact, I wouldn’t have guessed it at all — but Wreck-It Ralph is a Disney animated feature. There’s even a new Disney princess introduced, and yet I kind of doubt we’ll see Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) included in any princess features any time soon. She definitely doesn’t fit the profile. Vanellope, though, is delightful regardless, and even though the movie is ostensibly about Ralph (John C. Reilly), she’s the one who steals my (and his) heart.

Vanellope may be made entirely of code, but she’s one of the most authentically kid-like kids in any Disney cartoon, second only to Up‘s Russell. She’s precocious, incorrigible, annoying and an innocent. She’s playful and likes to trade insults, but only with the ones she loves. Vanellope is representative of all outcasts, of all kids who don’t fit into the cool clique, but who have it in them to be really great. (And Mindy Kaling, by the way, is fantastic as head Mean Girl Taffyta Muttonfudge.) She just wants to be given a chance, and she fights for her opportunity to make it happen, even when she has to build her cart herself out of scraps.

Vanellope is also a metaphor for anyone who is differently-abled or has a chronic condition that can be limiting. She’s a glitch, and sometimes her glitches get in her way, but other times she finds a way to use them to her advantage, to make the most of them, and to not let them hold her back. Her glitches are a part of her, but they don’t make her incapable of reaching her goals, of racing and winning, and they don’t make her unlovable or unpopular. I’m a person who thinks Sarah Silverman is a genius and an awesome comedian in general, but Vanellope transcends even that to be just an all-around amazing, fun little girl. I adore her.

As for the rest of the film, I have to admit I don’t think Ralph is entirely off-base for being angry and hurt by the Nicelanders of his game. They are pretty rude and dismissive of him, even if he is an unwieldy, hot-tempered menace most of the time. It kind of goes both ways and falls into a vicious circle of mistreatment and resentment. That said, he does make a mess of things and almost costs Sugar Rush its entire game environment because he acts rashly and in his own interests. So I don’t begrudge Calhoun (Jane Lynch) chewing him out at all.

Calhoun is pretty badass and awesome herself, as female video game characters go, even with her impossibly small waist and comically huge boob armor. I also love her romantic subplot with Fix-It Felix Jr. (Jack McBrayer), just for being goofy and mismatched and fun. And to round out the rest of the major characters, King Candy (Alan Tudyk) is kind of a great, unexpectedly terrifying, maniacal villain. Don’t let the fungeon fool you!

Wreck-It Ralph is just a really fun, inventive and creative movie that understands video games of all genres and lovingly pays tribute to them. It’s also incredibly rewatchable, and, if you’re looking for a Disney princess to break the princess mold, it definitely fits the bill.

MY MOVIE SHELF: The Aristocrats

This is the deal: I own around 350 movies on DVD and Blu-ray. Through June 10, 2015, I will be watching and writing about them all, in the order they are arranged on my shelf (i.e., alphabetically, with certain exceptions). No movie will be left unwatched . I welcome your comments, your words of encouragement and your declarations of my insanity.

Movie #22: The Aristocrats

As I approached this movie on my shelf, I’d begun thinking of it as something I purchased for the shock value of it, for the edginess of owning something so offensive and inflammatory — like Madonna’s foil-wrapped Sex book in 1992. Whether it was good or not was immaterial; the point of owning it was to show people how brash and bold and uninhibited you were. I was always trying to prove myself in this way when I was younger, and as my first marriage had died in 2005, I was on a bit of a youth resurgence when this movie came out. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s why I bought it. And, honestly, maybe it was. But watching it again tonight I realized, I still think it’s damn funny.

The Aristocrats is a documentary about an inside joke among comedians. The standard vaudeville setup is almost beside the point, though, because what the joke really is, is comedy gymnastics — a chance for comedians to hone their improv skills while one-upping each other in terms of the most vile, offensive, shocking things they can come up with. Over the course of the film, more than a hundred comedians appear to talk about — and give their own foul versions of — “The Aristocrats.” The longer they can keep it going, and the more disgusting and immoral they can make it, the more hilarious it is. And even though these hundred comedians are all telling the exact same joke, their different styles, and their very personalities, give each version an individual flare.

I won’t go into the joke here, because writing it won’t have the same effect, but I will point out some of my favorite moments.

1. Bob Saget steals the show for me with one subtle, brilliant, visual reference to the size of a man’s penis — the best take on a common subject I have ever seen.
2. Sarah Silverman does her usual genius work by making the joke about herself in her cheerful way and then, as is also her way, going very dark and very funny at the end.
3. Billy the Mime is great for two reasons: the random passerby glancing at him with concern as they cross the walkway behind him, and the fact that I recognized him as Steven Banks, whose one-man show Steven Banks’s Home Entertainment Center is something everyone should see numerous times (thanks be to YouTube).
4. I love that, for a room full of comedians still raw from 9/11, Gilbert Gottfried’s performance of the joke at the Comedy Central Roast of Hugh Hefner, in all its vulgar glory, was a salve on everyone’s wounds.
5. I miss the sharp, analytical mind of George Carlin and his loves of language and of pushing the envelope.
6. There are some really funny women out there. Make more of them your content creators, Hollywood.

The Aristocrats is definitely not for the faint-of-heart. It is the filthiest joke of all time, and that is not an exaggeration. No one who is easily offended — or maybe even ever offended — should go anywhere near it. So, I don’t know, maybe I did buy it to be edgy, or maybe I just love it in my own sick twisted way, but I’m keeping it anyway, even if I only watch it once every ten years.