Disney's Wreck-It Ralph is a 2012 children's film that takes place in a video-game-themed world. Viewers can easily distinguish various video game references found in the fictional setting of Litwak's Arcade, such as Pac-Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Donkey Kong. A lot of references to video games in real life can be found in the film, thus emphasizing the theme of video games.
This article will discuss the symbolism behind the common video game terms "good guy" and "bad guy". We will also look at Ralph's character transformation in Wreck-It Ralph.
As seen in Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the bad guy of his own game 'Fix-It Felix Jr.' where he wrecks the building. On the game's 30th anniversary, Ralph is shunned by the non-playable characters in the game because he literally wrecks the building, thus making him the bad guy. Everyone sees him as just the "bad guy". Ralph learns from his frustration with his assigned role that the only way he can become the good guy is if he wins a gold medal.
Ralph sneaks out of his own game and goes into 'Hero's Duty', where he becomes scared of the Cy-Bugs attacking the players inside 'Hero's Duty'. He steals the medal and plans to return to his game to show everyone that he too can win a medal, but instead crash lands into a kart-racing game called 'Sugar Rush'.