I get everything you just said – Frozen’s not necessarily my favorite either, I just thought it was more enjoyable at that time – I WANT to see Disney go outside the fairy-tale musical mold and be successful, yet both this and Big Hero 6 have left me less than fully satisfied, so it’s kind of tough. I’m sort of difficult to really please most of the time anyway – something can still entertain me and still leave me hoping it was more than it ultimately was.

Frozen felt like a “bottle” movie to me, much like Brave. Most of the settings are sort of interchangeable – like I know they’re different places, but they’re not differentiated and it’s just one blue color palette with snow, I dunno. WIR used its setting more like Toy Story did – technically it’s small,
but it’s a huge scope from the characters’ POV because it’s an entire
world that humans can’t see, that sort of thing.

Personally all the fairytale movies blend together for me after awhile so I found WIR to be more memorable/classic because it’s something that wasn’t done that way before – I get what you said about the “magic restoration” but it actually made sense (and was explained) in the video game setting because it’s what a soft reset would look like to the characters inside. It’s not like it just happened “because magic”, which was a big complaint I had after rewatching Frozen. I mean no offense to your preferences, I just feel like there’s a lot of other Disney princess/girl-aimed movies that told a better story than Frozen (including The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch), and once the hype dies down it won’t have much rewatch power.

Also voice actors in animation are generally chosen because the creators had them in mind as sounding like what they imagine the character in question would sound like, ex. they wanted a gruff, authoritative voice so Calhoun was voiced by Jane Lynch; I don’t see how that has to do with relevance. John Goodman wasn’t exactly an A-list star but he did a good job as Sulley because he had the voice of a big fuzzy gentle giant, so he got the part. Somebody up there already addressed the potty humor thing so I’ll leave it at that.

I feel like people WAY overstate the amount of “toilet humor” in this movie. Aside from a few little jokes from Vanellope, most of the humor is subtle or pun-based. The trailers kept using Vanellope’s “Hero’s Doody” joke constantly so it stuck in people’s minds and got exaggerated, but it wasn’t anywhere near Shrek’s levels of potty humor. GCS is essentially a big passageway so I didn’t expect the characters to spend much time there, but I don’t really see how the references (which aren’t plot-related anyway) are outdated if most of the games are supposed to be older anyway.

The product placement actually makes sense if you’re familiar with the Mario Kart series. The Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 (released in 1997/late 1996, thus most likely the biggest inspiration for Sugar Rush) has a bunch of Mario-ized trackside ads for auto-related companies like Goodyear and Mobile1 that were removed in the North American version because of copyright issues. All of the product placement in Sugar Rush was for candy companies/products that probably would’ve partnered with TobiKomi to sponsor the game in-universe so it’s actually an obscure reference in itself. (The Subway cup is the only exception, as Subway usually sponsors non-princess Disney movies like this and BH6).

I can agree with this – I actually watched Frozen and this film back to back and really enjoyed Frozen more (despite my issues with it). Some aspects, especially Jane Lynch as Sgt. Calhoun, already felt dated despite being only two years old, and those crude humor moments with Ralph’s halitosis or “vurping” really didn’t do it for me – even the gaming references felt kind of forced: why is an NES controller in a 1997 game made by fictional company? How does Ralph know who Lara Croft is when she’s never been in an arcade game? It also felt really formulaic and forgettable in general compared to Frozen’s grand scope. Ultimately, I think it was better when it was new and hyped-up, now it’s just kind of okay to me – I don’t know if I can really see it being a beloved classic in 10 years (but that’s just me).

Sadly, watching in 2015 was a bad idea. Not only did I laugh less than I used to, but it just came off as a mean-spirited attempt by WDAS at being hip like everyone else trying to be DreamWorks, toilet humour, out-of-place product placement and all, with no time to put the Game Central Station to reasonable use. I didn’t even laugh this time. Every single joke became outdated quickly.

Eh, I prefer Frozen, which too forced in some toilet humour to get that PG rating but felt more like a true Disney film otherwise.

But, the 2nd time I saw it, I appreciated it much more!

Thats very likely that Big Hero 6 or HTTYD2 is going for the win, mostly because the academy voters prefer the more highlighting mainstream-films than the more exotic ones like Song of the Sea and Princess Kaguya according to this source: http://tinyurl.com/oscar-votes-cartoonbrew

But thats another story. The most important thing for the non-winners like Wreck-It-Ralph and Princess Kaguya will be remembered for many decades to come for good reasons. (Im still awaiting for the scandinavian DVD-release of Princess Kaguya)

Overall it seems to have been shunted to the back burner. Couldn’t find a lick of merch for it last year at Disney World, you’d think it came out in the 70’s. A sequel would be interesting, but not really necessary. Unless it was a television show.

It’s been almost two years (to the day!) and i’m still bitter about Brave winning…this movie would have been better but personally I was pulling for ParaNorman.

I think this film is alright. I really like the concept, and the world Disney creates inside the arcade is possibly the most creative world I’ve ever seen in a Disney film – all the interconnected worlds, each with their own personality and look – I’d much rather return to this universe over Arendelle. It really makes me scratch my head reading some negative comments on this film across the internet merely writing it off as a “formulaic bore” or “thoroughly forgettable” when it has such an interesting setting.

Then again, when most of that setting is left behind for the majority of the film in favor of a somewhat-standard candy-themed setting, it kind of makes sense. I agree with a comment below saying it slows down considerably once it reaches Sugar Rush. I hate to say it, but after the fun first ten minutes in SR, it starts to get somewhat dull for me – there’s just not enough unique about it to keep my intrigue I had with the first act. While it doesn’t abandon the video-game conceit at that point, something just feels kind of plodding to me about the second act – it feels lacking in energy. And then the “Shut Up and Drive” montage hits, and… really, they couldn’t have stayed out of corporate family film territory and done something more creative than a run-of-the-mill training montage with the first song the filmmakers could find with the word “drive” in the title? It seems like a minor nitpick, but it really bugs me.

This probably bothers me more than others, but I think it feels especially formulaic as it gets to the third act, (SPOILERS) right down to the trademark Disney magic-sparkly revitalization of Sugar Rush when it resets. (END SPOILERS) I know this is a Disney film, but I kind of wish it had broken out of that mold a little more than it did – it certainly starts out that way (that zombie-heart-rip-out made my jaw drop when I saw this in theaters the first time) but then by the end with the irredeemably-evil over-the-top villain and damsel-in-distress needing to be saved (I know, the general set-up is in a lot of movies, it just felt kind of tired to me here), it feels too typical to me – it does bring what people want out of a typical Disney film, but I wanted something a little different. The story is fine – I think my main hang-up, other than the familiar “betrayal” trope, is the focus on racing, which strikes me as somewhat been-there-done-that – the other things going on in the film don’t feel like enough to change this for me.

Overall, I think it’s decent, cute, pleasant enough, and unfortunately a little forgettable, which, given this concept, really does shock me, but I think the major focus on a less-memorable candy-world is the main culprit. I don’t want to sound heartless, I did see it twice in theaters when it came out, and I do still find parts of it genuinely sweet, but looking back after the initial hype, the overall product leaves me a little “hmm…” Not bad, just not great – and I hope they can make a sequel or something to give this world further exploration.