I felt that Wreck it Ralph was incredibly reminiscent of a capitalist economy and revealed many parallels to contemporary society and politics.
Particularly, I felt the film highlighted the inherent and inevitable imbalance of social status and recognition between the working class and the upper-middle class in a capitalist society.
Ralph is representative of a working-class person with great aspirations of moving up the social ladder, but is ultimately neglected and frowned upon by society. He is programmed to act as the bad guy; his only skill is wrecking things, thus he cannot change his status in society, no matter how hard he tries to gain respect or make others recognize how important his role is.
The imbalance of power and social status is created, or exacerbated, when members of the upper-middle class suppress and stray away from the working class (like how the commoners in the game look down on Ralph), resulting in the marginalization and exploitation of the working class.
On the other hand, Felix the Fixer, is representative of an upper-middle class person who cannot relate to and empathize with the struggles of the working class. Although he seems to be a nice guy, and it’s apparent that he treats Ralph with respect, he otherwise has a certain apathy towards Ralph’s plight.
Besides Felix and Ralph, the characters of Vanellope and Turbo remind us of the dirty fight for power in the politics of greed, particularly in the corporate world.
Turbo, overcome by jealousy and excessive greed, sabotaged a newer arcade game, which caused both his game, Turbo Time, and the newer game to be unplugged. Eventually, he infiltrated another game, Sugar Rush, by reconfiguring the game code to make himself king. In doing so, he reprogrammed Vanellope, the rightful princess-ruler of Sugar Rush, to be a glitch.
Obviously, Turbo, not Ralph, is the real “bad guy”. But it’s noteworthy that like Turbo, Ralph tries to exercise his own free will by attempting to infiltrate another game and steal a star. Like Turbo, Ralph also ends up endangering other people’s lives. Disney demonstrates that when humans become to preoccupied with gaining social status, they invariably become selfish and unconcerned with how this impacts on others around them.
Meanwhile, Vanellope is deluded into thinking that she was born, and will always remain, a glitch. She is basically rendered powerless. But Disney not only shows how she has the courage to overcome the odds and fight the system, but also does so through her own efforts, unlike Ralph who tries to “steal” social recognition.
Here, Disney highlights a dual message: we should all reach for the skies, but must do so through our own individual efforts and not exploit the success of others.
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