Delightfully nostalgic for the unrushed days of 8-bit video innocence, yet finding inspiration in the full-throttle frenzy of today’s first-person shooters, Wreck-It Ralph is what happens when Disney meets Pixar -- exactly the quality of film we had hoped for when Mickey Mouse and Nemo became corporate cousins following the merger of the two companies over a half decade ago. Wreck-It Ralph isn’t a Pixar film, but it certainly feels like one.

That’s because Pixar and Disney Animation chief creative officer, John Lasseter’s fingerprints are all over the film as executive producer. While he didn’t direct, Lasseter’s methodology -- skills honed as writer of A Bug’s Life, and the Toy Story and Cars films -- is baked into Wreck-It Ralph‘s DNA. Because of his tried-and-true three-pronged philosophy of story, characters, and believable environment, Wreck-It Ralph will likely go down as one of the best video game-based movies and a very solid contender in the crowded realm of animated films.

The story finds life from the same premise as Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. -- what our toys and games do when we’re not around. Specifically with Wreck-It Ralph, we’re presented with a fantasy of what video game arcade characters do once the lights are turned off and we humans leave.

Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the hulking Popeye-armed villain of a Donkey Kong-like game called Fix-It Felix Jr. in which he climbs a brick apartment building smashing it to pieces, while the good guy Felix Jr. (Jack McBrayer) -- controlled by the operator -- follows behind Ralph and repairs the damage with a golden hammer. At the end of each level, the building’s residents throw Ralph off the top of the building.

When the arcade lights go out, Ralph retreats to his off-screen junkyard (a pile of broken bricks) and dreams of the day when he too can be celebrated a hero and even garner a shiny medal. Ralph regularly attends Bad-Anon support groups where he joins other bad guys (like the ghost from Pac-Man, Sonic the Hedgehog’s Dr. Robotnik, and Street Fighter’s Zangrief) in commiseration of being the lesser-respected characters in the video game world.

Conjoining the video games and thereby providing the conduit to move from one game to another is Game Central Station -- actually the massive power supply connected to all the games -- that becomes a wonderful treat to the eyes as we see hundreds of video game characters (past and present) biding their time while humans are away.

Naturally, Ralph sees Game Central Station as his ticket to a medal, which he hopes will provide him the respect to be invited to Fix-It Felix’s 30th anniversary party. So, it’s off to Hero’s Duty, a gritty, militaristic first-person shooter game which features armor-clad soldiers who fight alien Cy-Bugs while trying to capture the prized medal. But if Ralph thought he had it bad in Fix-It-Felix Jr., he’ll have a rude awakening when he finds out he’s being pursued not only by Felix who hopes to bring Ralph home, but also by Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch), the tough-as-nails leader of Hero’s Duty.

The chase eventually ends up in the super sticky-sweet kids’ game called Sugar Rush, a Japanese Anime-inspired candy cart racing game where Ralph meets Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), who is a pixelating programming mistake determined to earn her place in the starting lineup among the other racers. Years of rejection have left Vanellope with a wicked sense of humor and a razor-sharp tongue -- the perfect playground for the sardonic wit of Silverman. However, somewhere beneath that hard shell is a sweet center just waiting to be revealed.

It’s the relationship forged between Ralph and Vanellope that forms the film’s strong and alluring emotional center, one of Lasseter’s core tenets of a successful animated film. First-time feature filmmaker Moore directs the road movie-like proceedings from a wonderful script by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee. Certainly not an easy task, considering they had to bring four distinctly different worlds together (8-bit Fix-It Felix; hyper-realistic Hero’s Duty; super-cute Sugar Rush; and Game Central Station) while balancing against the quieter moments that revolve around friendship, the Disney-friendly themes of doing the right thing, and loving oneself no matter how we’re made.

In the tradition of a Pixar film (I told you this one feels like a Pixar movie), Wreck-It Ralph is preceded by a wonderfully sweet little black-and-white 6-minute short called Paperman that tells the wordless story of finding romance and happiness in the big city -- the perfect accompaniment to the hallmark Disney heart and genuine human emotion of Wreck-It Ralph.

(Released by Walt Disney Pictures and rated "PG" by MPAA.)

Review also posted at www.franksreelreviews.com.