When it comes to video games from the Disney corporation no game has intrigued me more then the Kingdom Hearts series. For those of you who don't know, let me fill you in. Kingdom Hearts was a collaboration project between the Disney corporation and game developer Square (now Square-Enix) in an attempt to find a way to get Mickey Mouse and friends to appeal to a slightly older audience. The games are a series of hack-and-slash adventure games akin to the God of War series where you play a young boy named Sora and travel from world to world, of which each are based off a corresponding Disney animated film. There, Sora meets the heroes from the film and helps them fight off their enemies as well as a species of dark beings known as heartless. This all culminates to a rather fun and interesting series. The only downside I find with the game is that rather then sticking to one gaming console, it has a tendency for console hopping. This means that in order to enjoy the latest installment of the series, you have to buy the corresponding system that comes with it. This makes being a fan of the series a very expensive proposition.
With the release of the much anticipated Kingdom Hearts III looming in the horizon, I developed a list of the top ten worlds based off of a film based from Disney's animated feature film library that I would love to see in the next installment of the series.
10. Enchanted Bayou (The Princess and the Frog)
A dastardly spell was put on Queen Minnie at the hands of Pete that erases all of her memory of King Mickey. Sora and company as well as Merlin are summoned by King Mickey to investigate the cause of her amnesia. Merlin suddenly realizes that the spell put on Queen Minnie was originally concocted by the Shadow Man a.k.a Dr. Facilier and that it can only be reversed by through help of Madam Odie. Sora and company arrive at the Enchanted Bayou and meet up with Prince Naveen and Tiana who are also searching for Madam Odie in order to reverse the spell put on them by Dr. Facilier. They eventually run afoul of Dr Facilier who now commands heartless instead of evil voodoo spirits and do battle with him. They then help Prince Naveen and Tiana break the spell put on them, seal up the keyhole, and return with an antidote to break the spell put on Queen Minnie.
Bosses:
First Visit:Dr. Facilier
Second Visit: Voodoo Mask Heartless
9. Ant Island (A Bug's Life)
You may notice quite a few worlds based on the Disney/Pixar movies in this list. Here, our heroes would shrink down to the size of insects and come across an ant named flick. After seeing them fight off a group of insect-like heartless, flick begs them to join him in fighting off a group of marauding grasshoppers.
Bosses:
First Visit: Hopper
Second Visit: Scarab Heartless
8. Hero City (The Incredibles)
Sora and company done super hero costumes as they help reunite a family of super heroes.
Bosses:
First Visit:Omnidroid, Syndrome
Second Visit: Gigantic Godzilla-like Heartless
7. Disney Town Slums (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
Pete is organizing a group of miscreant weasels from the bad side of town to rise up against King Mickey and Queen Minnie and disrupt an important event. As such, Sora and company are assigned to protect King Mickey's informant, Roger Rabbit. Instead of dipping him like in the film, the weasels plan to capture him and turn him into a heartless!
6. Sugar Rush (Wreck-It Ralph)
I think it might be interesting to see how a world based off of a video game movie would do in an already video game environment. What I see is that Sora and company go inside a computer in Disney Castle to fix it and find that Ralph's game jumping is causing their computer problems. They find out later on that King Candy is responsible and team up with Ralph to set things right.
Bonus Game: Actually partake in a race from the movie.
If not, Ralph can always appear as a summon.
Bosses: King Candy
5. The Highlands (Brave)
Bosses:
First Visit:Mor'du
Second Visit: Unknown
4. Monstropolis (Monsters Inc.)
Bosses:
First Visit: Randel Boggs, Mr. Waternoose
3. Deep Jungle 2 (The Jungle Book)
Our heroes return to the Deep Jungle from the first Kingdom Hearts. This time around, they help a young boy named Mowgli gain up enough courage to fight off Shere Khan.
2. A world Based Off of the movie Tangled (Tangled)
1. Midgar (Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children)
One thing that has interested me was that many characters from the Final Fantasy series have made an appearance in the Kingdom Hearts games but we have yet to see a world from the Final Fantasy series make an appearance. Let's change that shall we? One question I might want to ask is, why haven't they done this sooner?
One thing I would like to see is a return to fighting the villains from said animated films rather then a generic heartless boss themed from that world.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
How to Make a Video Game Based Movie and Actually Do It Justice
Boy has it been a while since I have written an article for this website. Well anyway, let's get to the punch. I just got out of seeing Wreck-It Ralph the other day and it sure was a lot of fun. The movie surprised me in many ways considering the abysmal track record that video game based movies have; especially if a film maker named Uwe Boll is involved in it. First off, I believe Disney took a huge risk in making a video game based movie considering the fact that those types of films almost always tend to suck. There have been a few exceptions where a video game based movie has done well for the most part, but so far none of them have been able to reach anywhere near critical acclaim, that is until Wreck-It Ralph showed up.
Wreck-It Ralph manages to show audiences that not only can a video game based movie work, it can also somehow manage to avoid all of the pitfalls that many of it's predecessors have fallen into before it. First off is exposition. Most video game based movies usually have to take it's time and stop progressing the story in order to explain the story's premise or explain story elements from the game to those who are unfamiliar to it. This leads to about ten minutes or so of explaining things from the game that people who have already played the game know. This tends to irritate gamers to no end and can result into leading the film into oblivion.
Another issue is the the view's of the game from the perspective of the director can be entirely different then those of the game's fans or it's developers. And that's where our friend Uwe Boll comes in. Sometimes the director will change crucial story elements in order to make it fit in his perspective. Little changes here and there to differentiate the film from it's source material is fine, but when you change a crucial story element from the game to add into the movie, it tends to alienate the game's fans. Those fans who are usually the first to see the movie get disappointed and tell their friends the movie is a piece of garbage. And before you know it, we suddenly get the cinematic equivalent of E.T. for the Atari 2600. And then you suddenly realize why they couldn't get the licensing rights to show Mario and Luigi in the film after what happened with the Super Mario Bros. movie.
The last issue is time. When you make a movie based on a video game, you are essentially squeezing fifteen to twenty hours of story and game-play into a two hour film. As such, a lot of information is going to be lost. The result is an audience that ends up confused rather than entertained if the story is not put together carefully. This rule is pretty much universal to any film that is an adaptation of another medium.
So how does Wreck-It Ralph succeed where many others have failed? Well, what keeps Wreck-It Ralph from becoming a literal wreck like all the other video game based movies out there is it's execution. Instead of being solely based on one particular game, it is actually a homage to video gaming in general, much like how Who Framed Roger Rabbit was to classic animation. Another thing that sets this film apart from the others is it's creativity. Rather then being bogged down by the continuity rules of an existing game, the filmmakers decided to base the movie around a game they made up on their own; those consisting of Fix-It Felix Jr., Heroes Duty, and Sugar Rush of which the majority of the film takes place.
Another thing that makes this film memorable is the heartfelt human emotion that we all come to expect from Disney as Ralph becomes sick of his job as a villain and goes off on a quest to show that he can be a hero. All the while he ends up meeting with Vanellope Von Schweetz and helps her to become a racer and save her game, all the while in a rush to get back home before the arcade re-opens.
Despite having some kind of dumb moments at times, Wreck-It Ralph was a lot of fun and something that other video game movies should take an example from. It's bright, it's colorful, and it's action packed. Not to mention, it's full of eye candy in the form of video game character cameos and references that will be a delight to fans of video games and fans of Disney animation alike. This is a true love letter to gamers and when it comes to video game based movies, Wreck-It Ralph scores above the rest!
Wreck-It Ralph manages to show audiences that not only can a video game based movie work, it can also somehow manage to avoid all of the pitfalls that many of it's predecessors have fallen into before it. First off is exposition. Most video game based movies usually have to take it's time and stop progressing the story in order to explain the story's premise or explain story elements from the game to those who are unfamiliar to it. This leads to about ten minutes or so of explaining things from the game that people who have already played the game know. This tends to irritate gamers to no end and can result into leading the film into oblivion.
Another issue is the the view's of the game from the perspective of the director can be entirely different then those of the game's fans or it's developers. And that's where our friend Uwe Boll comes in. Sometimes the director will change crucial story elements in order to make it fit in his perspective. Little changes here and there to differentiate the film from it's source material is fine, but when you change a crucial story element from the game to add into the movie, it tends to alienate the game's fans. Those fans who are usually the first to see the movie get disappointed and tell their friends the movie is a piece of garbage. And before you know it, we suddenly get the cinematic equivalent of E.T. for the Atari 2600. And then you suddenly realize why they couldn't get the licensing rights to show Mario and Luigi in the film after what happened with the Super Mario Bros. movie.
The last issue is time. When you make a movie based on a video game, you are essentially squeezing fifteen to twenty hours of story and game-play into a two hour film. As such, a lot of information is going to be lost. The result is an audience that ends up confused rather than entertained if the story is not put together carefully. This rule is pretty much universal to any film that is an adaptation of another medium.
So how does Wreck-It Ralph succeed where many others have failed? Well, what keeps Wreck-It Ralph from becoming a literal wreck like all the other video game based movies out there is it's execution. Instead of being solely based on one particular game, it is actually a homage to video gaming in general, much like how Who Framed Roger Rabbit was to classic animation. Another thing that sets this film apart from the others is it's creativity. Rather then being bogged down by the continuity rules of an existing game, the filmmakers decided to base the movie around a game they made up on their own; those consisting of Fix-It Felix Jr., Heroes Duty, and Sugar Rush of which the majority of the film takes place.
Another thing that makes this film memorable is the heartfelt human emotion that we all come to expect from Disney as Ralph becomes sick of his job as a villain and goes off on a quest to show that he can be a hero. All the while he ends up meeting with Vanellope Von Schweetz and helps her to become a racer and save her game, all the while in a rush to get back home before the arcade re-opens.
Despite having some kind of dumb moments at times, Wreck-It Ralph was a lot of fun and something that other video game movies should take an example from. It's bright, it's colorful, and it's action packed. Not to mention, it's full of eye candy in the form of video game character cameos and references that will be a delight to fans of video games and fans of Disney animation alike. This is a true love letter to gamers and when it comes to video game based movies, Wreck-It Ralph scores above the rest!
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