It is just chance that this is
July - the birth month for Simi, the “confetti girl” - and it was on the 1st
day of this month that I happened to see the animated film ‘Wreck It Ralph’.
Just a few minutes into Wreck It Ralph, I was drawn into the familiar tale of
how characters even as those as far-removed from us as the pixilated people
from video game are moved by the all-too human emotions of an alienated sense
of duty, rejection, isolation, and the cycle of impulsive, ill-advised actions
which sometimes precipitate when it is the very nature of the duty which causes
that seclusion.
As plots go, this film does not
break new ground. We have after all, seen how outcast and misunderstood
characters like the hunchback Igor in Igor (2008), the villainous Megamind in
the eponymous Megamind (2010) and not to forget, that lovable green monster
Shrek, all strive to escape from the caricatured roles which someone else has
scripted for them, in order to gain just that little bit of love, acceptance
and friendship which has always been denied. Yet it is not the plot itself
which delighted me, but the imaginatively-written characters which populate the
arcade-style video games, the humour, and the poignancy and honesty in feelings
which often laced such humour. This film follows Ralph – a ham-fisted bulldozer
of a man in a game called ‘Fix It Felix’ who is forever fated to rain down
blows on an apartment building (Niceland) and terrorise its residents, an
unhappy state which the handyman Felix soon remedies with the help of his
magical golden hammer. Every successful game of ‘Fix It Felix’ concludes with
the same fixture – Felix gets feted and awarded with a medal for a job well
done while the residents unceremoniously throw Ralph down from the terrace to a
muddy puddle on the ground below. To add insult to injury, Ralph is left to
dwell in the neighbouring dump from where he sees the colourful and happy lives
of the Niceland’s residents. It is this sad state of things that Ralph seeks to
turn around.
Ralph quickly comes to the
conclusion (erroneous!) that what he lacks is a gold medal just like Felix,
which would propel him into the high league. And so starts his journey to a
game ‘Hero’s Duty’ which awards a gold medal to its victorious warriors, and onto an
ill-managed starship crash into a racing game called ‘Sugar Rush’ with a candy
landscape and an absolutely saccharine little girl, Vanellope (voiced so endearingly by Sarah Silverman).
It is the chemistry between the mischievous little Vanellope and the grumpy
Ralph which is the highlight. In an obvious parallel with Ralph’s own state,
Vanellope who is characterised as a game glitch is the resident outcast in
‘Sugar Rush’, mocked and left friendless by her own kind. In a predictable
journey fighting vile cybugs and racing impossibly candy-coloured cars through an
impossibly candy-themed racecourse and discovering the inherent spirit of
friendship between them and a new sense of self-worth, we are treated to some
insightful ideas.
It is these insights which bring
me now to the life of our beloved friend, Simi. In a world where so many of us
seem ill at ease with who we seem to be inside, and the struggles which we put
up to re-define ourselves in a bid to win acceptance and love, Simi was the
exception. Just like Sarah’s plummy-voiced Vanellope, Simi too conveyed that
sweet naughtiness and that bold spirit to boot, of a girl who has her sights
set high borne up by a sure sense of identity.
Whether it is Fix It Felix or Wreck
It Ralph, I realise that just as we are defined by the jobs we do, we are also
marked in a far deeper sense by the values we live by and the love and
friendship we are able to share. Just like a zombie character in the game says,
“Labels do not make you happy. Good,
bad... you must love you.”
Here is wishing you a very happy
coming birthday, Simi!
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