Wreck-It Ralph / Shout Out

This movie is just one long love-letter to retro and arcade gaming.

Most spoilers will be unmarked, so beware!

Several sound effects:
- When Felix lifts the magic hammer, a version of the familiar Mario coin sound effect is heard.
- Another audio Shout Out that's easier to miss; the sound effect that plays when Felix gets a pie is the same sound effect used when Mega Man gets an enemy ability from Mega Man 3 onwards.
- At one point when Tamora Calhoun draws her gun, it makes the charging sound effect that X's buster makes when he charges it from Mega Man X4 onward.
- Yet another nostalgic sound can be caught in the second trailer where Felix, trying to escape from the jail by hitting the window bars (but fixing them unintentionally instead): It's the Start Up-sound from Gradius!
- When Ralph is searching through a box and finds an exclamation point, the sound that accompanies it is the "alerted" sound effect from Metal Gear Solid.
- As Ralph hides in chocolate and breathes through a straw, he makes Darth Vader's breathing noise. Doubles as a meta-example, given that Vader's breathing sound is the sound of a SCUBA breathing unit (which may have been the original intent).
- Buzz Lightyear's laser hum can be heard during the wedding between Felix and Tamora Calhoun, when the squad of Hero's Duty all ensure there isn't a repeat of Tamora's LAST wedding.
- When Felix gets hit with a piece of ceiling and 'dies', it's very similar (in both sound and appearance) to the death sequence in Donkey Kong.
- When Felix gets a medal, the background music in the game sounds remarkably like the music used when Mario rescues Peach in Super Mario Bros..
- At the beginning of one of the Sugar Rush races, the sound effect of the Mario Kart 64 stoplight can be heard.
- The sound Bowser makes when he spews fire after Ralph says he does not want to be the bad guy anymore is identical to the one he makes in Super Mario Bros..
- Even the promotional Flash tie-in game has some references: the Fix-It Felix, Jr. title screen theme appears to be based on the theme from The Tower of Druaga.
Hal, the cockroach from WALL•E, makes a cameo appearance at Root Beer Tapper's place.
Sonic giving his Public Announcement sounds an awful lot like a "Sonic Sez" Aesop from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.^note
The Konami Code being used as the password to hack Sugar Rush's code.
The Pac-Man font is used on the Litwak's Family Fun Center sign.
The Fix-It Felix Jr. machine resembles a Donkey Kong machine.
Ralph's game is Fix-It Felix Jr. Donkey Kong Jr. was the game in which DK was a captive and Mario was the Big Bad.
Tamora Jean Calhoun shares her last name with Mackenzie Calhoun, as well as with Barney Calhoun from Half-Life. Her first name may be a reference to Tamora Pierce, an author known for writing strong female characters. Jean may be a reference to Billie Jean King, a former World No. 1 tennis player who won the famous Battle of the Sexes.
Ralph punching out one of the windows in the in-universe version of Fix-It Felix Jr. looks like something out of Rampage.
Game Central Station, located in the power strip which supplies all the arcade machines, is obviously one to Grand Central Station.
- Ralph sarcastically says his name is Lara Croft when the Surge Protector stops him at Game Central Station at the beginning of the movie.
- Sonic doing a Public Service Announcement is a reference to the Sonic Sez segments from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog ^note.
- In one shot in Game Central Station, you can see Chun-Li, Cammy, and two Peach and Daisy look-alikes walking by.
- Among the games visible in the very back corner of the station is TRON.
As Ralph makes a break for the tower in Hero's Duty, he faintly shouts, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"
During the scene of the party for the 30th Anniversary of Fix-It Felix Jr. held up at the penthouse, we get a shot of Skrillex as the D.J. of the party.
- The clown at the party is vaguely similar to Jaxson from the obscure arcade game Snacks 'n Jaxson.
When Ralph sticks Sour Bill on a lollipop and says "Stick around".
- At one point, he also smiles and says, "I wonder how many licks it'll take to get to your center?". The Tootsie Pop slogan has never sounded so badass.
Tons of shout-outs in the graffiti at Game Central Station:
- The port to Sugar Rush has "No camping" (in the context of a First-Person Shooter), "Jenkins", "Sheng Long was here", and a reference to Turbo.
- There's more graffiti in the opening, as seen in the path to Pac-Man, that reads "Aerith Lives" and "All your base are belong to us".
- Also some of Turbo's done in the Obey style◊.
- The "Jenkins" also doubles as a Brick Joke, since one of the pieces of graffiti in Pac-Man's entry in a previous scene is "Leeroooooy".
Between this and Scott Pilgrim, "bullroar" is on its way to becoming the premier swear substitute.
Hero's Duty was a big shout-out to Starship Troopers (coproduced with Disney subsidiary Touchstone Pictures) and other derived works with a Bug War premise, Call of Duty, Halo, Metroid Prime, Starcraft, Gears of War, and Mass Effect. In the credits, a scene's shown in the style of Doom, Marathon, and pretty much any 90s-era FPS.
Ralph accidentally stepping on a bug egg, causing it to hatch, attempting to escape in a shuttle, having it attach to his face and then escape the pod to go propagate before finally assaulting the new world in which it finds itself seems eerily similar to the Alien franchise. The Cy-Bug eggs also glow from within with the same sickly glow as Xenomorph eggs.
- And in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shout-out to the "They're in the room!" scene from Aliens, Calhoun's tracker shows her completely surrounded by Cy-Bugs while standing in an empty field in Sugar Rush. Then the ground caves in and she falls into their nest. It's also simultaneously a shout-out to Alien, as Calhoun dangling from a rappelling line while hanging above a large chamber filled with alien eggs is like a scene with John Hurt's character in the alien ship.
- Calhoun's rifle looks not unlike the pulse rifles from Aliens, too.
The TurboTime arcade cabinet is reminiscent of the Rally-X cabinet.
Ralph, covered in green candy goo, goes on a rampage through the stadium in Sugar Rush.
The Oreo cookie guards in Sugar Rush are chanting "March of the Winkies" (slightly modified, of course) from The Wizard of Oz. Or-e-o, o-reeeee-o.
- King Candy's royal fanfare is a portion of the Spaceballs theme.
- When Ralph first meets King Candy, he asks him "Who are you, the guy who makes the donuts?" This is a reference to a famous Dunkin' Donuts commercial back in The '80s.
Auto racing girl named Vanellope. Does that remind you of anything?
- And that one named Minty Zaki? (Statement here.)
- Of the same flavour, we have a racer called Di Caramello, which, if you pronounce "Caramel" as "Carmel" you get something that sounds oddly like DiCaprio with a candy twist, which may or may not have been intentional.
The scene where the other racers destroy Vanellope's kart is played like the stepsisters destroying the dress in Cinderella ^note.
There's also a non-video game shout out as after Ralph chases off the racers of Sugar Rush who were destroying Vanellope's kart, he refers to them as "the Children of the Candy Corn".
When King Candy digs around in the game's code, he says "End of the line!", an almost word-for-word quote of MCP.
- He also sings "One of these things is not like the others..."
The Sugar Rush race track has several shout-outs to Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing. There's a cannon segment that looks suspiciously similar to the one from DK Mountain, a section in the Ice Cream Mountains that is similar to Frappe Snowland/Sherbet Land, and of course, a cave section that's like Rainbow Road near the end. Also, if you watch closely at the start of the race, one of the racers spins back and forth in place like when you hold the accelerator too long trying to get a boost at the start of the race in the Mario Kart series...
- The track inside the mountain where Ralph teaches Vanellope how to drive is like the Big Donut multiplayer stage from Mario Kart 64, being a circular track inside a volcano.
- In the scene where Vanellope and King Candy are racing on the Rainbow Road-esque track, King Candy jumps onto the road in his cart... just like the famous cheat from the Mario Kart 64 version where if you jump off at a certain point in Rainbow Road, you can land on a lower portion of the track ahead of other racers.
- Also, the items come in boxes marked with question marks, and a homing weapon is red-colored and comes in a bundle of three, much like the red shells.
- The opening segment of the final race also (in terms of the camera angle) mirrors the introductory cinematic of another Mascot Kart Racer...
- Also a shout out to Acceleracers, the part where Vanellope drives through a wall is reminiscent of how one gets to Tesla's Acceledrome.
The part where Ralph and Vanellope create a kart is done by series of minigames using cooking ingredients and tools, very reminiscent of Cooking Mama games.
King Candy/Turbo becoming a bug hybrid after seemingly being lost to the bugs, kinda like Xander in Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles.
- Also reminiscent of Dr. Smith's transformation into the Spider Smith from Lost in Space.
Ralph's Heroic Sacrifice near the end is similar to the famous Tear Jerker ending of The Iron Giant.
- Ralph also strikes a Superman pose while falling.
- Even more noticeable is since how Ralph is based off Donkey Kong, he attempts to punch down something from a high altitude involving a volcano and it ultimately saves the day.
Another Disney one; The scene where Vanellope turns into a princess at the climax and automatically resets Sugar Rush is a lot like the finale of Beauty and the Beast.
- Her princess attire also strongly resembles a pink, frillier version of the Queen of Hearts' dress.
The Police Brutality scene with Ralph and the cops, Wynchel and Duncan. Wouldn't look out of place somewhere. The film's creator, Rich Moore, was a director on both of these shows.
- And the cops' names refer to Winchell's and Dunkin' Donuts, two chains of donut shops.
The "power cards" Litwak's Arcade uses are similar to the real-life arcade chain of Dave and Buster's, which uses electronic cards instead of coins (though Litwak's Arcade utilizes both coins and power cards).
The arcade owner, Mr. Litwak, may be modeled after Walter Day, the president of Twin Galaxies, the record-keeping organization for Video Game high scores. Both are older, thin gentlemen who wear iconic referee shirts.
"Going Turbo" is first spoken by M. Bison, in a nod to Super Street Fighter II: Turbo (as well as Street Fighter II Turbo aka "Hyper Fighting" in North America).
At the very end of the film, the right half of the screen glitches with random sprites and numbers just like the "kill-screen" in the original Pac-Man. And towards the center, you can spot a part of the original blue and white Disney logo.
The candy-fed Cy-Bugs bear a strong resemblance to the Beetleworks from Epic Mickey. This is reinforced when King Candy is assimilated.
It seems that the Sugar Bowl world of Sugar Rush has an entire network of tunnels and caverns underneath it, along with a few hidden entrances to restricted/under construction areas. Sounds a bit familiar...
Related: In Owl City's official video for "When Can I See You Again?", the pixellated buildings in the background are done in the style of EarthBound (1994).
The nature of Felix's freaking out at Ralph in the prison break scene may be a shout out to Kenneth the Page's "swearing" at Jack Donaghy.
Felix: I don't have to do boo, forgive my pottymouth. I'm just s-so, so cross with you!
When Ralph and Vanellope break into the car factory in Sugar Rush, she calls him Knuckles. This reference is given right before Ralph smashes a locked door - in Knuckles' first appearance as a playable character, he was also gifted with the ability to smash through barriers that Sonic couldn't get around.
The gateway between Sugar Rush and Game Central Station is a rainbow bridge (made of sour fruit rolls).
Calhoun's fiance was named Dr. Brad Scott. Somebody had The Rocky Horror Picture Show on their mind...
When Ralph is first escaping the castle, one of the donut cops is chasing him with a chainsaw... a chainsaw with candy on it, and running in a particularly familiar fashion.
The Cy-Bugs' mannerisms can also remind you of The Machines.
Pillow Pants is mentioned.
Markowski, the drunk Hero's Duty Marine character that Ralph meets at Tapper's just keeps walking pressed up against the wall, as if locked in a walking animation, in a manner familiar to gamers who've had experiences with AI bugs.
- It's also reminiscent of the way newbie FPS players often end up running into walls and continuing to run while trying to figure out the controls.
Many of the guns seen in Hero's Duty start out in a compact, storage form and then expand into their fully functional forms when drawn, possibly a reference to the weapons in Mass Effect.
The other kids wrecking Vanellope's car bears some semblance to the SUV-wrecking bonus stage from the Street Fighter games. Minty Zaki even does a Ground Pound.
- The SUV wrecking stage is shown in the credits with Ryu, Ralph, and Vanellope doing the beating. This is followed by Ralph fighting Blanka.
Even the soundtrack joins the referential fun: the name for the track playing during King Candy's introductory scene is 'Royal Raceway!'
Ralph, at one point, calls Sugar Rush a "candy-coated Heart of Darkness".
It's likely that a lot of people nickname this movie "TRON sters Inc". In particular, the Beacon in Hero's Duty bears a strong visual resemblance to the Portal in TRON: Legacy, and the panels swirling around the Hero's Duty medal resemble the MCP's shields from the original Tron. The reset of Sugar Rush when Vanellope crosses the finish line and becomes Princess Vanellope is very reminiscent of the reset of the system at the end of Tron.
The first stage (save the good ingredients, junk the bad ones) of the "bake-a-cart" mini-game strongly resembles the ZX Spectrum game Cookie.
During Ralph's Imagine Spot about returning with the medal, the 8-bit tears Gene cries are similar to those cried by the cops in an obscure coin-op, Lock and Chase, both visually and audibly.
Felix, being the nice, innocent good guy that he is, tries to refrain from using popular obscenities, replacement obscenities, or minor words like "My God!" for frustration or astonishment Instead, he uses many... unusual replacements in his vocabulary, such as "My Land!" for "My God!"
A story centered around a team of four protagonists, who all ultimately come together under the sake of the team's little girl, save the world from an evil king who turns out to be a threat even greater than they think, and the girl takes back her rightful place as her world's true ruler?
In addition to No Celebrities Were Harmed, Alan Tudyk's performance as King Candy is a superb impression of actor Ed Wynn's distinct voice and vocal mannerisms, while Candy's character design is a direct Shout-Out to Wynn's character of the Hatter. The Reveal of King Candy's true nature as Turbo, on the other hand, is done in a way eerily reminiscent to Judge Doom revealing himself to be a Toon at the climax of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
When Ralph starts to explain why Vanellope can't race, he says that he's been thinking. Vanellope replies, "that's dangerous," much like Lefou's reply to Gaston saying the same thing in Beauty and the Beast.
Turbo looks like a zombified Kick Buttowski.
A non-gaming example, the rock guitar rendition of the Wedding March sounds a lot like the Queen rendition of same from the Flash Gordon movie.
Another non-gaming example: the sound effect Calhoun's gun makes when it fires is the same sound as the phased-plasma pulse rifles in the future war of the Terminator movies. And her pistol is modeled after the Auto-9 used by RoboCop, despite being a laser weapon. Watch closely during the scene where she reloads it, which is like a scene in that same movie.
When Vanellope is learning to drive, she keeps running into Ralph, or causing damage that causes him to get hit anyway. The sequence is like a Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon where, no matter where the Coyote stands or hides when he triggers a catapult, it squashes him.
Ralph destroying Vanellope's cart is portrayed in a similar way to King Triton destroying Ariel's collection^note.
The process for when a video game character comes back to life in their own game is referred to as regeneration.
A segment of the credits resembles New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
In a very easy-to-miss Freeze-Frame Bonus, when Turbo causes Roadblasters to crash, part of the glitching is a perfect reproduction of the glitched half of the famous Pac-Man Kill Screen.
When the villains are having the meeting, an Expy of Kano from Mortal Kombat can be seen.
Concept art of the homeless Q*bert family◊ shows signs reading "Need help, will do a barrel roll" and "Used to be in Q*Bert, then took an arrow to the knee".

Shout Out / Wreck-It Ralph

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