FROM "WRECK-IT RALPH"
WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!
"Wreck-It Ralph" is one of the greatest Disney movies, as well as Video Game movies that I've ever seen. However, despite that the film was both a critical and box-office success, it's sadly not a household Disney film or even that big of a merchandising success. I guess that mainly had to do with the fact that audiences and gamers were expecting to see non-stop cameos and appearances of their favorite video game characters instead of just seeing them all in the first 20 or so minutes of the movie. While a tad bit disappointing, I personally didn't think it was bad enough to drag the film down since there are so many things that the film has done right. It's an underrated Disney film and the villain of this movie is one of the many great underrated aspects that the film has to offer.
We don't meet this villain until we're 34 minutes in, and when we do see him you'd never at first suspect that he's going to be the film's villain, nor does the film even introduce him as one unlike many other Disney villains. He starts out as this jolly and goofy little King of the racing Arcade game "Sugar Rush", who loves to joke around; give away free Candy to the Candy citizens (Isn't that cannibalism since the citizen's are made out of Candy! Ahhh screw logic!); and cheerfully hosts as well as taking part in a race where the 9 out of 16 contestants that will cross the finish line will be chosen to be the game's current Avatars for players to race as when the Arcade opens! On top of it, his design, voice, and even character is modeled after the famous comedian Ed Wynn, who's best known for playing comical characters who are goofy and lovable (Like The Mad Hatter in Disney's "Alice And Wonderland", and Uncle Albert in "Mary Poppins"), while also proving to play sentimental characters in dramatic pieces who are just as lovable (Like Mr. Albert Dussell in "The Diary Of Anne Frank" (1959), and the Pitchman in the classic "Twilight Zone" episode "One For The Angels"), and all those elements and characteristics that Ed Wynn is known for all meet perfectly together with this villain, as well as giving the character classic visual jokes and puns that Ed Wynn would of course make. So the fact that a little happy and over the top King who resembles the great and lovable comedian Ed Wynn, would later on appear to be the film's villain seemed unexpected and at first hard to buy.
Now granted, throughout the film before we discover that his intentions are purely evil and selfish, while being the goofy and cheerful fun loving King that he is, he still does show his demanding side of authority as he and his Candy troops hunt down Ralph and his glitch friend Vanellope, which does make him the film's antagonist. However, while being an antagonist, he doesn't do it for the sake of being evil and selfish but does it in order to protect his Kingdom. He doesn't want Ralph in his Kingdom because he's afraid that Ralph's interference might cause his game to be unplugged, just like when another character invaded another game that caused both games to be unplugged; and doesn't want Vanellope the glitch to be one of the Avatars that the players can choose from since her glitching will cause people to think that something's wrong with the game and as a result will cause the game to be unplugged, where everyone in the game will be forced to leave the game, as Vanellope is forced to stay behind since she's a glitch and will die once the game is shutdown. So despite how mean and hard he is on Ralph and Vanellope in earlier scenes of the movie, he actually does have a legitimate reason for his actions and behavior against them, and as he tells Ralph all this after desperately hacking the code to give Ralph his lost Medal, he actually looks legitimately sad to tell Ralph what will happen to the game and Vanellope and what must be done to prevent his game from being unplugged, where even he finds it hard to do what is right. Well at least that's what he makes us and the character's believe at first!
In a twist, it turns out that King Candy the whole time is a famous racing game character named Turbo, who was infamous for hopping into another racing game out of jealousy to take over, where his interference has caused both games to be unplugged, as Turbo is presumed dead. However, it turns out that he managed to get out of the game before it was unplugged, and hacked into "Sugar Rush" by turning the game's star Vanellope into a glitch; locking up every character's memory of Vanellope being the game's star; and changed his appearance and identity to the jolly King that we see before us, as well as stealing Vanellope's racing Kart (Which is evidenced by game cabinet's art work of Vanellope driving the same Kart that King Candy drives). When I first saw the twist when it came out in theaters, I was shocked because I really did believe that the King was trying really hard to do what was right, despite that we the audience still want to see Vanellope enter the race. He once again did seem like a kind enough of fellow who cares for his game and the people who live in it, but despite that what he told Ralph was mostly true, he in reality is just an ex-popular game character that wants to rule the game for his own selfish and egoistical needs where he will stop at nothing to keep Vanellope away from the race, not because he's worried about her glitching up the game for when kids play as her, but because that crossing the finish would change her back and undo what he worked hard for. He's pretty much Ralph's opposite, who's created to be hero, while Ralph is created to be a villain, but instead of being nice and caring like Ralph, all he cares about is himself and his reputation, and game hops in search for popularity, instead of redemption. On top of it, look at how he looks like when kids aren't playing as him in his racing game where the Pixels that the kids see him as make him look comical and friendly. He looks hideous and mean with his big bright yellow evil eyes and evil grin with those bright yellow teeth, who has old and wrinkly pale white skin; unlike Ralph where the pixels of how the kids see him when they play his game make him look mean and nasty, when in reality he looks cute and humble. The designs for our hero and villain in both forms are just as interesting and clever as how the Disney's film "Beauty And The Beast" made their hero and villain look.
Watching the film again knowing that King Candy is really Turbo in disguise, the hints to King Candy being Turbo are indeed there. He's small man with a big head who loves racing and hates losing. He knows how to hack the game, despite telling Ralph earlier that he can't get his medal back, before he finally does. He knows who Ralph is, despite that the two have never met before, who at first fears that Ralph has come to take over his game. He's afraid that he might be killed by Ralph, even though the rules say that game characters in their own game world can't die. His design looks like an old classic cartoon, instead of the modern 3-D anime style that all the other characters in the game have. And Turbo's voice in the flashback sounds very similar to Candy's voice. The hints are so clever and subtle, and yet so obvious that it made me wonder how I didn't pick up on this before? I guess it just goes all back to Candy's earlier scenes in the movie before the third act reveals that he is a villain ; he's just such a cute and fun character who has an actual reason to why he's chasing after Ralph and Vanellope, that he expresses with great sympathy, which for the time being (Even when knowing the twist ending) seems very convincing, which is one of the thing's he's best at! On an interesting note, during the film's development the writers did include both identities to the villain, but originally were going to have both identities as completely separate characters (As the film itself at first wants you to think before the twist). While King Candy was still supposed to play out as the film's primary antagonist, there would be an ending where he would reform. It wasn't until later on during the production where it was decided by the filmmakers to have King Candy and Turbo both be the same character. So not only were the audience supposed to think that King Candy and Turbo were both separate characters, but that was actually the original intention when the film was being made, before deciding to give us this really nice twist.
Since Turbo is in complete control of the game, it would seem that his Candy servants and troops all serve him faithfully without question, and yes they do. I'm not going to say that they're one of the most threatening set of henchmen I've ever seen, because they're very far from it! They're an army of soldiers that are entirely made of Candy, how is that threatening? The Queen Of Hearts army of cards are more threatening than them. Even Maleficent's dimwitted army of creatures can kill (Or even eat) this army of sweets in a second. However, despite not all being deadly or threatening, they're still fun characters with some really clever candy puns that fit this world perfectly. You have the King's Oreo guards who sing a clever parody of "March Of The Winkies" from "The Wizard Of OZ"; a duo of dimwitted Donut cops; and Bloodhounds in the form of "Devil Dogs". It also doesn't hurt to have the whole entire Kingdom bully and treat Vanellope as an outcast, even by going to the extremes of destroying her car so she can't enter the race thanks to Turbo's hacking. Out of all his frosty henchmen and followers though, the one who I enjoy the most is his assistant Sour Bill who's a sour flavored Jawbreaker. Just his overall downbeat attitude towards everything is so hilarious that it never gets tiring. The film gives him a perfect amount of screen-time where his humorous downbeat attitude everything is always enjoyable. The funniest moments that involve this character has to be when he bitterly imprisons Fix-It Felix Jr. to avoid repeating the same mistake of not imprisoning Ralph; when he's threatened to be licked to death by Ralph if he doesn't get any answers from him; and the scene when he finds out that Vanellope is the game's ruler, who goes from being amazed to acting all unhappy and depressed again when he introduces her. He's got to be by far the funniest downbeat assistants to a Disney villain that I've ever saw in a Disney film. Now how exactly does he know that Turbo in his King Candy form is the one who whipped out everybody's memory and turned Vanellope into a glitch, I guess Candy must have really trusted him up to a certain point (He never told him he was Turbo). Either that or he just happens to know these things like how Harry in "Spider-Man 2" just knows where Doc Ock's hide-out is, which is one of those flaws that many of us don't mind overlooking to get to the good stuff.
During a cool race sequence Turbo gets eaten by one of the Cy-bugs' from the game "Hero's Duty" that have entered “Sugar Rush”, and just when you think Turbo is dead and Ralph is close to taking out the Cy-bug's, he's immediately stopped by Turbo who has now mutated into a Cy-bug since Cy-bug's become what they eat, as he taunts Ralph by telling him that he has entered the "Boss Level". The writers felt that Turbo in either form isn't tough or threatening enough to be a match against Ralph in a final battle, so they decided to turn him into a Cy-bug, and looking at him in his Cy-bug form again, he's actually scarier than I remember him. I know the picture I posted isn't that scary, but in many other scenes he looks horrifying with his gigantic body that's part fly and part centipede that moves faster and scarier than how Randall in "Monster's INC" moves; and having an evil and crazed alien clown-like face that comes complete with sharp teeth and a head that's bigger than his old giant head that can switch back and fourth between his Cy-bug King Candy head and his classic Turbo head, who's now completely determined to kill Ralph and Vanellope along with the idea of ruling the game world with his new form and army of Cy-bug's once they’re out of the way. For a villain who couldn't fight earlier in the film with the fear of being actually killed, he sure does put up one hell of a fight with his incredibly scary looking design and powerful bug-like abilities. That's another added in idea that I give the writers and filmmakers some serious props for! As for his death, while not the most poetic or harshest Disney villain death that I've ever seen, it's still a very fitting death. Since he is now a Cy-bug where it's already established that Cy-bug's can easily be defeated when they are attracted to a giant bright light that's really a giant Bug Zapper or a Volcanic eruption that will in fact kill them, it does seem like the appropriate way for him to go, where it's successfully played out for both comical and dramatic effect as Turbo tries hard to resist going towards the bright lava, but simply can't because his new bug instincts won't let him.
It's not in every Disney film that you get a twist villain who is as good as King Candy, and while there is another twist Disney villain on my list that does outrank him as being my favorite, he's still one of the coolest twist Disney villain's that Disney has ever brought. Even if you can already predict that King Candy is really Turbo in disguise midway through the movie, you have to admit that he does put on a great and manipulative show as a cute and jolly King before you would even consider him to be an actual villain or Turbo in disguise. Just by his introduction alone, unlike almost every other Disney villain, did you actually think that he was going to be a mean and selfish character? Personally, I didn't and quite frankly even if I did know that he was a villain before the twist is revealed, he's still an awesome villain. All three of his designs are cool and creative; his personality is fun, manipulative, and bitter (No pun intended); he's a pro at hacking; his story and character is interesting; his servants and army of sweets are a lot of fun; he's an expert racer; and I'm completely surprised that Disney created a character that perfectly resembles the great comedian Ed Wynn, and did the impossible by portraying the character that perfectly resembles him as a very unlikable villain who at first starts out as lovable as the person he's modeled after! Well played with this twist villain Disney, well played indeed!
"Have some Candy!"
-King Candy
"Turbo-tastic!"
-Turbo
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