I grew up when video games were a
brand-new form of entertainment. I remember seeing Pong for the first
time and thinking it was the cheapest animated show I had ever seen.
Once I realized that it was an interactive game and that I could control
what was happening on the screen, I was captivated. A love affair was
born.
As a teenager, I spent untold hours
at my local arcade – Golf n’ Stuff, in Ventura, Calif. – pumping
quarters into the machines. I am pretty sure I personally financed the
Japanese game company Namco with years of Pac-Man and Dig Dug
play. And my favorite game from those earlier years was probably
Dragon’s Lair. Being someone who loved hand-drawn animation (and would
eventually make it a career), I was blown away by the idea that my two
favorite things – animation and video games – had been combined into
one. My parents loved telling me that I was wasting my days on these
games, but I like to think that it was research for a project that would
come later in my life.
In 2008, John Lasseter, the chief
creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, asked if I
would be interested in joining Disney as a director. I had spent an
amazing 20 years directing on shows including The Simpsons and Futurama,
but this was an opportunity to work with someone I had admired since my
days as a student at CalArts. John was a pioneer of computer-graphics
animation, and I jumped at the chance. But what happened next I could
never have imagined.
He suggested that I think about
developing a story set in the world of video games. The idea of a video
game movie had been floating around Disney Animation for at least 10
years, though no one had been able to crack a story. So here I was being
offered the opportunity to combine my loves at the greatest animation
studio in the world. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
For four years I lived and breathed
the world of video games. The team spent work hours playing games from
Donkey Kong to Halo to Mario Kart, all of which would heavily influence
what eventually became Wreck-It Ralph. And while I always
believed in the film, I had days when I wondered if it would resonate
with anyone outside the walls of Disney Animation.
Having spent the past eight weeks
traveling the world – from Paris to Buenos Aires to Sydney, Australia – I
can tell you that the amazing thing is how universal video games are.
And while the movie has struck a chord with all ages, it has really hit
home with people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, who reflect back on the
untold hours they spent in arcades. I realize that I was not alone back
then.
As for my favorite game of 2012,
that’s a hard one – not because there are so many to choose from (there
are), but because I had to give up video games to finish the film. The
final year of production requires late nights and seven-day workweeks; I
knew myself well enough to know that if I were to pick up a new game, I
would be lost in it for hours, days and weeks.
The game I most wanted to play throughout the year (and it took unbelievable restraint not to purchase it) was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I look forward to disappearing into its clutches now that promoting Wreck-It Ralph is finished. See you in six months!
