This weekend I watched Disney’s most recent animated film, Wreck-It Ralph featuring the voice talents of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, and Jane Lynch. The plot is easy to follow but riveting nonetheless: Wreck-It Ralph, the “bad guy” in the arcade game “Fix-It Felix”, longs to be a hero and for everyone to love him. In his effort to win a hero’s medal, he flies from video game to video game in the quest to become the lovable good guy.

The story is essentially our modern day’s Toy Story. Much like the toys that come to life once no humans are present, the video game characters take on their own individual personalities after the arcade closes and the employees leave for the night. Ralph, one day fed up with his life sleeping in the garbage while the heroic Fix-it Felix parties in his grand penthouse, leaves his game to the militaristic “Hero’s Duty” where he only runs into more troubles.

I highly recommend this movie to kids and adults of all ages. Adults will love the old, traditional video games like “Pac-Man” and “Sonic” from the 1980s, while the children will be enthralled by the bright, colorful worlds designed especially for the movie. Original music from 1980s bands as well as modern day artists such as Skrillex (who has an animated cameo) and Owl City are also included. As a long-time Disney fan, I was pleased to see that they were able to come up with a movie as innovative and heartwarming (without being too sappy) as Wreck-It Ralph is without the help of Pixar.

I think the message of Wreck-It Ralph is an inspiring one—recognize that there is nothing wrong with the person you are, even when things aren’t going so smoothly. Although that message is one we’ve heard numerous times, it’s not so easy to accept when you feel small and nerdy and you sit next to the girl in class who always has all the right answers and wears all the right clothes. I think this is something that I have struggled with for a long time. No matter how many awards I win, how many A’s I get in school, or how many achievements I have, I always forget about all of them the minute I look in the mirror and see a brand-new pimple on my chin or step on the scale and discover that I’ve gained an extra pound.

Wreck-It Ralph goes to therapy with other game villains and they echo their mantra over and over again: “I am bad, and that’s good, I will never be good and that’s not bad, there’s no one I’d rather be than me.” Ralph fails to see the truth in this rather confusing motto , and nevertheless tries to abandon his identity anyway. At the end of the movie, he finally realizes that even though he is a bad guy in the game, the game needs a bad guy to survive. Without him, Fix-It Felix has nothing to fix. He realizes that his role is integral to the community, and there are several perks to being the villain.

Although in real life, none of us wants to be a “bad guy”, I think the ultimate truth we derive from the “bad guy” mantra is that we will never be able to change who we are, and we should accept that that’s good. When you try to assume someone else’s identity and forget about your own, bad consequences occur and you end up being unhappier than you were when you started.

Wreck-It Ralph lives in a video game and I live my life out in the real world. Sometimes it’s a lot more difficult to accept who you are. Depressing thoughts and extreme sadness come much more easily than mere dissatisfaction at being a villain. Everyone wants to be loved, praised, and admired, but we have to realize that the most important praise comes from yourself.