LOS ANGELES – Disney's upcoming animated feature Wreck-It Ralph is a love letter to retro videogames, the story of an '80s arcade bad guy looking to redeem himself. Disney released the first trailer during (when else?) Electronic Entertainment Expo last week, and it shows the movie to be basically the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? of classic videogames, packed with characters from Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, Pac-Man and more.
Disney's respect and admiration for the source material was also plainly evident in its small but impactful E3 display for the movie, which featured screens showing the trailer, but also this fantastic prop: a non-working arcade cabinet clearly modeled on Nintendo's design for Donkey Kong, recreating the fictional game Fix-It Felix Jr. featured in the movie.
The design was impressive down to the tiniest details: the Miyamoto-esque cartoon renditions of the characters, the instructions printed on the joystick panel, the years of "distress." A sign on the monitor asked "arcade collectors" to help Disney hunt down a working model of the non-existent game.
Wreck-It Ralph will be released on Nov. 2. (We've included the trailer as the last item in the gallery above.)
Photos: Ariel Zambelich/Wired 
