Sharing God’s Story with Wreck-it Ralph

• Part 1 – Community
• Part 2 – Counterfeit
• Part 3 – Cheater
• Part 4 – Purpose
• Part 5 – Savior
• Part 6 – Resurrection

This Reel Parable has major spoilers, and I mean major. Major like “did you know that Qui-Gon Jinn dies at the end of Star Wars Episode I?” major. This movie bible study assumes that you have seen Wreck-it Ralph or don’t care if we spoil it for you. We warned you…

This is part 5 of a 6 part Christian movie review of Wreck-it Ralph. You can find all of our Wreck-it Ralph content here.

Sharing God’s Story with Wreck-it Ralph

How do you know that Ralph truly loved Vanellope? They fought. They argued. They hurt each other’s feelings.

So how do we know he really loved her?

Because he was willing to die for her.

My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13

No greater love than this that a man (Ralph) would give his life for a friend (Vanellope).

While almost everything King Candy said was a lie (that deceiver!) what he said about Vanellope leaving the game was true. Because of her glitch, she could not leave the game. Anyone else could simply leave the game.

She could not.

We see that this is true when Sugar Rush is about to be destroyed.

The aliens from Hero’s Duty have taken over. They are destroying everything and trying to devour everyone.

King Candy – Turbo – is unmasked and his true nature revealed.

He is out to destroy Sugar Rush.

As everyone escapes the game we see that Vanellope truly cannot leave and is about to be destroyed.

If she dies in the game then she dies for real.

Game over.

Forever.

Ralph figures out that the Mentos over Diet Coke Mountain will create a flame/light to draw the bug’s attention.

Bug Turbo and Ralph duke it out in an epic final battle to the top of Diet Coke Mountain. It is during this epic battle that Ralph realizes that the only way to save Vanellope is to sacrifice himself.

He can save her. But he will die if he does.

Because he really does love her, Ralph decides to save her, at all costs.

If he can just fall into Diet Coke Mountain he can knock the Mentos into the Diet Coke causing a volcanic eruption, create a homing beacon, and draw the bugs to their destruction!

This will save Vanellope and all of Sugar Rush!

In that moment Ralph decides to offer himself as her sacrifice.

He would give up his life to save her life.

Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.

Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well.

You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.

He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross!

As a result God exalted him…Philippians 2:3-9a

This sounds like Ralph, right?

Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.

Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well.

When Ralph saw that Vanellope truly needed help he cared about her life more than his own. He humbled himself so that he could save her.

He knew she was important.

He put her needs above his own.

You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.

Ralph did this too.

Ralph really, really, really wanted to win a medal. He could have simply left Sugar Rush, returned home, and showed off his medal.

Instead, he chose to help Vanellope.

He chose to empty himself of his own ambition – the desire to win a medal and to be a part of his community – and instead chose to stay and help Vanellope.

He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross!

I know Ralph did not die. I get that.

But he was willing to die to save Vanellope.

He thought he was going to die.

He did humble himself to the point of death. At least to the point of being willing to die!

As a result God exalted him…

I know this may be a stretch, but I love that Ralph does get exalted back in his game.

After he does his bad guy job the whole community literally holds him up – exalts him! – and it is then that he can see Vanellope!

So why would Ralph do that for Vanellope?

Why would he save her?

Why would he sacrifice himself for her?

Because Vanellope could not save herself. As simple as it sounds, she needed a savior.

And Ralph understood her pain.

Ralph knew her suffering.

For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.

Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.Hebrews 4:15-16

Ralph knew her suffering.

Why?

Because he had suffered the same way that she had suffered.

He had been hurt in the same way that she had been hurt.

Like Vanellope, Ralph lived alone on the outskirts of town.

Like Vanellope, Ralph longed for community and to be a part of the group.

Ralph understood Vanellope because he was treated like she was treated.

He may have been an outsider – a savior from another world/game – but he understood her pain and her suffering.

But remember, he didn’t just save her; he also set her apart and helped her fulfill her purpose!

It was only after Ralph literally saved her that she was able to finish the race and cross the finish line, fulfilling her purpose!

[Tweet “Check out this better kind of Christian movie review of Wreck-it Ralph!”]

Get my free e-book, How to See God’s Story in Movies. This free download will help you share God’s story with your kids and students by showing you how to see God’s story in movies.

 

Not only will this guarantee that you get the latest Reel Parables posts, but you will also get my most popular downloads, including “How to Time Travel.”

And be sure to check out my About page for more info on what I do around here at Reel Parables.

Until next time, God bless.

Simon L Smith

Sharing God’s Story with Wreck-it Ralph

• Part 1 – Community
• Part 2 – Counterfeit
• Part 3 – Cheater
• Part 4 – Purpose
• Part 5 – Savior
• Part 6 – Resurrection

Sharing God’s Story with Wreck-it Ralph

• Part 1 – Community
• Part 2 – Counterfeit
• Part 3 – Cheater
• Part 4 – Purpose
• Part 5 – Savior
• Part 6 – Resurrection

This Reel Parable has major spoilers, and I mean major. Major like “did you know that Darth Vader was Luke’s dad?” major. This movie bible study assumes that you have seen Wreck-it Ralph or don’t care if we spoil it for you. We warned you…

This is part 2 of a 6 part Christian movie review of Wreck-it Ralph. You can find all of our Wreck-it Ralph content here.

Sharing God’s story with Wreck-it Ralph

Sugar Rush is a child’s dream! And why wouldn’t it be? After all it is a land made up of sugar and candy and sweets and treats and all kinds of yummy goodness.

When my 10-year-old daughter saw it for the first time she actually told me she wanted to live there! My 12-year-old son agreed and added so he could eat everything!

Sugar Rush looks amazing. But, as we soon find out, Sugar Rush is not what it seems.

It may look good on the outside, but inside is it all messed up. It may look like a confectioners dream, but it is really a counterfeit.

Counterfeit

Sugar Rush is a pink candied paradise. But it also a bad copy of what it once was.

We will talk about King Candy later, but as Ralph finds out he has done something terrible to Sugar Rush. In his desire to be King (Isaiah 14:14 anyone?) he has hacked the world of Sugar Rush so that no one remembers how great it once was or how bad it is now. King Candy is a liar and a deceiver, but more on him later.

In his desire to be King he corrupted Sugar Rush. It is now a fallen world.

It looks good. But it is not good. Ask yourself or your kids these questions:

• What did King Candy do to be King?
• What was his sin?
• Why is this bad?
• What did it do to Sugar Rush?
• What did it do to the characters in Sugar Rush?
• How did the girls treat each other?
• How did the girls treat Vanellope Von Schweetz?

Because of King Candy’s sin (hacking the game to be King) the entire “world” of Sugar Rush became a cheap counterfeit. Sugar Rush became “fallen.”

It looked good. But it was not great.

It looked good. But it was far from perfect.

This story is not new. In Genesis 3 we see the fall of man. And this fall didn’t just affect man, but it also affected the world.

Cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return. Genesis 3:17b–19

Sugar Rush is fallen. It was once a child’s sweet-toothed paradise. Now it is a bad knockoff, a bad counterfeit.

The same is true for our world. It was once a paradise where God and man had perfect fellowship and lived in a perfect community. Now it is a world full of ugly. I don’t know how old your kids are and I don’t know how much of our world they understand. My older kids (21 and 18) are starting to see just how ugly the world can be. And so are my little kids. Even as we try to protect their childhood and innocence they still hear about so much hate, violence, and junk.

The BIG questions are still the BIG questions. Why so much fear? Why so much anger? Why so much hate?

Just like in Wreck-it Ralph the answer is sin. Because King Candy sinned the whole world of Sugar Rush is now full of sin. I know it sounds silly, but how else would you explain King Candy and the way the other girls treat Vanellope?

Again, this story is not new.

So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned. Romans 5:12

Contradictions

Like the world of Sugar Rush, our world is swirling with contradictions.

Parts of our world are beautiful. The birth of a child. The fresh blossoms of Spring. A first kiss. A first love.

But parts of our world are also ugly. The child that dies. The gray death of Winter. A broken heart.

At times our world is amazingly beautiful. It is, after all, God’s creation.

But at times it is also very ugly. It is, after all, tainted by sin.

Like the world of Sugar Rush, our world looks good and is tempting, like an all you can eat candy buffet.

But like the world of Sugar Rush, our world is also under the control/influence of a Deceiver.

Vanellope knew she was made for “something better.”

We know we were made for “something better.”

My guess is our kids know they were made for “something better.”

Sugar Rush was not without hope and neither is our world!

Remember what C.S. Lewis said.

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.

Before we look at what Wreck-it Ralph can teach us about “another world,” next time we will look at what King Candy can teach us about our adversary, the “devil.”

Tell your kids that someday, when God’s story unfolds, our fear will turn into joy, our anger will turn into happiness and our hate will turn into joy!

What can do this week to encourage your kids that someday our fear will turn into joy, our anger will turn into happiness and our hate will turn into joy?

[Tweet “Check out this better kind of Christian movie review of Wreck-it Ralph!”]

Get my free e-book, How to See God’s Story in Movies. This free download will help you share God’s story with your kids and students by showing you how to see God’s story in movies.

Not only will this guarantee that you get the latest Reel Parables posts, but you will also get my most popular downloads, including “How to Time Travel.”

And be sure to check out my About page for more info on what I do around here at Reel Parables.

Until next time, God bless.

Simon L Smith

Sharing God’s Story with Wreck-it Ralph

• Part 1 – Community
• Part 2 – Counterfeit
• Part 3 – Cheater
• Part 4 – Purpose
• Part 5 – Savior
• Part 6 – Resurrection

Sharing God’s Story with Wreck-it Ralph

• Part 1 – Community
• Part 2 – Counterfeit
• Part 3 – Cheater
• Part 4 – Purpose
• Part 5 – Savior
• Part 6 – Resurrection

This Reel Parable has major spoilers, and I mean major. Major like “did you know that Bruce Willis was dead in the Sixth Sense?” major. This movie bible study assumes that you have seen Wreck-it Ralph or don’t care if we spoil it for you. We warned you…

This is part 1 of a 6 part Christian movie review of Wreck-it Ralph. You can find all of our Wreck-it Ralph content here.

Sharing God’s story with Wreck-it Ralph

Wreck-it Ralph is a super fun movie. It’s the kind of movie that strikes a delicate balance between nerdy and cool but also sits squarely between kid friendly and adult friendly.

I loved it and my kids loved it! It’s that good.

But it’s also more than just that. Wreck-it Ralph is a fantastic Reel Parable.

I want to share with you the “movie bible study” that I shared with my kids after seeing Wreck-it Ralph.

We talked about two distinct topics:

• Community
• The world (fall, salvation, and redemption)

Today, let’s talk about community. We will start “the World” next time and spend a few weeks on it. Yes, it’s that good and detailed!

Admittedly, a community is a common idea that can hard to describe. For now, we are going to describe a  community as a place where we belong and are a part of.

For most of us, the first community we experience is our family. Then comes work, school, sports, etc.

I find it interesting how two people who have never met are part of a community just because of something they have in common – think sports fans or music fans! We can go to a game or to a concert and “fit in” and “belong” to a group of people we don’t know, just because of a shared passion.

The same can be said (hopefully!) about the Church. We can show up to a Church where we don’t know anyone, but because of our shared passion we “fit in” and “belong.”

When talking about a community with your kids, frame it as the place where we belong.

Community

Wreck-it Ralph starts with Ralph looking for – and longing for – community.

Sure, he doesn’t want to be the “bad guy.” And he wants to be seen as a good guy. After all, without Ralph, there is no game! And it’s his name on the game – not Fix-it Felix – so he is just doing his job, right?

The reason he doesn’t want to be the bad guy is that he wants to be part of his game’s community. The other characters in the game seem to hate him and all he is doing is just doing his job.

Ralph wants to be loved, to be accepted, and to be a part of his community.

His quest for a medal – to be the winner or to be the hero – is so that he can be part of his game’s community.

It is this desire for community that starts our hero on his “hero’s journey.”

His journey actually starts out journey as we explore his – and our – world.

What About Us?

Until then think about the questions. As you watch or talk about Wreck-it Ralph look for the answers to these questions. Better yet, ask them to your kids!

Let your kids start learning what real community looks like by helping them explore Wreck-it Ralph.

 

• Where does Ralph live? Why does he live there (in the junkyard)?
• Where does Ralph want to live?
• Why does Ralph want to live there (in the apartment complex)?
• Why does the community in the game reject Ralph?
• How does this make Ralph feel?
• Why didn’t Ralph fit in?
• Whose fault was it? Ralph’s or the other characters’?

Like Ralph, we are designed (programmed?) to live in a community.

Why, because even God lives in a community!

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth. Genesis 1:26

Notice the words that God uses; Us and Our.

God, as we understand the Trinity, lives in a community!

I may not know how God created man, but I do know that He made us in His image. If God lives in a community and created us in His image, then we must also need community.

If it is good enough for Him, then I guess it should be good enough for us.

Ralph needed community and we need community.

We will come back to the community at the end of this movie bible study. As with any good story, there is conflict. As we will see at the end, Ralph needed a community to overcome that conflict!

What can you and your family do THIS WEEK to help foster yoru community?

[Tweet “Check out this better kind of Christian movie review of Wreck-it Ralph!”]

Get my free e-book, How to See God’s Story in Movies. This free download will help you share God’s story with your kids and students by showing you how to see God’s story in movies.

 

Not only will this guarantee that you get the latest Reel Parables posts, but you will also get my most popular downloads, including “How to Time Travel.”

And be sure to check out my About page for more info on what I do around here at Reel Parables.

Until next time, God bless.

Simon L Smith

Sharing God’s Story with Wreck-it Ralph

• Part 1 – Community
• Part 2 – Counterfeit
• Part 3 – Cheater
• Part 4 – Purpose
• Part 5 – Savior
• Part 6 – Resurrection