You know you’re watching a movie aimed at the families-with-kids demographic when animated flicks dominate the previews, as was the case when I saw Wreck-It Ralph with someone special in a cozy Elk Grove theater (which was, in fact, filled with families and kids). I’m not complaining, though: Upcoming DreamWorks fare Rise of the Guardians (opening Nov. 21) and The Croods (opening March 2013) looked promising, the latter even more so.

My point: Wreck-It Ralph will make it painfully obvious that you’re watching a movie created in the “kids will love it and parents will get the references that go over the kids’ heads” vein. It also adds an extra-sugary vibe to its mix, which many people won’t expect. If that makes you sick, you might want to avoid Wreck-It Ralph. But if you’re OK with that, then you’ll find a well-crafted animated flick — yes, one you can enjoy sans family or kids.

Wreck-It Ralph isn’t mainly a film of video game references, even though it’s peppered with them in a living, breathing arcade world. Rather, its meat and potatoes is a story of a guy wanting to be loved.

The movie has a unique take on the concept, since its main character isn’t a good guy who’s a loser, but a bad guy who’s a loser — a double whammy that makes us want to root for the emotionally bullied Ralph (John C. Reilly, who is arguably the best person the filmmakers could have cast for the role). But as Street Fighter’s Zangief says, Ralph’s not really a bad guy. He only plays one in his day job, which requires him to be the villain in Fix-It Felix, a game in which he’s perennially overshadowed by his colleague Felix (voiced dynamically by Jack McBrayer).

Ralph sets out to become loved and admired. Along the way, he meets Vanellope von Schweetz (you’ll swear she’s the kid version of Sarah Silverman, by whom she’s voiced), a girl whose ambition mirrors Ralph’s. You can describe the relationship between Ralph and Vanellope as “heartwarming with an edge,” and it’s a relationship that propels the film through an engaging and twisty plot. I think the filmmakers did a great job unfolding the surprises, expertly refraining from foreshadowing too heavily.

The non-video game references (mostly to sweets) are a bit forced at times, but they’re far more welcome than not, and they’re presented in a lighthearted manner. And the video game references are well-timed and superbly rendered. The filmmakers obviously did their homework, and their attention to detail will be much appreciated not only by video game fans, but also by people who simply love desserts.

The sweeteners top off a stellar offering aimed at families and young kids. Will that audience enjoy the film? For sure. But the viewing coalition should be broader than that. Wreck-It Ralph is a quality animated flick, and the other sort of kids — us college kids — will find much to enjoy as well.

JOEY CHEN can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Let’s take a break from the prevailing political concerns of the week to examine something of a cultural milestone. Friday’s opening of Skyfall, the 23rd installment of the world’s longest continuously running film franchise, also marks the 50-year anniversary for the series.

In 1962, a fairly successful Dr. No was released to mixed reception. The story was a short and brutal space-age thriller, based on one of a series of novels written by Ian Fleming. Fleming had developed his star character in a romanticized atmosphere of sex, well-made cocktails, cold-blooded murder, fine dining and exotic locales, all out of step with and yet intoxicating to the ’50s generation of salesmen and homemakers.

The Vatican denounced the initial film’s unrepentant sexuality, while the Soviet Kremlin attacked it as an epitome of Western capitalist decadence. Such sensational publicity ensured a larger budget for successive adaptations, and by 1965, Bond was shattering box office records while simultaneously coming into stride with the times, leading one critic to remark that, “The Cinema was a duller place before 007.”

Indeed it was. James Bond became a model for the new action genre as well as a ’60s icon using a framework of highly stylized espionage to turn the spy into the modern anti-hero, a smirking killer whose idea of doing good is getting the job done and getting as much pleasure out of it as possible. This suave, hedonistic image made an impression, and early Bond films boosted everything from tourism to bikini sales and a curious obsession with the manner in which martinis were made.

Over the years, 007 has reached many high and low points without ever stopping for more than a few years at a time. It has collected myriad fans, while altering its format to reflect changing times. The inclusion of Judi Dench as Bond’s first female boss in 1995’s Goldeneye marked one of the more radical changes in the narrative. In her first on-screen conversation with the storied agent, she cuts him down to size as a womanizing, dinosaur relic of the Cold War.

Since that moment, the series has been toying with ways to make the final jump into contemporary self-reflectiveness without sacrificing its classic appeal. The latest film will no doubt take cues from some of the more serious genre exercises of the past few years such as The Dark Knight, and will benefit highly from the inclusion of an acclaimed dramatic director, Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition).

The official acceptance of 007 as a transgenerational hero, who is undoubtedly here to stay, is an exciting thought for longtime fans. It’s also a reason for everyone else to take a second look at this fictional universe, either as a historical curiosity or a voyage into our changing ideas of politics, sex, culture and heroism.

ANDREW RUSSELL can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Game of the week

I have a confession to make: I’m not a fan of the Halo franchise. Despite a handful of fun online-play sessions with friends, I’ve never quite understood the appeal of spending countless hours with Master Chief (despite personally playing every entry in the series in an effort to get hooked).

Sometimes you have to give into the masses though, and that’s exactly the case with the game of the week: Halo 4. For the first time in the franchise’s history, development duties have shifted to a brand new studio – 343 Industries. There are sure to be skeptics due to the absence of former developer Bungie, but reviews seem to indicate yet another strong entry in the wildly popular first-person shooter series.

Master Chief makes his return as the main protagonist four years after the events of 2007’s Halo 3. Additions include a new enemy threat, new weapons and expanded multiplayer modes. Most notably, a story-driven “Spartan Ops” mode will replace the former co-op driven “Firefight” mode.

I imagine I’ll end up playing Halo 4 at some point, though I’m in no rush. But based on feedback so far, fans of the series will likely be satisfied.

This week in news

Remember The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the 2011 release that gamers poured hundreds of hours into? As if that wasn’t enough, developer Bethesda has announced new downloadable content (DLC) for the highly acclaimed RPG title.

Titled “Dragonborn,” the new DLC will feature dragon mounts. I can already imagine flying dragons over snowy terrains … there’s no way that won’t be awesome.

The plot involves an antagonist named Dragonbeast who attempts to retain his previous power as the first Dragonborn by consuming the souls of dragons. More importantly, the DLC will take place in a familiar environment — the island of Solthseim. This locale first appeared in the “Blood Moon” expansion for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

“Dragonborn” will be available on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on December 4 for 1600 Microsoft Points. No plans for a PC or PlayStation 3 release have been revealed yet.

ANTHONY LABELLA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

America bleeds the blues.

It is the music rooted in our country’s struggles and vindicated by our resolve. It is the encapsulation of hope and loss in three short chords, an art form that serves as the bedrock to our rich and ever-expanding musical history.

There are few men more formative to that art than B.B. King, who performed before a sold-out audience in the Mondavi Center on Sunday. A titan of his time, King revolutionized electric blues guitar with his lush vibrato, melodic phrasing and expansive library of classic songs. His work is a window to history, his influence present in every guitarist to have ever followed.

Well … they tell you not to meet your idols.

At the noble age of 87, King simply lacks the physical ability to perform on a level that such a large-scale show merits. While forgivable, the addition of shoddy production value on virtually every level  added insult to auditory injury in what unfolded as a night of bittersweet disappointment.

First and most surprisingly, a muddled house-mix in Jackson Hall destroyed any sense of harmony between King and the individual members of his talented ensemble. Trumpet tripped over tenor sax as keyboard strokes flooded over everyone else in an awkward orgy of sonic sadness.

In the most rookie mistake of the century, King’s amplifier was placed onstage without a sound check, too close to the drum kit. Subsequently, every time B.B. plucked a note in the middle and upper registers of his beloved ebony guitar Lucille, the snare drum rattled behind him involuntarily and dirtied his already indecipherable tone.

It might seem petty to gripe on the stagehands’ lack of inconspicuous apparel, but when a large man in a neon green T-shirt strolls down to the performers in the middle of “Every Day I Have The Blues” to distribute sweat towels, it’s difficult to determine whether or not you are capable of punching a baby seal in the face.

I’m also willing to bet good money the lighting technician for the evening was attempting to make the audience drop it like it’s hot. For whatever reason, he resolved to switch between dramatically dimmed colors to a full, illuminated house several times for each song without regard to the mood of the piece. Either way, it just made me sleepy and I’m sure some small child in the second row almost had a seizure. Statistically speaking, it’s possible.

King is a master minimalist, effortlessly expressing complex emotions with simple string bends and sparse, lyrical phrases. However, despite many of the evening’s classic tunes, including fast-paced boogies like “Rock Me Baby,” King continued to play as lethargically as ever, off the beat and often out of tune.

But in the most grievous of offenses, King continuously refused to do what his crowd of devoted fans came from far and wide to see him do — unleash a barrage of face-melting, gut-wrenching guitar solos like a motherfucking Mississippi boss.

Instead, King chose to use his solo time to dance in his seat, make several threats at his bandmates in what was hopefully a joking manner,  make sexual statements about his lost vitality and tell witty stories from his rich musical past. The latter might not have been so bad had the microphone been placed close enough to hear exactly what he was trying to say. Most of the time, all the audience managed to hear was, “Down … Missisp … used to … them girls … and sometimes … man didn’t come back.”

I’ll bet they did, B.B. I’ll bet they did.

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy watching a childhood idol make masturbatory motions on stage from the grand tier. I’m more upset with the fact that, as I sat listening to my long-time musical inspiration complain about his inability to engage in deep and meaningful coitus, he didn’t at least provide a tissue.

Also, I totally don’t enjoy watching a childhood idol make masturbatory motions on stage from the grand tier.

It was some time between counting the number of people in my tier reading their programs mid-performance or leaving to the restroom (six and five, respectively) that I completely lost faith in the show.

Yet for one brilliant moment, in his penultimate song of the night, something unusual happened. The ensemble turned down their instruments to optimal levels. The snare drum ceased to rattle. The lights dimmed down to an appropriate blue hue and stayed that way. And suddenly, B.B. started to do his thing.

It was the most beautiful four minutes of my life. His notes soared gracefully over the chord changes, brilliantly executing jazzy, soulful licks that both delighted and surprised. He told a story with his sound, a story that everyone in the audience could relate to. In his sonic expressions was the pain of a man unemployed, the remembrance of a forgotten lover and the struggle of the American people.

There was B.B. King, in his magical way putting my worst childhood memories, romantic frustrations, and shit grades in a sound that both mourned and understood. This was sadness and hope.

This was the blues.

Couples embraced, heads nodded and the small child seated next to me sat hushed and full of wonder.

But nothing gold can stay. Soon, the strobe lights returned, the band blasted away at each other, and King resumed his pining to some woman in the front row.

Yes, the evening didn’t go as planned. Yes, my roommate turned to me in a look of betrayal three times throughout the night. Yes, a personal idol played “just the tip” with my childhood memories.

Yet as I stumbled out into the cold, mourning my loss and listening to the little boy next to me ask for his first guitar, I realized something.

B.B. King had given us the blues.

Not in the way we anticipated, surely. But we could feel it in our bones, nonetheless.

Maybe the master still has a few tricks up his sleeve after all.

ADAM KHAN can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

I’m squirming in my seat in anticipation of one of my favorite exchanges in all of Hamlet — the scene where Hamlet greets his old friends Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. I pause to look around and observe the faces of my fellow audience members. Given that the lights are still on inside the theater in an effort to replicate the Globe Theater’s Shakespearean tradition of open-air performances, I can see everything going on around me: the elderly couple in front of me is enraptured by Michael Benz’s (Hamlet’s) beautiful, talented face. A few of the high school students across the aisle giggle to each other as they translate Shakespeare’s dirty jokes into modern English. My friend nudges me to turn around and pay attention.

“Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors?” Hamlet queries his friends about their relationship with Fortune. “Faith, her privates we,” Guildenstern snickers conspiratorially. “In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true. She is a strumpet!” Hamlet shouts, before he, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz begin dancing and bust out some pelvic thrusts worthy of the elevator scene in the “Gangnam Style” music video.
Trust me — if you had been in the audience with me, you wouldn’t have needed a “No Fear Shakespeare” SparkNotes translation of the script in order to find scenes like these — with their snippy little add-ins and provocative gestures — utterly hilarious.

Of course, Hamlet is largely known as a serious drama filled with madness, incest, royal intrigue and brooding university students suffering from extreme indecision,  but that didn’t stop the cast from adding in pithy little one-liners here and there (such as when Polonius wandered off set to find the “Memorial Union Bar” to find some strong aqua vitae) to liven the mood and steal a laugh from the audience when appropriate.

Every element of the production was pared down and streamlined in order to speed the production along to a brisk two-and-a-half hour running time. The minimalist wooden set resembled an overgrown treehouse — a whirling tornado of planks, curtains and benches that rearranged themselves ever so slightly to fit the mood of each different scene. While waiting for their cues, various actors would wait partially out of sight within the shadowy cubbies built into the interior of the set, singing softly and playing various instruments to accompany the action on stage. Each act seamlessly segued into the next, yet it was always clear to the audience what exactly was taking place.

This sense of extreme efficiency even extended to the cast; each actor, save for Benz, who played Hamlet, multi-tasked and inhabited several different characters. Benz’s performance, to my delight, not only captured the obsessive and maniacal elements of Hamlet’s character, but also provided the audience a sense of what the Prince of Denmark must have been like before his father was murdered and his life was turned upside down. These glimpses into Hamlet’s previous characterization were most evident in his interactions with his former friends Guildenstern and Rosencrantz and his former flame Ophelia. The other actors also offered exceptional performances. Miranda Foster, who plays Queen Gertrude, among other roles, stole the show with her crudely hilarious performance as the queen in the play-within-a-play scene.

Carlyss Peer’s Ophelia was just as beautiful as she was tragic. In her final scene, she enchanted the entire audience with her sweetly sirenic voice as she wandered about the stage in the throes of a passionate fit of madness. At the end of the show, I was fortunate enough to have some time with Ms. Peer to talk a bit about the performance, the Globe’s world tour and her future plans as an actress. Although the Globe Theatre troupe left the Mondavi Center last Friday night, they will continue to perform in Southern California for the rest of November. If you know anyone in the area who would enjoy a quick, witty and streamlined rendition of Hamlet done in the traditional style of Shakespeare’s original Globe Theater, don’t get them to a nunnery ­— get them to their nearest theater!

Interview with Carlyss Peer:

The Aggie: How has the tour been going for you so far?

Carlyss Peer: It’s been absolutely amazing; we’ve had a wonderful time. We did three months in the UK before we started, and then we’ve come over to America in September, which has been amazing, and the reception over here has been great — everyone’s really enthusiastic, so we’ve been having a wonderful time. Here in Davis, we’ve been looked after particularly well. We’ve got wonderful food and lovely people so we’ve been having a great time; I wish we were here for longer.

Just out of curiosity, do you or the other cast members have any particular rituals like before you go on stage or after?

Well, not rituals per se, but I suppose everybody has their own warm-up. So people do different things to get into the zone, as you say. Vocal warm-ups are really important in particular in a place like this because it’s massive. About articulation and diction and all of that stuff — so, lots of connecting with your breath and warming up your mouth and all of that. Other than that — rituals, I don’t think so. I guess because with this production, we’re changing characters quite quickly. There’s not the world of the play as with that of putting on a plan. It’s not the same intense preparation if you were in a Presidium Arts theatre where you were only playing one character.

I’ve noticed this play is very different from a lot plays I’ve seen. For one thing, the lights were kept on in the theater, and that was very interesting for me because I’m used to seeing plays where it’s dark but the stage is lit up. How does that affect you and the other actors on stage — when you can see the audience just as well as they can see you?

I think it’s brilliant; it’s really fun — because when you’re acting in complete darkness, you have to pretend that there’s someone to talk to, but whereas with this, there’s people, there’s faces. I think particularly when you have a soliloquy or monologue, it becomes about communicating still, which is much nicer than just speaking to black. And I think it’s really nice because it becomes a collaborative experience that the audience generally feels a bit more involved and sit back in the same way, like “Oh, we can see everyone, and you can see us.” And it’s part of the story which I think is great and makes it a lot more fun for us. Because people’s reactions form how you do the next bit of the play. Because some people sort of squirm and other people are doing it with you. And you know, it’s very different, so I think it’s really good.

Yeah, your company did give us that warning in the beginning: “You can see us, just as well as we can see you.”

I think it’s unusual, but it’s really fun, and it’s in the manner of the Globe. Because obviously it’s an open air theatre in London so you can see everyone. There’s natural light and we’re sort of trying to take that with us on tour.

What are your future plans after Hamlet is finished touring?

Well, I hope to continue acting. I don’t really know what that would be, I guess. The tour is so intense. I’d love to work love to work at the Globe again. I’d love to do more theater. I’d love to do film. I’d love to do TV. I’d love to work in the U.S. again. I just want to keep acting, and keep doing this stuff that we do.

How’s it like traveling with such a small company?

It’s quite — what’s the word? Like a little family. Because you get to know everyone.

Have you worked with any of the actors previously?

I worked with Peter Brae, who plays Rosencrantz and Fortinbras [in addition to] doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream earlier this year with the Globe. And we toured in the Middle East. We went to Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai, which was amazing too. So thank you, Globe, who traveled with us around the world this year. It was very cool; I liked it!

EMMA LUK can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.