As far as we know, Dr. Wily is no longer in Disney's video game-inspired flick Wreck-It Ralph. However, the visage of the 8-bit Blue Bomber actually helped animator Wayne Unten in designing the look and movement of the 8-bit version Ralph, according to the New York Times. Sure, it's not quite the Mega Man cameo many had hoped for, but it's a noteworthy contribution to the film overall. The full article is here, highlights below.
"Before drawing the 8-bit version of Ralph, Mr. Unten turned to Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers and Mega Man for inspiration. “These are characters that, instantly, when you think of an eight-bit character, is where your mind goes,” he said. Mr. Unten joined the project when the 3-D version of Ralph, near left, was being developed. But he had seen some early concept work on the eight-bit version that he improved on, far left, following the rules of 8-bit game design."
“I was seeing things where, instead of two pixels wide for the eyes, it was one and a half pixels,” he said. “And to break a pixel into a half was a big no-no for me. That’s not how it was in the games. I would say, jokingly, ‘We have to respect the pixel.’"
Be sure to check out the full article for more interesting details! Wreck-It Ralph opens in theaters Friday, November 2nd.
pretty neat. I want to see the move!
ReplyDeleteHopefully there's a Mega Man character or reference in the movie at least. Fun fact: in the online game "Fix-It Felix" on the movie's website, when you grab a "pie" in the game, the sound effect is part of the "absorbing weapon" sfx heard in Mega Man 5 for example. =P
ReplyDelete"I was seeing things where, instead of two pixels wide for the
ReplyDeleteeyes, it was one and a half pixels,” he said. “And to break a pixel into
a half was a big no-no for me. That’s not how it was in the games.
I would say, jokingly, ‘We have to respect the pixel.'"
... You have my full respect, Mr. Unten. :D
Too bad......for dr wily :'(
ReplyDeleteApparently, the Rules of 8-bit Game Design allow for 16-bit colored sprites.
ReplyDeleteRockman, this is a movie first and foremost. They probably had to make him more colorful so it would grab people's attention. As much as I love 8-bit sprites, I can understand why only three colors wouldn't work well for a movie.
ReplyDeleteThat said, at least they had the guts to deal with other, non-sprite artists trying to force fractions of pixels to be uneven. That would've been a mess anyone would've caught.
These are characters that, instantly, when you think of an eight-bit character, is where your mind goes
ReplyDeleteI've never noticed, but that's true! Mega Man or no Mega Man I'm psyched for this movie! (Still really wish he does show up in some way or form)
Rockman said: "Apparently, the Rules of 8-bit Game Design allow for 16-bit colored sprites."
ReplyDeleteHaha.
Respect the pixel!
-ud
@Rockman
ReplyDeleteEh, look at the sprites from Punch-Out!! (arcade version) some time. They're quite colorful. The ones in Nintendo's Popeye are also pretty colorful, too.
@Rockman: Because the NES was the only 8-bit system in existence, right? Though, on that note, it's actually a bit of a common misconception that the number of "bits" a system's processor has would be directly responsible for the way graphics look or music sounds, but that's neither here nor there, I suppose. My point is, there's lots of different systems that were 8-bit, and not all of them had the exact same color palettes. And since this is supposed to be an arcade game, it's still well within reason for it to have as many colors as it does, as MANY arcade machines had much larger color palettes than what the NES had, and yet they were still 8-bit machines.
ReplyDeleteWhat Clown Prince said, and basically everyone else on the matter of the colors.
ReplyDeleteBut anyhow, I'm pretty glad that they looked at actual 8-bit games for inspiration and study to design the character's 8-bit likeness. It's much more authentic that way and more realistic, something that fills me with hope for this movie even if it doesn't have everything I want (like Wily). That said, whether this movie does have MM references or not, I'm still going to go see it.