THE NAME OF THE GAME (WRECK IT RALPH)

"Prose is an art form, movies and acting in general are art forms, so is music, painting, graphics, sculpture and so on.

"Some might even consider classic games like chess to be an art form. Video games use elements of all of these to create something new. Why wouldn't video games be an art form?"

So argued the Finnish computer game designer, Sam Lake.

As video games have become more sophisticated over the past four decades, the debate on whether they are art has been burning with greater intensity.

In my teens, the popularity of the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and BBC home computers helped bring arcade games into the living room. Kids who played 'Space Invaders' or 'Pacman' in the arcade were suddenly hooked on 'Horace Goes Skiing', 'Jet Set Willy' and 'Ant Attack'.

But those games seem like primitive cave drawings when compared to the sophisticated graphics and sound effects in today's Nintendo DS, Playstation or, even, iPhone games.

Nowadays, you can recreate what it is like to be in the thick of an intense ground battle in the Middle Ages, World War II or a hitman in an American city. 

You can experience what it is like to play in a Champions League final or the Ryder Cup or even a Bon Jovi rock concert.

Or, if you prefer, you can test your singing and dancing skills.

Such is the appetite for virtual worlds that the gaming industry has overtaken the movies in terms of the profits they generate.

Unable to ignore the lure of a quick buck, Hollywood has responded by turning some of the most popular game franchises into rather iffy movies.

Remember 'Super Mario Brothers' with Bob Hoskins as the Italian plumber? Yes, unfortunately.

What about Dundalk director John Moore's 'Max Payne', starring Mark Wahlberg. I'd prefer not to.

Then, of course, there was the 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' franchise with Angelina Jolie and the 'Resident Evil' series with Milla Jovovich. Yawn.

Now Disney has entered the fray with 'Wreck It Ralph' which has already notched up an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.

The film features cameos from some of Nintendo's most popular villains, Bowser from 'Super Mario Brothers', Doctor Eggman from 'Sonic the Hedgehog', M Bison from the 'Street Fighter' series and other characters such as Q*Bert, Pac Man and The Fix. 

Yet for all the immense popularity of DS, Wii and Playstation games, Rich Moore's animated movie focusses on the world of the gaming arcade – an industry which has also been in decline with the popularity of games consoles in the home.

The eponymous hero, Ralph (John C Reilly) is the villain of a  'Super Mario' style arcade game, 'Fix It Felix Jr' whose popularity has endured while other games have disappeared.

With his unfeasibly large arms and hands, Ralph is tasked every day with repeatedly destroying an apartment block which Fix It Felix ('30 Rock's' Jack McBrayer) repairs with a golden hammer.

Felix's goal is to climb to the top of the building, repairing everything in return for a hero's gold medal. Ralph, for his sins, is thrown off the top of the building every time Felix succeeds.

When the arcade closes, the characters of each game relax and unwind in their virtual world after a hard day's work.

While his colleagues celebrate Fix It Felix's successes with a party in the apartment block, they shun Ralph who wearily heads back to the mountain of bricks and tree stump he calls a home, wishing he could escape his humdrum existence.

Attending a Bad Guys Anonymous meeting, Ralph begins to alarm some of his fellow arcade villains when he reveals how tired he has become of leaving a trail of destruction.

The tipping point comes when he is frozen by Felix and the other characters out of a thirtieth birthday celebration of the game. Ralph is determined to prove to them that he can become a hero and sets his sight on securing a gold medal just like Felix.

After encountering a drunk, traumatised Intergalactic Marine, he knocks the poor fellow out, steals his clothes and identity. Instead of returning to his game through the train station that connects all the arcade games, Ralph joins the soldier's terrifying alien shoot 'em up game called 'Hero's Duty'.

This leads him not only to the medal he so desperately craves but also a crazy spaceship flight with an alien onboard that results in them both wrecking havoc in the train station and eventually landing in a sickly sweet racing car game called 'Sugar Rush'.

There he encounters Vanelope Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) who has been ostracised in 'Sugar Rush' because she is "a glitch" - a flickering character who, if she is allowed to race, might convince humans that the gaming machine is faulty.

Ralph's absence from 'Fix It Felix Jr' also means the future of his game is in jeopardy, with the owner of the arcade fearing it has had its day. 

So Felix heroically heads off to look for Ralph, while the alien which travelled with Ralph into 'Sugar Rush' lays pods in the virtual candy cane world which could destroy the game for good.

'Wreck It Ralph' is a great advert for Disney's animators, packing more imagination into its first five minutes than most Hollywood fare.

For that, you have to salute the director Rich Moore and his fellow screenwriters Jim Reardon and Phil Johnston who keep the story rolling along in just 93 minutes.

Gamers of all ages will, no doubt, get a kick out of spotting real games characters in the movie.

And there are some nice touches like a bad guys support group and the saloon game where some characters, out of arcade hours, like to drown their sorrows.

'Sugar Rush' also offers up some wonderful sequences such as the baking of a racing car and a Mentos and Coca Cola volcano.

Moore, Reardon, Johnston and their cast ensure the gags come thick and fast – the spoof of the 'Alien' franchise is particularly entertaining.

In fact, the film really benefits from some smart casting. John C Reilly's Ralph makes a really engaging hero, while Jack McBrayer is perfectly cast as his goody two shoes companion.

Sarah Silverman impresses as the gutsy, sweet urchin, Vanelope while Jane Lynch from 'Glee' is also note perfect as the hard as nails Ripleyesque Marine Sergeant, Tamora Jean Calhoun, who has a tragic back story.

Watch out too for Alan Tudyk's turn as King Candy, ruler of 'Sugar Rush', and also Ed O'Neill from 'Modern Family' who voices the arcade owner, Mr Litwak.

If there is one criticism, it is that having set off at a rip roaring pace for much of the film, 'Wreck It Ralph' almost runs out of gas towards the end. 

Somehow it gets over the line and much of that is down to the animation in the final sequences which is so vibrant that you really feel you are experiencing a sugar rush. 

In truth, the animation is a joy throughout the movie.

The world of gaming gives Moore's team of animators a licence to let their imagination run free. However Moore is disciplined enough to ensure their imagination never runs so wild that it wrecks the movie.

The physical resemblance between the characters and the actors playing them is also particularly striking.

There's an art to animated family entertainment and if there is any justice, 'Wreck It Ralph' should pip 'Brave' to the Oscar.

And if that's not enough, make sure you also catch John Kahrs' Oscar nominated animated short,' The Paperman' which accompanies the film – a playfully romantic, urban black and white tale that will delight all ages.

'Wreck It Ralph' opened in the Movie House and other UK and Ireland cinemas on February 8, 2013.