The Hidden Tragedy of Sgt. Calhoun

I love the movie Wreck-It Ralph. I tend to describe it as a mixture between Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Toy Story for video games. I love it because it’s clear that the creators loved it, too, and took their responsibilities seriously. It would’ve been easy to hammer out a movie of lesser quality and rely on the names of the cameo characters to sell tickets, but they didn’t. They made a great story, and they made great characters for that story instead of using the pre-existing characters as a crutch.

In particular, they did an amazing job with dual-layering the background of Sgt. Calhoun, the Hero’s Duty character.

In many ways, Calhoun was designed specifically to parody the way protagonists in first-person shooters are typically written. This is highlighted by the way her past is described to Fix-It Felix. When Felix asks if she’s always so intense, Kohut replies that, “She’s programmed with the most tragic backstory ever.” The note that it’s the way she’s programmed, rather than describing it as an actual experience, gives the scene an additional sense of artificiality when it’s presented to the audience. The flashback comes off in a “same old story” sort of way, as a protagonist’s significant other having been killed by the given enemy is an oft-used element for making video game characters dark and edgey, especially in FPSes.

And in some ways, that’s the genius of having used it in this movie. It masks the real tragedy that happens right in front of our eyes.