Gene is a minor antagonist of Disney's 2012 animated feature film Wreck-It Ralph and a supporting character in its 2018 sequel. He is the mayor of Niceland, a town within the arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr.
Background[]
Personality[]
The mayor of the Nicelanders, Gene is the most prominent and openly hostile toward Ralph. He is contentious, strict, snobbish, pushy, and outspoken. He carries a heavy grudge against Ralph and strongly believes that his role, and by extension the role of any arcade villain, is simply to cause trouble, and consistently antagonizes him and excludes him from activities. Despite his pompous attitude and issues owning up to his mistakes, Gene is a self-proclaimed man of his word; he allows Ralph to live in the penthouse, after he returns home with a medal. At the end of the film, it's seen that he and Ralph have made amends, and in the tie-in comic 'Wrecking Party', the two even seem to become friends.
Physical appearance[]
Like other Nicelanders, Gene is characterized by his short, portly stature and his blocky movements and proportions. He has a round face that is large in relation to his small, pudgy body. He has fair skin, beady blue eyes, a large nose, short brownish-black hair, and a thick black mustache. Gene typically wears an indigo cardigan over a white suit, with a matching blue tie; at the 30th-anniversary party, however, he wore an entirely white outfit.
Appearances[]
Wreck-It Ralph[]
On the 30th anniversary of their game, Gene, Felix, and the Nicelanders are celebrating in the penthouse, along with many video game characters such as Sonic and Pac-Man. Just then, Gene answers the door as he believes it to be another guest. Instead, he finds Ralph and immediately slams the door in his face. Gene then warns the others, who fear Ralph will wreck the party. They tell Felix to send him off, but the bashful hero indirectly invites him in. When the furious Gene begins to ostracize Ralph, the bad guy quickly begins to lose his temper. Ralph then asks Gene if winning a medal will earn him respect. Gene then sarcastically declares that if he won a medal, the entire penthouse would be handed over to him. Gene then declares that Ralph winning a medal would never occur anyway because he's just the bad guy who wrecks the building, causing Ralph to have an outburst and crush the cake in anger and proving Gene right. The bad guy then leaves the party to find and earn a medal.
The next day, a young girl prepares to play the game. However, Ralph is nowhere to be found. Mr. Litwak, the owner of the arcade, places an "out of order" sign on the cabinet, unfortunately telling the player the game will be unplugged in the morning if it can't be fixed. Gene and the Nicelanders run into a panic until Q*bert arrives and tells them that Ralph's gone to Hero's Duty.
When Ralph "earns" his medal, he imagines Gene living in the dump, watching Ralph and crying enviously.
Felix goes to save him but never returns, prompting the Nicelanders to flee to Game Central Station. Gene stays behind for one last martini when Ralph suddenly arrives with a medal. Gene explains that because of Ralph's absence, the game has been put out of order and is scheduled to be unplugged in the morning. Gene then gathers his belongings and heads out, handing over the key to the penthouse over to Ralph as promised. Ralph tells Gene that this was not what he wanted and that he was just "tired of living alone in the garbage". Gene responds, "Well, now you can live alone in the penthouse" and leaves, essentially leaving Ralph for dead.
Ralph and Felix, fortunately, return the next day, and the game is saved. Gene and the Nicelanders, finally realizing how important Ralph is, begin to treat their bad guy much better, even giving him his own cake. Gene is also seen attending Felix and Sergeant Calhoun's (the lead character in Hero's Duty) wedding, shown to be perplexed by all of the soldiers aiming rifles at the center window of the church (clearly unaware of the tragedy that struck at Calhoun's last wedding).
Ralph Breaks the Internet[]
Gene returns for the sequel but with a smaller role, and with Raymond S. Persi reprising his role. In the film when Sugar Rush is unplugged, at Niceland, Felix and Calhoun ask people to take in the Racers and Citizens of Sugar Rush, with Gene taking Sour Bill (which he calls an olive) with them leaving the room.
At the end of the film, he and Sour Bill are seen attending parties hosted by other arcade characters, Gene is then seen in the finale seen, when he is seen holding Sour Bill.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the opening 8-bit cutscene for the Fix-It Felix Jr. game, Gene is the Nicelander that gets thrown out of the window by Ralph. Since this happens every time the game is played, it could explain Gene's deep animosity toward Ralph.
- Gene's appearance is modeled on Nathan Lane.
- He also gets blown out of the building by a bomb planted by one of the Q*bert villains at the end of the movie.
- Gene's voice actor Raymond Persi also worked on the film as a storyboard artist, and as the voice of Cyril at Bad-Anon.
- Persi also gave Gene his slightly obnoxious personality.
- Persi has also built a puppet of Gene he occasionally brings to various Disney events.
- According to Nicelander Mary, Gene's favorite cake flavor is rum cake.
- During the movie, he shows some similarity with Taffyta Muttonfudge. This is because she is faced with Vanellope, saying that she will never be a racer because she is only a glitch that always will exist. Gene says that Ralph will never be a hero because he is only a villain that will always destroy the building. Incidentally, both of their claims were proven wrong at the end of the film, with Vanellope becoming a racer and revealed to be the true ruler of Sugar Rush and Ralph uses his wrecking skills to save both Fix-It Felix Jr. and Sugar Rush. Gene and Taffyta also make amends with the people they antagonize at the end.
- Gene evidently likes martinis, as he is shown with a drink in his hand in nearly every scene he appears.
- Out of all the Nicelanders, Gene was the most hostile towards Ralph.
- According to the video game tie-in, Gene also owns copies of a Macarena record.
External links[]
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