"a fun, well animated film, with an exquisite voice cast and will surely engage fans and non-fans"

I'll start by admitting that I am not all that familiar with Ratchet and Clank. I've never played the games and so when I heard a film was being adapted from the video game, I was intrigued; video game adaptations haven’t had a good track record when it comes to being made into films, but I was eager to give it a watch, as I do believe good films can be made from video game properties and I wasn't disappointed.

Based on the popular PlayStation game, Ratchet and Clank doesn't waste time getting into the action. It sets up the villain; Chairman Drek (Paul Giamatti) and his plan to destroy planets in the Solana Galaxy to create one ‘perfect planet’ with a super weapon that is somewhat reminiscent of the Death Star (although is neither planet-sized or shaped like one). It’s essentially a classic good versus evil story, however, at first Drek is targeting uninhabited planets, and isn’t until he threatens the lives of everyone on a populated planet that things get all too real for our heroes.

We then get to meet Ratchet (James Arnold Taylor), the last of his species, working as a mechanic who dreams of being a Galactic Ranger, after a failed interview with the dim-witted Captain Qwark (Jim Ward), the leader of the Galactic Rangers. His luck seemingly changes when he encounters Clank (David Kaye), a defective Warbot created by Chairman Drek and the Blarg and following a daring battle, Ratchet becomes a Galactic Ranger, much to the reluctance of Qwark.

The voice cast is stellar; the principal names that also include Bella Thorne, Paul Giamatti, Rosario Dawson, and Armin Shimerman (as Dr. Nefarious) are brilliant; they are obviously really comfortable with their roles and the choices their characters would make, given that they’ve already established them in the video games. They are joined by the equally brilliant and distinctive John Goodman as Ratchet’s friend and boss Grimroth.

Ratchet and Clank is a fun, well animated film, with an exquisite voice cast and will surely engage fans and non-fans with its stunning animation and excellent plotting. While I wasn’t familiar with Ratchet and Clank beforehand, and with this essentially playing out as an origin story complete with an open-ended finale, I cannot wait to see where it goes from here.