Walt Disney Pictures
Back in 2012, I decreed Wreck-It Ralph as a modern almost-classic, and I stand by that. It delved into some real existential themes, had a wondrous set of voice performances, and was unafraid to give a complicated ending, having Ralph being a ‘hero’ in a way that wasn’t obvious and overt. That connects to the themes of its sequel, the aptly named Ralph Breaks the Internet.
The name is reminiscent of early viral trends, although it was popularized by nude photos of Kim Kardashian which is an odd choice to connect to a Disney movie. Probably they didn’t remember that association. There are unfortunately a lot of similarities to last year’s The Emoji Movie, widely considered one of the worst animated movies ever made. But one key difference is that this movie is not one of the worst animated movies ever made.
The movie continues on six years after the first one, with Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Princess Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) still friends and hanging out every night after a day of ‘work’ in their arcade games. It’s all fun for Ralph, who is entirely satisfied with his life. But Vanellope is a bit restless, a bit bored with the daily grind and hopes for a new challenge, a new race she hasn’t seen yet.
But when things go wrong after Ralph tries to help out — in the real world, Vanellope’s game ‘Sugar Rush’ gets accidentally broken and the game is in danger of being thrown away. So Vanellope is homeless unless they can save the day — but the only place they can get the part is on the Internet, a mysterious place called eBay (one of many name brand websites dropped).
So it’s off to the Internet, where Ralph and Vanellope seek to find the replacement part and the money to pay for it. Along the way, they run into such fun characters as the all-knowing Google replacement KnowsMore (Alan Tudyk, brilliant as always in his secret Disney role with an entirely different voice), the shady J. P. Spamley (Bill Hader, who is always great), or more importantly, Shank (voice of Gal Gadot).
Shank is the super cool mega-racer badass of the game ‘Slaughter Race’ whom Vanellope immediately idolizes. She represents a sort of change and freedom that she had been seeking, which is a different sort of tension and threat. Suddenly the theme is the question of friendship and how it can change or adapt to the new.
This is one of several jam-packed storylines, and I haven’t even mentioned the other major one, where Ralph is trying to utilize ‘BuzzTube’, a video sharing side, to make money helped by the very thinly characterized majordomo Yesss (Taraji P. Henson — who is fun but the character isn’t so interesting). There’s also a few snippets back in the arcade with Felix and Calhoun, but Calhoun isn’t any more interesting this time around, and they have almost nothing to do anyway.
BuzzTube is another ‘have your cookie and eat it too’ bit, because the movie references real brands like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter in bowlederized ways, yet BuzzTube is here basically a more relevant YouTube. I don’t expect a lot of honest darkness from a Disney movie when it reflects commercial loss, but there’s a little, just a bit, which is more than I anticipated.
Of course, there’s also the required Disney references themselves, with a lot of meta-jokes about Pixar, Star Wars, etc, including the oft mentioned scene where Vanellope meets all of the Disney princesses (the official ones, I mean, which means characters like Mulan who isn’t a princess but is the star of her movie). The scene is ‘cute,’ with a few good jokes and some eye-rolling ones. As an admitted Disney nerd, I did appreciate that all of the living Disney voice actresses reprised their characters (obviously some have passed away). That’s cool.
Although an interesting bit of trivia is the one who played Snow White, whose voice I didn’t recognize as so accurate an impression but with an impressive register, was actually Pamela Ribon, one of the screenwriters of this movie and Moana. Apparently she was a voice actress for some anime in the 90s, so that’s a cool little note.
The meta-jokes in general are hit or miss, some clever, some stupid, and some ‘meh.’ But they come at you so fast and hard that there is going to be something new once you’ve left behind the less strong ones. Another strong point is that the movie once again is unafraid to provide a complicated ending, and lets some real emotion in through its explicitly voiced themes (still a kids movie after all).
This movie can’t really replicate the true cleverness of the original, but I’ll always enjoy seeing Zangief as a lovable buffoon or Q*Bert as a mysterious friend to Ralph. And naturally, Alan Tudyk as the secret ingredient behind all modern Disney movies. If you liked the first one, this one will work nearly as well.
Ralph Breaks the Internet has a run time of 1 hour 52 minutes and is rated PG for some action and rude humor.
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