Anthony's Film Review - Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

Wreck-It Ralph is back in another fun and imaginative adventure...

I usually enjoy animated movies that present a clever representation of something we experience in real life, provided that they are done well. Films by Pixar, like Monsters, Inc. and Coco, are the first that come to mind. The 2012 Disney 3D-animated film Wreck-It Ralph is another example, giving life to characters of arcade video games and creating a world inside the arcade game cabinets themselves. I thought that movie was quite imaginative for the way it did so. Now, six years later, the 2018 sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet continues that magic, this time presenting a creative anthropomorphic representation of the Internet, a world much bigger than the one inside arcade games. The crew of this movie did a pretty good job presenting the Internet in a fun way.

Imagine the Internet as a vast city, with buildings representing websites and the people wandering about are avatars of online computer users. Going from one website to another involves riding aerial vehicles that take you straight to the website of choice. If you need to search for something, there is a search bar (meaning, a long wooden counter) where you can present your query, get results for websites, and select your website to ride to. And the websites themselves have interesting features depending on what the site does, like chirping blue birds at Twitter, auction stations at eBay, and the amusement park-like atmosphere of a Disney website. And even if you're at a site, you may occasionally see characters suddenly appear in front of you with advertisements, a clever representation of pop-up ads.

Two characters from the movie Wreck-It Ralph are back as the main characters of Ralph Breaks the Internet: the title character of Ralph, the villain of the arcade game Fix-It Felix, Jr. (voiced by John C. Reilly), and Vanellope, a glitchy character from the colorful candy-laced racing game called Sugar Rush (voiced by Sarah Silverman). Both are best friends who have never separated for the past six years. Life in the arcade goes on as usual until, one day, the Sugar Rush game is accidentally broken. The only way to save the game from a permanent shutdown, and thereby prevent Vanellope from being "gameless," is to go on eBay and buy a replacement part for the Sugar Rush machine. To get on the Internet, Ralph and Vanellope travel through a Wi-Fi router that is newly plugged into the arcade.

But the task of buying something on eBay is far from simple, and the complications they face lead them to other websites. For example, there is a YouTube-like video sharing site where visiting avatars freely give out hearts to videos they like and the site's administrator named Yesss (voiced by Taraji P. Henson) analyzes which videos are trending the fastest. There is also the online video game Slaughter Race, set in a violent crime-filled urban landscape. Despite the contrast between the older predictable family-friendly Sugar Rush and the newer open-world gritty Slaughter Race (if you need an analogy with actual video games, think of the difference between Super Mario Kart and Grand Theft Auto), Vanellope finds herself wanting to experience this new kind of race, even if she is up against a tough-as-nails street girl named Shank (voiced by Gal Gadot).

Is Ralph Breaks the Internet better than Wreck-It Ralph? My answer is that both films are equally entertaining. As expected, this sequel has a nicely written and creative plot leading to a tense climax, main characters to care about, a few moments with emotion and life lessons, and humor. Speaking of humor, some of the funniest moments are related to Disney princesses, starting with when Vanellope meets them at the Disney website. The writers did a great job coming up with jokes that poke fun at the stereotypes of Disney princesses, and even finding new uses for the things these ladies are known for. Oh, and there is one musical sequence in this movie. The song and dance sequence will leave you smiling, and even partly on the edge of laughter, because they're simultaneously conventional and unconventional in the Disney universe.

So I definitely liked the movie as a whole. Still, I was most impressed with the way it presents the Internet in a fun and creative way. I smiled a lot as I spotted references to various real-life websites and the clever gags about them. Plus, there's the representation of the dark web and its destructive nature, also cleverly done. At this point, I wonder what will be next for Wreck-It Ralph. Is he, for example, going to wreck the inside of my smartphone, or any data clouds people use? I am in no way suggesting a plot for a third Ralph movie. But if Disney does actually make a third movie with Wreck-It Ralph, I hope it's at least good as this one.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Ralph Breaks the Internet, visit the Internet Movie Database.

In addition, check out my review of Wreck-It Ralph.