Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
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Ralph Breaks the Internet Movie Review
Ralph Breaks the Internet is a 2018 animated comedy film directed by Rich Moore and starring John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman. It’s Disney’s 57th animated feature and a strong sequel.
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“No! Are you guys okay?
Should I call the police?“
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I personally adore ‘Wreck-It-Ralph’ and it’s currently in my top fifteen Disney animated films of all time list. So of course doing a follow-up was a problematic concept for me. I knew this world has a lot of potential for more stories, but I also knew that it just couldn’t capture the magic of the original and its freshness. Also, I am always against the idea of Disney making sequels to their canon features and I am so frustrated that they started to do that now.
But the end result is pretty good so I am quite satisfied. It’s never near the quality of its predecessor, not by a mile. But it’s not overrated and so much weaker like ‘Incredibles 2’ was. It’s just a pretty good film which is not great and for now I am quite happy with that.
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Taking the characters to the internet was an awesome idea that really paid off despite of course some obvious setbacks such as a ridiculously high amount of product placement and a particularly shameless advertising of their own Disney brands.
But even though those elements clutter the movie quite a bit, I still loved the exploration of the internet in all of its facets with the viruses being well portrayed and serving as kind of an internal villain to the film was a clever idea. I still would like Disney to return to their traditional bad guys, but in this instance this particular psychological villain worked out rather well.
But the hateful comments section are showcased in one very rather striking sequence and by far the memes and the stupidity of the internet is portrayed in the best and most realistic fashion with the cat videos and the stupid of the moment videos being so well showcased. The movie gets the internet in my opinion as it shows all of its strengths and weakness and how at the end of the day we are all in it as a part of a bigger connected world whether we like it or not, and also how constantly changing and shifting it is in its ideas and fads.
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The character development of the two main characters continues to be absolutely stellar and I adore these two. I get how some may say that their relationship is a bit creepy, but to me the film portrayed the necessary evolution of the friendship between Ralph and Vanellope beautifully. This friendship continues to be the heart of the movie and the finest reason why it is to be seen and not for the princesses themselves.
I so admired Disney for managing to evolve their films to the new era and this is one of their best examples, unlike the forced feminism angle in ‘Frozen’ for instance. Here, they do not lie to the children watching the film, but they teach them some harsh truths about friendship and how it’s not everlasting. Either it breaks up because of family and/or work or it stops being as constant. It’s a powerful, really heartbreaking ending with that message that is tough, but still it needed to be delivered and I appreciated them tremendously for doing it.
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Let’s get back to these two individually as they are also great in those terms. Ralph’s insecurities and obsession with Vanellope are so well portrayed and the film showcases the toxic relationships where one clings to the other way too much as problematic and how everyone needs their own time and to follow their own dreams. Great stuff. And of course Vanellope herself is awesome and I loved her relationship with the princesses and how she had her own Disney Princess moment here which was hilarious, but she still retained her distinct, cool qualities. I loved both of them so much. The song itself needed more pizzazz though.
But unfortunately the rest of the characters got shortchanged in favor of the two protagonists. Shank herself is overly badass and not particularly important to the overall story. Yesss is a lot of fun, but seemingly too much like a plot device. And what they did to Felix and Calhoun was unforgivable as they relegated them to a tired marriage situation and that bothered me so much as they were so cool and fun previously.
KnowsMore is hilarious and a perfect embodiment of the autofill engine. And the rest of the characters aren’t that important to the film except of course the Disney Princesses which got their moment to shine in the trailers, but thankfully they got at least one more new scene in the film too. I loved them so much.
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They weren’t the highlights to me over the protagonists, but still they are the comedic highlights undoubtedly. Although a bit too silly in their portrayals, I still adored the singing jokes and the remark at Merida’s Scottish accent cracked me up. I loved how in their last scene their signature moves and songs were showcased and the only thing I disliked was the forced feminism angle once again. But a strong potential was nonetheless showcased here for a possible future spin-off starring all of them.
Ralph Breaks the Internet looks polished and amazing just like its predecessor thanks to stunning CGI animation and amazing world-building which perfectly brought to life the entire internet and its various facets. I loved the film’s visuals and once again I adored its very cool techno score, but then again the original remains fresher, more authentic and better structured as this sequel is very badly paced with some of the third act action scenes being dull (the action is much better in the original) and the middle parts being overstuffed with references and losing the flow a bit. But the dialogue and humor are terrific with some surprisingly adult sexual jokes present. Overall, I am quite happy with the end result.
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Although weaker in the supporting characters and losing the flow of the story a bit in its middle parts as the pacing is very problematic, Ralph Breaks the Internet is still a very strong, commendable sequel which of course never comes close to the freshness and greatness of the original, but still I liked it a lot. The friendship between Vanellope and Ralph continues to be the driving force of the franchise and I appreciated tremendously the film’s message about the dangers of toxic relationships and how most friendships are in the end fleeting. The action is lacking, but the world building is awesome and the internet was brought to life beautifully here in all of its glory and shame. And of course the Disney Princesses are the comedic highlights in a couple of hilarious sequences.
