Wreck-It Ralph was a wonderful movie that took the concept of Toy Story and applied it to game characters in a small town arcade. In the most Pixar way possible, it was well-written, uniquely respectful of the source material, and had a story underneath it all with so much heart that you genuinely cared for the main characters. There was even a small number of real life Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade machines that were made to promote the film. They're pretty rare to find in person, but the game can be played on Disney's website here.

It's been six years since our feels were charmed by Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, and Calhoun, and as the title suggests, the sequel leaves Litwak's humble arcade behind to focus on the entirety of the interwebs. Does the new film manage to keep the personal feel while expanding the adventure? Read on, my friends, for the latest episode of RF Cinema.





Even though the story picks up six years later, not much has changed since the last time we saw these characters. Ralph and Vanellope are best friends, Felix and Calhoun are happily married, but all is not well. Ralph Breaks the Internet has some similarities to its predecessor, and it doesn't take long before we find out that while Ralph thinks his life couldn't get any better, Vanellope is the one with the existential crisis this time around. The precocious princess with candy in her hair always loved the thrill of her races, but after racing the same tracks for so long she's gotten bored and longs for something more. This is made even worse when her Sugar Rush machine breaks and all its inhabitants are without a home after Litwak pulls the plug. Fortunately, the aging arcade owner has just installed a modem in his business, and when Ralph finds out he can go to a mysterious place called eBay to get a new Sugar Rush steering wheel, he and Vanellope make their way across the intertubes with a mission.


One of the best things about the first movie was the strikingly clever way it took a purely digital setting and made it real. The representations of a surge protector plug strip, the power cord conduits connecting it to the games, and the game worlds themselves were not only visually interesting, but satisfyingly accurate. The internet in this movie is portrayed with the same level of thoughtful insight. When Ralph and Vanellope first land in this new digital landscape, it's as stimulating for the audience as it is for them. It looks like a bustling metropolis, with each website being represented either as massive skyscrapers for the bigger sites (Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc), or low key apartments tucked away closer to the ground for the smaller ones. The avatars representing human web surfers look like box-headed Funko Pop figures, and they travel around in little carts or pill-shaped data packets that form around them.

As it turns out, winning the eBay bid for the steering wheel is the easy part. Paying for it proves to be more difficult. In the course of our heroes' travels, they get a taste of overzealous search engines, pushy pop-up ads, fickle online stardom, and other easily-recognizable things the internet has, for better or for worse, brought to society. The most significant of which is Slaughter Race, the most popular online open-world racing game. It has all the danger, excitement, and unpredictability that Vanellope has been craving, and the more she's drawn to it, the more fearful Ralph becomes of losing his best friend.


This is really the crux of where the story goes. It's about more than just finding where you belong, it's about insecurity in your friendships, the lengths some people will go to keep their friends close, and even dips into toxic relationship territory. I'm not sure if the fact that the prevalence of the MeToo movement has made me more sensitive to such things than I used to be, but I found it especially poignant and relevant in the current landscape. In a similar way to Pixar's Inside Out, this film is a reminder that sometimes the worst villains come from within ourselves.

But I don't want to scare people off by painting Ralph Breaks the Internet as overly political. It's messages are clear, but at the end of the day it's still an incredibly fun movie. It does fall into a similar trap as many other sequels in that by expanding the scope of the setting, it's naturally less focused than the first. The second act gets a bit scattered with a lot of things being presented, but it's all great content, and there's plenty of shots that are packed with references. It's nearly as well-written as the first film, the characters are just as lovable as they ever were, and seeing them explore the fast-paced, meme-filled internet is just as satisfying. One of my favorite scenes comes near the end of the second act, when Vanellope travels to Oh My Disney.


Disney truly is a corporate beast that cannot be fed, and the writers seem to know that. Thankfully, Disney didn't appear to have an issue with them having fun with that concept. Cameos from other Disney properties are short but enjoyable, and handled with the appropriate level of behavioral nuance. I don't really want to spoil any of them, but the Disney princesses are in the trailer, and their presence turned out to be a better addition than I expected. And speaking of the princesses, it's refreshing to say that Ralph Breaks the Internet has a lot of strong female characters. The first movie certainly wasn't lacking in female representation, but this time nearly all of the important characters are women. Again, not to get political, but it's one of those things that shouldn't be notable, but is simply due to its rarity. It's always a great thing when a movie can be excellent both from casual and critical perspectives.

I'm not quite ready to say Ralph Breaks the Internet is as good as the first, but I do highly recommend it. It's not as video game-centric and the narrative isn't as basic and streamlined, but what it lacks in focus it makes up for in heart. It's easily relatable for anyone familiar with games and the internet, the characters are endlessly likable, and the underlying themes deal with issues that are important for everyone, even those who don't know the difference between Pinterest and Instagram.

Permalink | Comments [4] | Digg This Article | Tweet