Ralph Breaks the Internet 2018

Marginally exceeds the original, at least in my eyes.

The internet setting works way better than the video game world. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoyed 'Wreck-It Ralph'. I just think this one feels much more relatable, the vast majority of viewers understand the internet as opposed to the smaller market for old arcade games. For that, it means you can do some much more with the premise. All the references are amusing, while the inclusion of the Disney world itself is pretty cool.

I do have a few critiques, of course. The run time is about 20 minutes too long, while the final act isn't as great as it could've been. Everything else, though, they get mostly spot on. It's very entertaining, the end credit scenes are terrific too.

John C. Reilly (Ralph) and Sarah Silverman (Vanellope) are again very good, Jane Lynch (Calhoun) and Jack McBrayer (Felix) are marginalised but I'd argue that's fine - there's not much more you could do with those two characters. Alan Tudyk returns too, albeit in a new role as KnowsMore. I'm not usually a fan of same actor/different character, but that newbie is fun. Taraji P. Henson (Yesss) and Gal Gadot (Shank) are two newcomers, Gadot's character is more memorable but both are up-to-scratch.

I really like 'Ralph Breaks the Internet', it's a rare Disney animated sequel that has strong quality.

It's been a few years since Wreck-It Ralph was released, but the lovable brute is back and this time he's wreaking havoc within the internet alongside his best buddy Vanellope. With Disney's ever-expanding stable of properties fully immersing themselves within the world built here, and the popularity of the first movie, things were looking good for Ralph. Still hanging out in Litwak's Family Fun Centre and racing in Sugar Rush, Ralph and Vanellope seemingly have everything they could want. However, when Vanellope's frustration with the lack of challenge within the game leads to the arcade machine breaking, the pair have to travel within the internet to retrieve the replacement part. Along the way, the vast scale and opportunity with the internet appeals to Vanellope and begins to challenge the strong bond she shares with Ralph. Disney usually manages to bring the good times, even in its less successful outings, and Ralph Breaks the Internet continues that trend by showing the importance of evolving in relationships and the balance of good and bad within the internet. Throughout, the movie never breaks from being fun, with a consistent pace and a cleverly woven-in use of Disney Princesses and Easter Eggs that make it a enjoyable sequel from an unlikely character.

Han pasado algunos años desde que se lanzó Wreck-It Ralph, pero el adorable bruto está de regreso y esta vez está causando estragos en Internet junto a su mejor amiga Vanellope. Con el conjunto de propiedades en constante expansión de Disney sumergiéndose completamente en el mundo construido aquí, y la popularidad de la primera película, las cosas se veían bien para Ralph. Aún pasando el rato en el Family Fun Center de Litwak y corriendo en Sugar Rush, Ralph y Vanellope aparentemente tienen todo lo que podrían desear. Sin embargo, cuando la frustración de Vanellope por la falta de desafío dentro del juego hace que la máquina de arcade se rompa, la pareja tiene que viajar dentro de Internet para recuperar la pieza de repuesto. En el camino, la gran escala y la oportunidad de Internet atraen a Vanellope y comienzan a desafiar el fuerte vínculo que comparte con Ralph. Disney generalmente logra traer los buenos momentos, incluso en sus salidas menos exitosas, y Ralph Breaks the Internet continúa esa tendencia al mostrar la importancia de evolucionar en las relaciones y el equilibrio entre lo bueno y lo malo dentro de Internet. En todo momento, la película nunca deja de ser divertida, con un ritmo constante y un uso hábilmente entretejido de las princesas de Disney y los huevos de Pascua que la convierten en una secuela agradable de un personaje poco probable.

[7.3/10] One of the things I like about kids movies these days is that they tend to be pretty clear about what the characters want and how that drives the story. I’m sure there’s some selection bias there, with plenty of kid-focused dreck that doesn't make it onto my radar. But one of the benefits of aiming at the kid audience is that films almost have to be clearer about motivation and its connection to story or you risk losing attention and understanding. Sometimes, that leads to overly telegraphed plot points or predictable story arcs, but in others, it adds a sense of clarity and character to children’s entertainment that wide swaths of adult-focused films lack.

Ralph Breaks the Internet is the (nigh-literal) poster child for that idea. In a series of enjoyable opening clips, the film establishes that candy-coated racer Vanellope is tired of the predictability of life in the arcade, and is thirsting for the new, different, and unknown. Ralph, on the other hand, things the steady life of work, root beer, and especially hanging out with his best friend is paradise, is everything he could ever want. So when Vanellope yearns for something more, he’s helpful and supportive, but doesn't really get it and wonders why his friendship isn’t enough to sate her.

Naturally, things go haywire from there. Some track-based improvisation leads to a broken gaming wheel in the real world, sending Ralph and Vanellope into the internet in an effort to find a replacement. They meet new characters and face new challenges and explore the ever-expanding, bustling realm of the world wide web. But every choice the movie, and more importantly the characters, make is driven by their friendship, and those two conflicting impulses and concerns that Ralph Breaks the Internet sets up in its first ten minutes.

What’s interesting is that despite being set there, and theoretically expanding the reach of this franchise, the film isn’t really about the internet. Sure, there’s plenty of glancing observations about silly things going viral or the toxicity of comment sections. But for the most part, the web is just an energetic backdrop for a story about two friends who care deeply about one another but need different things in order to feel fulfilled. The tale Ralph Breaks the Internet tells fits that within its cyberspace setting, but the Internet is merely the object of Vanellope’s impulse to experience a wider, woolier world, and Ralph’s reluctance in the shadow of its dizzying diversity, rather than the true subject of the film.

That’s not to say that Ralph Breaks the Internet fails to make the most of that setting. While fans of Tron or even the inevitably revived ReBoot are familiar with the inner workings of cyberspace being depicted as some sort of bustling city, this movie kicks that idea up a notch. The web as a sprawling metropolis, with website skyscrapers and user milling around as little avatars, is a fun, high energy backdrop for all the misadventures of our heroes. Spammers and pop-ups are treated like carnival barkers, sites themselves are fun houses or factories, and viruses and the “dark web” are the seedy underbelly of the bustling burg. The tropes are familiar, but the execution is a visual feast, creatively done.

Thankfully, the gratuitous corporate synergy comes in small, concentrated doses rather than overwhelming the story and setup this film is trying to impart. There’s cameos from Marvel and Star Wars characters and conspicuous House of Mouse-style mash-ups of different worlds and properties. And yes, as the trailer promised, there is an all-star team-up of Disney princesses, who chat with Vanellope and lend a bit of aid when the moment calls for it, with a new ode from Alan Menken to boot. There’s meta gags galore and a few winks at the standard princess tropes, but it’s all punchy and funny enough that it’s always pleasing and rarely veers to the level of indulgence.

The problems with the movie instead lie in how it rushes and sitcom-ifies the conflict between Vanellope and Ralph. There’s legitimate tension to be had in how Vanellope is drawn to Shank, the leader of a hardscrabble racing squad in a Grand Theft Auto-meets-Twisted Metal game called “Slaughter Race” that’s captured Vanellope’s imagination, and how insecure Ralph feels over that. But Ralph Breaks the Internet dramatizes that with a cliché “one character speaks frankly without knowing that another character is listening in” setup, and underlines in with a device that literally reproduces Ralph’s “insecurity” in destructive fashion.

At the same time, the movie bends over backwards to prevent either party from seeing the bad guy. That’s not a bad tack in principle. Both Ralph and Vanellope are genuinely well-meaning but are capable of hurting each other due to their divergent wants from life. But the movie needs conflict and action, and so retreats from having Ralph doing anything genuinely bad or ill-intentioned, instead incessantly underscoring the fact that he doesn't mean any harm when his actions come close to doing real harm to his best friend. That takes the juice out of the confrontation between confidantes the film wants to draw out, and weakens the overall conflict.

The inevitable third act action sequence exists in an odd space between inventive and rote. The final challenge involves an Oogie-Boogie esque threat who’s creatively animated in every frame, but who’s too blunt as a personification of Ralph’s worries and whose defeat drifts into hand-holding as to the message of the film and a solid snootful of fan service to boot. The film thrives and delights when it features Ralph and Vanellope capering through cyberspace, but falter when it has to bring the burgeoning friction between them to a head.

Still, the film’s message is a laudable one, which settles on accepting that the people you care about can want other things in life to make them feel fulfilled, without diminishing the closeness of your friendship. At times, its efforts to convey that message verge on the contrived or the overblown. But at its core, Ralph Breaks the Internet commits to the idea of what its two main characters want, and amid the wonder and pitfalls of the world wide web, plays that idea out in a way that vindicates who they are and what drives them. The film boasts fun online observations and vaguely self-satisfied but self-effacing Disney jibes, while ultimately coming down on the side of a character-focused story.

It can’t top Ralph and Vanellope’s first outing, and stumbles a bit as those character clashes are forced to turn into the mandatory uptempo thrillride all tentpole movies have to have these days, but Ralph Breaks the Internet whose who they are and what they want, comedicaly and dramatically, which keeps the movie enjoyable and on track, even amid the online flurry the film steeps itself in.

It's ok, design and animation are well done, some fun things here and there but probably not worth remembering for long.

The pre internet part is ok, it gets you back into the story and characters if you've already forgotten the first one. The modem, access to internet and the discovery of its main actors is fun, but it gets old pretty fast. Only part really worth it is Knowsmore, fun, while being a pretty accurate description of reality.

A good part is the Slaughter Race section, that looks a little more adult, and Shank and her team are pretty cool.

It gets less interesting towards the end. I could say that the Dark Web and virus representations were extremely stupid, but they're actually not that far from what you would see in any, even more serious, mainstream media. The whole Ralph does meme videos thing was mostly boring. Also the scenarists seemed to have lost notion of their story's time, like the Internet is flooded by Ralph videos, it's been shared everywhere, there are tv news section on it and... not even an hour has passed.

The Disney princesses scene, teased in the trailer was one of the best parts, with a instant mythic status on Merida intervention.

The only good meme video is the post credits scene with a good ol' rickroll.

For all the rest, it's obviously full of references, but they're usually not particularly clever or funny, so it keeps you following the story but nothing really memorable.

The original Wreck-It Ralph had two fantastic layers to it. It's 'gimmick' / 'appeal' was the inclusion of a wealth of video game characters, and seeing them co-exist and interact with each other. Beneath that though, the original film had immense character and soul as the story unfolded.

Ralph Breaks the Internet keeps this up in both areas. It's 'gimmick' / 'appeal' are the inclusion of a number of websites, internet tropes and Disney characters, which are surprisingly well executed, though it rides the line between tasteful homage and straight up commercial plugs really finely. The character building continues, but it's less of an experience of discovery for the audience, as we're already familiar with our characters. The experience is less about discovering who they are, and more about the journey they partake in.

It's all very well produced and written, and serves as a natural sequel to its predecessor (much like Back to the Future Part 2)... but those looking to see the story dive into new places (like Toy Story 2 and 3) will come away entertained but disappointed.

As a big fan of the original movie though, I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel, even if it regularly threw away integrity for some offbeat but valued cameos.

A cynical follow-up to Wreck it Ralph. It was always going to be difficult to write a sequel to that film, as Wreck it Ralph felt like a complete story by the end. However, in terms of character arcs I'd say this is actually doing a fine job. It's not exceptional stuff but it could justify the existence of a sequel under the right circumstances. Unfortunately, the internet concept that's thrown in here was the wrong route, especially when you have a company like Disney financing the thing. You'd think the internet as a plot device would give a film like this infinite storytelling possibilities, yet so much of this boils down to corporate brand management and lazy reference jokes (a lot of which already feel dated). It feels more like you're watching a brand advertisement than a film, with the few genuine attempts at writing a clever scene or joke falling flat. There's this subplot where Ralph tries to become this internet sensation by doing typical dumb internet stuff, which sounds like a good bit of satire, but the execution is really lame. To me a lot of the appeal of Wreck it Ralph came from its unassuming, retro charm, which is stripped away here and not replaced by anything interesting. Visually the movie is just serviceable. I liked the design of the world and some of the action beats, there's actually a really fun car chase which seems to be inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road. However when you factor in that this came out one month before Into the Spider-verse, their difference in animation quality and vision is quite staggering.

4/10

What a shame, I liked the first Wreck-It Ralph a lot, and many of the complaints I have with this one, you could throw at the original, but I don't think so. This is a two hour advertisement for a huge conglomerate of intellectual properties, just everything you could think of about the internet, it's in here. Amazon, eBay, YouTube, everything under the cyber sun, and I would almost be okay with it if the story had some deep rooted sincerity or depth to it to justify it's money hungry bullshit. But the script is so simple, just a saturday morning cartoon plot that can be summed up in two sentences. The real meat of the movie is the eye candy of seeing these websites that you all already know, just sold to you for a full price movie ticket. The genuine charm and cleverness of the original is not here at all, and the film doesn't use in the internet in a clever way, just presenting it as is. Yet some want to argue it satirizes it, sorry, no, just showing it accurately doesn't make it commentary. I'll given them credit for being more accurate to mainstream internet, but everything else, worthless. This could've been a thirty minute television episode and I would've been okay with it. The filler is ridiculous in this. What a waste.