Rich Moore
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Connections, in both directions
The beginning is reminiscent of Toy Story , with an underground world of video games that come to life once the arcade closes for the night and characters who leave their game to explore other worlds.
The concept is a little like that of Toy Story : the characters in video games have existences of their own and, once the arcade is closed, they can roam around, even crossing over into other games.
With bouncy CG that's given greater depth by 3-D, director Rich Moore 's film blends the secret-lives-of-toys reality of Toy Story with the self-actualization vibe of Bolt, with the former proving far more electric than the latter.
Disney's variant on themes from Pixar's Toy Story is a mixed bag of frantic action, humorous antics and blunted satire pitched squarely at the juvenile.
Executive Producer John Lasseter is the man behind Toy Story, and it shows.
Unlocking the Pixar cheat-code for No. 1 blockbusters, Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph" features winsome voice-overs by comedians playing it kid-safe, a simplistic yet universal moral and even "Toy Story" director John Lasseter as executive producer.
The Disney tribute to arcade gaming is delightfully off the rails, offering a grown-up-friendly tone and merging of visual styles that are reminiscent of the studio's 1988 animated homage to film noir, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."
Various events and significant moments throughout the film are noticeably reminiscent of movies from The Iron Giant to Shrek to Who Framed Roger Rabbit .
Feeling equal parts Wreck-It Ralph and The Lego Movie , there’s an inspired concept at play that fully integrates the audience into a world primarily seen by people absorbed into whatever open-world online game they enjoy via console or PC.
The obvious points of reference are “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Ready Player One,” the two most successful films about life inside a game’s reality.
While the film is naturally inspired by a whole host of video games and its plot tiptoes into The Truman Show and Wreck-It Ralph territory, this is a fully original beast and lord knows we don’t see those all that often during this time of the year.
I’m not referring to the myriad direct film adaptations including the Resident Evil , Lara Croft or Street Fighter films, but rather such labored cinematic meta-commentaries on virtual worlds as Tron , Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels .
Other stale ideas seem appropriated from Ready Player One , Wreck-It Ralph , and Groundhog Day , which by now must be one of the most ripped-off films in history.
Ejemplos perfectos son Wreck-It Ralph , Ready Player One , Edge of Tomorrow y ahora Free Guy , el nuevo estreno de 20th Century Studios, protagonizado por Ryan Reynolds y Jodie Comer.
4. What’s particularly frustrating is that this concept—of our video-game icons coming to life and interacting with the real world—was done splendidly just three years ago in Wreck-It Ralph, which featured cameos from some of the same characters.
It also recalls the much cleverer “Galaxy Quest,” as well as “Wreck-It Ralph,” which impressively invented an original game with a retro 1980s feel.
Pixels isn't the heartwarming or innovative homage that Wreck-It Ralph was.
There are witty touches – the aliens deliver their challenges to the human race through manipulated images of eighties celebrities, from Ronald Reagan to Tammy Faye Bakker to Madonna – but there’s also a mechanical feel to the action, particularly in a final act that employs cute animated character Q*bert (who also appeared in Disney’s 2012 Wreck-It Ralph ) to boost kid appeal.
The special effects are pretty cool, but the film is working nostalgia already thoroughly mined in movies (including the video-game-themed “Wreck-It Ralph”) and television (“The Goldbergs” and such).
And there are any number of non-videogame references as well, ranging from a ridiculous but adorable Wizard Of Oz visual joke to Firefly / Dollhouse star Alan Tudyk voicing Sugar Rush’s daffy, mostly affable King Candy in direct imitation of chortling Disney vet Ed Wynn (the Mad Hatter from 1951’s Alice In Wonderland and Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins).
Perhaps it is no surprise that a Disney film that celebrates outsiders (Ralph the ‘villain’ and Vanellope the ‘glitch’) over social cohesion should contain a variation of a character from Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske, 1951), the most anarchic and unconventional of the classic Disney animated feature films.
To be sure, it’s a wickedly clever sequence, if not as good-humored or surreally inspired as the “Happy Working Song” number from “Enchanted” (2007), probably the last picture in which Disney skewered itself so audaciously.
If you like the humor in Enchanted or Elf you will really enjoy this.
To be frank, I’m sick to death of Disney lampshading the princess tropes, especially since they continue to profit off of them, and because they haven’t crafted a joke better than the ones in Enchanted 12 years ago.
The Walt Disney Pictures films Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982) and Tron: Legacy (Joseph Kosinski, 2010) previously attempted to transform gaming logic and iconography into narrative cinema, but it is the computer-animation feature Wreck-It Ralph that demonstrates the full potential of the concept.
Borrowing from another creation down the hall at the Mouse House, Wreck-It Ralph comes to mind and his cameo-filled “BAD-ANON” group therapy session at the beginning of the 2012 animated movie.
Wreck-It Ralph comes to mind and his cameo-filled “BAD-ANON” group therapy session at the beginning of the 2012 animated movie…
They even hired Fred Savage to reprise his role in The Princess Bride as a wrap-around narrative device.
And the first step to that fate — akin to Toy Story 2’s Jessie being left curbside — is having an out-of-order sign slapped on its screen, an act that casts an ominous reddish-yellow glow on the world within.
But that isn’t the purpose of this film - by staying in Sugar Rush the movie allows that friendship to really deepen and grow into one of the fullest relationships I’ve seen between two animated characters since... well, since Toy Story 2.
Putting aside Tim Burton's Frankenweenie , which is an animal of a different sort (black-and-white stop-motion), Wreck-It Ralph is probably the most effective animated family offering thus far in 2012.
Headed by Chris Buck (2007's " Surf's Up ") and Jennifer Lee (writer of 2012's " Wreck-It Ralph ," making her directorial debut), "Frozen" reminds, if doesn't quite match, 2010's glorious "Rapunzel"-inspired " Tangled ," right down to its fairy tale inspiration and delicious musical leanings.
Directors Chris Buck (Tarzan) and first-timer Jennifer Lee (who previously co-wrote the script for Wreck-It Ralph) use Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen as an inspiration — not a foundation — for a funny, exciting and visually dazzling adventure that qualifies as a full-blown musical.
The script from " Wreck-It Ralph " co-writer Lee, inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story " The Snow Queen ," has lots of cheeky, contemporary touches but is firmly and safely rooted in Scandinavian fairy tale traditions.
While it’s found a few viable candidates (Tangled, the exceptional Wreck-It Ralph), it hasn’t discovered the right combination of character, concern, and charm — until now.
Lee was one of the writers of last year's inspired Wreck-It Ralph, and her Frozen screenplay has some of the same baroque plotting, if not much of the wit.
Much of Frozen feels mighty familiar, right down to the character models: Young Anna is Vanellope from Wreck-It Ralph, facial tics and all, while teen Anna and Elsa are both Rapunzel with different hair.
The Lego Movie (2014)
Directed by Phil Lord
influenced Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Themes Visuals
Ralph Breaks the Internet may be a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph, the popular Walt Disney Animated Studios film from 2012, but it has more in common with The LEGO Movie, the non-Disney animated film two years later.
This is no unexpected capitalist critique in the same vein as The Lego Movie , but it is acutely aware of the dangers the virtual world poses - something that its corporate branding may otherwise lead you to assume it wholeheartedly embraces.
But the filmmakers play the fan service as pure silliness, giving the whole sequence a self-aware twist that feels more in line with The Lego Movie than the original Wreck-It Ralph .
It doesn’t have the emotional impact of the first film, but as a winking romp through pop culture, it rivals “The Lego Movie,” especially in a hilarious reunion of all the Disney princesses, from Snow White to Merida from Pixar’s “Brave.”
At the same time, the film’s use of familiar franchises puts “Ralph Breaks the Internet” on the same spectrum with “The Lego Movie” and “The Emoji Movie” in terms of obvious product placement.
The Bad Guys (2022)
Directed by Pierre Perifel
influenced by Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Themes Characters Plot
The Bad Guys shared a theme with films like Wreck-It Ralph , Megamind , Despicable Me , and most importantly Zootopia .
Within that, there’s a magpie’s nest of recent influences — the slick-talking animals of Zootropolis , the bad guys’ support group from Wreck-It Ralph — that makes it hard for this not to feel a tad derivative.
With plenty of chaotic hijinks to delight young viewers, The Bad Guys is a little bit Tarantino, a dash of Ocean’s Eleven and Wreck-It Ralph , and a whole lot of fun.
It’s not so different from Wreck-it Ralph in that regard except for here you have more than one character who needs reforming and animation that is truly special.
So while I would not say that it is Wreck-It Ralph but with a heist, that is also sort of the realm we are in.
Dozens of films have failed at bringing established video game properties to the movie screen, but for their latest piece of feature-length digital animation Disney has borrowed a page from fun flicks like Tron, The Last Starfighter, and Wargames.
Wreck-It Ralph plays out a little like a screwball comedy, with Vanellope absolutely vexing Ralph because of her energy, her enthusiasm, and her wide-eyed naiveté, with Ralph coming around as reluctantly as Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby .
Even Kelly Macdonald, who embodied “Brave” for “the other studio,” drops in, earning laughs by making Merida’s Scottish brogue all but unintelligible.
It extends the critique of the Disney’s traditionally passive, abused heroines already incorporated into movies like Frozen , Moana , and Brave .
It doesn’t have the emotional impact of the first film, but as a winking romp through pop culture, it rivals “The Lego Movie,” especially in a hilarious reunion of all the Disney princesses, from Snow White to Merida from Pixar’s “Brave.”
There’s a fun cheap shot at Pixar’s “Brave,” a dark dive into the room where “comments” on your content (web videos) dwell and a third act that outstays its welcome.
I loved the self-poking fun of even the other princesses being unable to comprehend the thick Scottish brogue of Merida from “Brave.”
Ralph Breaks the Internet may lag behind Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 in terms of Disney/Pixar sequels and runs about even with Incredibles 2 in that respect, but it is the best sequel Disney’s animation division has ever produced and stands firmly among the all time best the entire company has had to offer.
Pixar’s approach to childhood memories and nostalgia resulted in the emotionally powerful Toy Story 3.
It’s no Incredibles 2 or Toy Story 3, but Ralph Breaks the Internet holds it’s own and is a decent sequel.
Like “Toy Story 3,” “Inside Out” and “Up” before it, the touching “Wreck-it Ralph” sequel is filled with cute characters children will adore, but it’s also a sneaky therapy session for older folks.
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Directed by Carlos López Estrada
influenced by Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Plot Music
In several recent Disney toons (“Wreck-It Ralph” and “Zootopia” come to mind), the directors take the time to describe the various zones of an extended universe, only to focus in on just a couple corners of the allegedly expansive world.
“Raya and the Last Dragon” lands in the middle-good field of Disney animation like “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Big Hero 6.”
Immediately distinctive is that while existing firmly in Disney fabulist territory, unlike recent (largely) song-free, tech-centric efforts like Wreck-It Ralph and Big Hero 6, it’s not a musical.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Directed by Henry Selick
influenced Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Plot
A similar concept was handled more effectively in The Nightmare Before Christmas, which at least made it clear that Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween who tried his hand at Christmas for a change, was just having a little nervous breakdown and temporarily forgot how much he loved his job in the first place.