Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Directed by Rich Moore
Video game bad guy Ralph and fellow misfit Vanellope von Schweetz must risk it all by traveling to the World Wide Web in search of a replacement part to save Vanellope's video game, Sugar Rush. In way over their heads, Ralph and Vanellope rely on the citizens of the internet — the netizens — to help navigate their way, including an entrepreneur named Yesss, who is the head algorithm and the heart and soul of trend-making site BuzzzTube.
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11 films that influenced Ralph Breaks the Internet
What critics say influenced Ralph Breaks the Internet
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.
They even hired Fred Savage to reprise his role in The Princess Bride as a wrap-around narrative device.
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.
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.”
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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.
From here, droll nods to films aplenty lead to a finale that cleverly wires echoes of World War Z and King Kong to the dynamic between our heroes.
Al margen o dentro de la historia misma, está la idea de ver a Internet como una ciudad -Rich Moore, el codirector, lo fue de Zootopia, una ciudad de animales- un mundo en sí mismo (cómo en Ready Player One, de Spielberg, que era también un juego en el cine), y cómo la usamos, nos influye y/o alegra o altera a partir de las interacciones de las redes sociales.
Codirected and cowritten by Phil Johnston (who cowrote Zootopia) and Rich Moore (who codirected Zootopia), the movie unsurprisingly loses much of its focus when the characters go online.
But until that short blip, co-directors Phil Johnston and Rich Moore’s (“Zootopia”) film is supremely intelligent, and Reilly and Silverman once again give deep-feeling vocal performances.
Wreck-It Ralph AND Zootopia are two of my favorite recent Disney animated features, so when I got the chance to interview the filmmakers Phil Johnston and Rich Moore, I jumped at the chance!
It’s much like how Inside Out tried to make real the interior life of a child.
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.
The trip that ensues feels like a digital version of “Fantastic Voyage,” or Pixar’s “Inside Out.” Human avatars are enveloped in a little bubble packet of data and flown through wires to the global World Wide Web, citified.
Like Pixar’s Inside Out , much of Ralph Breaks the Internet is all about world building.
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“Sequel that’s better than the original” is an elusive club, limited until now, in this critic’s opinion, to Toy Story 2, The Godfather 2, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Refreshingly, the screenplay, co-written by Pamela Ribon (Moana), pulls focus from Ralph and onto Vanellope as she falls under the spell of a badass female character in a Grand Theft Auto-like game (Gal Gadot).
Opting to go for this emotional turn feels like a Pixar-inspired move, and also harkens back to Moana at times.
In an inspired highlight, a jaunt to the popular site Oh My Disney introduces Vanellope to the full cast of Disney Princesses, with screenwriters Johnston and Pamela Ribon (“Moana”) ingeniously and lovingly spoofing the quirks and tropes of the Mouse House’s royal ladies.
There’s nothing exactly wrong with Ralph Breaks the Internet, but it lacks the same emotional heft as Disney’s 2016 efforts, Zootopia and Moana.