Back in my day . . .
Disney movies had strong messages, now we get watered-down reminders that friends change, or something.
Directed by: Phil Johnston, Rich Moore
Written by: Phil Johnston, Pamela Ribon
Cast: John (See Ya Everywhere) Reilly, Sarah (Skankmouth) Silverman, Gal Gadot
It’s been six years since the gigantic Ralph discovered his worth whilst befriending Disney’s first female President as they battled digital aliens. Now, there are no real villains other than the most dreaded villain of all . . . monotony. This savages every relationship.
At the end of Wreck-it-Ralph, Ralph (Reilly) and his little buddy, Vanellope von Schweetz (Silverman) got their happy ending. But even back then, you could feel the trap being set up for the characters. Being stuck in a programmed video game would get old for anyone, even those lucky enough to know they are in a program. Meanwhile all us “living” 1’s and 0’s are still trying to figure that out.
Vanellope is bored. There’s no other way to say it. She has mastered her game and every other game in Litwak’s arcade. She needs something new in her life. Ralph is just a big bundle of emotions and energy, so he decides to make a few modifications to the Sugar Rush tracks for his friend. That’s when everything goes wrong. Like many well-intentioned roads, this new path leads to destruction and Vanellope’s game gets unplugged.
After the unplugging, there’s a big discussion among all the other games where all of these now gameless characters will live. Enter Felix (Jack McBrayer) and Calhoun (Jane Lynch) who decide to adopt all 15 of the Sugar Rush racers. Felix handles it like any rational father would, he hits Tapper! That’s about all you will see of Felix and Calhoun until the end.
As fate would have it, Litwak has decided to finally join the 21st century and get onto Wi-Fi. See, Sugar Rush broke and the only way to get the part is on . . . you guessed it . . . the internet. Which, if you follow the title, Ralph is destined to break.
Of course, since the internet is scary and new, Surge Protector (Phil Johnston – where have I heard that name before?) tries to keep anyone out of it until they can figure out what it is and how to navigate. And, of course, he fails.
Ralph and Vanellope enter the world wide web, and it is really that, a whole new world. I read in the production notes that working on world-building in Zootopia helped make the Internet world a reality in this film.
When you think about how Pixar managed to take a vast concept like the human mind and turn it into a realm of imagination with Inside Out, that’s pretty much what Walt Disney Animation Studios
Obviously, they couldn’t capture the entire internet on one screen, but they managed to give it depth and understanding. It was nostalgic watching Ralph and Vanellope discover everything for the first time. It reminded me of the first time I ever got on the internet all the way back in 1996. I was overwhelmed by the possibilities. If anything, Vanellope was incredibly savvy, yet totally naive at the prospects of this strange, new world.
With the introduction of the internet into their lives, their friendship is tested. Oh, maybe there is more to the message after all?
Anyway, they are in the Internet to find a missing piece of Sugar Rush. Once they discover KnowsMore (Alan Tudyk) who tends a search bar, ha ha, they find out all about this great site called E-Bay and they are off in their personal browser to acquire the missing part. The concept of real world money is not something they understand.
Eventually they meet up with a loot hunting broker named J.P. Spamley (Bill Hader) who tells them to get real world money for their E-Bay item, they just need to find rare items in games and he will see to it that they are paid. Naturally, when Vanellope finds out all she needs to do is race, she’s thrilled. But that thrill is what steers her away from Ralph.
Enter Slaughter Race, a game that will live on in Disney infamy, I bet. It’s basically an almost kid-friendly Grand Theft Auto game, minus the murdering of hookers . . . maybe. It’s in Slaughter Race that Vanellope makes a new friend, Shank (Gadot). Shank is a total badass babe, and she soon becomes a mentor to Vanellope.
While Vanellope is doing her thing, Ralph makes the acquaintance of Yesss (Taraji P. Henson) who runs BuzzzTube, basically a site similar to YouTube that will also let Ralph get enough real world money to buy the missing part for Sugar Rush.
Ralph is threatened by Shank and the pull she has over Vanellope.
At some point, Vanellope meets up with all the other Disney Princesses in Oh My Disney and hilarity ensues. If you have seen the trailers, you get the gist of what to expect. It was pretty funny, and because this is a world within our world, within our real world of a fake world, the writers got creative with how these ladies impacted the overall film.
In the end, Ralph makes some bad decisions based on his feelings of rejection. And because he is such a large presence, it has global consequences.
I loved a lot about this movie, and it was just as fun as the first one. Sadly the biggest complaint was there was no villain other than really dumb choices. When I head into a Disney film, I want a grand villain, man.
The effects are so incredible that you really should watch this one more than once, just for all the layered stuff you are bound to miss the first time. And, I loved how they made the personal browsers actual vehicles with security and privacy. Plus, the little Funko looking PopVinyl avatars for each real world user, or Netizen as they are called, was cool. I think a lot of people will be asking for those for Christmas.
Not much else I need to say about Ralph Breaks the Internet, except I am definitely going to be adding this to our personal Disney collection.
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