Summary:
When Ralph decides to help shake up the monotony of Vanellope’s game Sugar Rush, the pair are sent on an adventure across the internet to repair the broken arcade cabinet before it’s sold for scrap. But is that what Vanellope really wants?
My Thoughts:
Wanna know a secret? I really enjoy animated kid’s films. Actually, I enjoy nearly all animated films, rated G or R. There’s just something about an animated world, the ambience, world building, colors, and spectacle are just so gosh darn charming! Here’s the rub: when we criticize animated kid’s film, too often we forget that these movies are targeted towards children, not adults. Sure, there are plenty of jokes in kids films that are aimed at parents, but we’re lucky to get that.
That said, when I watched Ralph Breaks the Internet, I watched it with the eyes of a parent of a three year old son and a baby girl on the way, but I also tried to watch it through the eyes of a child. The youth can be mighty impressionable, especially in the age of the Wi-Fi’s and the YouTubes. So it was with these “four-eyes” so to speak, that I sat myself down and pressed play on the sequel to Disney’s “Wreck-It-Ralph”.
Spoilers Ensue
If you haven’t watched “Wreck-It-Ralph” (and you definitely should), or if you need to hit the “F5” key on your brain and get a refresh, “Wreck-It-Ralph” was about the titular Ralph, the bad guy of the arcade cabinet of the same name, struggling with his identity as just a “Bad Guy”. As Zangief, a Russian wrestler from the neighboring “Street Fighter II” game, tells us about his epiphany “Zangief, you are Bad Guy, but this does not mean you are bad guy". It’s with this ethos, and the help of a new friend named Vanellope, that Ralph figures out playing the villain is different from being an evil person. Pretty heavy stuff for a kid’s movie about video game characters in arcade games.
So it’s some years later in “Ralph Breaks the Internet” that we find Ralph happily living out his days with Vanellope, his closest friend. Every day is the same as the last, which Ralph just loves. However, Vanellope is not so complacent with this unchanging life. She shares her desire to Ralph for something new in her life, a new race track in her game “Sugar Rush” for example. Ralph has sympathy for his friend and obliges by “wrecking” one of the tracks in her game to spice things up a little.
Vanellope loves the change, but unfortunately, in the real world, this change causes the steering wheel on the arcade cabinet to break. The owner of the arcade can’t possibly afford the replacement part to fix the game, deciding to scrap it instead. That’s a death sentence for any characters caught in the game when it’s unplugged, so all the racers and spectators of “Sugar Rush” are relocated to other games. Ralph and Vanellope decide they will take matters into their own hands and go into the newly connected internet to find and buy the replacement part for the game. For characters of video games that run on handfuls of quarters just to play for 2 minutes, their understanding of money is surprisingly limited!
This kicks off the adventure in full as the pair travel to some of the most widely recognized spaces in all of the world wide web. YouTube (called ViewTube if I remember correctly), eBay, Twitter, and others I may be forgetting. It’s a feast of easter eggs with scenes that are jam packed full of eye candy. As the adventure progresses, doubt begins to creep into Vanellope’s thoughts. Maybe it’s time for a change in her life, maybe it’s time to move on from “Sugar Rush” and into a much more mature game called “Slaughter Race”. Is this so wrong?
This is where the meat of the conflict ensues and what I viewed as one of the larger themes in the movie. How well do two friends who want opposite outcomes deal with all that situatioin entails? Well, not very well, it turns out. At least not yet. Ralph has some growing to do. Towards the end of the film the duo’s enemy becomes a literal manifestation of Ralph’s vulnerabilities and it’s up to our heroes to overcome this personal digital demon.
Beyond the story, the film looks and sounds exactly how you’d expect from a Disney production. A colorful world filled with even more colorful characters, Ralph Breaks the Internet is a visual treat, although I will say I’m not sure if there’s a noticeable an upgrade from the first movie to the second as there was in The Incredibles. I will say I hate the sound of Vanellope’s voice, it’s like they wanted the most annoying sounding voice they could find. Well, they succeeded.
Verdict
Ralph Breaks the Internet is a successful sequel to the original, expanding the world and staying somewhat relevant (are we still joking about cat gifs?) to today’s youth. It explores complex themes that are very relatable to children who are learning about emotions and social problems they may not have the words to describe. Even better, the film is entertaining throughout, charming me with it’s colorful presentation and playful use of sights, sounds and Easter eggs.
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