Ralph Breaks the Internet Review

It's hard for me to believe that "Wreck-It Ralph" was released six years ago. It seems just like a year or two ago when it lost best animated feature to "Brave" at the Oscars. I guess when you have a movie that memorable, it lasts a lot longer in your brain. It's funny how time works like that. Because, on the other hand, "Brave" seems like it came out forever ago because it just wasn't that memorable. Anyways, another thing that might be hard for people to believe, but something that I enjoy pointing out, is that "Ralph Breaks the Internet" is really only the second sequel that Disney's main branch of animation, that being Walt Disney Animation Studios, has ever done. The first one was "The Rescuers Down Under" in 1990 and that's often seen as being better than "The Rescuers." All the other awful animated sequels that you mostly would like to forget? Yeah, those come from DisneyToon, Disney's direct-to-DVD branch of animation. So when people say they aren't excited for "Ralph Breaks the Internet" or next year's "Frozen 2" because of Disney's poor track record with animated sequels, well, that's not exactly a fair statement. This is actually fairly new grounds for Disney and in this case, they owned it. You can call them two for two with their animated sequels.

I know I'm late with this review, but I was busy with Thanksgiving this past week and had no time to type my review. So you're getting it a week late. In "Ralph Breaks the Internet" we again return to our beloved arcade, which is understandably becoming a bit run down as it's hard for arcades to compete with modern gaming. Just like it's been six years since the first movie came out, the events in this movie take place six years later in this fictional universe. Ralph is absolutely loving life. He gets to work at his game during the day and hang out with his best friend Vanellope all night. However, Vanellope is getting a bit restless because she's getting a bit bored with doing the same thing over and over in her game. When Ralph tries to help her out by spicing her track up a bit, it leads to the steering wheel in her game breaking. Because of the fact that the arcade just isn't making that much money, the arcade owner decides it's time to retire her game of Sugar Rush because the price it would cost to fix it is more than the game makes in a year. This leads to Vanellope feeling even more insecure about things. So in order to help his friend, Ralph comes up with a plan for them to head off to the internet via the new WiFi router that was just installed in order to find the new part.

What I really appreciate with this movie is the creativity with this idea. This feels like a sequel that was made because someone came up with a clever idea as to what they could do next rather than it being the other way around, that being Disney commissioning a sequel because the first made money, causing filmmakers to then figure out what to do next. Supporting this idea in my brain is the fact that in Disney's modern animation renaissance that began with "Tangled" in 2010, "Wreck-It Ralph" is actually their lowest grossing movie besides the 2011 "Winnie the Pooh," which wasn't pushed heavily as a tent-pole release. At the domestic box office, "Wreck-It Ralph" made $189 million, which is less than "Tangled" ($200 million), "Big Hero 6" ($222 million), "Moana" ($248 million), "Zootopia" ($341 million) and "Frozen" ($400 million). So on financial terms, it makes the least sense to do a "Wreck-It Ralph" sequel. But yet here we are. And as I said, I think that's because they came up with a great idea with Ralph and Vanellope heading off to the world of the internet, presenting a whole lot of fun avenues to go down. Because of this, the movie feels fresh and unique. I enjoyed the fact that this was a completely different movie than "Wreck-It Ralph."

In regards to specifics, I think what made "Wreck-It Ralph" so fun was that the movie had a blast with all of its retro arcade game references. If you're a gamer, especially when it comes to classic 80's and 90's video games, chance are that "Wreck-It Ralph" was a real treat. In a similar manner, but with different content, "Ralph Breaks the Internet" has a lot of fun in its internet world. The attention to detail is pretty great as there's so many internet related jokes and references that are pure gold. A lot of them are direct and in your face, like them wandering through eBay land or Vanellope running around through Oh My Disney, but what makes this a lot of fun are all the small details scattered throughout in the background or things that are shown quickly in passing. It was just a joy and you could tell that the animators had a lot of fun throwing in as many internet-related references as they could. In doing so, the movie manages to connect with a wide range of audience members. The kids are going to have a lot of with this world and the characters, but a good portion of the movie's references are going to fly right over their heads. In contrast, adults may facepalm at some of the childish humor, but will admire the movie's details and creativity with said references.

In this manner, the movie is able to strike a good balance in a way that reminded me a bit of "Inside Out." Yes, a lot of the emotion characters are a lot of fun for the kids in that movie and it's one that they'll certainly enjoy. But there's a lot of clean humor in "Inside Out" catered directly towards adults that make the movie genius. Now if I'm going to address the giant elephant in the room, the other obvious comparison to "Ralph Breaks the Internet" is to "The Emoji Movie," the latter of which I still claim is a horrendous abomination. Yet both movies' premises are quite similar. What's the difference? Well, a lot. In fact, the only similarity in both movies is the idea of the internet. "The Emoji Movie" is loaded with characters you don't care about out, a stupid overall story arc, humor that just isn't funny at all, and themes that are actually bad for kids if you think about it. Nothing works in that movie and it is the epitome of everything wrong with Hollywood. Meanwhile, "Ralph Breaks the Internet" reunites us with lovely characters that we do care about, sends them on an incredible journey, has deep themes that make you tear up, and has a whole ton of fun with its internet-related humor that's actually clever and genius. It's a powerful movie for kids.

In regards to said journey and themes, this is where the movie caught me off guard. I expected to have fun with its internet-related humor. I relished at the opportunity of diving into the world of Oh My Disney because there was so many things that could be done there. But I had no idea what the story of the movie was going to be because the movie did a great job of not revealing that. At least not in the initial trailers. The story that remains hidden from the advertisement is one related to friendship. As the movie sets up at the beginning, Ralph is perfectly content with the life that he is living. Vanellope is not. She enjoys her game and she enjoys racing, but there's something missing in her life that she can't quite put her finger on. I don't want to dive into too many details on how this turns out, but the story here is one of self-discovery. Vanellope is trying to search for her dream and for what her place in the world is. She slowly starts to realize that her dreams and aspirations may be quite different than Ralph's, so the two of them have to reconcile their friendship to figure out what each of them wants to do. Sometimes life takes best friends in different directions and that's perfectly OK. I think that's a powerful message for kids as well as one that will connect with adults.

As the movie explored this, the Disney magic was powerful. When I saw "Wreck-It Ralph" back in the day, my initial reaction was that it felt very much like a Pixar movie, which was funny because "Brave," which was Pixar, felt much more like a Disney movie. That's not the case with "Ralph Breaks the Internet." This felt like pure Disney and the Disney themes and atmosphere were quite strong. On that note, I do feel obligated to talk about the Disney princesses in the movie. Their inclusion was a heavy part of the advertising and I totally understand why. If you have all the Disney princesses in your movie, it's a great selling point. But that extended scene in the trailer comprises about 30 percent of their screen time in the entire, which makes me wish that it was more of a surprise. Now there's more to that scene that the trailer doesn't show and they have more involvement in other parts of the movie that I think were super clever and hilarious, but they're not a huge part of the movie. In fact, I thought we were going to spend most of the movie in the Oh My Disney section of the internet. But we didn't. We spend more time in the eBay land, the discount YouTube land, and the new racing game they stumble on. Gal Gadot's character is more prominent than any Disney princess.

As far as negatives go, I hate to be a Debbie Downer is such a delightful movie, but the movie does take a while to get going. We spent a lot more time in the arcade at the beginning than I thought we were going to. It takes a while for them to get to the internet. And when we get to the internet, it also takes a while for me to figure out what the actual plot was outside them looking for a new part to Vanellope's game. There's a lot of emotion and a lot of power in this movie, but it requires a bit of patience to get there. I've actually seen the movie twice now, once with a friend on the night it debuted and once on Thanksgiving morning with a crowd of young people. Now if you ask a kid what they thought of the movie, they're not going to dive into some great analysis of what they thought. They're just going to say they loved it and call that good. But if you watch them watching the movie, you can get clues as to how much they are enjoying the movie and the first half of the movie had a lot of restless kids in the theater, so it wasn't just me. The theater got a bit noisy as the kids were running out of patience while watching the film. It's also worth noting that there are certain parts of the movie that are a bit scary for kids, so be aware of that if your kids get scared easily.

That aside, the movie as a whole is mostly a delight. With how powerful the second half of the movie is, you're going to walk out of the theater on a powerful emotional high, perhaps having forgotten about any flaws the movie has getting started. And your kids are going to have so much fun in the end that they'll forget that they were a little bored and restless with the beginning. Thus I have positive feelings towards this movie with a very high recommendation that makes me troubled in my mind in regards to whether I liked this movie or "Incredibles 2" more. But the picky critic in me has to point out that the movie as a whole isn't quite as sharp as the original and that's OK, so there's your answer as to which "Wreck-It Ralph" movie is better. When I put together my ranking of all the Disney animated movies, "Wreck-It Ralph" made it somewhere in the top 15. I have no idea where "Ralph Breaks the Internet" will be on that list, but it won't be nearly as high. That said, the two movies are quite different and can be enjoyed for different reasons. That also means if you didn't like "Wreck-It Ralph," there's a chance that this movie might win you over, but I might be the wrong person to ask there since I loved "Wreck-It Ralph." That said, I'm still going to give "Ralph Breaks the Internet" a 9/10.