Six years after the events of “Wreck-It Ralph”, Ralph and Vanellope, now friends, discover a wi-fi router in their arcade, leading them into a new adventure.
Who here didn’t see “Wreck-It Ralph?” Anyone? Well, good news: your acquaintance with the original will not impact your viewing of its sequel. With a bright color palette and all kinds of on-the-nose humor we expect from Disney movies, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” stands out as one of those satires, both exposing the flaws in Disney movies, while simultaneously employing them. I’ve never seen a Disney movie so successfully mock the Disney brand, the internet, and still find room for a compelling ending.
Six years after Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) became friends, life seems perfect. Day in and day out they go to work, they get off work, they grab drinks, they hang out with friends, they watch the sun rise, they go back to work, wash, rinse, repeat. Vanellope, tired of the same old same old, questions her role in everything. Through Ralph’s intervention, something in her game goes wrong and before they know it, Vanellope’s game is decommissioned. Now, with no home, the two must turn to the internet to save Vanellope’s game and bring themselves back to the life they once enjoyed. Unless…
The joy of one of these movies isn’t just the powerful emotional character arcs we expect, but also the interesting side characters that populate a Disney movie. In this movie, just about every Disney property gets a historic nod. Given that the lion’s share of the movie happens on the internet, you can tell the animators had an absolute blast solidifying the institutions on which we use day in and day out. From the towering monolith of Google to the tree branches or twitter or the art galleries of Instagram, an impressive amount of imagination feels applied to a film chock full of content. In fact, so many visual gags abound in this movie we will likely be discussing its Easter Eggs for weeks afterward.
Brightly colored and joyfully lit, the movie itself doesn’t hold back from an overall jovial tone. Rather than a specific antagonist, the deeper we delve into this world the more Ralph becomes his own antagonist as he clings tighter and tighter to his best friend Vanellope. While Ralph is a digital program his story is all too human. In the end, Ralph must confront his feelings about potentially leaving Vanellope to pursue her own dream. Friends, we learn, don’t have to like the same things or have the same dreams.
I’d be remiss if I never mentioned the countless cameos throughout the movie. Gal Gadot occupies a large section of the movie as Vanellope’s new racing ‘cool older sister’ in the video game Slaughter Race. Sprinkle in some voice acting from Taraji P. Henson, Jack McBrayer, Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina, and one Jason Mantzoukas cameo and you’ve got a wonderful cast to round out the spot on performances of John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman.
The thing I enjoyed the most was the harmless fun Disney poked at itself. As you’ve probably seen in the trailers, Vanellope visits a Disney fan site and meets several Storm Troopers, Baby Groot, and most importantly, the Disney Princesses. In this movie, we’re gifted a few seconds where even the Princesses acknowledge the messed up commonalities all their stories share. Even if you weren’t waiting for it we finally get some female redemption as the Princesses save the men. It’s a gleeful moment, one played with winking irony. I enjoyed this movie thoroughly so that by the end the emotional confrontation took me by surprise. For how goofy the movie felt, the emotional moment in the scene both surprised me and felt natural. The theater fell quiet and scores of people wept quietly. We received an ending we deserved and ultimately found a lot of joy.
Now available on Digital 4K Ultra HD™/HD/SD and Movies Anywhere and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD Feb. 26th
