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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.
There’s an icky, self-congratulatory vibe that runs through “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the studio gleefully referencing itself and proudly showcasing all of its sponsors/product placements in literally every frame. “Shrek” started the trend of cleverly satirizing fairy tale – and Disney – staples, but here satire morphs into mental onanism. Not a frame goes by without a Google – or Amazon, or Buzzfeed, or eBay, or YouTube – logo, and the film manages to incorporate a plethora of Disney and Pixar characters – all for no other reason but to remind us of the powers that be.
The original “Wreck-It Ralph” at least centered around beloved, 1980’s video game characters, and the retro feel played to its favor. Here, they mostly act as fillers, the overly-convoluted and needlessly long story centering around Ralph’s (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope’s (Sarah Silverman) journey through the world wide web. It’s like the entire plot was originally centered around the idea of Ralph encountering as many widely-beloved characters (now emerging, in digital form, from the dark depths of the uncanny valley) and trending social media platforms. This film will age fast.
The plot in a nutshell: the big oaf and his annoying little twerp of a companion need to make over twenty grand (easy!) to get a steering wheel that operates Vanellope’s video game machine – or her digital home is doomed. In the process, Vanellope discovers freedom, while Ralph learns how to let go. That’s pretty much it – if you discount all the secondary players and needlessly complicated “obstacles” they run into, including, but not limited to: a glamorized ghetto, run by Shank (Gal Gadot), another somewhat icky moment, a Disney-fied representation of poverty; a ton of pop-ups, such as The eBoy (Sean Giambrone); the search engine librarian, KnowsMore (Alan Tudyk); and, of course, the Head Honcho, the ultra-sassy Yesss (Taraji P. Henson).
Some mildly clever jabs at going viral – and one borderline-brilliant scene of Disney princesses shedding their veneers and getting cozy – aside, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” is a forced affair, wearing its obvious sentiments on its pixelated sleeves. It’s never quick or sharp enough to be a satire, nor does it seem like it tries to be: it’s totally content with simply throwing as many pop-culture references at us as it could afford.
One of the more grating elements happens to be one of the two leads, Vanellope, screechingly voiced by Sarah Silverman. Her uber-cuteness plopped on top of her sense of self-righteousness and arrogance, make for an insufferable character. John C. Reilly does his best to counter-balance her with his natural charisma and goofiness, but even he gets stuck with some nauseatingly sentimental lines, and a finale that’s just WAY too much Ralph. As for the rest of the starry voice cast, which includes Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alfred Molina, and Ed O’Neill, they do what they can with underdeveloped characters and hit-and-miss quips and puns.
This whole affair stinks of a big studio cashing in on its own former successes. If it tries to be “Inside Out,” in how it adopts the perspective of anthropomorphic concepts, it ends up resembling the hideous “The Emoji Movie” – never a good thing – with its assault of ads and pop-ups and, yes, emojis. The visuals are colorful (but not spectacular, by today’s standards) and there is some heart to be found amongst the pixels, finger-wagging themes, and blatant product placements, but any semblance of originality is wrecked by a smug predisposition.
In theaters Wednesday, November 21st
