My experiences with seeing both Wreck-It Ralph films have been absolutely awful, as I have been confined to sitting in the very front row during both, much to the dismay of my eyes and my neck. Luckily, despite the visual distortion I had to suffer through, the content of this film makes the pain worth it. Ralph Breaks the Internet is a heartfelt and comedic animated film about the many dangers of the internet, as well as its boundless benefits. I honestly enjoyed this more than its predecessor as Disney unsurprisingly proves that they can make a clever family film for anyone to enjoy.
The best part of this entire film was its story and how it was updated to fit not just a new generation of Disney-goers, but a generation of new parents who might struggle to protect their children from the internet. This plot follows Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) as their arcade is upgraded with WiFi and the two need to find a replacement steering wheel for Vanellope's game Sugar Rush. As they venture into the depths of the internet, they discover that it can be a bright, beautiful, helpful place, but also very dark and relentless. The way that the writers of this film handled the inclusion of the many various websites and online services was actually very clever and provided a fantastic setting for our main characters. Each website was a business in this crowded utopia, every person of the city was someone online, and the ways that each individual website operated were quite humorous for the story. For me, however, the biggest takeaway from this film was the fact that it contained a subplot of internet safety that was handled extremely well. Lots of children can learn from the struggles that Ralph and Vanellope encountered in this film and I am sure parents will be using examples from this movie to help guide their young ones in basic web safety for years to come. One of the most emotional scenes, in fact, was when Ralph discovered the dreaded comment section of his "BuzzTube" page. Despite his spirits being brought down by the disheartening comments, this helped him learn that you should never question your own worth or love based on what a random internet user says online.
Vanellope also had a very interesting and newfound storyline that I appreciated very much. As she was traveling through the web with Ralph, they stumble upon a violent video game called Slaughter Race. In there, they meet a character named Shank, voiced by Gal Gadot, an apocalyptic, badass driver who takes no prisoners but ends up taking Vanellope under her wing. This arc, along with the hilarious and eye-opening scene amongst all of the Disney princesses, gave Vanellope a new look at what her actual motivations were on the internet and paved the way for a progressive and heartwarming conclusion with Ralph. This message of lifelong friendship in spite of distance or differences in goals was very sweet to see and it was refreshing to see a new and more mature take on the classic "friendships last forever" moral.
Unfortunately, I have just seen this film in the wake of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, so my expectations and standards for visual creativity in animation have been raised very high. There has never been any doubt that Disney can make a beautiful animated movie, especially with the technology available today, but I suppose my eyes have just been trained to expect more. Nothing in the animation style of this film was unique in any way and I thought that with the number of different characters and websites that our two leads have met and traveled to, there could have been some room for creativity. Especially because of the amount of humorous cameos and references throughout the film, including the room full of princesses and the numerous Star Wars, Marvel, and other properties. There were also many scenes in this film where I quite literally could not keep up with the countless different things going on. It was too much of a visual spectacle at times, which I suppose fits the tone, given that the internet is a very overwhelming place.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is a fantastic sequel that actually surpasses the original and proves itself through a wildly clever narrative about the internet. Not only does it provide a more modern take on video games and technology, but it is able to express its message in a clearer way for the audience, especially the kids.
My Rating: ★★★½
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