The people at Disney are very clever. They hire the creative minds the other companies just don't have. These minds are able to come up with high concept ideas, execute them beautifully, and rake in millions upon millions of dollars. The stories from these people are perfectly balanced with fun, humor, and heart. They're even able to make sequels that are oftentimes better than the originals. They attract big named actors to take part in voicing their films because everyone desires to be in a Disney or a Pixar or a Disney/Pixar film. They're the only ones making consistently great animated films for children. So if all of this is true - and it is - how the hell did no one stop them when they proposed Ralph BREAKS the Internet??? Did literally everyone involved in writing/creating the film forget that the first movie wasn't called Break-It Ralph? Did they think the general public would be too stupid to understand the play on words if the film had been called Ralph Wrecks the Internet? How does a company this clever and smart and creative let something this stupid slip through the very obvious cracks? Because it's stupid goddamn dumb.
Anyway, picking up six years after the previous movie, Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) are besties who hang out every day. They play in their games, meet for a root beer at the local tavern game, and sit in the power strip and watch the sun rise. Rinse and repeat. When Vanellope expresses how she wishes she had a new track to race on, Ralph builds her one, which ends up breaking her game. The two then must descend into the internet to look for a part that will stop her game from getting unplugged forever. After bidding an extraordinary amount on the part on eBay, the two must find a way to make money from the internet. They meet a pop up ad named Spamley (Bill Hader) who gives them the mission of going into a racing game called Slaughter Race to steal an unattainable car from a character named Shank (Gal Godot). This is where Vanellope finds her true calling. Ralph finds his making viral videos and bee puns.
While the film doesn't have that superior quality that made the first Wreck-It Ralph so funny and endearing, the sequel does impress. One thing Disney is pretty great at lately, is making a sequel that isn't just a regurgitation of the plot of the first film. They know the perfect formula - take the characters we've grown to love and put them in a new and different adventure that isn't a carbon copy of the adventure they've already been on. Don't let them make the same mistakes we were told they learned in the last film. Don't make their character growth be the same. And it's true here with this film. It's a lot of fun watching Ralph and Vanellope scour the internet because they aren't the same people they were in the first movie and they don't have the same problems and don't have to overcome the same obstacles. Ralph has finally found happiness in his best friend, but Vanellope is feeling discontent in her cookie-cutter life of doing the exact same thing every single day without any fail or change. Ralph fears the internet because it's something different - which is exactly why Vanellope embraces it. It's a nice dynamic that speaks true to a lot of real life friendships - you can have a best friend, but they don't have to share the same life as you.
The movie is very cute and adorable and has some pretty great moments of humor (though I'd say the first movie was far funnier). The only thing that just kind of put the movie in an inferior position is that there isn't an antagonist. There's no real force keeping the two of them down and making the audience fear that Ralph and Vanellope might fail their quest. They only conflict they're up against is the ticking clock. They have X amount of days before the game is shut down for good. Then they have X amount of time to find the game part. Then they have X amount of time to get the money to pay for the part. No one really stands in their way. This is actually pretty uncommon for Disney and I think it hinders the movie just a little bit. I'm usually always impressed with the way Disney comes up with such clever conflict for their characters to overcome, but this time I wasn't ever really worried for Ralph and Vanellope and I actually kept wondering if any hardship or conflict was actually going to come at all. When it does - it does seem a little forced. And the moment that briefly tears the two of them apart felt forced as well. While the rift between them is one that could have come from them, it would've felt a little more organic to have an insidious outside force causing the rift.
But overall, it's just a cute movie that both kids and parents alike can enjoy. It's just missing a few things that made the first movie great. The adventure is there and so are the laughs and the heart. While the laughs are fewer than the last one and the heart isn't as emotionally-wrecking, it's still got that wonderful Disney quality to it that elevates it above any other company trying to produce animated works. The scene with Vanellope and the Disney princesses alone is worth the price of admission. Make sure you stay for the entire length of the credits. There's a scene in the middle that's pretty hilarious and one more at the very end that killed me. Ralph WRECKS the Internet is a solid Disney sequel that's worth a lot more than it's dumbass name suggests.
B
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