Mark Reviews Movies: RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 21, 2018

Ralph Breaks the Internet provides a prime example of how to properly craft a sequel. Wreck-It Ralph followed the developing friendship between a mismatched pair of characters from two very different video games. The world of that film was based within the various games in an arcade, so it only makes sense that the film's follow-up would expand the scope of the characters' playground. Co-director Phil Johnston and Pamela Ribon's screenplay gives the digital protagonists the seemingly infinite scope of the internet to explore, and the only downside, perhaps, is that it leaves a potential third installment with nowhere further to go.

More importantly, though, the sequel finds a way to expand and challenge the central relationship that made the first film so surprisingly touching. Wreck-It Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly), the reformed villain of an old arcade game, and Vanellope (voice of Sarah Silverman), a princess and driver within a 3-D racing game, have spent their time since their last adventure as the best of friends.

Since he spent his days attempting to destroy an apartment building filled with happy residents, Ralph never thought he would have a single friend, let alone a best one, and Vanellope, whose glitchy nature made her a pariah among her digital counterparts, felt the same way. That eventual realization—that these two characters, although completely different, shared a lonely existence—gave the first film its considerable heart, even after all of the inside jokes about video games had run their course.

Six years later, Ralph is quite happy with the way his life has turned out, spending his days at work in the game and his nights jumping between games with his pal. Vanellope is starting to feel a bit bored by the routine. There are no new race tracks for her to perfect, no new shortcuts for her to discover, and no competitor who can give her an actual challenge. They are at a crossroads in this relationship, but each of them is either too content with or too disappointed by circumstances to realize it.

It's always a genuine surprise when a film aimed at kids approaches a subject that's universal yet rarely examined. Such subjects—such as the ways in which true friendships (or any relationship, for that matter) can be worthwhile but sometimes difficult, are constant but can significantly change, and can survive even when the participants are separated by dreams or distance—aren't exactly the stuff that makes up feel-good family entertainment. Such lessons, though, are vital for kids to learn—and maybe for adults to remember, too.

We don't expect that the sequel to a computer-animated film about a sincere, affectionate friendship to threaten to tear apart that relationship, and we definitely don't expect that thousands of copies of our big lug of a villain-turned-hero will transform into a clingy, insecure, and possibly violent monster. Both of those things happen here, because friendships, the internet, and the world can be scary things.

The internet might save the day when Ralph tries to create a new race track for his friend, only for the girl playing Vanellope's game to break the arcade console's controller in frustration. If the two can't find a replacement, Vanellope and the rest of the characters in the racing game will be without a home or any meaning.

There's a replacement steering wheel available on an online auction website (As you might expect, there are plenty of brand names making up the world of the web, but it seems more like a reflection of reality than overt product placement). Ralph and Vanellope make their way into the wireless router, and from there, it's off to the infinite expanse of the worldwide web.

Johnston and co-director Rich Moore envision the internet as a vast city, where certain companies and websites exist in towering skyscrapers, emails travel by way of flying containers, and "annoyingly aggressive" salespeople pop up out of nowhere to peddle links. It may be an obvious metaphor, but it's filled with just enough imaginative touches that the world feels like a stream of inspiration.

Key to the plot are that online auction site, where old-school auctioneers try to sell items of curious value, and an ultra-violent online video game, in which chaos is a constant and where Vanellope instantly feels at home. In the duo's attempt to raise real-world money for the arcade component, Ralph and Vanellope also find themselves in an online video hub (not the one you're thinking of, because the company that owns that one becomes something of a joke here), where the content curator Yesss (voice of Taraji P. Henson) sees Ralph as a potential viral sensation—if he can stay relevant for longer than the usual 15 seconds of fame.

There are some very funny moments in the implementation of this world, and chief among them is a lengthy sequence in which the filmmakers take advantage of the massive empire that the film's production studio has accumulated. Since Vanellope is a princess and Disney has a history of princesses, she tries to fit in with the crowd—only to find her singing voice in a dream about the violent game.

As a whole, these instances of self-reference and world-building are amusing and clever enough, but like the film's predecessor, it's the relationship between these two friends, strongly voiced by Reilly and the still show-stealing Silverman, that elevates the material beyond a series of gags. Ralph Breaks the Internet isn't content with the limits of video games, and it definitely isn't content with the established dynamic of these characters. It challenges them in ways that explore the darker, potentially more destructive side of feeling like an insecure outsider. That kind of expansion is what a good sequel does.

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