Come sprinting out the gate some time into the Disney Revival, Wreck-It-Ralph quickly became one of the most fondly regarded Disney films of the modern age, mainly for its hooking premise of a video game world come to life, a Pixar inspiration that was by no means accidental. While I liked the film, and acknowledge it as good, I was always of the apathetic mind to consider it overrated, mainly for squandering its original premise on a thoroughly predictable story.
But successful it was, and only less than four years later, director Rich Moore would go on to greater success with the smash hit Zootopia, as well as announcing an upcoming sequel to his inaugural Disney outing. I myself was cautiously optimistic, given there was a lot of room for it to keep exploring, but dreading a potential decline in quality. But thankfully I can report that it didn't come to that. While some may debate if Ralph Breaks the Internet was a better film, I certainly enjoyed it more than its predecessor.
Six years have passed since the events of the first film, and the restored Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) enjoys her days goofing off with video game villain Ralph (John C. Reilly). But when her Sugar Rush cabinet is broken and unplugged, she's left homeless, and only a high priced replacement part can save it. To save the cabinet, Ralph and Vanellope travel to the internet to bring it back to the arcade, making stops along the way, from the dangerous streets of Sluaghter Race (headlined by Gal Gadot's Shank), and the offices of Buzzztube and its leader Yesss (Taraji P. Henson). And as Vanellope finds herself drawn more and more to the online world, and Ralph finds himself unwilling to let her go, can their friendship ever be the same again?
Since the first film, it was always evident that the very potential of Wreck-It-Ralph's world was only barely tapped. With the arcade's tightly knit nature of closely connected video game characters and worlds, there was so much more awaiting them all in the vast reaches of the internet. There were ways to address them in ways which could be smart, funny, and story-essential, and I'm happy to say that they hit a lot of those marks even if at the expense of juicier ones.
As always, enough due credit cannot be given to Disney's animation team. When it comes to the world wide web's depiction, they follow in the example of former CCO John Lasseter's no stone unturned sense of imagination. Mainly such examples are for the purposes of humor, and I for one cite this as one reason why I enjoyed this more than the first, in that it is actually funnier than the first film. The internet is so vividly beautiful in the film, but also absolutely insane and eclectic in every way imaginable. Online auction sites are run as literal auction houses in the digital space, users surfing the web (including wi-fi newcomer and arcade owner Mr. Litwak, voiced by Ed O'Neill) travel around in personal cabs that look lifted from TRON, and big internet brands and names tower over the cityscape-style web like skyscrapers. In the streets, it's easy to get swamped by clickbait pop up ads shoved in your face, most often by LootFindr operator Jp Spamley voiced by Bill Hader.
And nearly every opportunity the filmmakers get to showcase the craziness of the internet, they take advantage of. I was laughing pretty consistently through this whole movie, as the writers would find new an inventive ways to catch me off guard. It even extends into self-deprecation of themselves. At one point, we follow Vanellope into an extended stay at the Oh My Disney site, as every IP from Pixar to Star Wars in Disney's ownership starts closing in from every angle. It could very easily have been self-serving and feeding into the ego of the already tyrannical studio, but these sequences are handled with just the right wink and smile, leaning into the nostalgia of those properties under its roof, but also pressing it tongue firmly into its cheek in regards to the ubiquity and fatigue of its influence. You've no doubt seen this in the advertising, and the sequence in which Vanellope engages with the Disney Princesses and their moist common tropes, and believe me, you haven't even seen their best material in the marketing.
And yet, while I appreciate the amount of humor, I did sometimes find myself like the film was laying a little too sincerely into the erratic nature of the internet. Inevitably we'll have to deal with the elephant in the room, that being the inescapable branding that's become so ubiquitous to the internet. And I'll be fair, absolutely nothing in this film so much as touches the cynicism of The Emoji Movie, but several times it feels like the film begins to glorify where it really should be satirizing. There's also some real missed opportunities with the darker and more perverse side of the internet, only fleetingly addressed in examples like a brief stay in the scummy and virus-filled slums of the Dark Web, and the odd token adult references (like a blink and you'll miss it Ashley Madison reference), tossing out some golden opportunities as a result, including the most kid-friendly comments section of nasty insults for any online video you can imagine.
But it's the characters and the story that are more important to this film's success, and while it did have its own drawbacks in the meantime, I felt I gravitated to the struggles of this film more than I did with the first film. For one, I think that freed from the emotional, but very tried outsider story, Ralph has become a more fully defined character. His journey so far has been of a brute with a heart of gold sick of his table scraps, and having finally achieved some stability and validation, is deathly afraid of it being taken away. Should such events tear him away from the things making him happy, that would feel like a total stab in the heart, and as a result of his good-natured, but ultimately destructive approach and behavior, it becomes evident that his own worst enemy is still himself. He's learned to find acceptance thanks to his friends, but not because of himself yet. I really gravitated to that particular angle, even if some of its emotional trappings did turn into a pale and inferior imitation of those of the first film, but its honesty and good heart kept me firmly wrapped around its finger, as does John C. Reilly's always impressive voice work.
But Ralph taking the title could be considered a misnomer, given that it's Vanellope who really becomes the star of the show. Without actively aiming for a protagonist switch, they've managed to accomplish that goal without taking attention away from Ralph, and allowing her a greater depth of character. While Ralph is joyous in his content lifestyle, the same boredom of his has jumped to Vanellope, who's started dreaming much bigger than the predictable grind of the daily arcade agenda. Yes, Vanellope has now become a full fledged Disney Princess, longing for adventure in the great wide somewhere, wishing she could be part of that world. And despite the tropes, it's another relatable trait for one of the main characters, and another reason I gravitated to this movie. That doesn't mean she loses her sense of self, mind you. In fact, at times she doubles down with it.
It's actually hilarious to think of Vanellope in the line of Disney Princesses, given that her personality is almost the complete antithesis to any of them. Princesses are usually graceful, elegant, restrained. Vanellope is snarky, awkward, obnoxious, and yet there's so much charm in how she leans into that. As a result, she handily dominates every scene that she shows up in, and Sarah Silverman goes for absolute broke in her vocal performance. And you can really see this midway through the film, in which she lets her inner princess out in one standout comic sequence, that is so bewilderingly staged and extravagant, that I can't picture the viewer able to watch it with a straight face. I was cracking up the whole time this scene ran, and it is easily the film's highlight.
But we have other characters aside from Vanellope and Ralph, some new and some familiar. Despite being such big players in the prior film, married couple Felix and Calhoun aren't in the movie for very long, given that most of the film takes place in the internet, but they have one of the best early gags in the film before the main duo set their plan into motion. Gal Gadot gets much of the best supporting meat, slyly spoofing on her own appearance from the Fast and Furious films, as this sort of big sister figure to Vanellope. Elsewhere, Taraji P. Henson lends some great sass and comic vibes to as Buzzztube's chief producer, while Alfred Molina shows up for a quick cameo as a grubby virus peddler. Sadly, given the last film's ending, we unfortunately have no King Candy to steal the show, but leave it to Disney to find their good luck charm, Alan Tudyk, a funny and effective role as Knowsmore of his self-titled search engine.
And despite some cheap beats in the film's somewhat draggy mid-section, its closing stretches are appropriately bittersweet, tugging at the heartstrings with some genuinely tearjearking and satisfying feelings. The ongoing journey certainly isn't perfect, but it earns the warmth it leaves the viewers on, and the smile they wear on their way out of the theater. Which, coincidentally, don't be so quick to do, lest you miss some of the best jokes in the entire film.
**** / *****
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