Ralph Breaks the Internet

In the antihero's second adventure, he and his friend have a series of online adventures. Probably the most important scene is when Vanellope visits Disney's website (because apparently the Mouse House is a shameless self-promoter). The whole sequence is basically Disney's reminder to us that it's on a mission to swallow all popular culture.

Basically, I got what I expected with "Ralph Breaks the Internet". Just watch it anticipating a bunch of corny stuff that the tykes will find entertaining and you won't be disappointed.

Someone says that this "Ralph Breaks the Internet" is the worst Disney film. I cannot agree because it is not even a film. There is no plot at all. The first half displays some of the Internet products like eBay, YouTube, instagram, etc. The second half shows off the asset of Disney, such as Marvel, Star Wars and Disney princesses. In some sense, this is just a advertisement rather than a film. I do not know how much eBay, Google or Facebook pay Disney, but it is awful to see commercials all through the film.

I liked Wreck-It Ralph (2012), I found it charming and original with lashings of vocal talent to assist it but a sequel? Had big shoes to fill, and it didn't manage it.

It tells the story of our heroes venturing from the arcade to the internet to save one of their games and *Sigh* does a plot really matter here? Ultimately that's not what its about.

Full of goofy humor, the occasional adult-ish joke to keep the parents happy and lots and lots of product placement. A lot of people looking at the reviews clearly have issue with this but truth be told it would have been very difficult to show the internet in that fashion without showing off the big names. I'm sure a lot of money passed hands because of this, but I don't see why it's such an issue.

The voice cast once again are fantastic including newcomers such as Gal Gadot. The trailers "Princesses" weren't as obnoxious as I expected and quite frankly the whole thing is passable enough stuff but nothing more than that. Somehow a lot of the original charm seems to be missing, the novelty value has diminished and the whole thing felt more like a cashgrab than a loyal sequel.

That being said Ralph Breaks the Internet isn't bad, it's just not living up to expectations.

The Good:

Excellent voice talent

A couple of nice ideas

The Bad:

Pales in comparison to the first

Lacks charm

The satire really spotlights how pathetic much of the internet community are with "Trends" and viewing habits.

"Ralph Breaks the Internet" truly surprised me. I was resistant to watching it during its theatrical run, despite being a big fan of its predecessor and knowing the pedigree of Walt Disney Animation. The marketing for this movie, which focused heavily on its new internet elements gave me more "Emoji Movie" vibes than classic Disney. "Look, we have Twitter references! Snapchat! Oh, and Star Wars and Disney princesses!" While I'm sure this strategy successfully got the butts of a lot of kids in theaters, it kept the butt of this cynical-but-otherwise-Disney-loving adult, firmly out. So, when I gave "Ralph Breaks the Internet" a watch recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find it contained all the consistent world-building, charming characters, and genuine heart of the original.

The sequel finds Ralph, and his best friend Vanellope living a charmed but otherwise stagnant life after the events of the first movie. While this stagnancy doesn't bother Ralph in the slightest, Vanellope (in true Disney princess fashion), makes it clear she wants more, and it's this tension that forms the root of the struggle of the story, including causing the catalyst that sends them on their journey to the internet.

I found myself as charmed by the movie's handling of the physical manifestation of the internet as I did by the original's handling of the lives of video game characters. (Side note: although the focus isn't nearly as high on video games as the original, there are still some fun elements there, such as musings on the grooming habits of a certain "Street Fighter" character.) The internet is a living world here, and the filmmakers clearly thought about all the ways they could have its well-known quirks inhabit themselves in the form of characters. Standouts for me were the pop-up street salesmen that aggressively touted their click-bait articles, and the search-engine worm character whose auto-fill was "a tad aggressive."

More than the handling of the world though, what I found truly surprising and compelling about this movie were its themes and the way it handled them. "Wreck-It Ralph" was a movie about identity and self-acceptance. "Ralph Breaks the Internet," far from being the cheap cash grab I thought it would be, actually continues those themes in ways I didn't expect, ways that I even think might even be new and challenging for kids.

Overall, "Ralph Breaks the Internet" was a much more worthy successor to the original film than I anticipated. If you're looking for a fun, humorous, imaginative movie that you can turn your brain off for, it provides all the necessary thrills. But it rarely loses sight of the characters and the heart that make these particular thrills so special.

I'll avoid spoilers here and keep it simple. The original movie is one of my favorites, it stands up to repeated viewing, was excellent in pace and composition. It flowed well, consistently, didn't try to do too much at once. The story was excellent, the voice acting was outstanding.

The sequel here - some of the best parts unfortunately were what we saw in trailers, as it often is. That's not to say there aren't other funny parts - there are. But overall it just left me, and my son, with the impression of them trying to cram far too many bits into the movie. It really stuttered along in parts.

We had a lot of eye rolling at the deluge of Disney when they first got to "the internet" and began looking around. This was the first part for us that started to detract from the story, which is, at it's core, actually an EXCELLENT story.

I wish they had focused more on what made the story flow well, what brought it out the best, rather than just try to cram as many bit part cameos as they could from other Disney franchises.

Voice acting was again well done. I think this would have been a much better movie had more things ended up on the cutting room floor, but it's at least worth seeing once. I'm sure we'll get it on blu-ray when it comes out, but we won't watch it nearly as much as we did the original.