MPAA (PG) CNS/USCCB (A-II) RogerEbert.com (3 Stars) AVClub (B) Fr. Dennis (2 1/2 Stars)
IMDb
listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig)
review
Los Angeles Times (J. Chang)
review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico)
review
AVClub (J. Hassenger)
review
Ralph Breaks the Internet [2018] (codirected by
Phil Johnston and
Rich Moore, screenplay cowritten by
Phil Johnston and
Pamela Ribon, story cowritten by
Rich Moore,
Phil Johnston,
Jim Reardon,
Pamela Ribon and
Josie Trinidad additional material by
Kelly Younger) is a film that I honestly liked better before I set out to write about it as I do believe there are some aspects of the film that I do believe were not particularly well thought out.
The film begins where the surprise children's animated hit
Wreck-it Ralph [2012] left-off. So, like the original it is set among the community of characters living inside the video games of a Video Arcade. Each night after the arcade shuts down the characters gather together -- traveling up and down the electric cords that power their machines and connect them together -- to catch-up on the day's events.
We find that Ralph (voiced by
John C. Reilly) has generally found his peace with having been literally programmed in the video game featuring him to be game's "villain" (the one who breaks things, that another character in the game then tries to fix...). He's learned that after clocking out for the for the night that he can literally "leave his job behind" and "become his own person" among the other characters from his / the other games. (There's an amusing scene near the end of the current film where Ralph and some of the other "villain characters" from some of the other video games are "discussing Dostoyevsky" in the support group that they have formed ;-).
But among the various characters from the other games, Ralph's come to be particularly close (in, one hopes..., a generally "foster father / "mentor" sort of way...) to another, significantly younger sounding character, named Vanellope (voiced by
Sarah Silverman). She's a character, at one point nicknamed "Glitch" because she wasn't perfect, from a young girl-oriented car racing arcade game named "Sugar Rush" that in the previous film, he felt sorry for / helped. Indeed, trying to keep her happy -- Vanellope was _mildly_ complaining that she's been getting rather bored as she's been riding the same courses in her video game name for years -- Ralph uses his "wreck-things" ability to try to carve out a new course for Vanellope in her game.
HOWEVER, when the next morning the first human beings, two young girls, come in to play the "Sugar Rush" game, because the new course was so new / challenging they accidentally rip the steering wheel off of the arcade game. Since a replacement steering wheel for, let's face it, a rather old arcade game would run over $200, the owner of the Arcade decides to just "unplug" the "Sugar Rush" game and makes plans to send it to the scrap heap.
What to do? Well it turns out that the Arcade Owner had plugged in a new gadget in the recent days called a "Wifi-Server" ;-) and ... even though initially the characters from the various Arcade games found "the Server" "kinda boring", they soon learn that "if only" ... Ralph and Vanellope could (1) get to Ebay.com over the internet ;-), they could buy the replacement steering wheel for the "Sugar Rush" game and (2) make some money on the internet to pay for it, they could fix the game themselves so that the Owner wouldn't have to get rid of it. And so, Ralph and Vanellope set off to surf (inside) the Internet and ... much ensues ;-).
Among that which ensues is that the effervescent Vanellope finds a far cooler (if somewhat more violent) auto race game there called "Slaughter Race" that she finds she ... kinda likes. It's so different from the bouncy / happy "Sugar Rush" game that she's literally "always known," and she also makes friends with a rather gruff if kind female race car driver from that game named Shank (voiced by
Gal Godot).
While on the Internet, Vanellope also runs into the "Disney Princesses" and ... and is forced to confront the question(s): (1) Is she first / foremost "a princess" herself _or_ "a race car driver, " and (2) what's exactly "a princess" (a nice / good behaved girl) supposed to be anyway. And as Vanellope tries to figure herself out, the _other_ Disney Princesses begin to re-evaluate their own understandings of themselves. SERIOUSLY the "Princess" scenes here are fascinating.
In the midst of this Ralph becomes somewhat confused: He's been trying to come up with ways to make some money on the internet so that he could buy that replacement steering wheel for his friend / charge Vanellope so that she could come back with him to the Video Arcade BUT even he's starting to see that Vanellope is really "finding life" / "new challenges / opportunities" _elsewhere_ ... inside this boundless universe of the Internet. SO ... what to do?
That's thematically the rest of the film. Honestly, the questions asked in the film are interesting. I just wish there wasn't such an age difference between Ralph and Vanallope. They have, I suppose a "step father / step daughter" or "mentor / mentee" relationship but it's not clear and honestly after a point I've started to be somewhat creeped-out by it.
So, honestly, as good as the film is on one one hand, on the other it's really more for the adults, the "Ralphs" of this world than for the Vanallopes / children of the world. And this is why I give it a lower rating than I initially would have.
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