Ralph breaks the Internet

So, I saw Ralph Breaks the Internet last night, and enjoyed it pretty well.

Taken in a vacuum the show comes off endearing, mostly well thought out, with some pretty good morals/ life lessons being thrown in. However, It does not compare as well to Wreck it Ralph as I wish it did. It hits many right notes: Making fun of Disney, Internet Culture, showing off the duality of how the Internet can be both used and misused. Showing how it brings us both together and apart. More so it does all of this without even hinting about Adult content out there.

The movie throws enough Internet culture out there that almost anyone can find some meme they like. The crew clearly know what buttons to push to show "we know this culture and we can show it off." Again, it does better in a vacuum as it felt a bit more forced and used as advertising rather than a homage like it did in Wreck it Ralph.

The show does take some liberties with how the Internet works, but it makes for a very good primer for what you should and shouldn't do while on the Internet. More Spoilery points below the break.

Beware!

Its refreshing to see a kids movie like this with no Big Ham of a villain tromping around being evil for evils sake. Though the movie does have a villain, and sort of unsurprisingly because of the movie title, its Ralph. You can see quite well every action and decision he makes he takes the villainous route. He might be a good guy, but there is a good case to be made where his status as a Bad Guy makes him inherently prone to making destructive choices. Road to hell being paved with good intentions and all that. In a similar vein to the first movie, His story is about making a mistake that destroys something and then spending the rest of the movie trying to fix it. The 3rd act starts when he compounds his mistake and hurts his relationship with Vanellope.

The animation is both spot on, and very creepy in several places. Particularly the Giant Ralph monster at the end. Multiple moving Ralph limbs coming out of the monster as it does its thing gives it a very eldritch horror vibe. Each joke at Disney is very well thought out, and hits very close to home. The Stan Lee Cameo was both touching and a bit lacking. There's no spoken lines so it feels more like a homage to him rather than a real cameo. Perhaps since this is the first movie referencing him since his death to come out, nothing would really be enough to honor the man.

The jokes in the epilogue were well thought out, though the final one gets spoilered by paying attention to the credits well enough. They find a way to get both lead actors to sing, with some mixed results, though John C. Riley has a surprisingly good singing voice. Sara Silverman's song was not really pleasant to hear, though the lyrics were great. But, I feel this was more of an issue with being stuck with voice directing from the first movie where they went with a purposefully scratchy voice.

They definitely missed an opportunity to have a Turbo cameo, but I think having multiple copies of the same sprite around while more accurate of how the Internet and games would work, would just confuse the narrative. Though a chilled out Turbo, for Ralph and Vanessa to over react to would have been pretty funny. Still Alan Tudyk continues to be my favorite voice actor currently working in movies.

I recommend this movie for people who spend to much time on the Internet, and people who liked the first movie. Chances are, if you are reading this, you fall in to one of those two categories.