Ralph Breaks The Internet

The little and large pixelated crew are back and this time they are headed online. Both John C. Reilly (“Kong: Skull Island“, “The Lobster“) and Sarah Silverman (“Masters Of Sex (TV)”, “The Book Of Henry”) return for the sequel to the 2012 hit, Wreck-It Ralph.

I seem to remember Wreck-It Ralph being ok, an interesting take on the computer game, not just a bad-guy, who isn’t actually bad, but an aging arcade game to-boot.

This time the duo need to head online, to eBay no-less, to purchase a steering wheel for Vanellope’s (Silverman) game before it is turned off for good.

This gives directors Phil Johnston (“A Thousand Words (Short)”, “Flightless Birds (Short)”) and Rich Moore (“Zootropolis”, “Wreck-It Ralph”) the opportunity to visualise, in a nice, fluffy sort of way, what the internet looks like.

The duo also contributed to the story and/or script along with the six (yes six) other writers. It leaves Ralph Breaks The Internet a tad bloated at just shy of two-hours, but it’s still a fun, sweet film with a message about not being controlling thrown-in.

Vanellope and Ralph are doing what they always do, what they’ve been doing each day and night for the last six years. To Ralph, this is heaven, but to Vanellope, well, she wants a little more excitement, a bit more of the unknown every now and then.

Ralph tries to oblige but this ends up with Vanellope’s game being broken and, with the threat of a permanent unplug on the horizon, the duo set-out in the newly installed WiFi to the internet to find the part needed to get Vanellope’s game back up and running again.

This takes them to all sorts of places and meeting all sorts of people. From Taraji P. Henson (“Proud Mary“, “Empire (TV)”) as Yesss, the head algorithm at a YouTube rival to J. P. Spamly, Bill Hader (“Inside Out”, “The BFG“), a clickbait/spam website owner, to KnowsMore, Alan Tudyk (“Rogue One“, “Deadpool 2“), the search engine and Shank, Gal Gadot (“Wonder Woman“, “Justice League“).

It’s the latter that turns Vanellope’s head. Shank is the leader in a violent racing game called Slaughter Race, something akin to Death Race 2000 or Grand Theft Auto. Vanellope is hooked, she loves that you can’t tell what’s going to happen next, that it’s different, that it’s new.

Ralph on the other hand, he’s not so keen, and his insecurities lead him to seek out a virus from Double Dan, Alfred Molina (“Red“, “Spider-Man 2”). But things don’t go to plan and the virus spreads, taking over the internet.

Ralph Breaks The Internet tries, at times a little too hard, to cram a lot of things in to poke fun at. From cat videos to Disney princesses to pop-ups, and so much more. At times this can draw the focus form the main narrative as well as leading down some dead-ends, but on the whole it’s fine as they’re generally good natured and fun.

A great addition is Tudyk’s character KnowsMore, much like most search engines these days he attempts to answer your question before you’ve even asked it, leading to some funny suggestions.

Hader as J.P. Spamly is also a fun addition, with his weird little sidekick…thing, but his character is purely there to move things along, don’t expect to get drawn in. Which is what we can say about all of the new characters.

The focus is very much on Ralph and Vanellope and Silverman and Reilly do a decent enough job, I’m not sure the singing on Silverman’s part is a step in the right direction, but it was poking fun at Disney princesses so it’s kind of ok.

There’s a whole heap of voice cameo’s, as Disney makes use of its arsenal, such as: Vin Diesel as Groot, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Nicole Sherzinger, Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Mandy Moore, you get the idea.

Ralph Breaks The Internet is as saccharine as the first film, as sweet as you’d expect. Vibrant, loud, funny, too long with too many characters without a story, you’ll love it or hate it.