Artist-driven ‘Ralph’ sequel is fun, glitches and all
It’s a wonderful thing to watch Disney turn on itself on the big screen.
There’s a stunningly subversive moment in the middle of “Ralph Breaks the Internet” — it involves Disney princesses, and we’ll say no more — that seems impossible in a world with boards of directors and profit margins and studio executives who want to keep their eight-figure annual bonuses.
The sequel to “Wreck-It Ralph” is a structural mess. The filmmaking team could have gone in a lot of directions after the success of the first video-game-themed film, and they seem to have chosen all of them at once.
But “Ralph Breaks the Internet” is almost always inspired in the moment. The story team has a good idea that worked in the first film and gives us more of that, in a much bigger playing field. That includes a sucker punch of an emotional climax, and a skewering of internet profiteering. For a film series that revels so hard in its bodily function humor, “Ralph” dabbles in some heavy themes.
The 2012 release “Wreck-It Ralph” was isolated to a single arcade, finding humor — and plenty of pathos — in the obsolescence of older games. The sequel begins with Litwak’s Family Fun Center & Arcade getting Wi-Fi. Oafish but goodhearted Ralph (John C. Reilly) and his glitching friend Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) venture into the internet, to raise money for a broken steering wheel on Vanellope’s racing video game.
There are two or three sequels’ worth of plot points here, and the first third of the movie struggles to
find its focus. The narrative has a Sisyphean quality, with Ralph repeatedly trying to fix problems that were caused by his own negligence.
“Ralph Breaks the Internet” also falls into the sequel trap of cramming in plot points for old characters, while adding too many new ones. The trials of Fix-It Felix Jr. and Sergeant Calhoun (Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch) as adoptive parents would have worked better as a pre-movie animated short.
But the new characters are all pretty great. Gal Gadot as a postapocalyptic video game heroine is a mentoring figure for Vanellope, offering a welcome empowerment subplot. (Another subversive moment: Respected legend of composing Alan Menken contributes a song named “A Place Called Slaughter Race.”)
The writing team has great ideas for the web-based characters, then brings nuance to the humor, beginning with always-perfect Alan Tudyk as a search engine that would rather know everything than be helpful.
And then there’s the princess scene, which will be an enduring classic. It begs for stories on how it was coordinated. Ignore them all until you see the film.
Walking out of movies like this, one can’t help thinking there are positive creative trends spreading throughout the animation. Along with Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Warner Animation Group has embraced artist-driven filmmaking with “The Lego Movie,” “Storks” and “Smallfoot.” Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming “Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse” looks daring.
“Ralph Breaks the Internet” isn’t on the top shelf of Disney movies since the studio’s animation resurgence started with “Bolt” in 2008. (Our rankings: 4. “Wreck-It Ralph”; 3. “Zootopia”; 2. “Frozen”; 1. “Big Hero Six.”)
But as much as anything we’ve seen in recent years, the film is confirmation that artists, not paranoid executives, continue to make the big calls at Disney. And as long as that continues, a few glitches in the plot won’t ruin anyone’s good time.