USA TODAY International Edition
‘Ralph’ totally nails online culture
Online culture can be a tough thing for the entertainment world to accurately depict, but “Ralph Breaks the Internet” totally nails it.
Disney manages to pull off an entire movie about the internet (in theaters now) without pandering to stereotypes.
The references feel authentic and clever while avoiding the cringe factor that critics who reviewed “The Emoji Movie” knew all too well.
The most spot-on depictions of social media and viral videos in “Ralph Breaks the Internet”:
1 YouTube isn’t just a place for silly cat videos – it’s a platform where people make a legit living.
OK, so the “Ralph” universe’s online video site is technically called BuzzzTube, but we’re talking about the same thing here.
Yesss (voiced by Taraji P. Henson), BuzzzTube’s “head algorithm,” tells Ralph (John C. Reilly) he can make a ton of money if he can produce a handful of viral videos.
And that’s true for real-life YouTube stars.
Lilly Singh, one of the site’s top content creators, has more than 14 million subscribers and earned an estimated $10.5 million last year.
Bonus: Hardcore fans might notice a cameo appearance by an animated version of YouTube star Colleen Ballinger (better known online as her wacky alter ego Miranda Sings).
2 But make no mistake, some pretty dumb stuff still goes viral.
Before Ralph can make a viral video, he needs to learn what topics generally do well online.
Among them: the ghost pepper challenge, goats and “Chewbacca Dad: It’s like Chewbacca Mom, but a daddy,” as one of Yesss’s assistants puts it.
3 Of course eBay would look like a huge auction house IRL.
Ralph and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) swing by a handful of social media and online sites during their visit to the World Wide Web, and Disney got creative with the way those digital forums were manifested in physical locations.
Instagram, for example, is a spacious art museum with users’ posts hanging all over the walls, while eBay is a warehouse for auctions. Twitter is literally a bunch of birds chirping in trees.
Ralph and Vanellope also meet the physical embodiment of a pop-up ad: a guy named J.P. Spamley (an uncredited Bill Hader), who brings the duo back to his run-down, gross-looking home. He claims his “anti-virus guy was just here” as something that looks like the digital version of a cockroach scurries by.
4Do. Not. Read. The. Comments.
At one point, Ralph innocently strolls into an ominously barren part of BuzzzTube: the comments section. He begins reading a few kind words from users excited to see him in videos and naively remarks the internet is “So positive!”
But then some super-mean – but also laughably clean as comments go, because this is PG-rated animation – prove him otherwise. Ralph is called “stupid,” “fat and ugly” and a “worthless bum.” Steer clear of the comments section, Ralph. They’ll only upset you, and none of them are as SFW as this one.
5 Vine may be dead, but the references live on
Vine, a popular app that allowed users to upload six-second videos, shut down in 2017, but fans of the quick, goofy and irreverent videos have since uploaded their favorites to YouTube.
It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot, but one kid playing an online video game has a large orange “Road Work Ahead” sign hanging on the wall in his bedroom. Our fingers are crossed that the writers intended it as a nod to one popular vine, in which a youth sees a sign that reads “Road Work Ahead” and jokingly expresses concern: “Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does!”