Endearing ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’: and full of heart
The charmingly lopsided duo of Ralph and Vanellope journey into the internet
In a battle between the internet and John C Reilly, who among us wouldn’t root for the latter? Leave us IMDb.com and a few go podcasts, John, but by all means, smashy-smashy with the rest. characters Having liberated arcade game roles from their rigidly ordained sequel, in 2012’s Wreck-it Ralph, its Ralph Breaks the
Internet, sends our charmingly lopsided duo — the hulking, big-fisted Ralph (Reilly) and the glitchy pipsqueak candy-coloured racer Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) — into that expansive netherworld where clickbait lurks and pop-ups prolifer- ate. whose For a pair of pixelated beings limited existence has heretofore been they’re to a handful of video games,
The decidedly not in Kansas anymore. isa Ralph Breaks the Internet web of version: strictly PG-rated, sanitised 4chan there are no dark turns down Infowars alleys or face-to-faces with mean conspiracies. But that doesn’t Ralph there aren’t cruel truths that
— none must confront in cyberspace Ralph more than when a crestfallen viral sees the responses to his popular video. Never read the comments. In trading Qbert jokes for eBay ones, Ralph Breaks the Internet, directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, does more than shift the puns. If Wreck-it Ralph was a nostalgic Toy Story-like trip into ‘80s arcade games, Ralph Breaks the Internet is more current.
Life inside the arcade has gotten repetitive for Vanellope, who’s tired of winning the same old rainbow-coloured races in her game, Sugar Rush.
But while the video-game characters are convening in their Grand Centrallike terminal, a new plug labelled “WiFi” arrives above. Soon after, the impending unplugging of Sugar Rush prompts a kind of migrant crisis. All of the game’s characters flee before they get trapped in the shutdown and need new, adoptive homes.
Vanellope crashes with Ralph, but he can see his friend is feeling lost. Ralph resolves to journey into the internet to purchase the replacement part that will save Vanellope’s game. Crawling through the router, they speed through optical cables and arrive in an infinite, glittering cityscape populated by towers of tech and Byzantine byways of digital avatars.
It’s an idealised vision of the internet. There are no trolling Russian bots here, just some distracting ads and a quite charming, bespectacled search engine that will try to finish every sentence. The pair’s initial plans prove more complicated once they discover the online world isn’t just a game, but a place dictated by real money. To raise the money, Ralph quickly turns video star, churning out meme-inspired videos with the help of a Buzztube executive (Taraji P. Henson).
There are other adventures, too. Vanellope finds a far grimier, Grand Theft Auto-like racing game called Slaughter Race, a realm presided over by a stylish driver voiced by Gal Gadot. It’s hardly the kind of game that anyone would imagine a good fit for a petite ponytailed pixie. But she thrills to the more grown-up racing world, eager to test her skills.
Other cyber doors are less appealing. In one self-referential diversion, Vanellope walks into a room of Disney princesses. Jasmine, Moana, Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Belle and others are sitting around, waiting to participate in an online quiz: “Which Disney princess are you?” They all speak a little similarly in a segue of self-deprecation for Disney that’s both a welcome gag and false modesty.
There’s much that’s clever in Ralph Breaks the Internet, but it’s the film’s heart that has made them more than a whizz-bang graphical blast. These are fragile and sensitive protagonists trying to be themselves in a world of pop-culture-prescribed roles.
The movie isn’t always quite up to the task, however. It would be better if it went further and wrestled more with the online world than used it as another bits and bytes background. Really, it doesn’t quite live up to the title. Ralph could have done more damage.