Directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston
Starring John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina and Ed O’Neill
Six years after the events of the first movie, Ralph (Reilly) is stuck in a cosy little rut with his best bud Vanellope (Silverman). She, however, craves something new. Ralph’s attempt to help ends up wrecking the Sugar Rush machine, and the two set off into the uncharted wilds of the internet in search of a discontinued part, leaving Felix (McBrayer) and Calhoun (Lynch) looking after the bratty, and now homeless, racers.
After winning the eBay auction for the part, Ralph and Vanellope have to earn the money to pay for it. First they try to recover a loot car from an online race game, Slaughter Race, for a pop-up called Spamley (Bill Hader), but after reclaiming the vehicle its owner, Shank (Gadot), takes a shine to Vanellope and helps them launch a series of viral videos on BuzzTube, a video sharing platform with a really forgiving monetisation system, with the aid of lead algorithm Yesss (Henson).
While promoting Ralph’s videos, Vanellope enters a Disney fansite and meets a collection of Princesses (voiced by pretty much every surviving Princess voice actor and some solid impersonators,) exchanging an understanding of casualwear for the encouragement to tackle her feeling that Sugar Rush isn’t enough for her. Learning that Vanellope has gone back to Slaughter Race, Ralph buys a virus to make the game boring, but naturally this plan runs wildly out of hand, threatening Vanellope and the entire internet with the manifestation of Ralph’s own insecurities, and little chance of stopping it without a terrible sacrifice.
What’s wrong with it?
Ralph Breaks the Internet makes a solid shot at presenting a topographical representation of the web, but the juxtaposition of the concrete space of a game like Slaughter Race with the real space of the junctions inside electronic equipment and the conceptual space of the internet as a whole is almost as confusing as the matching of time in an electronic world where switching between websites is a cab journey and a real world which can be meaningfully observed by the electronic protagonists.
What’s right with it?
No, really, that’s my ‘what’s wrong with it.’
The denouement, where friendship triumphs in allowing two friends to separate instead of reuniting, is as unique as Inside Out‘s revelation that sometimes trying to be happy isn’t the right thing to do.
The bits with the Disney Princesses are amazing, as is Vanellope’s ‘I want’ song.
The film has the most knowing credit scenes I’ve ever come across.
How bad is it really?
Ralph Breaks the Internet is another in Disney’s recent run of superb movies. Younger children might find parts of it quite scary – the kaiju Ralph made out of smaller Ralphs climbing constantly over each other is hella creepy – but above that it’s got material to appeal to all ages.
Best bit (if such there is)?
There’s a lot in here to like, but Vanellope hearing the Princesses’ potted biographies and asking if they need her to call the police is a real highlight.
What’s up with…?
- BuzzTube’s monetisation? Likes directly equate to money? How is that sustainable?
- Stutter motion? It’s not clear why some characters have a jerky motion, like old-fashioned computer game animation, and others don’t.
Ratings
Production values – It’s Disney. 3
Dialogue and performances – The cast are excellent, the script is zippy and witty. 2
Plot and execution – The film has a good plot with a strong throughline. 3
Randomness – Any film with this many throwaway references will end up a little random, but it’s in a good way. 5
Waste of potential – I genuinely didn’t think that Wreck-it Ralph had a sequel in it. Kudos. 3
The Bad Movie Marathon 
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