Movie Reaction: Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2

Formula: Wreck-It Ralph ^ Tron
 

How has no one else cracked the Disney formula? It doesn't look all that hard. Animation + Emotion + Comedy - Laziness. That's it. They animate, because that's an immediate indicator that it's family friendly. They aren't afraid to take a beat and be emotional with the story. They fill in the rest of the movie with jokes. And they don't settle for a base hit when they could get a home run. Granted, they do all these things at a very high level. They have access to resources that other studios only dream of. But, that simple formula is a good starting point. Things that aren't in the formula: A-list stars, quantity > quality, Minions, action. Too many of the other studios get distracted by those things which really shouldn't be the focus.

Well, Disney does it again with Ralph Breaks the Internet. I liked the first Wreck-It Ralph a lot. What impressed me the most about it was all the video game rights they were able to get*. Structurally, it looked like a lot of other Disney/Pixar movies. It's video game Toy Story down to the way they populate the world and mine it for jokes. However, the heart of the movie even more than the jokes was the Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) relationship.

*I assume companies agreed to loan them the rights, but I don't understand how copyright law works. Maybe this counts under satire/parody laws.

Ralph Breaks the Internet is one of the better applications of the sequel formula in recent memory. It takes the relationships and sensibilities that work in the original movie and apply them to a larger canvas now that the world has already been established. Or, Sequel = Original - Exposition + More.

Ralph 2 (I'm shortening the title more. Deal with it) begins where the first movie left off. Not timewise. A lot of time has passed. I mean that everything is pretty much the same as when we last checked in. Ralph, Vanellope, and the gang are in a nice rhythm. They work all day and hang out all night. Ralph loves it, but for Vanellope, the rhythm feels more like a rut. Two events happen in short order to take them out of the rut and force them into the main story of the movie. First, the arcade gets wifi, opening a new port for all the video games to enter. Second, Vanellope's game breaks. When it appears that Vanellope's game is going to be tossed rather than repaired, Ralph and Vanellope decide to go into the internet to find a replacement part on Ebay. The internet is where most of the movie happens. Vanellope is much more excited by the internet than Ralph is; especially an online game called Slaughter Race, where they meet an ace driver named Shank (Gal Gadot). Their different reactions to the internet form the central conflict of the movie.

With a good story in place, that leaves the writers and animators a ton of room to pack in jokes and visual gags. Ralph 2 is overflowing with these. The internet is huge, so even if Disney only gets the rights to 1% of the sites, the possibilities are endless. Ebay and, of course, Disney.com get name-dropped heavily. Youtube and Google get thinly disguised. Even when I was watching blatant corporate synergy sequences, I still laughed plenty. Despite much of it being spoiled in the trailers, the scene with Vanellope and the Disney princesses is definitely a highlight*. The Youtube stand-in led by Yes (Taraji P. Henson) gives Ralph 2 the chance to do a play on nearly every kind of viral video. It's no surprise that the same parent studio that gave us Inside Out and Zootopia could deliver such an entertaining and clever interpretation of the internet world.

*It's funny how Disney has made a habit out of making fun of their fairy tale history while still using it to make some of their bigger hits.

I really can't discuss the heart of the movie without showing the movie's hand a little and spoiling some of it so be warned. Ralph 2 should be required viewing for anyone who is about to move or go to college. I can't think of a better handling of two friends moving in different directions in their lives. It's no one's fault. People just have different paths. It's hard when those paths diverge, but that doesn't mean they are the wrong paths. Ralph 2 tackles that beautifully. It's a completely different lesson from the first movie. It might even be a better one. As funny as the movie is, the handling of Ralph and Vanellope's friendship is what will keep me going back to this movie down the road.

It's a sequel, so you should already know about most of the voice cast here. John C. Reilly is the perfect voice for Ralph. He's the embodiment of the phrase "you big lug". Sarah Silverman is equally ideal for Vanellope. Silverman has made a career out of using the sweetness of her voice to belie menace. She's shifted the menace to depth and sincerity in recent years and grown as a performer as a result. It still shocks me that it until 2012 that Disney found a use for her. I imagine animators designed Shank thinking "we need a Gal Gadot type", so Gadot isn't doing anything special with that voice performance. It works because of that. Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch are back and delightful. Taraji P. Henson gets to animate her voice in a way I haven't heard before. The only other voice I immediately recognized was Bill Hader's although when I look at the cast list, I know virtually everyone. I guess that means they were all well-chosen.

Between Disney Animation and Pixar, Disney has raised the bar so ridiculously high that I can't say Ralph Breaks the Internet rates all that high on my all time list. It's probably second tier Disney, which is still very high compared to everything else. They found a story worthy of being a sequel to the original*. And stay through the entire credits. It's worth it.

*Still only the second Disney Animation sequel ever. That last one was The Rescuers Down Under, 28 years ago. That is, unless you count Fantasia 2000 or Winnie the Pooh (2011) as sequels.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend