Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Ralph Breaks the Internet

So, Before I say anything else, I just need to say, I loathe that title. Yeah, I know that Ralph quite literally breaks the internet over the course of the film, but what it’s actually referencing is dumb and stupid and I’m disappointed in the people who named this movie. That said, welcome everyone to Deep Dive Disney and our look at… *sigh* Ralph Breaks the Internet. This film actually represents something of a milestone for yours truly. Since at the time of writing, the upcoming Encanto has yet to be released, I can officially say that I have seen every movie that has been released by Disney’s animation studio from Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs to Raya & The Last Dragon. Disney nerd achievement unlocked. This film also holds the interesting distinction of being the first sequel to be considered part of Disney’s animated canon since The Rescuers Down Under nearly three decades prior. That’s kind of cool too, I guess. In any case, I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of the first movie. I would hesitate to call it bad, but it just didn’t really do anything for me. With that in mind, I was surprised by how much I ended up enjoying and connecting with the sequel. So here’s what Ralph and the gang have in store for us this time. In the time since the first movie, Ralph has been truly happy for the first time in a long time, thanks in large part to his friendship with Vanellope. However, while Ralph is content to keep hanging out with his best friend, Vanellope herself has been feeling unfulfilled and has begun hoping for more out of life, especially her own game has grown incredibly repetitive. In a misguided attempt to help make her game more interesting, Ralph ends up inadvertently causing the arcade machine to break. To help save the game, Ralph and Vanellope physically enter the internet in order to find an expensive part to the Sugar Rush arcade cabinet. The problem is, they have no actual money. While Ralph is busy making an ass of himself in order to make money as a viral internet sensation, Vanellope discovers an online game called slaughter race that feels more like home to her than Sugar Rush ever did. The only problem, how is she ever going to break the news to Ralph? Let’s find out as we dive into, Ralph Breaks the internet.

Main Character:

This time around, I’m giving the role of main character to Ralph and Vanellope equally. While last time, Vanellope’s story felt like an interruption to Ralph’s which the viewer was already quite invested in, this time, Vanellope feels like a much more vital part of the main story. As a result she feels a hell of a lot less annoying this time around. In this film, Vanellope is someone who feels like she’s accomplished all she can in her current surroundings and is looking for the next step in life. In slaughter race, Vanellope finds what she’s been missing. Of course she loves Ralph and doesn’t like the idea of leaving him behind, but she needs to do what’s best for herself.

But now, let’s talk about Ralph. Oh boy, do I have a lot to say about Ralph. I think between this movie and the last one I’ve realized that I relate to Ralph more than several characters we’ve covered in the past. While he’s not quite at that Max Goof level just yet, a difficult level for any character in fiction to reach, but I think I’ve come to understand what Ralph is all about and find we have a lot in common. In the last movie, Ralph was bothered by the fact that no one ever gave him a chance just because of something that’s really not his fault. When you’re a socially awkward kid with autism, you have a very difficult time making friends, that was the case with me and I think something similar is happening with Ralph. Ralph in the last movie felt very alone, so now that he finally has a true friend, he’ll do anything to keep them, and in doing so, he runs the risk of driving them further away. Like Ralph, I get overly excited when I make new friends, and sometimes that comes across and clingy and insecure. Sometimes, that mindset can end up costing me the very friends I hold so dear. In his efforts not to lose Vanellope, who has come to mean so much to him in their time together, Ralph resorts to doing awful things, to the point where he effectively becomes the villain of the piece. He even goes so far as to unleash a virus into slaughter race to keep Vanellope from staying there permanently. While I certainly do not condone Ralph’s behavior, I understand the loneliness that drew him to it all too well, but what Ralph mush learn is that sometimes if you truly love someone, you need to let them do what’s best for themselves.

Villain:

As I said, Ralph himself is effectively the villain of this film. The closest thing we have to a proper external antagonistic force is Arthur the Computer Virus. You could make a case for Double Dan or J.P. Spamley but the former isn’t in the movie long enough to earn that distinction and while the latter is certainly a sleezy crook, he’s too pathetic to be any sort of a real threat. Arthur the Virus has a pretty frightening appearance and is used by Ralph to disrupt slaughter race. His main mode of attack is to find insecurities in a systems defenses and duplicate them. And we’ll be saving how he utilizes this ability to nearly destroy the entire internet for The Dark Disney Factor, because it’s a doozy.

Side Characters:

Yes, this movie features all of the Disney Princesses but we’ll save talking about them for a later section.

I’m a little disappointed that Felix and Calhoun don’t really get anything to do in this movie. Sure there’s the whole thing with them adopting the refugees of sugar rush and Felix being driven insane by the prospect of parenthood, but nothing is actually done with it. Oh well, the movie does have a lot going on I guess, but I still would have enjoyed a bit more from that subplot.

Taraji P. Henson plays a new character named Yesss, essentially a personification of the YouTube algorithm. One would think that this would make her the villain by default but surprisingly no, she’s actually supportive of Ralph’s endeavor to save his friend’s game and is genuinely happy for him when he reaches his goal. That’s neat.

Sonic the Hedgehog is in this game, but since he’s not voiced by Jaleel White, he’s not my Sonic. I make an exception for Ben Scwartz though, he’s cool.

Alan Tudyk is back, though thankfully not as King Candy but rather as Knowsmore, a search engine mascot character that’s surprisingly funny.

Gal Gadot plays Shank, the leader of the crew of seemingly thuggish enemy racers in Slaughter Race. What I love about these guys is despite their menacing appearance, apparent love of violence and unsettling names like “Butcher Boy” and “Felony,” they’re actually a surprisingly friendly and sensitive bunch. They actually end up being kind of fun the more you get to know them.

Songs:

There is exactly one song in this movie, and it’s called A Place Called Slaughter Race, and it’s basically a parody of an “I Want” song. It’s admittedly pretty funny, especially the bits where the rabid dogs and killer sewer sharks that populate slaughter race act like the cute little animal friends you’d find in such a song, but it’s not especially memorable and while I’m sure Sarah Silverman can sing just fine, her Vanellope voice just isn’t really suited for singing.

Memorable Scenes:

Okay, we absolutely need to talk about the Princess scene. While helping to distribute Ralph’s viral videos as Pop Ups, Vanellope finds herself on OhMyDisney.com, because this is the only movie where Disney can actually get away with shameless and overt self-promotion so they’re going to go hard with it! After being chased by some imperial storm troopers, Vanellope ducks into a room where all the Disney Princesses are just hanging out and hilarity ensues. First things first, I need to give major props to this film for getting all the still living voice actresses to reprise their roles. Cinderella and Aurora are voiced by Jennifer Hale and Kate Higgins respectively who have effectively inherited the roles from the now deceased originators and screenwriter Pamela Ribbon voices Snow White, and while she doesn’t do the best job, I’ll cut her some slack since Adriana Caselotti is a difficult voice to replicate. As for the rest, Jodi Benson, Paige O’hara, Linda Larkin, Irene Bedard, Ming-Na Wen, Anika Noni Rose, Mandy Moore, Kelly MacDonald, Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel and Auli’i Crahalho are all present and accounted for. The fact that we actually got all these iconic characters together in one place with as many of their original voice actresses as physically possible is pretty damn cool in and of itself. The scene itself is an absolute delight. At first first, the princesses try to attack Vanellope, and as an aside, the image of Cinderella trying to cut a bitch with the broken glass of her own slipper is hilarious. Once Vanellope says that she herself is a princess, what follows is a series of jokes poking fun at the various Disney Princess tropes and Vanellope finding it all weird and uncomfortable. Fortunately, it never gets too meanspirited, though I do very much appreciate that in the thirty some odd years since The Little Mermaid, someone has apparently realized that yes, Ariel is indeed a moron because they lean into it hard in this scene. We get a brief scene of all the princesses in casual t-shirts, a very out of place reference to the Adam West Batman series, a questioning of the reality alterations that occur when one of them sings, a cameo from Anthony Daniels as C-3PO and the wonderful cherry on top, Merida speaking entirely in a thick unintelligible Scottish accent and the others claiming they can’t understand her because “She’s From the Other Studio.” I think at this point, it’s no secret that I love Disney Crossovers, and this movie gives us one of the best I’ve seen in only a four-minute scene. It might be one of my favorite scenes in any Disney Movie we’ve covered thus far. Wonderful stuff.

Story:

First and foremost, I just want to point out that a lot of the internet culture references in this movie are incredibly cringeworthy and sadly keep it from entering any of my top ten or twenty lists. Maybe some people find this sort of thing funny, but it’s not for me.

Anywho, the main message of Wreck-It-Ralph. Things like love and friendship can be wonderful, but they can also be deeply complicated. Having Vanellope in his life brought Ralph more joy than he ever thought possible, but because of that, he became deeply possessive and selfish. Yes, Ralph’s own happiness is important and there is no shame in putting yourself first on occasion, but not if that actively hinders the happiness of the person you care about. Ralph is forced to realize that he’s been holding Vanellope back and, as trite and cliché as this sounds, if he really loves her, he needs to let her go. A really nice touch is how when Vanellope finds out that Ralph sabotaged Slaugther Race, she smashes the hero necklace she made for him in the first movie. By the end, when they’ve finally reconciled, Ralph and Vanellope decide to each where half of the necklace. I like that. Yeah, while the first movie was all about Ralph proving he could be a hero, the reality is, Ralph and Vanellope have been heroes to each other and this is a nice reflection of that.

The Dark Disney Factor:

I feel I should give a brief mention of Gord, J.P. Spamley’s creepy assistant who seems to randomly pop up whenever his name is mentioned. He’s not in much of the movie, but he is the source of plenty of uncomfortable laughs.

There’s a post credits scene where Ralph invades a mobile game designed for toddlers and feeds a bunny pancakes until it becomes disgustingly obese and then eventually explodes. That’s deeply disturbing.

However, let’s get into the main event. Like I said, Arthur the Virus operates by finding insecurities in the system he’s attacking and replicating it. Well, evidently this applies to emotional insecurity because one look at the bundle of possessiveness and low self-esteem that is Ralph, he immediately sees a way to destroy the entire internet. How? Why, by cloning an army of zombie Ralph’s to completely wipe out the entire world wide web. That’s unsettling enough as it is, but things get even worse when the Ralph army coalesce into an enormous kaiju sized nightmare Ralph Monster. Jesus Christ! That thing is going to live in my nightmares. I’m sure he and Judge Doom will become poker buddies in no time.

Final Thoughts: I was shocked by how much I enjoyed this movie, especially when compared to the first movie. This movie definitely does a great job with the emotional core of the film, that being Ralph and Vanellope's friendship and the complications that arise therein. I found Ralph very relatable despite his character flaws and Vanellope was way less annoying this time around. Ultimately, I found this movie to be an incredibly enjoyable experience. Well, after two sequels in a row, why don't we tackle something new and original. Nah, just kidding. Next time, it's another remake as Deep Dive Disney looks at Aladdin.