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Ralph Breaks the Internet
Jul. 30th, 2022 09:19 amRalph Breaks the Internet is that rare thing: a sequel that is as good as the original. Perhaps even better than? No, that might be going too far. I think perhaps it’s just more appealing to me personally because I’m more familiar with the internet allusions than I am to all the video game references in Wreck-It Ralph.
(I strongly suspect that watching this movie in 20 years’ time will be the kind of nostalgia trip that Wreck-It Ralph was when it came out. “Look at Ye Olde Internet!” we will coo, as delighted by the architecture of the internet of 2018 as people are now when they hear a dial-up sound in some movie set in the 1990s.)
As with Wreck-It Ralph, a lot of the pleasure of this movie comes from exploring the world: no longer the characters’ familiar comfortable arcade, but the vast new world of the internet, which they are discovering alongside the slightly more knowing audience. It combines the pleasures of recognition (look, there’s Google! There’s Amazon! etc) with the thrill of exploration as we follow Ralph and Vanellope to the lair of a shady pop-up ad. Yes, you do feel that shady pop-up ads must emanate from just this sort of grungy little office with bad fluorescent lighting!
Also, the story has a strong emotional backbone, and one that is unusual for a Disney movie: it’s a story of two friends who still love each other, but they’ve grown apart in their dreams and life goals. This is one of those things that happens fairly frequently in friendships… but the first time it happens it can feel intense and terrible, and it can be hard to see that the bedrock friendship is still there when that traitor wants to abandon you.
Certainly this is how Ralph takes Vanellope’s desire to join the online racing game Slaughter Race: as a defection. She is his first and only friend after many friendless years (actually perhaps not his only friend, but certainly his closest, and in the white heat of betrayal she feels like his only friend), and he absolutely loses it when he hears her tell someone else (she’s confiding in someone else! is that someone else her new best friend?) that she wants to stay in Slaughter Race.
This ends with Ralph’s neediness turning into a computer virus, which results in swarms of Ralph’s rampaging through the internet bellowing “Friend? Friend?” before joining forces in one giant Ralphzilla which, of course, climbs the tower of Google in order to catch Vanellope. This is one of those splendid sequences where you could not have guessed what was coming, but when it happens it feels inevitable and exactly right.
(I strongly suspect that watching this movie in 20 years’ time will be the kind of nostalgia trip that Wreck-It Ralph was when it came out. “Look at Ye Olde Internet!” we will coo, as delighted by the architecture of the internet of 2018 as people are now when they hear a dial-up sound in some movie set in the 1990s.)
As with Wreck-It Ralph, a lot of the pleasure of this movie comes from exploring the world: no longer the characters’ familiar comfortable arcade, but the vast new world of the internet, which they are discovering alongside the slightly more knowing audience. It combines the pleasures of recognition (look, there’s Google! There’s Amazon! etc) with the thrill of exploration as we follow Ralph and Vanellope to the lair of a shady pop-up ad. Yes, you do feel that shady pop-up ads must emanate from just this sort of grungy little office with bad fluorescent lighting!
Also, the story has a strong emotional backbone, and one that is unusual for a Disney movie: it’s a story of two friends who still love each other, but they’ve grown apart in their dreams and life goals. This is one of those things that happens fairly frequently in friendships… but the first time it happens it can feel intense and terrible, and it can be hard to see that the bedrock friendship is still there when that traitor wants to abandon you.
Certainly this is how Ralph takes Vanellope’s desire to join the online racing game Slaughter Race: as a defection. She is his first and only friend after many friendless years (actually perhaps not his only friend, but certainly his closest, and in the white heat of betrayal she feels like his only friend), and he absolutely loses it when he hears her tell someone else (she’s confiding in someone else! is that someone else her new best friend?) that she wants to stay in Slaughter Race.
This ends with Ralph’s neediness turning into a computer virus, which results in swarms of Ralph’s rampaging through the internet bellowing “Friend? Friend?” before joining forces in one giant Ralphzilla which, of course, climbs the tower of Google in order to catch Vanellope. This is one of those splendid sequences where you could not have guessed what was coming, but when it happens it feels inevitable and exactly right.
