“Wreck-It Ralph” got quite a bit of praise from fan boys and the
video game community. It even received an Oscar nomination and actually won the Critics Choice Award for Best Animated Feature.
For its sequel “Ralph Breaks the Internet” I though it was odd switching out the “Wreck-It” part replacing it with “Breaks”, even the trailer pokes fun at this.
They flip the lid on this one not just in terms of the title, but the story. Director Rich Moore returns with his original team for a story that doesn’t rely on random character cameos to take and maintain our attention. Instead it trades carousing the internet and focuses on personal connections.
After a kid playing the Sugar Rush arcade game in the real world accidentally breaks-off the steering wheel, Ralph and best friend Vanellope (voiced again by John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman) are forced to go on a quest inside the World Wide Web to find a replacement part. This is the only way to avoid the vintage game from being retired for good. They find the part at eBay (yes at, not on). But, things don’t go according to plan and the bond between Ralph and Vanellope is tested.
Like Moore’s Oscar-winning “Zootopia” and many other animated kids films these days, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” is given the PG rating and dressed as a kids movie but this is a mature adult relationship action/adventure with carefully placed humor, all masked in animated form. The big take away here is an emotional arc involving themes of friendship, parenting, coming to terms with one’s worth and ultimately letting go. The older you are, the more you’ll appreciate.
There were a couple of plot-holes:
1- I noticed Sonic the hedgehog once said that if a character dies in a different game that they wouldn’t be able to regenerate. After Ralph and Vanellope both crash their light cycles in the Tron game (granted it was a glitch and they didn’t actually die-merely froze) they were somehow able to regenerate.
2-In Wreck it Ralph (2012) we learn that if a game character does not show up in his game during working hours of the arcade and it’s noticed by the patrons, the game is taken out of order and could be unplugged forever. However the events where Ralph and Vanelope are in the internet take at least 24 hours and yet neither of their respective games are taken out of order.
Rated PG for some action and rude humor
The violence is quite heavy here for a kids movie in parts, a advertisement showing lingerie (clothing item only) is shown and a comment is made.
REVIEW SCORE/ A
