Ralph Breaks the Internet (Phil Johnston / Rick Moore)

[Philip J. Fry]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0b/Ralph_Breaks_the_Internet_%282 018_film_poster%29.png/220px-Ralph_Breaks_the_Internet_%282 018_film_poster%29.png

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BcYBFC6zfY

IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5848272/) / wiki (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Breaks_the_Internet) / RT (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ralph_breaks_the_internet) / Metcritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/ralph-breaks-the-internet)

Official website (https://movies.disney.com/ralph-breaks-the-internet-wreck-it-ralph-2)

[Henry Gale]

Hmmm, I got around to this today and honestly my feelings somehow still shook out on the positive end of things despite being pretty aware of significant elements of it absolutely not working for me along the way. Somewhere in the last act it came together for me, but it's a rocky road (or insert a more specific Sugar Mountain or Slaughter Race track reference, if you will) before that.

Little things like a digital avatar of Jason Mantzoukas (Seemingly as himself? He is outfitted with the signature white oxford shirt and jeans) impassionedly participating in a Baby Groot Q&A absolutely left me in a delighted daze, while something like Ralph demonstrating flossing in a dance video definitely tightened the cringe grips. Overall I think the less it goes for reference-propelled gags and more it dug into exploring its core themes largely stemming from Ralph and Venelope's friendship, the better off it was.

I dunno, maybe my biggest mistake was watching this after Into the Spider-Verse felt like exactly the euphoric and endlessly inspired way to sequelize and integrate so much cultural intersection in a very self-reflexive way and still tell a story with palpable weight amongst all its madcap impulses seemingly effortlessly. This movie eventually focuses up and gets to a compelling enough conclusion, but it makes a lot of questionable detours before crossing that finish line. (Thus conclusing my attempts at driving/racing analogies.)

A mild yay, but disappointing that its mild at all considering just how enduringly entertaining the original is.

[Philip J. Fry]

"Pancakes"
"Milkshakes"
"Pancakes"
"Milkshakes"
"Pancakes"
"Milkshakes"

[Watashi]

I really don't understand these movies.

[Peng]

The sequel trades the close-circuit world of its game arcade for the messy sprawl of open internet, which is admirably ambitious but proves to be some undoing a bit. The tight logic in adventure becomes spotty this time, not as parallel to the spectacle's sight-recognition pleasure as the original's, thus it requires so many shortcuts in both plot and theme expression that it becomes overstuffed and tiredly blunt at times.

Still, this spectacle does exceed the last time, especially with how the production design maps out the logistic of everyday online life to this animated world so adeptly. And that ambition to not be a repeat counts for something, disregarding old world and characters for new place and theme, the latter downright Pixar-ian in its unusual wisdom (however nakedly blunt it comes off) and also enriching the original's strongest element: the central relationship between Ralph and Vanellope. The way the film both retains the core of that relationship and then evolves, deepens, and makes peace with its changes by the end is quite remarkable, leaving us with an unexpectedly mature final scene. 7/10

[Grouchy]

You know, this was a decent animated film, well written even if the themes are not very subtle (as befits a movie intended for kids) and it has pretty solid jokes about the internet, but during the whole Disney sequence there was a voice in the back of my head screaming DISNEY YOU FUCKING EVIL CORPORATION YOU WANT TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD.

I mean, it was grotesque dick-waving - they even threw in a Batman reference.

[Dukefrukem]

I really don't understand these movies.

What do you mean?