By KAITLYN HENSON
Staff Writer
The popular Disney movie “Wreck-It Ralph” became a hit in 2012 for its nostalgia-driven narrative of video game characters in an arcade, all while telling the compelling story of the character Wreck-It Ralph and his journey with accepting himself as the bad guy of his game. But despite the overwhelming success of the movie, the sequel doesn’t bear the same intrigue – if anything – it’s much, much worse.
“Ralph Breaks The Internet” came out on November 21, 2018, and was directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, the same people who directed the previous Wreck-It Ralph movie. The precious movie is about the game Fix-It Felix Jr., a popular game back in the day where the bad guy Ralph wrecks the building with townsfolk living there, and it’s up to Felix to use his magic hammer to fix what is broken. After 30 years of the game’s mechanics working that way, Ralph is getting tired of always being seen as the bad guy and tries to set out to find another game to become the hero in, to prove himself. Throughout the movie, he goes through different games and starts to accept himself as being the bad guy, because that’s who he is in his programming, and that was not a bad thing at all.
The first Wreck-It Ralph movie portrayed a powerful message that really resonated with audiences, and it really resonated with me as well. I love the speech made in the final act where Ralph says “I’m bad, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.” And I believe that’s a perfect message for a film like this, and it’s presented in a very fun and adventurous movie that all audiences would enjoy.
Ralph Breaks The Internet however is nothing like that. The film takes place years after the first movie, with Ralph and his new best friend Vanellope (who he met in the first movie) hanging out together in the arcade. It’s a very weird friendship that was nothing like the first movie, where the first movie portrayed their friendship as a father-daughter, older brother, and younger sister relationship, but in this movie, it’s more of an obsessive grown-man and child relationship. I remember sitting in the theatre when this movie first came out and I was confused by why I felt a little uncomfortable by it.
The plot of Ralph Breaks The Internet starts off when Vanellope starts to get bored of her racing game Sugar Rush (when in the first movie her whole arc is to become accepted and seen as a person in her own game instead of just a glitch) and wants to start adventuring. Ralph, worried that his friend might not like hanging out with him anymore, goes into Sugar Rush while the game is being played and he creates a new track. Vanellope goes on the track, unbeknownst to her that the player is confused and is trying to take control of the steering wheel – and then the steering wheel of the arcade machine breaks. The plot moves forward when Ralph and Vanellope decide to go to the internet to try and find a replacement steering wheel for Vanellope’s game so her game doesn’t shut down.
Already from the beginning, there are some weird things in the movie that weren’t like the one previously. A big point made in Wreck-It Ralph is the term “going turbo”, coming from a story in the arcade of a game character named Turbo abandoning his game and trying to take over another one. But it seems that Ralph Breaks The Internet completely forgets this plot point because it completely dismisses it. Ralph creates the new track for Vanellope during the day, while someone is already playing the game, and he left his own game WHILE it could’ve been played by someone. It was essentially his fault for getting her game unplugged, and he’s not the least bit sorry for her. He of all people should know what it’s like to lose a game, a home because that nearly happened to him. But instead – he’s all jolly and happy for her because now she gets to live with him. It’s just very weird.
Also, I’m not a big fan of the internet plot – yes it was an intriguing thought before – but it doesn’t make a lot of sense with the theme of Wreck-It Ralph. And the way it’s executed in this movie reminds me an awful lot like what the Emoji movie did, with its endless references to different websites and pop culture references to try and be “hip and cool” with the kids nowadays. It’s exactly like that in this movie, which makes it all the weirder.
Now, remember when I mentioned, “going turbo”? That’s exactly what Vanellope’s whole arc is about. She finds this new racing game on the internet called Slaughter Race and finds it cool because there are no limits to what you could do. Because of this, she wants to stay there instead of Sugar Rush – which to me is weird because in the first movie she worked so hard and was so desperate to be accepted by everyone in Sugar Rush, and FINALLY in the end her game was fixed and everyone remembered who she was – and now she’s bored of it.
Also, a thing I want to mention is the whole message the movie is trying to portray. It’s very obvious that in this movie Ralph is a very obsessive friend who wants all control of Vanellope’s life and decisions, and Vanellope wants something new in her life. The message the movie’s trying to convey is that it’s okay if friends want to go down different paths than you. I think that’s a great message and it should be important to tell because it’s not expressed enough in the media and it’s great what they were trying to do here. However – execution is key to any message being portrayed. And Ralph Breaks The Internet is a prime example of what NOT to do with this sort of message. Let me explain.
Ralph’s behavior in this movie is VERY inappropriate. He’s so desperate to maintain the friendship of a little girl that he immediately thinks that she’s being brainwashed, she can’t be without him, and she should always be at his side. When she makes the decision to stay in Slaughter Race despite Ralph’s rejections, he decides to FIND A VIRUS, knowing FULL WELL that Vanellope is a glitch and it will very much damage the game she’s in and hurt her, all because of his JEALOUSY. And not only that, the virus sees Ralph’s “insecurity” and instantly begins replicating it by making thousands of Ralph clones go after Vanellope in a very creepy and disturbing way. I remember sitting in the movie theatre, curling myself in a ball because of how uncomfortable I felt because I couldn’t stand what was happening on screen. This was never how Ralph acted in the first movie.
After rewatching Ralph Breaks The Internet last weekend I can 100% say this movie is still not worth watching. Its portrayal of its message is terrible and they completely ruined these characters and the whole premise of the first movie, with details that are never mentioned again. Everything is so convoluted and messy and it all wraps together into a terrible mash of self-marketing and bad writing. I’m very disappointed in this movie, especially since the first movie made such an impact on so many people. It’s truly sad what this movie ended up becoming because it had so much potential to be something much more.