I’ll admit it. I was wrong about Ralph Breaks the Internet. At least about whether or not I was going to like it.
Story Recap
In this sequel to 2012’s “Wreck It Ralph”, Ralph and Venellope have found their daily groove hanging out with friends and playing their roles for the customers in Litwak’s Arcade.
Venellope’s racing game gets broken and requires a new part, which can only be found on eBay. Litwak decides to scrap the game instead of replacing the part, sending Ralph and Venellope to the internet to try to replace it themselves.
Experiencing the internet opens up a whole new world for the two friends. They get a heaping helping of the good (The Knowsmore search bar is very helpful), and the bad (in-your face pop-up ads). Their trip to eBay to find the part doesn’t go quite as planned, and it turns into a race against time to get the money before their transaction on eBay is canceled. They go in search of ways to make money for their purchase, which is where the film takes off.
Along the way, Ralph and Venellope meet a broad range of characters, as one would imagine on the internet. Sketchy pop-up ads, “Yesss” the hip algorithm from “BuzzTube” who decides what’s trending and cool, an entire dressing room of Disney princesses, and a cast of racers from a game called “Slaughter Race” all create an engaging and funny world. Parents, no need to worry about “Slaughter Race”, only the name is scary.
The relationship between Ralph and Venellope gets tested when all the new experiences pull the friends’ hearts in different directions. Ralph wants to go home to what he knows. Venellope wants to stay an experience the newness and excitement of the bigger world. They have to decide: stay on the new and unknown internet, or go back to their trusty same-ol same-ol?
Thoughts
In my Holiday Movie Preview, I was not exactly encouraging folks to go see it.
The blatant Disney tie-ins seemed too in-your-face. And they were.
The internet characters and references were seen as an almost lazy replacement for the clever old-school arcade game characters references from the first Ralph. And they were.
Despite those shortcomings, I will admit that I enjoyed the movie. I had my 5-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son along for “audience research” and they both enjoyed the movie as well.
Kids Perspectives
My daughter, no stranger to the internet (as painful as that is to say), picked up on most of the internet references. The old-school arcade game references lost her a little bit. However, she enjoyed the Venellope character, and thoroughly enjoyed the scenes with the princesses. She also sparked to the “friendship” aspects of the story line. That’s my girl.
My son, he of the never-ending Fortnite playing, liked it much more than either he or I thought he would. The “Slaughter Race” scenes were right up his alley. He thought BuzzTube video scenes (spoiler alert: there are goats) were hysterical. Yep, he’s a boy alright.
For Parents
There were enough gags and laughs to keep parents interested, especially once they got to the internet. The imagery is fascinating, with all the brands you know represented in a city-scape. The ugly parts of the internet like nefarious pop-ups, viruses and bottom-feeder internet troll comments all get a little run, albeit in a fairly sanitized Disney way.
There is a nice moment where internet comments are addressed, and “Yesss” has to console Ralph after he is exposed negative comments. Too often, negative texts and comments have really terrible impacts on young, impressionable kids. I won’t spoil the moment in the movie, but I liked the message that this scene sent to young kids about things said about you on the web.
The best part of the movie for me was the friendship between Ralph and Venellope. Everyone has a friend like Ralph – the huge teddy-bear type of great, sweet friend who would do anything for you. Venellope challenges Ralph to expand his horizons, get out of his comfort zone and try new things.
Together they make a great pair, but what happens when friends start to grow apart? The story handles that in a touching way, and tells kids it’s okay for best friends to want different things.
There really isn’t a “villain” in the film, though a virus rears its’ ugly head (literally) and creates mayhem and some peril toward the end. Not scary peril, but more cartoonish. Enough to make it feel like there is something on the line for the friends that they need to overcome in the final scenes.
Recommendation
In the end, I was very pleasantly surprised by Ralph Breaks the Internet.
I would recommend it for kids 5-10, possibly up to 12 depending on your kid. Girls and boys should both enjoy it, there’s enough to keep everyone engaged. Parents should even find enough to like that it doesn’t put you to sleep. Overall, a fun way to spend an afternoon with your kids.