WiFi Ralph

"Ralph Breaks the Internet" truly surprised me. I was resistant to watching it during its theatrical run, despite being a big fan of its predecessor and knowing the pedigree of Walt Disney Animation. The marketing for this movie, which focused heavily on its new internet elements gave me more "Emoji Movie" vibes than classic Disney. "Look, we have Twitter references! Snapchat! Oh, and Star Wars and Disney princesses!" While I'm sure this strategy successfully got the butts of a lot of kids in theaters, it kept the butt of this cynical-but-otherwise-Disney-loving adult, firmly out. So, when I gave "Ralph Breaks the Internet" a watch recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find it contained all the consistent world-building, charming characters, and genuine heart of the original.

The sequel finds Ralph, and his best friend Vanellope living a charmed but otherwise stagnant life after the events of the first movie. While this stagnancy doesn't bother Ralph in the slightest, Vanellope (in true Disney princess fashion), makes it clear she wants more, and it's this tension that forms the root of the struggle of the story, including causing the catalyst that sends them on their journey to the internet.

I found myself as charmed by the movie's handling of the physical manifestation of the internet as I did by the original's handling of the lives of video game characters. (Side note: although the focus isn't nearly as high on video games as the original, there are still some fun elements there, such as musings on the grooming habits of a certain "Street Fighter" character.) The internet is a living world here, and the filmmakers clearly thought about all the ways they could have its well-known quirks inhabit themselves in the form of characters. Standouts for me were the pop-up street salesmen that aggressively touted their click-bait articles, and the search-engine worm character whose auto-fill was "a tad aggressive."

More than the handling of the world though, what I found truly surprising and compelling about this movie were its themes and the way it handled them. "Wreck-It Ralph" was a movie about identity and self-acceptance. "Ralph Breaks the Internet," far from being the cheap cash grab I thought it would be, actually continues those themes in ways I didn't expect, ways that I even think might even be new and challenging for kids.

Overall, "Ralph Breaks the Internet" was a much more worthy successor to the original film than I anticipated. If you're looking for a fun, humorous, imaginative movie that you can turn your brain off for, it provides all the necessary thrills. But it rarely loses sight of the characters and the heart that make these particular thrills so special.