It’s been six years since director Rich Moore launched viewers into the nostalgia-ridden world of “Wreck it Ralph”, and to the delight of many, everybody’s favorite video game hero has returned for “Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet”. The new movie picks up with Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) and Ralph (John C. Reilly) living their ideal lives in their video games—defeating their opponents all day and drinking root beer all night. For Ralph, this lifestyle is more than satisfactory, but it is quite obvious that Vanellope is more interested in what life is like outside of the arcade.
The story truly begins after the main characters’ routine lives are suddenly derailed when the steering wheel of Vanellope’s game, Sugar Rush, is broken off, thus forcing our protagonists to venture out of the arcade in search of a new wheel so her game won’t be unplugged. And there is no better place to look for a vintage video game piece than the Internet.
The way that the internet is portrayed in the movie is really one of the film’s highlighting aspects, mostly because it’s exactly what one would expect an internet city to look like. Apps like Snapchat and “BuzzTube” are portrayed as towering buildings, and each internet user is shown as a little avatar making their way through the seemingly endless components of the web. Upon reaching the internet metropolis, Vanellope and Ralph make their way to eBay and win the bid for the steering wheel— realizing soon after that they have no real currency and have just 24 hours to come up with the cash before they lose their item.
From there, our main characters take to BuzzTube in order to pay for the steering wheel, encountering countless fun and distinctive characters along the way. The movie is quite ambitious in terms of character cameos, but they all work out very nicely and make the film even more fun to watch. One particular scene featuring all of the Disney princesses was a smash hit with viewers and added an interesting and nostalgic aspect to the whole film. The princess scene was one of my favorite parts of the film, and shows a more casual side of the Disney royalty, while also exploiting the recurring themes of the princess movies, like needing a “big strong man” to save the day, or being imprisoned or enslaved.
Overall, the movie was quite satisfactory. It was jam-packed with heartfelt moments, life lessons, and even a humorous musical number. The whole plot encompasses Vanellope’s yearning to become something more in life and ultimately leads to Ralph having to let her go, which truly is an important lesson, especially for the young, impressionable audience that the movie is catering to. Sequels are rarely as good as their predecessors, but Moore really hit the nail on the head and created a movie that fully captures the embodiment of the internet, and what it really means to be a good friend.
Rate: 4.5/5 torches
Photo provided by screenrant.com