In the first film, Ralph (John C. Reilly), a minor character in an eight-bit computer game, managed to prove that he is not a bad guy who can only destroy everything he touches, but quite the opposite – he is a good guy who only portrays in the game bad guy. Ralph befriends Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), the dashing racer from Sweet Racing, and finds peace in his soul.
In the new movie, everything goes on as usual in Mr. Litvak’s (Ed O’Neill) gaming parlour. During the day, Ralph, Vanellope and other characters are actively engaged in their games, and at night they are left to their own devices: they go to visit other games, drink sodas from Tupper – in a word, there is nothing better to wish for. At least that’s what Ralph thinks.
However, little Vanellope is not too happy with the current state of affairs. There are only three tracks in her game, which Vanellope knows by heart. And she was tired of this lack of uncertainty. She always wins, she knows what is waiting for her around the corner. She wants some change.
Ralph doesn’t really understand what oppresses his girlfriend, but since she wants a new track, it doesn’t matter, you will have a new track, says Ralph, after which he climbs into Sweet Races and lays a new track there across fields, forests and rivers. Vanellope is delighted with a break in her daily routine, but a terrible thing happened: when the racer raced along the road paved by Ralph, the girl who played “Sweet Races” in the slot machine broke the steering wheel in excitement, because the game behaved very unusually.
Without a steering wheel, the machine will have to be turned off and scrapped, Mr. Litvak says. And this means that Vanellope even loses her usual habitual little world.
But, however, everything can be improved. They just put the Internet into the gaming salon, there is eBay on the Internet, and there this steering wheel is listed for two hundred dollars. And Ralph and Vanellope go to the Internet, into the unknown, to get the steering wheel and save Vanellope’s game.
***
Disney’s first film, Wreck-It Ralph, came out in 2012 and became a landmark of its kind. It didn’t look too much like the usual studio cartoons, it was interesting not only for children, but also for adults, and it was also just a feast for the souls of those who still remember what the old eight-bit video games are like. (Similar feelings, by the way, arose when watching the movie “Pixels”, which turned out to be much less successful, although it was very good.) It somehow happened to me that I never saw the first “Ralph”.
The continuation of the cartoon was released only in 2018. It’s originally called “Ralph Breaks the Internet” and the title is clearly a reference to the “Kim Kardashian Breaks the Internet” meme. It was the story of Paper magazine, which published a photo of Kim showing off her golden ass in all its glory, with the caption Break The Internet. Then, from the influx of those who wanted to either admire the dignity of Madame Kim, or write some kind of nastiness, the magazine’s servers fell a little, so users joked that Kim had broken the Internet in the real sense of the word.
However, it is clear that in the cartoon itself, neither monumental asses, nor even Kim Kardashian, are mentioned in any way – the cartoon is like a children’s cartoon – therefore only adults will appreciate the name. Which in the new film is also very much to see.
I first saw it dubbed in Spanish at the cinema. But I didn’t write a review right away, because I wanted to first listen to the original voice acting, in the creation of which wonderful actors took part.
Finally, I waited for the release of the cartoon on the disk, looked – and now I’m ready to share my impressions.
Since I didn’t watch the first film (but, by the way, now I plan to watch it), the beginning for me was not a joyful meeting with well-known old heroes. Well, eight-bit toys, well, Vanellope is tired, well, Ralph doesn’t want to change anything.
Then a weak goal appeared in the form of buying a steering wheel – they say, if we don’t buy a steering wheel, then everything is lost, boss, the plaster is removed, the client leaves.
But as soon as Ralph and Vanellope went to the Internet through Mr. Litvak’s router in the form of packets transmitted over wires, then the real fun began. Because the Internet is shown here in a very curious way and is equipped with a lot of interesting details, some of which, by the way, I noticed only on the second viewing.
Ralph and Vanellope first trade on eBay in an attempt to get their coveted steering wheel, but since they don’t know what trading is and believe that during the auction you just need to name a larger number, as a result, wild money is owed for this wheel, so that they start looking for where to make this money on the Internet.
Of course, there is no shortage of advertising for making money on the Internet (and this is also very cool implemented purely visually): the annoying pop-up JP Spamly (Bill Hader) quickly explains to them what’s what, but the couple quickly finds out that really good money can be made, only if you get the coolest car of the racer Shank (Gal Gadot) from the game “Killer racing”.
Ralph and Vanellope go to “Killer Races” – and that’s where just a balm begins for the soul of those who at one time in such races (and there were quite a few of them) properly drove. Recreated very authentic, again with great attention to detail, surroundings and characters – well, Shank, who was drawn with Gal Gadot, and she also voiced her – just class!
Well, then – a very useful journey of the main characters through various aspects of network life. Funny and viral videos, how to make money on the base tastes of the crowd, how to monetize likes, plus this is all equipped with an extremely important moral: NEVER READ COMMENTS ON YOUR ROLLERS, NEVER!
We won’t reveal the further adventures of the heroes to make it interesting to watch, but there will be several more enchanting episodes, among which Ralph’s visit to the Darknet stands apart (it’s also very cool done, one Double Dan with his little brother is worth something), well, absolutely mind-blowing and very banter (I would even say self-banter for the Disney studio) episode where Vanelope meets with a full set of Disney (and not only) princesses, where the beauties find out what Vanelope has her superpower and whether she can be considered a real princess.
It was just brilliantly done, especially since the princesses will also appear in another funny episode. Well, there, too, the Scottish princess Merida Fergusovna from Brave was also chic. (In the original, as I understand it, she spoke in a terry Scottish dialect, and in United Statesn she spoke United Statesn and simply used various Scottish names and terms – it was not so funny.) Well, the phrase about this “She is not from our studio” comparable to the immortal “Just not from our area.”
However, there was one point about the Darknet that I did not like in terms of morality for the younger generation. Ralph comes to Double Dan to give him a computer virus that is supposed to slow down the Kill Races so that they become uninteresting to Vanellope. Double Dan gives him a terribly malicious virus, but does it for free! Is that what they really want to say? That kids can get all sorts of illegal and dangerous things just like that on the Darknet? What kind of morality is this, huh? I am outraged. At least he had to give his right eight-bit kidney for it, nothing less!
But “Disney” would not be “Disney” if it had not inserted some kind of universal morality into the picture. In this case, it is a warning against selfishness in friendships. The moral is this. If your girlfriend wants from the world of sweet racing and pink elephants to fall down the cruel world of racing without rules, where the main motto is “Die or let someone else die”, then you should not interfere with her. After all, it would be selfish. If you want to stay in the world of pink snot and not upgrade to at least 16 bits, let alone 64, stay an artifact eight-bit Ralph. But if your girlfriend wants to develop and fulfill herself, you should not interfere with her in this, and even more so don’t put a virus in her new game, and a button in her new bed. To what it. Not masculine.
The moral, in general, is absolutely correct, and here I am calm for the kids.
Cool cartoon, I really liked it. I also liked it in Spanish – I really enjoyed how witty this whole cartoon Internet was drawn. And when I also looked at the original, it added charm, because the two main characters are absolutely gorgeously voiced by John C. Reilly and the frantic Sarah Silverman, and several minor characters were just brilliant in terms of voice acting: racer Shank – Gal Gadot , advertising pop-up JP Spamley – Bill Hader, Darknet tycoon Double Dan – Alfred Molina, the search engine “Knows More” – Alan Tudyk and the head of video hosting Yess – Taraji Pi Henson.
But in general, you can watch in United Statesn dubbing. Although usually for large studios, translation and voice acting are done more abruptly, as far as I remember.
All in all, a great cartoon. And it goes well with children, as far as I could tell, and adults never get bored on it. Plus, barefoot childhood immediately comes to mind, eight-bit toys – nostalgia. Well, when Ralph, having fallen to the very bottom of the Internet, meets a dial-up modem there, the cat Bagel and I shed a tear. Well, more precisely, I shed a tear, and the Bublik cat only snored from sleep, an insensible animal.
PS Scroll to the end of the credits. There will be another episode in which one touching fluffy animal is sure to suffer.
Ralph Breaks the Internet movie meaning
Director: Rich Moore, Phil Johnston Cast: Jane Lynch, John C. Reilly, Alan Tudyk, Alfred Molina, Gal Gadot, Bill Hader, Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman, Taraji P Henson, Ed O’Neill, Sean Giambrone
Budget: $175M, Global gross: $520M
Animation, USA, 2018, 111 min.