Ralph Breaks the Internet

Ralph Breaks the Internet is a sequel of Wreck-It Ralph which somehow is not called Wreck-It Ralph 2. Year 2018 has been a terrible year for sequels after the disappointing Fantastic Beasts and The Incredibles 2. Thank goodness despite all the hype, Ralph Breaks the Internet does not bomb.

It is surprising that Ralph Breaks the Internet turns out to be a good, funny, and refreshing movie despite following exactly the same formula as the first movie. I remember Wreck-It Ralph originally got all the hype from featuring cameos from various games but it turned out to be a good movie with surprising twists and outcomes. For the sequel, just replace the game character cameos to Disney Princesses. In fact, it is quite ironic that the game character cameos are more prominent in this sequel compared to the first movie in which many just pass by on the screen for brief moments.

From the trailers, there are a lot of reasons to fear that Ralph Breaks the Internet would be a shit movie. They hardly features the series' original characters such as Fix-It Felix and Calhoun as Disney Princesses do most of the advertising suggesting that Disney might be banking only on their past successes. The visualisation of the internet, as amazing as it looks, reminds people of the shitty Emoji Movie from last year.

Thank goodness in the actual movie the Disney stuff is just a small part although most of the comedy relies on making fun of the Disney Princesses' tropes. The depiction of the internet life is also funny as it reflects our daily lives on the internet aptly. That means the original material sucks which.. well.. is true. That is the problem when the main characters suck. Ralph is ok but Vanellope is just an irritating brat. Other original characters e.g. Fix-It Felix, Calhoun, Shank, Yesss are actually quite interesting and better than Vanellope.

The plot is quite weak: Ralph and Vanellope go to the internet to find replacement steering wheel for Sugar Rush arcade machine from eBay. The middle of the movie is simply all the humour and satire with the internet and Disney stuff. The build up to the climax feels too abrupt and forced and what makes it worse, it is so out of character for Ralph wanting to introduce virus to Slaughter Race just to get Vanellope to find the game boring. All along Ralph's personality is more towards kind rather than being bad, cunning, or malicious. That is quite a waste because I think the actual part of 'breaking the internet' is quite apt and there are moments that give superhero movie kind of feel. 

The friendship thingy towards the end also feels forced as the fight and reconciliation are too sudden and random. I think the whole friendship theme fails from the start as I cannot sense any good friendship or chemistry between Ralph and Vanellope. Once again the movie ends by breaking cliche with Vanellope not returning to Sugar Rush. Well, that just cements her character as an irritating brat.

Nevertheless I think Ralph Breaks the Internet is still a very enjoyable movie. Initially I expect that Disney Princesses will save a terrible movie but it turns out that they make a good movie better. I would think that the Disney stuff is just the topping although no doubt they are the stars as they do the heavy lifting of the comedy as well as the action parts. The trailers reveal almost all the scenes involving Princesses so they reduce the surprise value a little bit. If the trailers never reveal that much, I am sure we will be laughing harder.

I am pretty sure that Ralph not only breaks the internet but will also break the box office. However, I still hope Disney will end the franchise here. The plot and story are already very weak here and continuing with another sequel will just breaking the franchise. I also hope that Disney will never consider Vanellope as a Disney Princess because she sucks. Lastly, I have a big question if the frog that kisses Ralph at the end of the climax is Prince Naveen from the Princess and the Frog. Lol.