Disney Doing Self - Deprecation
Sequels are a dime a dozen in the animated genre. From Shrek to Toy Story to The Lego Movie, if an animated feature film performs even remotely well at the box office, a follow-up is all but assured. But in their eight-decade history, Walt Disney Animation Studios had essentially ignored this practice, with 1990’s The Rescuers Down Under oddly standing as the only animated sequel in their canon (I don’t consider Fantasia 2000 and Winnie the Pooh to technically be sequels and neither should you).
When the studio announced in 2017 that Wreck-It Ralph would become only the second Disney film in history to receive a sequel, it seemed like a rather odd move for the studio, given films like Zootopia, Moana, and Big Hero 6 had all performed better at the worldwide box office. Still, the $471 million total Wreck-It Ralph had earned was nothing to sneeze at, and the expansive video game world Ralph, Vanellope and co. called home lent itself perfectly to more adventures.
Shortly after the release of Wreck-It Ralph in 2012, director Rich Moore was already crowing about the possibility of a sequel, with the filmmaker feeling they had barely scratched the surface of the video game world. After production of Zootopia wrapped in 2016, which Moore co-directed with Byron Howard, Disney officially announced a Wreck-It Ralph sequel had been greenlit, with a preliminary release date of March 2018. Moore had been signed to co-direct with screenwriter Phil Johnston, who had co-written the original film, while original voice actors John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch would all return to reprise their roles.
During the announcement, Moore also teased the plot of the sequel, which would find Ralph leaving the safety of the video game arcade for the chaotic world of the Internet, which, unsurprisingly, he would subsequently wreck. In late 2016, Moore, Johnston, and screenwriter Pamela Ribon began development of the sequel’s script, which was now known as Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2. However, the initial idea for the film’s concept was ultimately wildly different from the final film.
In the original working version of the script, Vanellope became a social media influencer/Internet celebrity, causing the playful princess to become self-absorbed and conceited. After Ralph finds himself stuck in jail for daring to challenge Vanellope’s overzealous fans, he would band together with a search engine entity named Knowsmore to help save Vanellope from the perils of fame. But the team felt the concept cast Vanellope in a negative light and the script was ultimately becoming overly negative and dour.
The entire concept was abandoned in favour of a narrative that focused on the friendship of Ralph and Vanellope, as the pair realise their paths are going in different directions.
THE STORY
Six years since they first met, Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz have stayed best friends, hanging out after work in Litwak's Arcade. One day, Vanellope expresses how bored she has become of Sugar Rush's tracks, so Ralph sneaks into the game and makes a new track for her. The arcade player fights Vanellope's control, causing the cabinet's steering wheel to pop off. Mr. Litwak attempts to reattach the wheel to the console, but accidentally breaks it in half. As the company that made Sugar Rush is defunct, and the cost of a replacement wheel on eBay is too high, Litwak decides to scrap Sugar Rush, and unplugs the game. With Fix-It Felix and Tamora Jean Calhoun's help, the Surge Protector finds homes for all its citizens as a short term measure as they figure out how to save the game. After talking with Felix, Ralph decides to grab Vanellope and travel to the Internet via Litwak's new Wi-Fi router. Inside the Internet, depicted as a place where websites are geographical locations, users are represented by traveling avatars and programs are people.
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In a major coup for the production, the filmmakers were able to secure all the original voice actresses of the Disney Princesses for the film, except for Adriana Caselotti as Snow White, Ilene Woods as Cinderella, and Mary Costa as Aurora, as Caselotti and Woods had both passed away and Costa had retired from acting in 2000. In their place, Jennifer Hale and Kate Higgins were enlisted for Cinderella and Aurora respectively, as the pair had been voicing the characters in various Disney media for over 15 years. Ribon performed the voice of Snow White for temporary reference recordings, but Moore and Johnston ultimately loved her performance and kept her voice in the final film.
MY VERDICT
Ralph Breaks the Internet is every bit as narratively enjoyable, visually ambitious, and gorgeously animated as its predecessor, proving Disney can (and usually does) make exceptional non-Pixar animated sequels. With a whole host of meta-aware humour and, yes, a stack of cameos from the expansive Disney universe, the film never forgets the key ingredient often lacking from other nostalgic-heavy nonsense – its heart.
As entertaining and joyful as all the Easter eggs of pop culture references may be, they’re only part of the magic of the film. What sets Ralph Breaks the Internet apart is its gorgeous beating heart with a narrative that will surely tug at your heartstrings. As Ralph and Venellope’s friendship is tested, there’s a strong message conveyed of the consequences of trying to control your friends and the dangers of suffocating them when you refuse to accept the fact that change is sometimes inevitable. This leads to a conclusion that’s emotionally powerful, as the best Disney animated films often are. Bring the tissues. You might need them. The film’s biggest highlight (especially for Disney fans) is a visit to the Magic Kingdom of Oh My Disney, where everyone from Dumbo to Eeyore, stormtroopers to the Millennium Falcon, Iron Man to Baby Groot (who holds a hilarious Q&A session with overzealous fans), and every single Disney Princess can be found. Is this a moment of self-aggrandising, where Disney is simply showing off how ridiculously vast their catalogue of pop culture icons has become? Well, of course it is. But A) can you really blame them? And B) what makes this sequence so glorious is how pointedly and sharply Disney is able to poke some good-natured fun at itself. It’s self-deprecation we haven’t seen since the likes of Shrek, though that was more of a cheap, shallow dig from a petty former employee rather than loving homage. The self-awareness of each Princess to acknowledge the flaws found in their narratives (“Do people assume all your problems got solved because a big strong man showed up?”) and cliche characteristics they each share (a commonality of a lack of a mother) creates the film’s brilliant satirical showpiece that proves Disney can indeed let down its hair and not take itself so damn seriously. There’s even a cheeky stab at Merida, aka Pixar’s only Princess, who none of the other characters can understand because “she’s from the other studio.” Given the target audience here is children, Ralph Breaks the Internet sadly fails to stretch too deeply into the truly dark and damaging nature of the internet. Outside of a warning to “never read the comments,” and a finale featuring an out-of-control computer virus that threatens to destroy everything around it, the internet is perhaps presented a little too sanitised and positive. Sure, it’s a kid’s movie that decides to keep things relatively light, and that’s entirely fine. But teaching an audience of children about the dangers of the online world could have been a valuable moment that perhaps a studio like Pixar would have been brave enough to explore. With eye-popping animation, a terrific voice cast, a touching and entertaining narrative, some brilliant self-deprecating humour, and a treasure trove of delightful cameos, Ralph Breaks the Internet is everything a sequel should be and then some. It’s heartwarming and hilarious, dazzling and impressive, and a wonderful piece of cinema for the whole family to enjoy. And be sure to remain for the entirety of the credits for a sublime piece of playful internet trolling that delivers plenty of LOLs.
Is Ralph Breaks the Internet a Disney Classic? While Ralph Breaks the Internet is supremely entertaining surprising moving, and one of the best animated sequels ever produced, we’re not quite in Disney Classic territory just yet. It’s hard to know if a video game-centric film will truly stand the test of time like other Disney Classics, but Ralph and Vanellope certainly make a strong case for their legacy to live on for decades to come.
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