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Animated Addict: "Ralph Wrecks the Internet" (2018)

There comes a time in everyone's life where they must venture out beyond the borders of their neighbourhood and explore the larger world.  The same is true for fictional characters- after all: how else are they going to go on an epic quest if they stay in their comfortable residence, eh?

After an accident damages the "Sugar Rush" game, the plug on it is pulled.  With her subjects now homeless, Vanellope and Ralph must set out beyond their arcade to find the piece that'll fix the game.

 Will our heroes survive the internet?  Will the internet survive Wreck-It Ralph?

The original movie charmed audiences with it's premise, characters, and plot.  I really enjoyed "Wreck-It Ralph".  In fact, I often pop it in and watch it when I'm feeling a little down.

Unfortunately, I can't really say the same about "Ralph Breaks the Internet".

The story isn't bad- but lacks the emotional strength of the first one.  It felt like it was trying too hard to be clever and "relevant" with its depiction of the internet.  The pacing and events seemed to be a bit formulaic in my opinion, with very few surprises.  I will say though that the theme that insecurities make a person their own worse enemy- though far from subtle, was done in a very interesting way.

Ralph lacked the depth that he showed in the first installment of the franchise.  He just felt flat to me.  I found it hard to muster much in the way of emotional connection to him.  His name is in the title, but he's not really "there" in the movie, so to speak.  The same could be said of Vanellope to an extent- which is weird, since this is pretty much her movie to be honest.  She's got more emotional depth than Ralph, but lacked that vital energy that she had in the first one.  The internet dwellers weren't bad, but not really enough to engage me.  The one I wanted to learn a bit more about was Yesss- the operator of "BuzzzTube".

I didn't mind the acting in this movie.  Sarah Silverman, John C. Reilly did a good job with Vanellope and Ralph, but they paled in comparison to Gal Gadot (as Shank), Taraji P. Henson (as Yesss), and Alan Tudyk (as KnowsMore in two scenes).  When the supporting characters are more engagingly performed than the lead ones... there's a small problem.  The energy and depth of character simply wasn't there enough for me to connect to our heroes.

The animation is great though- especially the reveal of the internet.  The amount of detail was amazing.  I also really loved how internet users were depicted visually with little "avatars" of them roaming around. The "boss fight" was fantastic as well- that part of the movie was the first time I found myself going, "Oooooo!"... too bad it was a tad too late.

The Stan Lee cameo was great, by the way.

I can't honestly say that I would recommend "Ralph Breaks the Internet".  "Wreck-It Ralph" made me lose count of how many cheesy poofs I ate by making me want to pay attention to the movie.  This movie?  I ate 63 cheesy poofs.

Sad.

I'm going to have to Ctl-Alt-Del "Ralph Breaks the Internet" into "The Ugly".
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