PRO: ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ is a colorful film with a heartwarming tale

By Hwan Lee

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” is a hilarious and beautifully animated film that will bring you a horde of laughs filled with clever references to the mainstream internet, while exploring the depths of true friendship.

The sequel to Disney’s 2012 “Wreck-It Ralph,” concerns about what Disney would do in order to continue the story of the duo Ralph and Vanellope, arose. One would fear they would painfully fail in the process. But, one would be wrong.

Disney has brought in a new heartwarming tale about the definition of friendship with both Ralph and Vanellope being sent into the internet world after a chaotic moment.

The movie was even more impressive when they introduced a recurring theme of the pursuit of happiness and trust, and how the two protagonists worked together in order to accomplish their dreams of being together.

Disney also did a marvelous job on visualizing mainstream internet and turning it into a visual delight for all to see.

The brightly colored animation style was absolutely stunning. The visuals and animations of certain characters blending from both the video game universe and the internet world represented the modern age extremely well.

References to Google, Instagram, YouTube, Disney and even the bothersome advertisements that people interact with online on a daily basis was amazing to see. The design of the characters interacting with Ralph, Vanellope and the internet was an amazing sight to see.

There were also numerous action sequences such as cars racing, that were beautiful and thrilling.

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” is an amazing laughter-filled movie you absolutely must see if you’re a huge fan of Disney, or the “Wreck-It Ralph” series. You’ll definitely feel a blast of nostalgia after this movie, and you will not regret one second of it.

CON: ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ is a far cry from the charm of its predecessor

By Brenna White

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” forfeits the nostalgic charm and subtle writing from its predecessor for pop culture references and the flashy, but frivolous world of online media.

Fearing the worst based on the trailers, one can say the severity of Disney’s sins thankfully does not compare, but there is no comparison between this film and the original.

The main problem this film faces is the overwhelming amount of new world building. Clever manifestations of the internet take the forefront over character development and are consistently relied upon as sloppy plot devices.

Gone are the poignant and genuine moments between the main characters Ralph and Vanellope. Instead, we are handed rushed character arcs that have little emotional impact, leaving the movie’s themes bland and hallow.

One of the strengths of the original film was the witty dialogue that made its characters irresistibly lovable and although this film is not free of this aspect, it is used for all the wrong reasons. Rather than having amusing dialogue flesh out characters, it mainly serves to poke fun at Disney tropes and internet trends.

The film’s writers also completely discard the supporting characters from the original like Fix-It Felix and his new wife, Sergeant Calhoun. They make brief appearances and then duck out of the plot, making way for the flood of new characters.

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” is by no means a terrible movie. It is beautifully animated and entertaining to a point, but it certainly fails to meet the high standards of Disney narratives and misses opportunities it could have easily taken to create a truly heartfelt film. All in all, this movie will not be receiving any hearts from me.