Ralph Breaks the Internet


Ralph Breaks the Internet is a 2018 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph, making it Disney's 57th feature-length animated film. The film was directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston and executive-produced by John Lasseter, Chris Williams, and Jennifer Lee. It features voice work by John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, and Ed O'Neill, with Alan Tudyk returning to voice a new character and new additions to the cast that include Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, and Alfred Molina.
The first discussions about a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph began in October 2012, and the new installment went through three different scripts before the filmmakers settled on the final plot. When the film was officially announced in June 2016 as Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2, much of the original cast confirmed they had signed on, with new cast members added in 2018. It is Walt Disney Animation Studios' first animated film sequel to be created by the original film's writing and directing team and is the first sequel from the studio since 2011's Winnie the Pooh.
Ralph Breaks the Internet had its world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on November 5, 2018, and was released in the United States on November 21, 2018. The film grossed over $529million worldwide and it received mostly positive reviews from critics, who called it a "worthy successor" and praised the animation, humor, characters, and plot, as well as the vocal performances of Reilly and Silverman. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards, 76th Golden Globe Awards, and 24th Critics' Choice Awards, losing all three to .

Plot

Six years since the first film, 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 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.
With the help of the search engine KnowsMore, they are directed to eBay. They end up winning the auction for the wheel, but they unintentionally spike the price to, and only have 24 hours to come up with the funds or they will forfeit the bid and lose the wheel. On the way out, they run into clickbait salesman J.P. Spamley, who offers them a lucrative job of stealing a car from Shank, the lead character in the popular GTA-style MMORPG Slaughter Race. They steal Shank's car, but she stops them before they can leave the game with it. Shank explains that there are better ways to make money on the Internet than stealing, and she then makes a viral video of Ralph and uploads it to video sharing site BuzzzTube, and tells them to check with BuzzzTube's head algorithm, Yesss, about getting money for it. At BuzzzTube, Yesss is elated by how popular Ralph's video is, and they come up with the idea of making more videos, which if given enough views, will earn them the money for the wheel in no time. Vanellope offers to help advertise the videos, and Ralph has Yesss send her to "Oh My Disney". There, while escaping from First Order Stormtroopers, Vanellope befriends the Disney Princesses, being encouraged by them to address her sense of un-fulfillment and reaching a musical epiphany.
Once Ralph makes enough money to purchase the wheel, he contacts Vanellope through a device Yesss had given them; he finds Vanellope talking with Shank about staying in Slaughter Race, having found her epiphany there due to its relative novelty compared to Sugar Rush. Ralph asks Spamley for a way to draw Vanellope out of the game, and he takes him to the deep web vendor Double Dan. Dan provides Ralph with a virus, Arthur, that feeds off insecurities and replicates them. When Ralph unleashes Arthur into Slaughter Race, it replicates Vanellope's glitch, triggering a server reboot. Shank and the others help Vanellope to escape before the game resets. Ralph confesses to her that the crash was his fault, and an outraged Vanellope ends her friendship with Ralph and throws away his hero cookie medal, causing it to break in half.
Arthur copies Ralph's insecurities and starts making duplicates of Ralph. The clones soon overrun the internet in a DOS attack, all chasing after Vanellope to keep her for themselves. Ralph saves her and attempts to lure the clones into a firewall, but they form a giant Ralph monster that seizes them both. Ralph comes to accept that Vanellope can make her own choices, letting go of his insecurities, and causing the giant Ralph monster and the clones to disappear. Ralph gives half of the broken medal to Vanellope and they bid each other a tearful farewell as Shank has arranged for Vanellope to respawn in Slaughter Race. Back in the arcade, Sugar Rush gets repaired, and Ralph partakes in social activities with the other arcade characters as he stays in touch with Vanellope over video chat, feeling content with his ability to be independent.

Cast

All of the characters in the Disney Princess line appear along with Anna and Elsa from Frozen. They were all voiced by their traditional voice actresses, except for Cinderella and Aurora, who were voiced by their current voice actresses Jennifer Hale and Kate Higgins, respectively, and Snow White, who was voiced by screenwriter Pamela Ribon as opposed to Katherine Von Till. Alongside the voice cast is actress Kelly Macdonald reprising her role as Merida, a role she had so far only voiced in the original feature Brave while Disney had used sound-alike Ruth Connell for any other appearance of the character. Additionally, Rajah, Meeko, Cinderella's mice and her bird companions, and Prince Naveen also appear in the film.
Several characters from other films and media also cameo with their original or current voice actors, such as Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog, Maurice LaMarche as Tapper, Brad Garrett as Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh and Anthony Daniels as C-3PO from Star Wars, while recordings of Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear and Vin Diesel as Groot are respectively recycled from Toy Story and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Additionally, Sean Giambrone voices the eboy, and Flula Borg voices Maybe, an algorithm who is an assistant to Yesss. Ali Wong, Timothy Simons, GloZell Green and Hamish Blake respectively voice Felony, Butcher Boy, Little Debbie, and Pyro, all of which are other characters in Slaughter Race as Shank's racing crew.
The film's directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston voice bidders at an eBay auction, in addition to reprising their roles as Sour Bill, Zangief and the Surge Protector, respectively. YouTube personalities Colleen Ballinger, Dani Fernandez, and Tiffany Herrera also voice cameos.

Popular culture cameos and references

Similar to the first film, Ralph Breaks the Internet includes a number of cameos and references to video games and various Disney properties, including their own films, Pixar films, and the Star Wars, Marvel Comics, and The Muppets franchises.
The band Imagine Dragons make a cameo appearance in the film, with the members voicing themselves. The video game Fortnite Battle Royale is briefly shown, including its battle bus, its Floss dance and Hot Marat emotes.
Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' former writer, editor and publisher, makes a cameo appearance in the film talking to Iron Man.
The filmmakers revealed that the film originally featured a joke about Kylo Ren being a "spoiled child", which was later cut from the film by request from Lucasfilm because it would undermine his role as a villain. Also cut from the film was C-3PO being mockingly called R2-D2 and BB-8 by the princesses. Additionally, the film would originally include The Golden Girls characters, but it was later cut because the directors felt it was a bizarre juxtaposition.
The legion of Ralph clones, which forms a gigantic Ralph monster, resembles the King Kong character from various films. During the production, the giant monster form was dubbed "Kong Ralph" and "Ralphzilla".

Production

Development

In October 2012, director Rich Moore said that he and Disney had ideas about a sequel that would bring the characters up to date and explore online gaming and console gaming. Moore stated that many of the crew and voice cast were open to the sequel, believing that they have "barely scratched the surface" of the video game world they envisioned. He also stated that he planned to include Mario and Tron in the sequel. In 2014, the first film's composer Henry Jackman said that a story for the sequel was being written. In July 2015, John C. Reilly said he had signed on to reprise his role of Ralph in a projected sequel.
On March 24, 2016, Moore stated that a sequel was still being planned. Moore specifically stated that a sequel would include an appearance from Mario, citing a "good relationship with Nintendo". On June 30, 2016, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced that the sequel would be released on March 9, 2018, with Reilly, Moore and writer Phil Johnston attached, and that it would focus on "Ralph leaving the arcade and wrecking the Internet".
On March 28, 2017, the sequel's title was officially announced as Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2, with Moore returning as director joined by the first film's co-writer, Phil Johnston, in his directing debut in an animated film and Clark Spencer also returning as producer. In July 2018, Disney removed Wreck-It Ralph 2 from the film's title.

Writing

Two working versions of the script had been scrapped before settling on the one used for the film, according to head writer Josie Trinidad. In one version, Vanellope had become self-absorbed by the Internet, gaining popularity and becoming a celebrity among the users. Ralph had been thrown in jail where he met the search engine Knowsmore, and they had partnered together to escape prison and help bring Vanellope back to her normal self. A second version had Ralph becoming an Internet-famous celebrity, and would have been challenged by an anti-virus program named Bev that served as a super cop and would have been the story's villain. Trinidad said neither of these versions captured what they felt was the centerpiece of the sequel, being how Ralph and Vanellope reacted to the new world of the Internet and realizing they have separate paths going forward.
Producer Clark Spencer said that "the film is about change. Two best friends are about to realize that the world won't always be the same. The internet is the perfect setting, really, because it's all about change—things change by the second". Director of story Jim Reardon said that it was intimidating to set the film on the Internet, stating that " looked at how could make the internet relatable on a human level—like how Game Central Station aka the power strip mirrored a train station in the first movie. In 'Ralph Breaks the Internet,' any person who uses the internet has a little avatar version of themselves that does their business for them". Reardon, however, said that Disney "didn't want to make the movie about the internet", wanting to instead focus on Ralph and Vanellope's friendship, wanting to instead treat the Internet as "the place where the movie takes place". Josie Trinidad claimed that the filmmakers "didn't want to just give the audience more of that friendship — to see that relationship grow."
The design of the scenes within the Internet was based on tours made of One Wilshire in Los Angeles, as it is one of the world's largest telecommunications centers, serving most traffic around the Pacific Ocean. The filmmakers did not approach any of the companies that are represented in the Internet, and strove to include net branding from all across the world. They also had to explore various Internet memes, making sure to avoid those that lacked long-term presence on the Internet. While the film addresses many positive elements of the Internet, the filmmakers did not want to shy away from covering some of the more unpleasant aspects about it, in part fueled by the success of tackling racism indirectly within Zootopia. Such elements include Ralph reading through comment sections on videos to find users leaving disparaging messages about him, and having the pair travel to the deep web with its activities of questionable legal and ethical status. They wanted to follow the same approach as they had with Judy Hopps in Zootopia, where she experienced, learned, and overcame the racism aspects, and have Ralph similarly learn and become a better person without having to actually solve the issue of hostility on the Internet.
The scene where Vanellope is introduced to the Disney Princesses came from screenwriter Pamela Ribon. In 2014, Ribon was still working on Moana when Disney began internally pitching ideas for the sequel to Wreck-It Ralph, Ribon recognized that like the title character of Moana, Vanellope fits the definition of a Disney Princess. When work formally began on the sequel after the completion of Zootopia, Ribon pitched the idea of Disney poking fun at itself by having Vanellope meet the other Disney Princesses in the green room of OhMyDisney.com, the Disney fan-driven website. Further inspiration came from a Buzzfeed online quiz that asked which Disney Princess the user was; Moore thought it would be interesting if Ralph had encountered that quiz and ended up in an argument with Vanellope over the result. Ribon's initial script for the scene, playing off the various tropes of the Princesses such as several being kidnapped or enslaved, remains mostly intact through production. Animators had to work out various techniques to take the different styles of animation into a single approach, and figure out the proportions of the characters using official figurines.

Casting

Reilly, Jane Lynch, Jack McBrayer, and Sarah Silverman were reported as being set to reprise their roles. In December 2016, Alan Tudyk confirmed his return in the sequel as a different character, named KnowsMore. In August 2018, actress Gal Gadot joined the film. The team was able to secure all the Disney Princesses' original voice actresses, except for Adriana Caselotti as Snow White, Ilene Woods as Cinderella, and Mary Costa as Aurora, due to the formers both died in 1997 and 2010, respectively, while the latter retired from acting in 2000. Jennifer Hale and Kate Higgins, the current voice actresses for Cinderella and Aurora, were hired for the film; Pamela Ribon, the film's co-screenwriter, performed Snow White's voice for temporary tracks, but the team considered it a good substitute, allowing Ribon to voice her in the final film.

Animation

The film contains over 150 unique sets and 5,726 assets. It also included the highest number of characters in any Disney Animation film, with 434 individual characters with 6,752 variants. One of the Disney animators who helped out to bring the Disney Princesses into CGI animation was Mark Henn. He was also the original supervising animator of princesses Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, and Tiana.
In the initial trailer for the film, the African-American princess character Tiana appeared to have a lighter skin tone, a narrower nose, and more European features than she did in the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog. This led to some backlashes on social media as these drew her appearance away from that expected of African-Americans. As a result, Disney contacted Tiana's voice actress, Anika Noni Rose, and the advocacy group Color of Change to redesign Tiana for Ralph Breaks the Internet to make sure she resembles more closely to her 2009 appearance; the updated character model was revealed in the second trailer. The same treatment was given to Pocahontas, the titular character of the 1995 film, as many viewers had pointed out that she was given a much lighter skin tone.
One of the initial scenes created for the movie involved Ralph and Vanellope invading a children's game, involving feeding pancakes to a bunny to the point that it is implied to explode, scaring the child who was playing the game. This scene was featured in the film's original teaser, released in March 2018, and was heavily discussed in the buzz about the film. Over time as they developed the rest of the film, they found the scene no longer fit in the film they were presenting. Knowing that audiences would be asking for this scene, it was moved to the mid-credits scene, along with additional fourth wall commentary about scenes shown in trailers that go missing in the final film. The final post-credits scene involves what starts as a teaser for Frozen II but cuts to Ralph rickrolling the audience by starting to sing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". While producers Spencer and Moore had an idea of Ralph doing a "Wreck Roll" early on in the film's development, they never incorporated it into the story. Late in production, they mentioned this to studio executives who told them they should add it in. As it was one of the last scenes added, the producers had gotten Reilly, who was on vacation with his family at the time, to come into a New York studio to record for the day so that the animators could work from that.

Music and soundtrack

On September 19, 2018, Imagine Dragons released the lead single from the soundtrack titled "Zero", which plays during the end credits of the movie. On October 23, 2018, the music video of "Zero" was posted on Imagine Dragons' YouTube channel. The film features an original song called "A Place Called Slaughter Race", performed by Sarah Silverman and Gal Gadot, written by Tom MacDougall and the film's co-director Phil Johnston, and composed by Alan Menken; the song's pop version, "In This Place", was performed by Julia Michaels. The film also features songs from various Disney Princess movies, as well as Demi Lovato's cover of "Let it Go" played in the beginning of the Oh My Disney scene. Ralph also rickrolls the tune "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley in a post-credits scene. The soundtrack is composed by Henry Jackman, who also composed the score from the previous film. It was released digitally on November 16, 2018, and on CD on November 30, 2018.

Release

On June 30, 2016, Walt Disney Animation Studios initially announced that the sequel, titled Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2, would be released on March 9, 2018. However, in April 2017, A Wrinkle in Time took its date and the film was pushed back to November 21, 2018. In July 2018, Disney shortened the film's title to Ralph Breaks the Internet. The film was released in 3D, 2D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX 3D, and 4DX.
The first official clip named "KnowsMore" was released on World Internet Day, October 29, 2018. Another entitled "Hearts" was introduced on November 5, the same date on which they start selling tickets before its release. On that same day, the film made its world premiere at Los Angeles' El Capitan Theatre along with the song "Zero" played by Imagine Dragons at the event. A video clip named "There Is No Track", which focuses on the new character Shank, was released on November 8. On November 19, a video clip of Vanellope meeting the Disney Princesses was released. The film itself was released on November 21 in the United States, and November 30 in the United Kingdom.

Marketing

A new poster for the film was released on February 26, 2018. Two days later, a teaser trailer for the film was released on February 28, 2018, getting more than 4.5 million views in 24 hours. A second trailer was released on June 4, 2018, with the Daft Punk song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". In July 2018, Disney decided to remove the Wreck-It Ralph 2 byline circle from the film's title, leaving it as Ralph Breaks the Internet.
A sneak peek of the film was released on August 10, 2018, that included the will.i.am song "Geekin'". Its final trailer was released on September 20, 2018, which included the song "Never Gonna Give You Up". Carvana and Disney collaborated to promote the film's release throughout a multi-channel campaign. Other brands who partnered with the film include BAPE, eBay, Fandango, Mailchimp, McDonald's, Netgear, Noovie ARcade, and Purple.

Home media

Ralph Breaks the Internet was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on digital on February 12, 2019, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on February 26, 2019. Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes featurette, a short highlighting some of the Easter eggs hidden throughout the film, deleted scenes, and the music videos for "Zero" and "In This Place". A feature exclusive to the digital release is a featurette on the artists going to race car driving school to research all the driving in Slaughter Race.

Reception

Box office

Ralph Breaks the Internet grossed $201.1million in the United States and Canada, and $328.2million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $529.3million, against a production budget of $175million.
In the United States and Canada, Ralph Breaks the Internet was released alongside Creed II and Robin Hood, as well as the wide expansion of Green Book, and was originally projected to gross $67–77million from 4,017 theaters in its five-day opening weekend. The film made $18.5million on its first day and another $10.3million on its second, increasing five-day projections to $85–95million. It went on to debut to $56.2million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office and marking the second-best Thanksgiving opening behind Disney's Frozen. In its second weekend the film made $25.8million, dropping 54% but remaining in first. For the third weekend, it topped the box office once again with $16.3million, dropping 36%. In its second and third weekends the film finished ahead of The Grinch, marking the first time animated films were the top two spots at the box office in back-to-back weekends. On the fourth-week box office, The Grinch finished ahead of Ralph Breaks the Internet until Aquaman and topped the box office in their respective weeks.

Critical response

The film received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 258 reviews, with an average rating of 7.33/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Ralph Breaks the Internet levels up on its predecessor with a funny, heartwarming sequel that expands its colorful universe while focusing on core characters and relationships." Metacritic calculated a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, down from the "A" earned by the first film, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
Bilge Ebiri of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, saying that "somewhere amid the film's ornate imagery and deliriously irreverent humor, we might begin to realize that we're watching a terrifying, incisive satire about the ways that a life lived online makes monsters of us all". Brian Lowry of CNN said that "The colorful action should delight tykes, but the smart, media-savvy asides make it especially appealing to grownups". Kerry Lengel of The Arizona Republic gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, saying "what makes the movie compelling, despite the subdued dramatic payoff, is that it is a heightened reflection of our experience—our love affair, really—with our gadgets, our apps and, yes, our brands". Peter Hartalub of the San Francisco Chronicle also gave the film 3 stars out of 4, stating that the film is "almost always inspired in the moment" and said that "the new characters are all pretty great", though he said that the film's first third "struggles to find its focus", and felt that Felix and Calhoun's subplot "would have worked better as a pre-movie animated short". Chris Bumbray of JoBlo's Movie Emporium said that the film "is just as solid" as the first film, and said it was better than the science-fiction film Ready Player One. Bryan Bishop of The Verge describes the film as "The Lego Movie of Disney films" and "soars when it sends up the studio's own films, but its portrayal of the internet feels a little optimistic for 2018."
Oliver Jones of Observer gave the film 2.5 score, saying that "Ralph Breaks the Internet is a candy coated, hard shined brick of postmodernism—a Vitamix smoothie of gags, nostalgia, product placement and Fruity Pebbles". Alonso Duralde of TheWrap said that "Within a few years, the specifics of the viral-video gags in Ralph Breaks the Internet will be as dated as a Tay Zonday joke". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said that the "sequel to the 2012 film is somewhere between Ready Player One and The Emoji Movie, summoning up a zero-gravity spectacle of dazzling colours and vertiginous perspectives, a featureless and inert mashup of memes, brands, avatars and jokes".

Accolades

Future

Directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston said that a Ralph Breaks the Internet spin-off film focusing on the Disney Princesses could be made depending on the audience's response, and "if there's a good story to be told". Also, John C. Reilly says that he has an idea if a third film was to be made, he would like to see Ralph and Vanellope "beam themselves right out into space".