Review by John Delia
Six years ago this month Disney released a powerful new character from a video game and Wreck It Ralph was born into Animation forever. Wow, that sounds like an introduction to a biography of the building wrecker who became a hero to another video game star Vanellope. She’s the car racing icon of the game Sugar Rush. I just thought it would be a good way to begin my review on Ralph’s newest film Ralph Breaks the Internet, a fun animated movie for the whole family.
Even the diehard lovers of the 1982 video arcade game Fix-It-Felix, Jr. where Ralph was a member of the cast, will love this film. His job was to destroy the windows in a high-rise apartment building from the top down, while Felix tries to fix them with his hammer before Ralph reaches the bottom. Kind of a wacky, but fun arcade adventure that could easily stress the player out trying to take Ralph out before he reaches the bottom so they could get to the next level of the game. Whew! I do remember the game.
In the movie Wreck it Ralph however, instead of remaining the antagonist, Ralph earns himself a hero’s badge from Vanellope when he saves her. In his newest movie, he’s already a protagonist from the beginning and when the arcade game Sugar Rush’s steering mechanism gets broken threatening the existence of Vanellope, the two look for a solution on the internet. So begins an adventure that leads to a whole new world including the dangers of a perilous racing game and a computer virus that could even mean the demise of Ralph.
The very funny film has a lot of surprises in store for everyone from mature youngsters to dads and moms who can remember the pastimes they had at arcade centers. Of course you do not need to know how to play the games like Qbert, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Tron, and even Packman, as this movie plot just uses their characters to enhance the experience of being inside the Arcade. In fact you may even see some of the more recent characters from movies like Star Wars.
The film does a good job of connecting with its former Wreck It Ralph and then moving into the internet with all the computer chips and miles of wires before coming to the center of it all. The writers and animators do a terrific job of creating it and include places like eBay, Amazon, and other destinations like google that we use to get our information and purchase items. New exciting characters are bought forth by the animation team and the story behind them makes for new experience and opens possibilities for a Wreck It Ralph sequel.
Ralph Breaks the Internet has been rated PG by the MPAA for some action and rude humor. It is a bit long for a PG animated film and the film does wander a bit eating up the clock, but for most of today’s children and teens, more is better.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good adventure for the whole family. (4 out of 5 Stars)
Additional Film Information:
Voice Cast Includes: John C. Reilly, Gal Gadot, Alfred Molina, Jack McBrayer, Ed O’Neill, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Sean Giambrone, Flula Borg.
Directed and written by: Phil Johnston and Rich Moore
Genre: Animated, Adventure, Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG for some action and rude humor
Running Time: 1 hr. 52 min.
Opening Date: November 21, 2018
Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures
Released in: Standard