Bright, colourful and bursting with life, 'Ralph Breaks The Internet' is a triumph for the contemporary animation world; a film which aims to explore the depths of the WWW and all of its ups and downs.
It's a stunning view of what lies beyond our computer/phone screens, depicting a search bar as a tiny man redirecting users to their websites, depicting eBay as a literal hall filled with bidding stations and actual queues for payment... This film really nails the feeling of familiarity mixed with a certain newness, with product placement aplenty and well thought-out ways to present pop cultural references to its audience.
As Ralph and his best friend Vanellope explore the world wide web, they discover that it's not all shiny and happy. There's an important underlying message here, one that warns watchers of the great unknown, and that's a great thing. It would have been easy for Disney to take the safe route and leave out the negative elements of being a user of the internet, but they tackle it head on and it works in their favour.
A particular – and very hyped-up – appearance from a group of Disney princesses voiced by their original actresses is so incredibly worth the wait. Perhaps the highlight of the film. And don't worry: that one scene that has been floating around isn't the only time you'll see them. This is truly some great cinematic work, evoking nostalgia by not only bringing them back visually, but also by bringing back their original voices again in a new context... Nailed it.
The cast additions such as Gal Gadot as a bad-ass race driver and Taraji P Henson as the embodiment of a viral video algorithm are very welcome. Women playing roles of power are just... So cool. We've seen Gal as Wonder Woman and Taraji as Katherine Johnson, so we know they're brilliant picks for these particular characters. More women in powerful film roles please! More!
The storyline overall is also great, and though the film goes for two hours there is plenty going on and a lot to absorb, so the pacing is practically spot-on. It doesn't feel like a long time to sit and watch something, which is always a risk if you're running for that amount of time.
Those involved in making this film evidently went to every effort to ensure that its audience (kids and adults alike, by the way) would be entertained the whole way through.
As with practically every Disney effort of late this one has its laughs as well as its deeply emotional moments, making it feel well-rounded and really quite gorgeous.
It's been six years since the original 'Wreck-It Ralph' film, but if that's how long it takes to create a sequel as polished as this, I'll be at the cinema with bells on in 2024 for number three.
★★★★★
