Ralph Breaks the Internet ** (2018, voices of John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot) – Movie Review

Disney’s animated family flick Ralph Breaks the Internet is harmless but really tame and mildly irritating. It runs like an advert for almost every Internet company you have ever heard of, and trades heavily on the appeal of other Disney/ Pixar/ Marvel characters. That might be pleasing enough but it is also desperately cosy and conservative, making this first sequel to the 2012 Wreck-It Ralph seem like the struggling tenth sequel that has run out of ideas and invention. The Disney princesses stuff is all very incestuous.

To be fair, it is exactly the same mixture as before to please the many fans of the original, with the assets of a decent idea and efficiently crafted animation, but the minuses of mildly irritating characters, weak puns, sickly designs and a silly story. 

The family feature enjoyed its third consecutive weekend at the top of the box office and has totalled $128 million in the US with another $87 million overseas. Ralph Breaks the Internet may be very lucrative but it is not at all one of Disney’s best.

John C Reilly again provides the flat and dull voice of the boring hero Ralph, a video game villain now turned cute hero. And Sarah Silverman again provides the voice of the Vanellope von Schweetz character, a trouble-making ‘glitch’. Vanellope remains annoying, though she is supposed to be cute and adorable. Now friends, the Ralph and Vanellope double act is one of cinema’s least appealing since Abbott and Costello.

Yes it is efficiently crafted and has a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture – Animated.

Other voices are provided by Gal Gadot as Shank, Taraji P Henson as Yesss, Jack McBrayer as Felix, Jane Lynch as Calhoun, Alan Tudyk as KnowsMore, Alfred Molina as Double Dan and Ed O’Neill as Mr Litwak.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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