Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Ralph Breaks the Internet
February 25, 2019
Ralph Breaks the Internet - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, or 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack
Ralph Breaks the Internet is the follow-up to Wreck-It Ralph. The film did better at the box office, barely, and was even nominated for an Oscar. Is it award-worthy? Or should fans of the first movie go in with lowered expectations?
This film begins many years after the events of the first film with Ralph and Vanellope being best friends, who spend all of their time after work hanging out together. Ralph thinks their lives are perfect, but Vanellope is looking for more variety in their lives. When Mr. Litwak, the owner of the arcade, installs the internet, Vanellope is excited, until she and the rest of the games are told they are not allowed to go there. She just wants something different, even just a new track would be a start. Ralph figures he can do that and gets to work creating a new path in one of the Sugar Rush tracks. However, when Vanellope tries to take this new route, the player, Swatti, tries to force her to just win the game instead. The battle of wills between the two results in the steering wheel breaking and Sugar Rush getting shut down.
With the characters homeless, and Vanellope feeling like she doesn’t have a purpose, Ralph needs to fix the mess he created. When speaking with Felix, he remembers Swatti saying she found the part on ebay, but it was just too expensive for Mr. Litwak. So he decides to take Vanellope to the Internet, find this ebay, and get the part shipped to Mr. Litwak before the people come to take Sugar Rush away. It’s a simple plan and nothing should go wrong.
Okay, there’s one serious problem. Ralph and Vanellope don’t know what money is, so they think ebay is just a game where shouting out the highest number gets you the prize. In the end, they bid $27,001 for the wheel. Now they have a new problem. How are they going to pay for this? They were harassed by a bunch of pop-up ads when they first got to ebay and one of them was by Spamly for a way to get rich playing video games. They become loot hunters in games. They play a game, get a rare item, and sell it on Spamly’s site for real money. However, since they need so much, they have to go after a really difficult to get item, Shank’s car in Slaughter Race.
It would be a short movie if this plan worked, but what happens next enters spoiler territory.
Is Ralph Breaks the Internet as good as Wreck-It Ralph was? No. It’s close, but not quite there for two reasons. Firstly, it’s a sequel and therefore it is not as fresh as the original was, because you know, in the real world time moves in one direction. Secondly, it is not as fresh, because it’s take on the Internet doesn’t stand out as much as the first film’s take on classic video games did. We get some of the same beats here as we saw in The Emoji Movie. There is a huge difference between those two films. Execution.
Ralph Breaks the Internet does still have the heart of the original movie. Ralph is still dealing with insecurities and getting sucked into the world of social media is a good way to make that an important part of the story. While there is a more coming of age story with Vanellope learning she wants to grow and have more. This combined with the pair's friendship being under stress results in a lot of heart in the film, which is something we’ve come to expect from Disney and that’s what keep you engaged, even while the internet clichés crop up.
The extras begin with a short, 4-minute look at all of the Easter Eggs in the movie. The next featurette is on the The Music of Ralph Breaks the Internet and runs 10 minutes long. BuzzTube Cats is two minutes of short cat video clips the animated made as “research”. How We Broke the Internet is a ten-part, 33-minute making of featurette. Up next are five deleted scenes with a total running time of 19 minutes, with intros. Finally, there are two music videos. That’s more than an hour of extras, which is good for a first-run release, but not great.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is not as good as the original was, but it still a great movie and deserved its Oscar nod. The extras on the DVD / Blu-ray / 4K Ultra HD are good for a first-run release, but not great. It is still worth picking up and a contender for Pick of the Week.
Video on Demand (Movie Only)
Video on Demand (With Extras)
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Della Saba