Review of Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) by David O — 21 Dec 2018

Ralph Breaks the internet has a good moral message about insecurity and friendship but it does it with such messy execution and predictability that it leaves you restless in your seat, regretting your decision not to have stayed in and watched something better on the real internet.

It seems Disney animation is having an identity crisis. It is clambering to capture too many audiences while failing to entertain any of them. This becomes obvious when the script flip flops between meaningless fart jokes and songs that repeat the word slaughter too many times to be comfortable in a Disney film. Vanellope is a child protagonist whose acceptance of a dark teenage game makes you wonder at what the movie is trying to say. I cringed through jokes about death and grungy nods to games the target audience shouldn't even come close to knowing about. At one point Vanellope remarks 'Mother Fudger". Not a line I ever thought I would hear in a family film and one that legitimises the vulgar content for children. This is especially true when the main characters end up working for a viral pop up website which never truly gets held to account.

The movie does have delightful peppered moments that preach how the internet is a dangerous place but never delves deep enough to really feel there is a point.

The world building and visuals are of course rich and interesting but the way they change the locations in such a fast paced way can leave you feeling a little dizzy.

If that hasn't *wrecked* your appetite, this movie reads like a corporate advert. It peddles self referencial humour to a level I haven't seen until now. We see so many corporate logos we can almost hear the Disney shareholders rubbing their hands together. Company synergy over plot appears to be this movie's main drive.

Disney used to make timeless tales that pushed artistic boundaries and furthered the medium of animation. Alas this movie plays closer to a Tumblr blog post than the next Bambi.