Movie Review: Ralph Breaks the Internet

Ralph Breaks the Internet *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Phil Johnston and Rich Moore.

Written by: Phil Johnston & Pamela Ribon and Rich Moore and Jim Reardon and Josie Trinidad.

Starring: John C. Reilly (Ralph), Sarah Silverman (Vanellope), Gal Gadot (Shank), Kristen Bell (Anna), Mandy Moore (Rapunzel), Kelly Macdonald (Merida), Alan Tudyk (KnowsMore), Auli'i Cravalho (Moana), Ming-Na Wen (Mulan), Taraji P. Henson (Yesss), Idina Menzel (Elsa), Ed O'Neill (Mr. Litwak), Alfred Molina (Double Dan), Jane Lynch (Calhoun), Jodi Benson (Ariel), Anika Noni Rose (Tiana), Jack McBrayer (Felix), Flula Borg (Flula Borg), Ali Wong (Felony), Irene Bedard (Pocahontas), Peter Cullen (Eeyore), Jennifer Hale (Cinderella), Paige O'Hara (Belle), Linda Larkin (Jasmine), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Colleen Ballinger (Miranda Sings), Ana Ortiz (Karillo), Rebecca Wisocky (Ebay Elayne), Timothy Simons (Butcher Boy), Kate Higgins (Aurora), Rich Moore (Sour Bill), Mark Rhino Smith (God), Pamela Ribon (Snow White), Jamie Elman (Rancis Fluggerbutter), GloZell Green (Little Debbie), Kent Boyd (Skeleton Dancer), Della Saba (Swatti), Dani Fernandez (Dani Fernandez), Hamish Blake (Pyro), Tiffany Herrera (iHasCupquake). 

 

There is no secret that almost all animated films for kids are message driven movies – they want kids to believe in themselves, be kind to each other, etc. There are a handful of messages that they almost all have in common – and very infrequently do they deviate from those tried and true messages. This year though, we’ve had two such films that offer a different message – the mediocre animated film Smallfoot argues that you shouldn’t just believe the passed down wisdom of generation after generation, because often, that is built on lies to get you to do what they need. And in Ralph Breaks the Internet, the message seems to be don’t be such a clingy jerk that you ruin your friendships. That’s a little simplistic sure – but that is the basic message here: that friendships evolve and change, and if you aren’t willing to do the same, your friendships will die. This is an actual more important message for kids to grasp.

 

It’s also really only in the last act of Ralph Breaks the Internet, the follow-up to the exciting and fun 2012 film Wreck It Ralph, where the bad guy from a Donkey Kong like video game finally gets to be the good guy – at least, while not playing the game, and make some friends of his own. His best friend was Princess Vanellope, one of the racers from Sugar Rush – a racing game where the drivers smash through candy tracks in search of a prize. Wreck It Ralph was a Disney film, although it shared a lot more in common with Pixar films, that most Disney films do. The same can be said of its sequel – that takes its characters out of the confines of the one video arcade of the predecessor, and places them in the internet this time around. You could probably question the mechanics of how the internet here works – but you’re probably better off not doing so.

 

So this time, John C. Reilly’s Ralph and Sarah Silverman’s Vanellope, head to the internet because they need to get a new steering wheel for Sugar Rush, or the game will be sold off for parts, leaving Vanellope homeless. When they get to the internet though, they find out to buy something, you need money. Long story short, they have to start exploring some of the darker parts of the internet – clickbait, the dark web, Youtube, large scale role playing games, etc. to get it.

 

Much of the first two acts of Ralph Breaks the Internet is fun, brightly colored action – from a Grand Theft Auto type game, to trips to ebay and the Disney Website (complete with the Princesses, which is the best part of the movie – which of course they gave away completely in the trailers). The movie is so busy with plot, and explaining itself, that it hardly has time for anything else. The movie wisely leaves almost all the characters from the first movie behind (there is nothing worse than sequels who try and shoehorn in every character from the original film when they don’t fit) – but doesn’t introduce a lot of new ones. The best new character is clearly Shank (Gal Gadot), the big bad guy in that Slaughter Race – who actually develops a sweet relationship with Vanellope. It’s the type of relationship you rarely see between two female characters in any film – let alone an animated film for children.

 

The ending of the film has Ralph having to accept that people change. This is a hard lesson for adults to learn, let alone children. The way the film handles it is fascinating, and quietly moving. Considering how busy the first two acts are with plot, the way it all ends it more moving than anticipated. The movie lacks the originality of the first film – but it does trade easy nostalgia for something else this time around – some more timely (that may date the film more quickly), but works. If we are stuck with more animated sequels (and we will) – we need more like Ralph Breaks the Internet that try and go in different directions than the original.

Movie Review: Zootopia

Zootopia

Directed by: Byron Howard & Rich Moore.

Written by: Jared Bush & Phil Johnston and Byron Howard & Rich Moore & Jennifer Lee and Josie Trinidad & Jim Reardon and Dan Fogelman.

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin (Judy Hopps), Jason Bateman (Nick Wilde), Idris Elba (Chief Bogo), Jenny Slate (Bellwether), Nate Torrence (Clawhauser), Bonnie Hunt (Bonnie Hopps), Don Lake (Stu Hopps), Tommy Chong (Yax), J.K. Simmons (Mayor Lionheart), Octavia Spencer (Mrs. Otterton), Alan Tudyk (Duke Weaselton), Shakira (Gazelle), Raymond S. Persi (Flash), Della Saba (Young Hopps), Maurice LaMarche (Mr. Big).

  

Zootopia is a fun, entertaining Disney animated film, aimed at children, that manages to provide laughs to parents watching the film with their kids, without the outright pandering of a Dreamworks film, like the Shrek movies. It’s basically an animated version of Walter Hill’s 48 Hours, where Nick Nolte’s cop teams up with the street smart hustler played by Eddie Murphy, to solve a mystery, and for the most part, it all works beautifully. The film also has a pro-diversity message about looking past stereotypes to see the animal underneath the surface, and not just judging them on the something they cannot control. It’s a good message, even if the internal logic of the movie is kind of muddled here, and doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny (it is true, for example, that predators have instincts to kill and eat their prey – which is wildly different than thinking all black people are violent criminals, which is just plain false). But if you let that slide, than Zootopia is a wonderfully fun, brightly animated kids film that adults can enjoy as much as their children.

 

The film is about Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), a rabbit for a small, farming town who has always dreamed of heading to the big city of Zootopia and becoming a Police Officer – even though a bunny has never done that before. This is a world where predators no-longer eat prey, but they certainly do acknowledge their past sins when that sort of thing happened all the time. Hopps makes the Police Force – as a part of some sort of “outreach” program, and heads to Zootopia – a massive metropolis, with many different boroughs, ranging from subzero temperatures to rainforests, and everything in between. Her prejudiced parents give her “Fox Repellent” when she leaves, and are ecstatic when they discover that Hopps isn’t a “real” cop – but rather a meter maid. But soon a case comes up, and Hopps volunteers for it – her boss, Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), a massive Water Buffalo, gives her 48 Hours to solve the case, and if she doesn’t, she’ll be fired. A lead takes her to Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a wily fox that Hopps has already crossed paths with, and she blackmails him into helping on her case. Nick is a stereotypical fox – a conman – but a traumatic childhood flashback lets us know – if all the world was ever going to see was a fox, then Nick was going to be the most foxlike fox there ever was.

 

Zootopia moves quickly from beginning to end, and directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore keep the pace up throughout. The film is more thoughtfully animated than most of its kind – it is not just a loud collection of colors flashing by, as some many animated features are, and the character design and in particular the different environments are beautiful. The film is full of humor – some of it quite obvious, some of it quite ingeniously clever (I love the Breaking Bad reference). Disney, it must be said, knows it brand very well – and has experienced a bit of a renaissance in the years since Pixar’s John Lasseter took over in 2007 (not the same kind as the early 1990s, but I digress). Disney animation films don’t have the same worldview or sentimentality of a Pixar film – and that’s good (Pixar does that better than anyone else could).

 

I like how Zootopia really does try to address diversity. So many Disney films throughout their history have basically been about knowing your role, knowing your place – characters from different worlds often get together for a short time, but eventually, they have to go back where they belong (this is true of their classic animated films, all the way up to Wreck It Ralph). Zootopia asks that you look beyond the surface of each other, and not stereotype others, not place them into categories. It is an imperfect metaphor because animals and people are different (and even within the movie, who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor seems to shift) – but the film’s heart is in the right place.

 

In short, Zootopia is a pleasure to sit through. It had some moments that scared my four year old (mind you, she is easily scared) – but she had a blast with it as well (and for the record, no nightmares). I love taking my daughter to the movies – the experience is always fun, although far too often, the movie is not. That’s not the case here – I would have enjoyed Zootopia even without my daughter beside me, although I enjoyed it much more with her there.

Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph

Directed by: Rich Moore.

Written by: Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee.

Starring: John C. Reilly (Ralph), Sarah Silverman (Vanellope), Jack McBrayer (Felix), Jane Lynch (Calhoun), Adam Carolla (Wynnchel), Alan Tudyk (King Candy), Mindy Kaling (Taffyta Muttonfudge), Joe Lo Truglio (Markowski), Ed O'Neill (Mr. Litwak), Dennis Haysbert (General Hologram), Edie McClurg (Mary ).

Poor Ralph. For 30 years, he has had to be the bad guy in an arcade game, Fix-It Felix Jr., where his job is to try and destroy a building, before that do-gooder Fix It Felix Jr. himself, with a magic hammer, comes along, fixes the building, and save all the residents, who then give him pie and a medal, while they throw Ralph into the mud below. Even after the arcade closes for the day, the other characters in the game celebrate in their nice apartments, while Ralph retires to his home in the dump. One day he goes to a Bad Anon meeting, where all the bad guys from the arcade games gather to tell their stories – about how hard it is to be the bad guy. But hey, just because you’re a “bad guy”, doesn’t mean you’re a bad guy, right? All Ralph wants is to just once get a medal of his own. So Ralph does the unthinkable and game jumps. One day, instead of reporting for work in his game, he disguises himself as a soldier for the new game Hero’s Duty, so he can win a medal. He does, but botches the escape, and ends up, along with an evil Cy-Bug, in the candy colored girls racing game Sugar Rush, where he almost immediately makes an enemy, and then a friend, of Vanellope, a “glitch” who just wants to race like the rest of the girls. Of course, by game jumping, he has put his own game at risk of being unplugged – and by bringing a Cy-Bug along with him into Sugar Rush, he may have put the whole arcade at risk, so Fix-It Felix teams up with Calhoun, the main character from Hero’s Duty, to bring Ralph home, and stop the Cy-Bug.

Wreck-It Ralph may not be a Pixar film, but it operates on the same principles of a Pixar film – give the kids a lot of brightly colored action and humor, while sliding in sly in-jokes and nostalgia for their parents. There’s no mistake that I, who played a lot of video games as a teenager, but very few (other than the yearly installment of EA Sports’ NHL series) since then, could almost immediately identify almost all the “real” video game characters that Wreck-It Ralph has in it. While it’s clear that Hero’s Duty is modeled, at least somewhat, on Call of Duty, for the most part the real game characters the movie has could be found on your old Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. The movie wants to get that nostalgic laughter from the parents in the audience – and it does a wonderful job of that. Wreck-It Ralph is not quite at the level of the best Pixar movies, but it’s much better than most of the movies made for kids these days.

I loved the animation of Wreck-It Ralph, which is almost endlessly inventive. The film, directed by Rich Moore, moves seamlessly between the different video games it takes place in, but I loved how the characters from different games moved differently, depending on when the game was made. The Nicelanders (the residents of the building Fix-It Felix is building) move with that choppy motion anyone who grew up with a Nintendo will immediately recognize. When we move into Hero’s Duty, it has the same sort of energy that the best first person shooters have. And the candy land created in Sugar Rush is almost endlessly inventive, and sprawling. The movie is a visual delight from beginning to end.

The filmmakers also cast the movie very well. Is there anyone who can sound more depressed, and yet still be lovable as John C. Reilly, who was perhaps the only choice to give Ralph his voice? Or anyone who sounds more like a goody-two shoes, innocent hero than Jack McBrayer, who is great as Fix-It Felix? Or any woman who sounds more convincing than Jane Lynch barking out orders as Calhoun? The real treat here though is Sarah Silverman as Vanellope, who may not have jumped to mind to play an a character this cute and lovable, even if she does have a mischievous side. But Silverman nails it, and makes Vanellope into perhaps the most lovable animated creation this year.

Yes, the movie devolves into the kind of loud, seemingly never ending climax with lots of action and noise, that can grow tiresome after a while, unless you’re a kid. Yet, there’s some much here to love, that I’ll forgive the film for taking the easy way out with its finale. Wreck-It Ralph is one of the better animated films you’ll see this year.