Ralph Breaks the Internet is a 2018 American animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film was directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston and written by Johnston and Pamela Ribon. John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, and Ed O'Neill reprise their character roles from the first film, with Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, and Alfred Molina joining the cast. Alan Tudyk also returns, voicing a different character. The sequel to Wreck-It Ralph (2012), the film follows Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz as they travel to the Internet to get a replacement for the Sugar Rush cabinet's broken steering wheel and prevent Mr. Litwak from disposing of the game.
Discussions about a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph began in September 2012, and the new installment went through three different scripts before the filmmakers settled on the final plot. When it was officially announced in June 2016, most of the original cast confirmed they had signed on, with new cast members added in 2018. The film's title of Ralph Breaks the Internet was announced in March 2017.
Ralph Breaks the Internet premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on November 5, 2018, and was released in the United States on November 21. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $529 million worldwide against a $175 million budget. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards, 76th Golden Globe Awards, 46th Annie Awards, and 24th Critics' Choice Awards.
Plot
Six years after the events of the first film, Ralph and Vanellope have stayed best friends, hanging out after work in Litwak's Arcade. Ralph is content with their life, but Vanellope longs for excitement and expresses how bored she has become of Sugar Rush predictability. To please her, Ralph sneaks into her game and makes a secret road. The next day, when Vanellope fights the arcade player's control to test the track, the cabinet's steering wheel breaks. As the company that made Sugar Rush is out of business, and the cost of a replacement wheel on eBay is expensive, Litwak decides to scrap Sugar Rush and unplugs the game, leaving its citizens homeless. The Surge Protector finds refuge for all Sugar Rush citizens as a short-term measure as they figure out how to save the game, with Felix and Calhoun adopting the racers. Remembering eBay, Ralph and Vanellope travel through Litwak's new Wi-Fi router to the Internet, a place where websites are represented as buildings in a sprawling city, avatars represent users, and programs are people.
The search engine KnowsMore redirects them to eBay, where they win the auction for the steering wheel by unintentionally spiking the price to only to find they have just 24 hours to raise the funds, or they will lose the bid and the wheel. On the way out, they run into clickbait salesman J. P. Spamley, who brokers items obtained from video games and offers them a lucrative job of stealing a car from Shank, the lead character in the popular racing-centered battle royale game Slaughter Race. They steal Shank's car, but she stops them before they can leave the game with it. Suggesting another way to make money on the Internet, she proceeds to make a viral video of Ralph and uploads it to video-sharing site BuzzzTube. She directs them to BuzzzTube's head algorithm, Yesss, who capitalizes on Ralph's video popularity. They decide to make more videos, which will earn them the money for the wheel if they attract enough views. Vanellope offers to help advertise the videos, and Ralph has Yesss send her to Oh My Disney. There, while being chased by Stormtroopers for unauthorized advertising, Vanellope befriends the Disney Princesses, being encouraged by them to discuss her sense of un-fulfillment and reaching an epiphany in the form of an "I Want" song on the subject. Meanwhile, Ralph makes enough money to buy the wheel but finds Vanellope talking with Shank, overhearing how she wants to stay in Slaughter Race, having felt at home there due to its relative novelty and unpredictability compared to Sugar Rush.
Worried about losing his friend forever, Ralph asks Spamley for a way to draw Vanellope out of the game and is brought to the dark web vendor Double Dan, who provides Ralph with a computer virus, Arthur, that feeds off insecurities and replicates them. When Ralph unleashes Arthur into Slaughter Race, it replicates Vanellope's glitch, triggering a server reboot. Ralph, Shank, and the others help Vanellope escape before the game resets. Vanellope blames herself for the crash, but Ralph confesses to her that it was actually his fault. This revelation outrages Vanellope, as Ralph pointed out she is no better for attempting to leave him without telling him, which causes her to throw away Ralph's cookie medal and run off.
A guilt-ridden Ralph finds his medal now cracked-in-half. In lieu of cyber-insecurities, Arthur copies Ralph's emotional insecurities, and makes dim-witted and emotionally unstable duplicates of Ralph. The clones overrun the Internet in a global DoS attack, all chasing after Vanellope to keep her for themselves. Ralph saves her and attempts to lure the clones into a firewall, but they form a giant Ralph monster that seizes them both. Ralph comes to accept that Vanellope can make her own choices, letting go of his insecurities and causing the clones to disappear, and Ralph and Vanellope reconcile. Ralph gives half of the broken medal to Vanellope and they bid each other a heartfelt farewell as Shank has arranged for Vanellope to respawn in Slaughter Race.
Back in the arcade, Sugar Rush is repaired, and Ralph joins the other arcade characters' activities as he stays in touch with Vanellope over video chat, feeling content with his newfound ability to be independent.
Cast
John C. Reilly as Ralph, a gigantic but soft-hearted man who is the antagonist of the arcade game Fix-It Felix, Jr. Sarah Silverman as Vanellope von Schweetz, a glitchy racer who is the main character and princess of Sugar Rush and Ralph's best friend. Gal Gadot as Shank, a tough and talented NPC racer in Slaughter Race. Taraji P. Henson as Yesss, an algorithm that determines the trending videos on BuzzzTube (a portmanteau of YouTube and BuzzFeed). Parts of her character were modeled after Cruella de Vil, as both characters are seen as fashionable. Jack McBrayer as Fix-It Felix, a repairman who is the protagonist and playable character of Fix-It Felix, Jr., as well as the husband of Calhoun. Jane Lynch as Sergeant Calhoun, the lead character of Hero's Duty and Felix's wife. Alan Tudyk as KnowsMore, a character representing a search engine of the same name, with an overly aggressive autofill. The character design was mainly inspired by stylized character designs found in Disney shorts and TV specials done in the mid-1960s by Ward Kimball and Marc Davis. Tudyk previously voiced King Candy in the first film. Alfred Molina as Double Dan, a half-worm virus creator who inhabits the dark web. Molina also voices Double Dan's conjoined brother Little Dan. Ed O'Neill as Mr. Litwak, the owner of Litwak's Family Fun Center & Arcade.
The first 12 characters of the Disney Princess line appear, along with Anna and Elsa from Frozen. All but three of the original voice actresses reprised their roles. Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora were voiced by Pamela Ribon, Jennifer Hale, and Kate Higgins, respectively, as Adriana Caselotti and Ilene Woods had died and Mary Costa had retired. Additionally, Rajah (Jasmine's pet tiger), Meeko (Pocahontas' pet raccoon), Cinderella's mice (including Jaq and Gus) and her bird companions, and Prince Naveen (in his frog form, whom Ralph mistakes for Frogger) also appear in the film.
Several characters from other films and media also cameo with their original or current voice actors, such as Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog, Maurice LaMarche as Tapper, Brad Garrett as Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, Corey Burton as Grumpy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO from Star Wars, Vin Diesel as Groot from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.
Additionally, Melissa Villaseñor voices Taffyta Muttonfudge, one of the Sugar Rush racers, replacing Mindy Kaling from the first film; Bill Hader is uncredited for his role as J.P. Spamley, a personification of clickbait pop-up ads represented as a desperate salesman who cannot make a sale; John DiMaggio voices Arthur, an insecurity virus; Sean Giambrone (English YouTuber Daniel "DanTDM" Middleton in the UK theatrical version) voices eBoy, an eBay employee who informs Ralph of the status on the eBay item deadline; Flula Borg voices Maybe, an algorithm who is an assistant to Yesss; and Dianna Agron voices the news anchor covering the virus in the real world. Ali Wong, Timothy Simons, GloZell Green, and Hamish Blake, respectively, voice Felony, Butcher Boy, Little Debbie, and Pyro, all of whom are other characters in Slaughter Race as Shank's racing crew. Directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston reprise their roles as Sour Bill, Zangief (Moore), and the Surge Protector (Johnston), respectively. YouTube personalities Colleen Ballinger, Dani Fernandez, and Tiffany Herrera voice cameos, with Nicole Scherzinger having a cameo role as Mo's Mom in a mid-credits scene.
Popular culture cameos and references Similar to the first film, Ralph Breaks the Internet includes a number of cameos and references to video games and various Disney properties, including Walt Disney Animation Studios films, Pixar Animation Studios films, Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and The Muppets productions. The band Imagine Dragons (whose song "Zero" is featured in a trailer for the film, as well as its end credits and soundtrack) make a cameo appearance in the film, with the members voicing themselves. The video game Fortnite Battle Royale is briefly shown, including the battle bus and the floss dance. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' former writer, editor and publisher, makes a cameo appearance in the film. Lee died some days before the film's premiere, making his appearance in Ralph Breaks the Internet one of his final cameos in films.
The filmmakers revealed that the film originally featured a joke about Kylo Ren being a "spoiled child", which was later cut from the film by request from Lucasfilm because it would undermine his role as a villain. Also cut from the film was C-3PO being mockingly called R2-D2 and BB-8 by the princesses. Additionally, the film would originally include The Golden Girls characters, but it was later cut because the directors felt it was a bizarre juxtaposition. The legion of Ralph clones, which forms a gigantic Ralph monster, resembles the King Kong character from various films. During production, the giant monster form was dubbed "Ralphzilla" after Godzilla.
Production Development
In September 2012, two months before Wreck-It Ralph was released, Rich Moore said that there were already ideas for a sequel, and in March 2013, Moore said that he and Disney had ideas about a sequel that would bring the characters up to date and explore online gaming and console gaming. Moore stated that many of the crew and voice cast were open to the sequel, believing that they have "barely scratched the surface" of the video game world they envisioned. He also stated that he planned to include Tron in the sequel, which appears briefly in the film, where Ralph and Vanellope race at the beginning. In 2014, the first film's composer Henry Jackman said that a story for the sequel was being written.
In March 2016, Moore stated that a sequel was still being planned. In June 2016, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced that the sequel would be released on March 9, 2018, with Moore and Phil Johnston attached, and that its story would be one where "Ralph leaves the arcade and wrecks the Internet".