Ralph Breaks the Internet

Theatrical release poster

***Ralph Breaks the Internet*** is a 2018 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.The sequel to the 2012 film *Wreck-It Ralph*, it is directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston (in Johnston's directorial debut), written by Johnston and Pamela Ribon from a story by Moore, Johnston, Ribon, Josie Trinidad, and Jim Reardon, produced by Clark Spencer, and executive-produced by John Lasseter, Jennifer Lee, and Chris Williams. John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, and Ed O'Neill reprise their character roles from the first film, and are joined by Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, and Alfred Molina as part of the new cast, as well as Alan Tudyk, who voiced a new character in this film. In the film, Ralph (Reilly) and Vanellope von Schweetz (Silverman) must travel to the Internet to get a replacement for the *Sugar Rush* cabinet's broken steering wheel and prevent Mr. Litwak (O'Neill) from disposing of the game.

The first 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 the film was officially announced in June 2016 as *Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2*, much of the original cast confirmed they had signed on, with new cast members added in 2018. It is Walt Disney Animation Studios' first computer-animated film sequel and is the first sequel from the studio to be created by the original film's creative team.

*Ralph Breaks the Internet* premiered in Los Angeles on November 5, 2018, and was released in the United States on November 21. The film grossed over $529.3 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards, 76th Golden Globe Awards, 46th Annie Awards, and 24th Critics' Choice Awards, losing all four awards to *Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse*.

## Plot

Six years after the events of the first film, Ralph and Vanellope have stayed best friends, hanging out after work in Litwak Arcade. Ralph is content with their life, but Vanellope longs for excitement and expresses how bored she has become of *Sugar Rush*'s 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 defunct, and the cost of a replacement wheel on eBay is too high, Litwak decides to scrap *Sugar Rush* and unplugs the game, leaving its citizens homeless. The Surge Protector finds homes for all *Sugar Rush*'s 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 directs them to eBay, where they win the auction for the steering wheel by unintentionally spiking the price to US$27,001 only to find they have just 24 hours to raise the funds, or they will forfeit the bid and lose 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 advertising on the site, Vanellope befriends the Disney Princesses as well as Anna and Elsa, being encouraged by them to discuss her sense of unfulfillment and reaching an epiphany in the form of an "I Want" song on the subject. 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 of 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 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 the crash was actually his fault. Outraged by this reveal, an argument breaks out, culminating in Vanellope throwing away Ralph's cookie medal and running off.

As a guilt-ridden Ralph finds his now-cracked-in-half medal, Arthur copies Ralph's insecurities and makes 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. This also causes the giant Ralph monster and 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 partakes in social activities with the other arcade characters as he stays in touch with Vanellope over video chat, feeling content with his newfound ability to be independent.

## Voice 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 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, owner of Litwak's Family Fun Center & Arcade.

The first twelve characters in the Disney Princess line appear, along with Anna and Elsa from *Frozen*. All were voiced by the voice actresses who originated the roles, except for Cinderella and Aurora, who were voiced by the voice actresses who currently portray them in Disney Princess material, Jennifer Hale and Kate Higgins, respectively, as Cinderella's original voice actress, Ilene Woods, died in 2010, and Aurora's original voice actress, Mary Costa, had retired, and Snow White, who was voiced by screenwriter Pamela Ribon, as Snow White's original voice actress, Adriana Caselotti, had died in 1997. 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*. Film composer Michael Giacchino also reprises his role as the First Order Stormtrooper FN-3181 from *Star Wars: The Force Awakens*.

Additionally, Melissa Villaseñor voices Taffyta Muttonfudge, one of the *Sugar Rush* racers, replacing Mindy Kaling from the first film; Bill Hader provides the uncredited voice of 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 Middleton/DanTDM in the UK version, but not on the UK home release) 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. The film's 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 voice role in a mid-credits scene.

## Pop 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 films, *Star Wars*, Marvel Comics, and The Muppets franchises. 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.