First Thoughts: "It's good! 'Ralph Breaks the Internet' is very good! It's as funny and heartwarming as the first film and it does everything a good sequel should do. It brings back the characters we love, sets them off on an exciting new adventure with fun new characters, and has them grow and change and learn from their new experiences. This is a damn good movie."
Second Thoughts: "I know right? We know fellow Disney nerds who were wailing about the end of the world (or at least the end of this recent streak of good Disney Animated Canon films) when this movie first came out, so it's really nice to finally see it. Goodness, this is that not-quite-as-rare-as-everybody-thinks sequel that's as good as the first movie. Heck, we might even like it a little bit better than the first movie!
"... ... ...But..."
FT: "I'll let you get to that 'But' in a minute. We need to talk about sequels, and Disney sequels specifically. Even though we live in a world of franchises, there seems to be a particular feeling of dread associated with 'Ralph 2' and 'Mary Poppins Returns' and 'Frozen 2'."
ST: "We're all still traumatized by the DTV Disney sequel era."
FT: "Right, right."
ST: "A lot of that dread seems to be building off all the damn Live-Action-For-An-Extremely-Strange-Definition-Of-Live-Action Remakes. Which, by the way, we will not be considering part of the Disney Animated Canon. Direct theatrical sequels to films we've already reviewed here are fine, but remakes? Ugh, no. Anyway, this can be a nice segway into my 'But...'"
FT: "Yes, go ahead."
ST: "But on the other hand, this very funny and heartwarming movie is also very definitely what Disney has been referring to as a Brand Deposit. So are all the sequels and remakes and whatnot. Hell, 'Ralph 2' is particularly blatant about it: There is a whole sequence set inside the official Disney website and so help me if the opening to that sequence, taking in a vista of everything Disney owned the rights to circa last Thanksgiving, doesn't feel like 'Look upon how much pop culture we control, ye mighty, and despair!'"
FT: "I mean, that's true. But didn't the first 'Ralph' have a lot of (ahem) Brands involved as well? All those officially licensed video game characters hanging out? And anyway, without that visit to the Disney website, we wouldn't have the amazing Princess hangout scene, which we loved!"
ST: "It is a great scene, but consider this dismaying observation: Disney's not only all about Brand Deposits but about Brand Integrity; the fear is that if they don't take all their property super seriously, nobody will. That means no more 'Star Wars' characters shaking their butts to pop songs and a 'What if all the Disney Princesses had a slumber party' scene that feels like a really heckin' neutered version of a killer idea. And it cost us a scene where Vanillope would've been all, 'Ah, shut up, Emo kid' to Kylo Ren and tell me we wouldn't do anything within reason to see that."
FT: "Oh damn. But we still really like this movie, even with all this... this stuff that's making us slightly uneasy."
ST: "Yes, yes we do. Still, uneasy is a good word for it. Heck, we have 'Mary Poppins: 2 Practical, 2 Perfect' up next and, honestly, the fact that it seems to have had NO pop culture impact at all, good or bad, is worrying. I don't think we're going to like it as much as 'Ralph 2'."
FT: "Probably not, but if it sucks, we'll have fun ranting about it."
ST: "Same format as this?"
FT: "God, no."
For more posts in this ongoing series, go here, or click the Chronological Disney Animated Canon tag below.
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Art of the Day!
I saw a trailer for another movie about video game characters getting into various shenanigans and made this regretful thing:
