Wreck-It Ralph

You know, I was wondering why I didn't think this film flowed well with the previous film's themes and the like, and I think I now know the answer. Jennifer Lee, the co-writer of the previous film, was not a part of the writing team on the sequel. Instead, she was replaced by Pamela Ribon, who had nothing to do with the previous one, and who's sole screenwriting credit for animated films is a Smurfs movie. It kind of explains why the film seemed to backtrack on a lot of what the first film established, and why the ending is what it is. Heck, from what I've heard, Rich Moore didn't get as much creative control on the sequel as he had with the first film, and the results show greatly.

More than anything, this film is yet another case to me of writers prioritizing telling themes over creating a well-told story. In this case, the theme of letting go of attachments and allowing someone to follow their dreams. A pretty good one admittedly, but given the context of the world these characters inhabit, and everything that was set up in the first film about finding joy in your duty and the like, the story feels rather un-genuine and thhe characters don't feel the same, simply because the writers want to hammer home this theme. Man, have writers learned nothing from the Matrix sequels in terms of why you shouldn't prioritize themes over good writing?

Also doesn't help this film's case that the Toy Story movies already tackled these sorts of themes in a much more respectful and organic manner.

Edited by LDragon2 on Dec 19th 2018 at 4:53:13 AM

I wonder what emulators and emulated games are like in the WIR universe.

THANK YOU. I wanted them to cover those the moment I heard the premise!

...wait, how does this movie's premise work? If Ralph had died online wouldn't Wreck-it Ralph the game have been shut down? How long were he and Vanellope gone for?

About a day.

It goes right back to the absurdly poor world building. Conceptually, the internet is depicted as just a big city, it hardly realizes the most fundamental element of the internet, interconnecting information and people. Again, ReBoot does a better job with that.

Under better hands, can you imagine the existential crisis that could be explored with Ralph encountering alternate versions of himself, Felix, Vanellope in emulators or even sequels? Or even just wrapping their head around something like online gaming, mascot fighters, etc. But nope, a bunch of grumpy cat and Twitter jokes.

I am going to be honest I think it's pretty interesting to make it into a city, because it is called the super highway for a reason. I mean in a city there is always a form of communication one way or another. I do think that people on the internet having avatars is pretty neat in itself.

Edited by firewriter on Dec 28th 2018 at 11:15:37 AM

The people who made it GOT video games. You get the feeling they didn't "get" the internet the same way?

Not at all.

I am going to disagree, especially since Disney has had a long relationship with the internet.

They seem to have a good idea of how the youtube algorithm and memes work, at least.

Cool! Good to know this franchise isn't about video games.

The first movie was about video games. This one wasn't so much. Disney isn't breaking some long-standing tradition of the Wreck-It Ralph series of which only two movies have been made.

@kyun Kid Radd deals a lot with video games, the internet, emulation, and purpose. The original WIR reminded me a lot of that story.

They also do seem to get some aspects of online gaming such as closing servers to contain bugs, code insecurities (with this then becoming a metaphor), and online communities of people who will spend real life money for virtual online objects and items.

I think the reason people argue that the first movie gets video games while the second doesn't get the internet is a matter of scale. The original got video games, but only really displayed it through understanding three specific genres (OG 2D Platformers, Call of Duty FPS, and Mario Kart Racing Games) that they could show their understanding. Four if you were to throw in the Proto-Slaughter Race and Sims game they deleted. They don't show understanding outside of those narrow genre specifications, but since those are so complete it feels like they get what they are portraying.

Meanwhile the internet is one entity, sure, but its MASSIVE. And the plot doesn't cover the ENTIRE internet and doesn't have time to dig deep into more than maybe two or three internet concepts in a sea of thousands. Which isn't too different from the original as Hero's Duty was barely there, but I think it 'hurts' the sequel to some people more than the original did in the same aspect.

Or it could be just in how the internet is percieved. I may not like Call of Duty, but I can still apprecieate the love that went into Hero's Duty and other aspects like lazy coders not programming the bugs right. Not everyone likes Buzz Feed and You Tube 'Like' systems and, no matter how detailed or loving that portrayal is, some people just won't like it.

One thing that sticks out to me about the second movie is that Youtube algorithms treated as a good guy.

You know, the one that demonetizes LGBT creators and promote homophobic content on Pride Month.

It's just a pet theory, but I'm convinced that Yasss was originally intended to be the villain of the story until they decided to cut out the distraction and focus primarily on Ralph and Vanellope.

The big reason is because the climax with Ralph's image taking over the internet really does seem like a natural extension/exaggeration of what they're was doing with Yasss for much of the plot, and him instead going to find a virus that's never mentioned again after it escapes and introduces a evil broker who is never mentioned again period seems like an odd divrsion. Plus her typically villainous color scheme, and her office being one of the darker shaded locations in the story,,, a lot of small stuff.

Oh, no doubt. I mean, look at her. She looks exactly like the type of villain a movie like this would have. And alluding to what Alexa saidit could've made for an interesting deconstruction of sorts of how youtube and other social media algorithms work, and how (I believe, anyway) manipulative they often are.

Oh no the Youtube algorithm would be a perfect villain.

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/B.E.V.

Yess was never planned to be the villain. This is what the original villain was going to be.

I don't know why, but she gives off vibes of Dolores Umbridge.

I mean, she just looks like an older Yasss (I can't believe that's her name) with four arms.

I don't think Youtube would allow Disney to portray them as a villain.

They're Disney; the fuck are they gonna do about it?

Ban them from using their services.