To say that Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) is like The Matrix (1999) is funny, but not quite accurate.  I only bring up the famous Wachowski sisters film because it is the more familiar one.  The movie Ralph Breaks the Internet more closely approximates is Tron (1982).  The main characters in each are self-aware computer programs, and the stories are Disney properties to boot.  Where they diverge is in one being more-or-less an action flick, while the other is completely bonkers.  Today we will be talking about the latter of those two, mainly because all the others I have already alluded to have been reviewed.  So, here we go with Ralph Breaks the Internet.

It has been six years since the events of Wreck-It Ralph (2012), and the two main characters from that film, Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman) and Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly), remain best friends in Ralph Breaks the Internet.  For the moment, there is no world wide web to trouble their daily routine of hanging out in the video games of Mr. Litwak’s (voiced by Ed O’Neill) establishment, Litwak’s Family Fun Center & Arcade.  At night while the business is closed, they have their fun.  During the day, they stick to their separate video games as customers put quarters into their machines to play them.  They are happy, but Vanellope begins to wonder if there is something more out there than constantly winning her fantastical racing simulator, Sugar Rush.  Wanting to help his best friend, Ralph slips into the game during operating hours and builds a hidden track into the game for Vanellope to try.  Doing so wrests control from the person playing Sugar Rush, and the steering wheel is broken in the process.  Because the one remaining spare part for the older game is out of Mr. Litwak’s price range, he is forced to do the unthinkable: unplug it.  This would mean the end for its inhabitants, Vanellope included, but they manage to escape.  In trying to come up with a solution, Ralph recalls overhearing the conversation about the new steering wheel being on the internet, on a website called eBay.  Conveniently, Mr. Litwak had just installed Wi-Fi for the arcade that day, so Ralph and Vanellope take to it to save Sugar Rush.  What they find is a space that looks a lot like a massive city, with all the familiar websites.  After getting some assistance from the search bar KnowsMore (voiced by Alan Tudyk), Ralph and Vanellope make it to eBay and find the item on which they want to bid.  Because they do not understand how this works, they gleefully bid $27,001 for something that originally was going for a few hundred dollars.  They learn when they go to collect the steering wheel and have it sent to the arcade that they need actual money, and they must come up with it in the next twenty-four hours.  This is when Ralph remembers seeing a pop-up ad J. P. Spamley (voiced by Bill Hader) enticing people to play video games for money.  Because of their innocence, and the fact that they come from such places, Ralph and Vanellope naturally go for this option.  It involves snatching items from other video games and bringing them to Spamley to sell.  Most of them have small rewards, except for Shank’s (voiced by Gal Gadot) car from the ultra-violent racing game Slaughter Race.  Ralph is nervous about going into this environment, though Vanellope is enthusiastic as ever, and the reward is enough to entice them onward.  While they make it into the car, Shank and her crew stop them before they can exit.  Though they fail to come away with the vehicle, Shank is impressed by Vanellope’s driving.  This makes an impression on the tiny racing princess, but Ralph is not as swayed.  Nonetheless, Shank gives them their next money-making scheme: making funny videos for the internet.  Ralph’s derpyness provides amble clickbait fodder.  To further this cause, Shank sends Ralph and Vanellope to Yesss (voiced by Taraji P. Henson), who runs BuzzTube.  Why they could not use YouTube when you already see it and Google in the background, I could not say.  Yesss helps Ralph’s videos to go viral.  However, the money is not coming at a fast enough pace.  To help, Vanellope is sent to the Disney section of the internet to lure people into clicking on Ralph’s material.  She is spotted by a group of Star Wars stormtroopers, who attempt to stop her.  Instead, she ends up taking refuge with the classic Disney princesses.  Vanellope is initially concerned about the plethora of problems they express, but she does gain inspiration from them in following her dreams.  So taken had she been by Slaughter Race that she can see herself returning there and being a permanent part of the game.  This is where she goes without telling Ralph.  Meanwhile, he is able to make it to his fundraising goal, with a few thousand to spare.  Unfortunately, when he contacts Vanellope to tell her the news, it is in the middle of her telling Shank about wanting to stay in Slaughter Race.  Devastated, Ralph tracks down Spamley, who brings him to virus creator Double Dan (voiced by Alfred Molina).  Ralph’s intention is to use a computer bug to make Vanellope uninterested in Slaughter Race and come home with him.  His plan backfires, almost getting her killed, and leading to him admitting to what he had done.  The virus looks for “insecurities,” copies them, and spreads them.  When it encounters Ralph, it sees a major insecurity and begins making zombified duplicates of Ralph, spreading them all over the internet.  These clones have one thing in mind: being Vanellope’s friend.  With everything crashing around them, Ralph realizes that he must let his friend go, and to be okay with that action.  This action destroys the virus and returns the internet to normal.  Though it also means that Ralph and Vanellope will be apart for the first time in six years, we see as we close that they manage to stay in touch.

Like many of these movies, there is a great deal of double meaning in Ralph Breaks the Internet.  The virus is a prime example.  It senses an insecurity in Ralph because he clings too hard to his friendship with Vanellope.  It takes all of his copies forming a giant super Ralph for him to see the monster this has created.  It points to a concept that is not unique to Catholicism, but one for which it rarely gets credit, and that is impermanence.  It is usually attached to Buddhism, but the Bible is full of examples of the need to care for things (in a broad sense), but not get too attached to them.  Catholicism expresses it more in the form of detachment from the world, which is roughly the same idea.  It is something that female and male religious in particular must become comfortable with in order to fulfill their vocation.  From an outsiders’ perspective, it may seem cold.  There are many stories of people about to enter religious life with their loved ones telling them that they are making a selfish choice.  How could somebody want to leave their loved ones behind?  This is applicable to Ralph and Vanellope’s situation, with Ralph being unable to let go of Vanellope.  The problem is that he cannot see what she sees, which is something that happens in the call to any vocation when properly discerned.  A vocation is a gift from God, not unlike a dream or vision as in the movie, that is unique to that person.  Accepting it is just as important for our loved ones as for the person for which it is meant.  It also does not mean a reduction in how much a person loves those they are leaving by going in a different direction, be it a vocation or Slaughter Race (what a phrase).  The important thing to remember is that there is a higher purpose.  For us in the non-video game world, it is God.

Perhaps it is crazy to draw such parallels using a movie like Ralph Breaks the Internet.  Then again, this is largely what I do with The Legionnaire.  Still, there are other ways this movie is insane, but in a fun way.  It is one that works on a number of levels, and it has my stamp of approval.