Jun 4, 2018

Corporate fan service reaches new heights with "Ralph breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2" Trailer

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 debuted its full trailer this morning.

In the sequel, Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) travel to the world wide web in search of a replacement part to save Vanellope's video game, Sugar Rush. While online, they rely on “netizens” to help navigate their way, including a website entrepreneur named Yesss (Taraji P. Henson), who is the head algorithm of the site BuzzzTube.

Ralph Breaks the Internet is directed by Rich Moore (Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph) and Phil Johnston (co-writer, Wreck-It Ralph, Cedar Rapids, Zootopia), and produced by Clark Spencer (Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph, Bolt).

Disney, as usual, is at the top of the field in terms of craft. The most visually entertaining character in the trailer, for me at least, was the “professor” who runs the search bar. The exasperating man-behind-the-desk gag worked well in Zootopia too with the DMV sloth, and even though the sloth didn't play a major role in that earlier film, he ended up with one the movie's most memorable sequences.

Of course, the other unavoidable sight in this trailer is the “product” placement – the product being everything else made by the Walt Disney Company. It's a perverse testament to Disney's marketing specialists that they've discovered how to get filmgoers to pay for a two-hour commercial by adding only the thinnest veneer of storytelling to it.

It's been apparent for a while, but it's safe to say that we've entered the era of corporate fan service.

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-Ralph 2 opens in U.S. theaters on November 21.