Last night I opened the Netflix menu up so that Ash could pick a movie to watch. He walked over to the TV in his little forest green onesie PJs and pointed to Wreck-it Ralph. We had just watched Wreck-it Ralph for the first time a few nights ago. He liked it and wanted to watch it again. Ten minutes into the movie, I realize that I didn’t recognize the unfolding plot. I thought, ok, maybe I missed this part of it when we watched it the first time. Ten more minutes in, and it still seemed unfamiliar. So, I grab the remote to check the title because this was not the Wreck-It Ralph movie of a few nights ago. And it wasn’t. It was the sequel; Wreck-It Ralph Breaks the internet.
So, here is a plot synopsis if you haven’t seen it. (If you have, skip to the end of the post). In the fanciful world of arcade game characters, ‘Wreck-It’ Ralph, a six hundred pound, emotionally insecure, shabbily dressed villain with massively over-sized hands from the vintage ‘Fix-It Felix Jr’ arcade game and Vanellope Von Scheetz the adventurous, spunky, race car princess with a programming glitch, of the ‘Sugar Rush’ video game are ongoing BFFs from the first movie.
Vanellope, a shorty with dark hair fixed in a high ponytail held together by licorice, bedazzled in candy sprinkles and peppermint, is bored of the simple Sugar Rush racetrack course and the predictability of day to day living and is wanting more out of life. She has unlocked every bonus level; she knows every short cut. Ralph, on the other hand, is quite content with the mundaneness of life. In an attempt to be a good friend, Ralph sneaks into Vanellope’s game and makes a new racetrack for her. However, this causes a snowball of issues.
The ‘real-life’ driver of the game breaks the steering wheel off of the arcade gaming machine while trying to steer Vanellope back on the anticipated course of the race (and not Ralph’s new track) against the princess’s will. The arcade owner, Mr. Litwaz, tries to put the wheel back on but breaks it even further. An eBay replacement of the wheel is something like $200, which is more than the arcade owner is willing to pay, so he decides to retire or ‘unplug’ the Sugar Rush game. Here is where the plot begins to thicken. Vanellope and Ralph take a quest to go visit the even more fanciful “internet’ to get the wheel from eBay and save the game, which is home to hundreds of little Sugar Rush characters.
But V and Ralph don’t exactly know how eBay works and end up bidding a ridiculous $27K for the wheel, which neither of them has. They have 24 hours to come up with the money (or forfeit the wheel), and so they decide to look for a “get rich quick” kind of gig. They go to a clickbait salesman (a little green character named J.P. Spamley) who offers them a job of stealing a car from Shank, a Fast and Furious vibes type of woman; also the lead character in the video game Slaughter Race. Vanellope becomes enthralled with the Slaughter Race game, which is grimy and volatile, the exact opposite of Sugar Rush. V and Ralph almost succeed at stealing Shank’s car due to V’s superior and gutsy racing skills but fall short. The rest of the movie is a pretty good finale.
Ralph composes a bunch of viral videos on ‘BuzzzTube’ that eventually makes him enough money to buy the steering wheel to fix Sugar Rush. Along the way, Vanellope runs into and befriends the rest of all of the other Disney princesses (Moana, Pocahontas, Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Merida, Rapunzel…all of them) who entertainingly encourages her to search out her real dreams. Staring at an “important” form of water can help with this (per Pocahontas), so that’s what V does and receives an epiphany that Slaughter Race is her dream game and so… she wants to stay. By the way, there is a great Disney princess musical number that comes along with this.
Ralph incidentally finds out that V doesn’t want to go back home and has some lousy friend moments. He tries to implant a virus into the Slaughter Race game to make it less appealing for V. This causes another snowball of issues. The virus invades the entire internet, threatening his and Vanellope’s life and ultimately causes Ralph to have to confront all his insecurities. He finally accepts V’s dreams, their friendship is mended, he returns home to the arcade, the Sugar Rush game is fixed, and V stays in Slaughter Race, spreading her wings (or wheels rather) in her dream game. I was thoroughly entertained.
Doesn’t the very nature of our existence make you wonder if there’s more to life than this? Are you really saying there’s not one single, solitary thing about your life that you would change? Don’t you wish something new and different would happen in your game? All of the questions V asked in the first 10 minutes of this movie were a little reminiscent of the soul searching I found myself doing in the latter part of last year. I’m not trying to be deep or philosophical with a Disney movie. I’m just saying that while watching Princess V trying to discover her sense of fulfillment, I noticed a little empathy with it all within my self. And as a side note, I’m not above finding inspiration in children’s movies.
Forging a new track for yourself, doing what feels right in your heart is not always… easy. Speaking of princesses and forging new paths, there’s the whole “Megxit.” Prince Harry and Meghan Markle deciding to be financially independent. So incredibly monumental for someone in their royal shoes to step outside of rigid tradition and live according to their own hearts and principles. Another sidenote: I love them.
I’m not a princess (well not formally one anyway), but I have found myself imagining new paths and if I would have the courage to pursue them. I’ve found myself musing what the “dream game” looks like. I don’t know; maybe I will go off and stare at some “important” form of water until I receive an epiphany and burst into a theatrical song. Until then… Xo
Have you ever felt like Vanellope Von Scheetz? What does your dream game look like to you? If you had one, what did your epiphany look like?
Photo credit: Reyna Noriega/Instagram
