Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Ralph Breaks the Internet 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 17, 2019

It wasn't long ago that Sony Pictures Animation released The Emoji Movie, a digitally animated, kid-friendly film that attempted to bring the Internet to life. The film was more than awful by any standard, but its core idea of giving shape and place and life and feel to the digital realm within the modern online world was certainly one well worth exploring. Ralph Breaks the Internet, sequel to 2012's mega-popular Wreck-It Ralph, offers a proper animated foray into the Internet, dropping its title hero Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) and his best friend, Sugar Rush kart racer Vanellope (voiced by Sarah Silverman), into the digital realm where they discover its positives, its negatives, its opportunities, its dangers, its places, and its inhabitants, an overwhelming assortment of (the Internet of) things that ultimately threatens to tear their friendship apart. It's uproariously funny, particularly in its second act, and compared to Emoji written and made with a greater understanding of not the Internet but rather how to build and depict it around two characters whose friendship takes center stage, not the assortment of online highlights that accompany them on their adventure.

When Vanellope wants a new track in her racing game, something to shake up the monotony of the same-old, same-old, Ralph enters the game and makes one, which causes her to veer off the predetermined path and her human player to break the arcade machine’s steering wheel trying to regain control. It turns out that a replacement wheel is for sale online but at a price that is too cost prohibitive for the arcade’s proprietor, Mr. Litwak (Ed O'Neill), to bother with. The game is unplugged, its characters barely escape, and the machine is destined for the dump. Good-eared Ralph remembers hearing that some entity known as “eboy” has the part needed to fix the machine, so he and Vanellope take a trip to the arcade’s recently installed WiFi router to hop onto the Internet, get the part from (was it actually “eBay”?) and return things in the arcade to the way they were. In the Internet, they find themselves in awe of the spectacle and size and endless possibilities. They find eBay without much trouble, locate the wheel, and win the bidding for the excessively and needlessly hefty cost of $27,001, which they obviously cannot pay. Out off desperation, they “click” on a shady get-rich-quick scheme in order to raise the funds in the 24 hour window eBay provides to get the wheel and save the game. But a few dollars here and there will not help their cause. They eventually realize that they’re going to have to turn to the world of online video production -- i.e. make fools of themselves to the delight of millions -- if they are going to raise that much money in such a short period of time.

The film has a lot of fun stylizing various components of the Internet, creating a tangible, inhabitable, traversable digital world where one really doesn’t exist (right?). The film’s middle stretch, and most of its end, spring to life with various realizations of a real world made from nothing but real graphics and no shortage of imagination. This is unquestionably the film’s crux, its ability to so enticingly build its own vision of the Internet, but what sets it apart from Emoji is that it takes the time to purposefully insert the characters into that world and make sure that every little component is tailored to their adventure. Beyond, mostly, a few sweeping set pieces that offer a multitude of Internet trivialities seen at distance amongst a clutter of online wonders, the film carefully constructs its world with characters and story in mind, not jamming in an excess of fan service fluff. The filmmakers rarely take the proverbial “kitchen sink” or’ “see what sticks” approach, instead ensuring that most everything of prominence serves a purpose along the way.

Of course, Ralph’s and Vanellope’s adventures through the Internet are not all fun and games. The film does not shy away from the Net’s darker side, not just the “dark web” as it is but the more intimate downside, particularly “comment sections” that here deflate Ralph down from a high point when he stumbles into an empty room where a few positive posts are drowned out by hate, by people berating him for what they believe to be poor content, his size, or his looks. The scene almost feels more like an aside than it does a critical cog in the movie’s greater infrastructure, but kudos to the filmmakers for including the realities of rude Internet postings that serve no constructive purpose other than to hurt victims and inflate some nonexistent digital ego for those who partake in online hate.

Ralph Breaks the Internet 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Ralph Breaks the Internet arrives on 4K UHD with an upscaled 2160p/HDR-enhanced presentation. The source animation is appreciably, but not significantly, sharper and crisper on the UHD. Character renderings enjoy a little more clarity, environments a slight bit more sharpness, but nothing that really sets the presentation apart in terms of the uptick in available resolution. Small textural nuances, some wear on surfaces, frays along the edge of Ralph's sleeves, the fine fabric lines on his shirt's neckline, the glitter on Cinderella's dress, and the like are where one will find many of the more "significant" upgrade cues and adds to sharpness. But in terms of raw, readily visible, large-scale, and screen commanding increases in detail, there just aren't many.

While it's difficult to discern much in the way of a significant textural upgrade for the UHD release of Ralph Breaks the Internet, the HDR color palette is certainly the source for the most obvious benefits. The film's opening act in particular bears much fruit under the HDR parameters, intensifying colors, solidifying depth, and helping to put a halt on some of the lighter, brighter, less dynamic contrast evident on the Blu-ray, particularly an early scene featuring Ralph and Vanellope on a rooftop in chapter three which finds more natural dark background depth, a more prominent selection of oranges on Ralph's shirt, and a deeper black color defining Vanellope's hair. Where the scene looks washed out and flat on the Blu-ray, there's a greater visual dynamic, a sense of shape and depth on the UHD. The colorful Internet worlds find another gear of gorgeous, with every color more intense, deeper, and more dramatic. One of the most impressive stretches comes in the room where the Disney Princesses hang out while on break from their Internet quiz duties. The colorful clothes, hair, and accents find much more life on UHD under the HDR color parameters, with each shade -- critical and support -- enjoying a greatly increased sense of accuracy and intensity. Cinderella breaks her glass slipper to use as a weapon against Vanellope at the 54:25 mark. It looks like plastic on the Blu-ray and glass on the UHD. Whites are brighter and crisper as well; take a look at the "open sesabees" text that appears in large lettering on the screen at the 58:23 mark; it's a great example of how much punch and brilliance HDR adds to whites. While textural ups are more on the "nice to have" end of the spectrum, HDR adds an arguably critical brilliance to the film that the Blu-ray simply cannot find.

Ralph Breaks the Internet 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ralph Breaks the Internet surfs onto Blu-ray with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack (the Blu-ray offers a DTS-HD MA 7.1 lossless audio presentation). This track yields the same volume characteristic as most recent Disney audio presentations, playing low at calibrated reference volume and requiring an upward adjustment to more fully enjoy. Once there, the track proves quite hearty and a somewhat better listening experience than the DTS track. Bass sounds more solidified, more pronounced, more regularly indulging the subwoofer not with occasional bursts of depth but rather impressive forcefulness that gets to the bottom of many of the film's more prominent low end effects. The track additionally offers a steady diet of fluid, seamlessly integrated surround effects, including a fun scene that introduces Vanellope to the OhMyDisney website, where Tie Fighters and X-Wings swoop around and environmental din completely immerses the listener into the location. The track extends its presence with frequency, including even brief explosions of sound, such as when Ralph lets loose a box full of bees that buzz in a sharp-edged swarm throughout, and above, the listener for a brief moment of bee bliss in chapter 10. Chapter 11 is home to a high yield uptempo musical interlude that is awash in big musical envelopment, impressive surround integration, and a healthy low end support. Surrounds carry well defined lighter environmental pieces as well, with no scene left wanting for an appropriately immersive sensation. Dialogue is clear and well defined with a natural front-center position; a few scenes of reverb encircle the listener with some top end support.

Ralph Breaks the Internet 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras are included on the UHD disc, but the bundled Blu-ray contains the following extras. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. The release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Surfing for Easter Eggs (1080p, 3:36): Revealing a few of the hidden surprises within the movie.
• The Music of Ralph Breaks the Internet (1080p, 10:18): A look at the different types of music in the film and the music's structural and narrative purposes.
• BuzzzTube Cats (1080p, 1:47): A collection of cat videos created to support the making of the film.
• How We Broke the Internet (1080p, 32:57 total runtime): Following an Introduction, the piece includes the following subsections that explore the making of various scenes in the film: Netizens, Net Users; Knowsmore; eBay; Older Net; Slaughter Race; BuzzzTube; Ohmydisney; Ralphzilla; and The Goodbye.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Included are Into the Internet (4:54), Opposites (3:17), Domestic Hell (2:43), Bubble of One (5:56), and Recruiting Grandma (2:15). Directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston chip in to discuss the scenes in early conceptual stages of completion (Grandma is in a more close-to-complete state).
• Music Videos (1080p): Included are "Zero" - Performed by Imagine Dragons (3:51) and "In This Place" - Performed by Julia Michaels (3:22).

Ralph Breaks the Internet 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The film's climax is probably its least impressive sequence, when a crisis is averted by the typical play-it-safe talk-down with soft music and emotional pleas rather than something a little more daring or creative. Even as the film, as noted earlier, works hard to intertwine its world and its characters and its story, the former is certainly the driving force and the film finds its best moments in its second act, one of discovery, as the heroes traverse the digital world, new and exciting to them, familiar but cooly embodied (and packed with little winks and nods and Easter eggs) for the audience. The picture is creative and very entertaining and its character beats and the evolution of the Ralph-Vanellope relationship is a highlight, but the film is ultimately just a well-made frivolity that does its thing very well. Disney's UHD offers video and audio improvements over the Blu-ray. The bundled Blu-ray brings with it a decent array of extra content. Recommended.