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Review of Ralph Breaks the Internet (Henry Jackman/Alan Menken)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you expect not only a competent extension of the unique musical style of the previous score in the franchise, but a wealth of humorous new parody applications on top of that base.

Avoid it... if you can stomach no repackaging of vintage arcade electronica regardless of the surrounding symphonic fantasy element, this score adding some obnoxious funk style to that mixture.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Ralph Breaks the Internet: (Henry Jackman/Alan Menken) Six years after Wreck-It Ralph captured audiences with its lovable homage to vintage arcade heroes, Walt Disney Pictures returns to the concept to develop the same set of characters in the internet age. In 2018's Ralph Breaks the Internet, the two lead characters at a local arcade, Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz, once again escape the boundaries of their respective games but discover the internet this time, encountering not only the familiar arcade characters of their own realm but a wealth of new concepts that cross over genres and intellectual properties with glee. The aspirational evolution of these characters and their troubled friendship holds the story together, as both eventually find peace in new adventures and old haunts. Response to the film was widely positive, in part because of Disney's decision to adapt the vast array of their storied princess and pieces of the Star Wars universe, among other concepts either within their ownership of licensed from elsewhere, into the story. Perhaps the most notable aspect of Ralph Breaks the Internet was the assembling of almost all the living original Disney princess vocal talent for the production, along with Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, and so on. The music by Henry Jackman for the prior film was very adept at capturing the 1980's heritage of arcade game music and modern children's fantasy film scores, though a certain amount of tolerance for intentionally wacky crossover music was required to appreciate the work on album. Jackman, who has made a career out of spanning these disparate genres, once again revisits the same well of ideas, swapping out ghostwriters but retaining much of the same musical personality. Song placements remain a pivotal element of the film's appeal, with Imagine Dragons contributing the primary end credits song with a rather melancholy, more mainstream rock approach to "Zero" than might be expected. Meanwhile, the surprising highlight of the soundtrack is the full embrace of Disney heritage in both its main character song and the score's adaptation of that history. For the song dedicated to Vanellope's princess-inspired desires, Disney brought in the legendary Alan Menken to capture that lofty spirit with all his usual mannerisms. Jackman then adapts that melody into his breakneck score for the character as appropriate.

The Menken involvement in Ralph Breaks the Internet is really a wonderful dose of musical continuity that one doesn't expect to hear in film scores these days, even parody-defined ones such as this. The composer does have a sense of humor about his own place in animation history, with his song for Sausage Party absolute proof of that fact, and his entry for Ralph Breaks the Internet is a fantastic tribute to Menken's past princess ballads and Broadway-inspired set pieces, even down to his usual crew's flighty orchestrations and classic choral crescendos. Sarah Silverman's lead vocals in "A Place Called Slaughter Race" are intentionally comical as Vanellope discovers an awesome new game she hopes to be her future, but listeners will be pleasantly surprised by Gal Gadot's dynamic and strong vocals as the racer Shank. (One could wish that Disney would allow a future princess such a beefy, "Wonder Woman" resonance in voice.) For the second end credits song placement, American pop singer Julia Michaels adapts Menken's song into a generic rock alternative, "In This Place," and, frankly, this regrettable rendition should have replaced its electronic manipulation and Michaels' voice with an equivalent, straight pop performance by Silverman and Gadot. Jackman thankfully builds upon the same melody to represent Vanellope's aspirational dilemma in his score, more than simply a representation of the Slaughter Race game and building to its melodramatic catharsis in "Breaking Up." The general demeanor of the score is on par with Wreck-It Ralph at its core, but the vintage arcade electronics are provided another ten years of musical maturity to bring them into the internet age. With the Shank storyline, you also receive an interesting reversion back in time, with hip 1970's funk punctuating her stylish coolness. A few of the individual instrumental representations return, including a tuba for Ralph's antics and the fantasy choir for the grandiose scale of his impacts on the digital world. There continues to be some difference reported in Jackman's album edits of the music as compared to those for the film; the presence of electronics is intentionally diminished in his album edits, but listeners may find the differences too insignificant at most junctures to really notice. Like the previous score, there are times of heightened orchestral action, especially near the end of the story, as well as nearly insufferable portions of electronic mayhem owing to the arcade inspiration. The funk material for Shank can be challenging to tolerate at its most exuberant moments.

Thematically, Jackman and his team reprise all the major ideas from Wreck-It Ralph in this sequel, led by the vintage electronic bounciness for Ralph himself. This idea is expressed almost verbatim in "Best Friends" and punctuates the character's heroics in the story, particularly memorable in "Overnight Sensation" before closing out the arc in "Comfort Zone." Vanellope's material was more nebulous in the previous work, and her identity is overtaken by the Menken melody, it seems, though some of the music for her Sugar Rush game does live on. The funk for Shank and clubby electronica for the Yesss character do fragment the listening experience at times, though they are consistently applied. For listeners desiring the orchestral highlights, the concluding cues are again the greatest concentration of solid but not spectacular material in this vein, though the score ends with a rather tepid, minimally sentimental "Worlds Apart" cue that underperforms. Be sure not to miss the fantastic combination of electronics, orchestra, and choir in "The Internet," partly reminiscent of Basil Poledouris (like the first score) and partly of Alan Silvestri. Another attraction in the music for Ralph Breaks the Internet is its parade of parody applications, many of which are not included on the album release. Most of these affable interpolations are related to Disney princess scores, though Jackman offers a humorous rendition of John Williams' "The Imperial March" and the closing fragment of the opening Star Wars fanfare in "Vanellope's March." A snippet of Neal Hefti's vintage "Batman" theme didn't make the album. On that product, the Disney princess themes are condensed to "A Big Strong Man in Need of Rescuing," where melodies from Moana, The Little Mermaid, Frozen, Brave, Mulan, Pocahontas, and The Princess and the Frog are provided in less than a minute of snapshot fragments. The only melody to really thrive here is Menken's "Part of Your World," which is orchestrated beautifully for its seven seconds of glory. Themes in the film that didn't make the album include those from Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, another from Frozen and a few other odds and ends. Overall, Ralph Breaks the Internet is a wild and frenetic ride, as to be expected, and many film music listeners won't have the patience for it. The album release is also incomplete, missing moments of high parody in the score. The CD doesn't include the instrumental versions of the Menken song while the digital version does. But Menken and Jackman's approach to the project is commendable, lending a familiar but unique musical voice to an equally singular concept.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 74:51

• 1. Zero - performed by Imagine Dragons (3:30) • 2. A Place Called Slaughter Race* - performed by Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, and Cast (3:28) • 3. In This Place* - performed by Julia Michaels (3:21) • 4. Best Friends (2:53) • 5. Circuit Breaker (2:22) • 6. Pulling the Plug (1:14) • 7. On the Rooftop (1:04) • 8. The Big Idea (1:15) • 9. The Internet (2:47) • 10. KnowsMore & Spamley (1:18) • 11. Site Seeing (1:30) • 12. Check Out Fiasco (1:33) • 13. Get Rich Quick (1:43) • 14. Shank (3:03) • 15. Hanging Out (1:03) • 16. BuzzzTube (1:42) • 17. Overnight Sensation (2:52) • 18. Separate Ways (1:04) • 19. Vanellope's March (0:46) • 20. Desperate Measures (1:20) • 21. Don't Read the Comments (1:49) • 22. Growing Pains (1:35) • 23. Double Dan (3:36) • 24. Scanning for Insecurities (1:54) • 25. Breaking Up (2:46) • 26. Replicate-It Ralph (1:20) • 27. Operation Pied Piper (2:38) • 28. Kling Kong (3:39) • 29. The True Meaning of Friendship (2:16) • 30. A Big Strong Man in Need of Rescuing (1:55) • 31. Letting Go (1:49) • 32. Comfort Zone (1:32) • 33. Worlds Apart (1:22) Digital Release Only: • 34. A Place Called Slaughter Race (Instrumental)* (3:28) • 35. In This Place (Instrumental)* (3:21)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes lyrics to the songs and a list of performers but no extra information about the score or film.

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