Ralph Breaks the Internet, which marks Gal Gadot’s first animated feature film role, has received near unanimous praise from critics.
The film, a sequel to 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph, hits theaters in both the US and Israel this weekend. In the movie, two young friends - Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) go online to find a replacement video game part, and fall deep into the many strange, dark and exciting corners of the Internet. Along the way they meet Shank (Gadot), a driver in the racing game Slaughter Race, who becomes an integral part of their journey.
Can't wait for you all to finally meet Shank tomorrow!! Here we go... @wreckitralph pic.twitter.com/uIaoNwBacO
— Gal Gadot (@GalGadot) November 20, 2018
Reviews of the Disney film have been overwhelmingly positive, with the animated movie praised for its many layers and sharp critique of Internet culture.
Richard Roeper, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, said the film was “fun and clever,” filled with pop-culture references and inside jokes that can sometimes distract from “that neato, lesson-learning friendship between the oversized brute with the soft heart and the little racer with the courage to take big chances.”
Film critic Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Agency said Ralph Breaks the Internet is “a fresh, smart, funny and most importantly, comprehensible analysis of both Internet culture and the complexities of interpersonal relationships.”
And in The New York Times, Bilge Ebriri praised “the film’s ornate imagery and deliriously irreverent humor,” and called it a “terrifying, incisive satire about the ways that a life lived online makes monsters of us all.”
Variety’s Peter Debruge said the film was ambitious and “all-around satisfying,” and called Gadot’s character Shank “a strong female role model who does wonders for [Vanellope’s] self-confidence.
Writing in Deadline, Pete Hammond praised the film and also its voice work, saying that Reilly and Silverman shine and Gadot and Taraji P. Henson “really [let] things cook with their individual characters.”