Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 21 november 2018
Game not over in 'Ralph Breaks the Internet'

By JAKE COYLE Ralph, but he can see his
Associated Press friend — and their friend-
In a battle between the in- ship is indeed endearing
ternet and John C. Reilly, — is feeling lost. Ralph re-
who among us wouldn't solves to journey into the
root for the latter? Leave internet to purchase the
us IMDb.com and a few replacement part that will
podcasts, John, but by all save Vanellope's game.
means, go smashy-smashy Crawling through the rout-
with the rest. er, they speed through op-
Having liberated arcade tical cables and arrive in an
game characters from infinite, glittering cityscape
their rigidly ordained roles populated by towers of
in 2012's "Wreck-it Ralph," tech (Amazon, Google)
its sequel, "Ralph Breaks the and byzantine byways of
Internet," sends our charm- zipping digital avatars.
ingly lopsided duo — the This image released by Disney shows characters, from left, eBay Elayne, voiced by Rebecca It's an idealized vision of
hulking, big-fisted Ralph Wisocky, Ralph, voiced by John C. Reilly and Vanellope von Schweetz, voiced by Sarah the internet. There are no
(Reilly) and the glitchy pip- Silverman in a scene from "Ralph Breaks the Internet." trolling Russian bots here,
squeak candy-colored rac- Associated Press just some distracting ads
er Vanellope von Schweetz and a quite charming, be-
(Sarah Silverman) — into that doesn't mean there games, "Ralph Breaks the says Ralph. Soon after, the spectacled search engine
that expansive netherworld aren't cruel truths that Internet" is more current. It's impending unplugging of (voiced by Alan Tudyk)
where clickbait lurks and Ralph must confront in cy- ultimately about male-con- Sugar Rush (due to a mal- that will try to finish every
pop-ups proliferate. berspace — none more trolling impulses run amok. function) prompts a kind sentence.
For a pair of pixelated be- than when a crestfallen Life inside the arcade has of migrant crisis. All of the The pair's initial plans prove
ings whose existence has Ralph sees the responses gotten repetitive for Vanel- game's characters flee more complicated once
heretofore been limited to to his popular viral video. lope, who's tired of winning before they get trapped they discover the online
a handful of video games, Never read the comments. the same old rainbow-col- in the shutdown and need world isn't just a game, but
they're decidedly not in In trading Qbert jokes for ored races in her game, new, adoptive homes. a place dictated by real
Kansas anymore. The web eBay ones, "Ralph Breaks Sugar Rush. But while the Vanellope crashes with money. q
of "Ralph Breaks the Inter- the Internet," directed by video-game characters are
net" is a strictly PG-rated, Rich Moore and Phil John- convening in their Grand Wide range of styles on
sanitized version; there are ston, does more than shift Central-like terminal, a new
no dark turns down 4chan the puns. If "Wreck-it Ralph" plug labeled "WiFi" arrives Mark Knopfler's latest CD
alleys or face-to-faces with was a nostalgic "Toy Story"- above. "It's either Wiffle ball
Infowars conspiracies. But like trip into '80s arcade or an arranged marriage,"

This cover image released by Blue Note Records shows
"Down the Road Wherever."
Associated Press
By STEVEN WINE
Associated Press
Mark Knopfler, "Down the Road Wherever" (British
Grove/Blue Note)
At age 69, Mark Knopfler says he still loves touring, and
even in the studio, the Glaswegian guitarist covers a
lot of ground.On his latest album, "Down the Road
Wherever," Knopfler serves up more than 70 minutes
of music rooted in the Scottish Highlands ("Drovers'
Road"), piano bars ("When You Leave") and cowboy
country ("Nobody's Child"), among other locales.
In other words, the range of styles is wide, even within
single songs. "Just a Boy Away From Home" morphs
from Robert Johnson to Rodgers and Hammer-
stein. Ditto the breadth of subject matter, as Knop-
fler mixes story songs with material both topical and
autobiographical.q