The Art Of Ralph Breaks The Internet by Jessica Julius (book review).
I have to confess from the start that I haven’t seen either of the two ‘Ralph Breaks’ films but I am a sucker for art medium books. There is a lot of banter from the animators in ‘The Art Of Ralph Breaks The Internet’ which must have made life interesting for writer Jessica Julius as to what to include. This doesn’t preclude technical info for those of us also inclined that way and there appears to be a significant software upgrade with how fabrics are dealt with and figure parts relationships. If hair is pulled then the head will react accordingly.
Without watching the film, what I glean from this book is that Ralph and Vanellope go digital into the Internet and visit various places. The depiction of the Internet and what we see here is the visuals of all of that. Obviously, there is a lot of development going on and you get to see how the first idea is never enough. For the older viewer, familiar with the equipment, it shouldn’t be difficult to work out what everything represents. Saying that, I do have to wonder how much screen time the ‘visual noise’ gets so you can absorb the visual jokes.
Apart from the scenery, you also get to see the various characters here. As this is a Pixar/Disney film, don’t be surprised at some of the inclusions. A lot of this is pre-digital, proving that there is still a place for the penciller here to try out the various expressions. More subtly are the various colour schemes used to denote various moods. Oh, there’s also an 8 page-fold-out of characters. Let’s also be careful with the computer viruses.
Purely from the art point of view, this is a nice book. If the film matches this then you will certainly want to add this book to your collection.
GF Willmetts
November 2018
(pub: Chronicle Books. 168 page illustrated oblong hardback. Price: £30.00 (UK), $40.00 (US). ISBN: 978-1-4521-6338-0)
check out website: www.chronicles.co.uk
