Another year, another Disney movie. It is obvious that Disney is constantly working to provide quality content, and even if for some it is better than others, it is still entertaining to watch. Wreck-It Ralph 2 is the newest film added to their animated sash like a Wilderness Explorer badge. IMDB describes the movie as, “six years after the events of “Wreck-It Ralph,” Ralph and Vanellope, now friends, discover a wifi router in their arcade, leading them into a new adventure.” Basically, they go into the Internet. The new trailer gives an inside glimpse as to what we can expect for them to see with a vivid imagination and idea of what the Internet looks like from the inside if you were an arcade game character. Now, even though the trailer shows us what the movie will possibly look like, it does not delve into the plot. However, we do get what has now, in just a few days, become an iconic princess scene for Disney.
The scene follows as Vanellope hides from stormtroopers and then glitches into a restricted area, which turns out to be the princess room. All canonical thirteen Disney princesses and Queen Elsa will be present, and for many that saw the trailer, this was huge and greatly anticipated because most of the princesses’ voice actresses have come back to reprise their roles, with the exception of those princesses that were originally voiced by women that have sadly passed away.
While there were a lot of great moments in this scene, the one that had me howling with laughter was when Cinderella straight up broke her glass slipper to defend herself. I loved this! It was definitely unexpected, and I enjoyed it because usually Cinderella is seen as being a member of the group of princesses given a bad rep for not being “feminist enough,” but Cinderella holds a lot of the characteristics a true feminist should uphold. She never allowed her abuse to influence her, so she remained kind and never discriminated. She enjoys her femininity without caring for the opinions of others on what exactly she should do with her body or how a woman should behave. Now, thanks to this trailer, we can see she will straight up defend herself if needed. Cinderella is hardcore. However, we’re pretty sure she would never harm a young girl like Vanellope (hopefully), but this just demonstrates that Cinderella has been given a bad rep for no reason since she’s pretty badass.
Other great moments were that of seeing Mulan in the scene considering a lot of people had decided to boycott the film because they thought she wouldn’t be included. After the news of the changes being made to her Disney storyline for the live-action remake, it is refreshing to see the Mulan we know and love on the big screen again. Following this, another great highlight was when all the princesses ask Vanellope if she is truly a princess, and they list a few tropes from the animated films. In the end, they all agree on one thing they have in common that makes Vanellope a princess: a big strong man saving the day. This pokes fun at the one thing they all have in common which usually tends to diminish the strong, can-do attitude these women usually have in their films. However, this is erroneous. All these women save themselves in one way or another, but because there is a man at their side, it is assumed they were saved. It’s nice to see Disney poking fun at these tropes and usual comments made about their characters and stories. Let’s not forget when Zootopia poked fun at singing songs to solve problems. We gotta let it go.
Here’s to hoping the princesses and queen have more of a bigger role to play in the film than just a cameo. Wreck-It Ralph 2 is set to release on November 21, 2018.