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YMMV / Ralph Breaks the Internet

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  • Ass Pull:
    • Going a bit alongside Hand Wave. Besides just Ralph making the new track for Sugar Rush while someone is playing the game, the entire plot takes course over 24+ hours. Felix mentions that he'll cover for Ralph, but considering what happened last time Ralph wasn't there when someone wanted to play the game, it seems awfully convenient.
    • A couple of them, in tandem, are that the cabinet for Sugar Rush has been retconned into a one-seater when it had two in the first movie, that the game’s popularity has waned to the point that Litwak chooses not to try repairing it...but also that his salvage crew only comes in on a certain day of the week to dispose of defunct games, providing the absolute perfect circumstances for Ralph and Vanellope to go into the internet and find a new part while also ensuring that it can be delivered by mail before Sugar Rush is discarded.
    • The entire prospect of Vanellope leaving Sugar Rush for Slaughter Race raises a number of questions. Ralph actually criticizes her for abandoning Sugar Rush, but Vanellope uses the excuse that there are 15 other racers and she wouldn't be missed. She argues this despite her being a popular character in the arcade, and even if she weren't, it would be rather unrealistic and suspicious for a racer to just vanish from an arcade game. That's not even going into the fact that she's on the arcade console itself. Additionally, a throwaway line is intended to resolve a part of the conflict awfully quickly. The rule of "if you die outside your game, you actually die" still applies to Ralph and Vanellope, which is why Ralph is so scared while they're in Slaughter Race. Right before the ending, Vanellope says that Shank updated her code to be a part of the game. It's a convenient way of resolving Vanellope's conflict having to choose between Ralph and the game she wanted, one which was never properly foreshadowed. Never mind the Fridge Logic that some Slaughter Race players will quickly recognize a new character added from an old game from an entirely different company. Turbo just got lucky doing this in the first movie because he was in an arcade, and was not seen by very many people. Vanellope doing this in a MMO is far more visible, and could easily result in a copyright lawsuit between the two game companies, or even outright lead to a break in the Masquerade.
  • Awesome Music:
  • Badass Decay: Poor Ralph gets hit with this big time. The climax of the first movie has him fight through the swarm of Cybernetic bugs and a mutated Turbo, and establishes that even though he has a soft and vulnerable side, he can still kick ass. Here, he gets scared of practically everything in the internet and is easily intimidated by things like Double Dan or Shank's gang.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Much like the first film, Vanellope. Some sympathized with her and supported her looking for new experiences by leaving Sugar Rush for another game, while others considered her an unlikable brat who for all intents and purposes went Turbo and was a bad friend to Ralph.
    • Likewise, Ralph. Some disliked him and found him unlikable and whiny (his unleashing of the virus didn't help at all, though it's made pretty clear that you're supposed to see him as being in the wrong). Others sympathized with him and felt that he was right to be upset at Vanellope's deciding to abandon the arcade, even if he handled it the wrong way.
    • The Disney Princesses. Some loved their inclusion and found their Flanderization entertaining and funny. But others found them and their scenes annoying and unfunny and nothing more than self-promotion on Disney's part. Detractors also felt that they were a Spotlight-Stealing Squad who overshadowed the movie's original characters like Shank, best seen in the film's climax where they were the ones to save Ralph.
  • Broken Base: The ending. Some enjoy the lesson Ralph learned about letting loved ones go, while others feel like Vanellope abandoning her game contradicts the moral of the first film and makes her come across as a selfish hypocrite. Others say that while the Aesop is essentially diametrically opposite to the first movie's, that doesn't make it any less true or relevant to certain situations in life. Fans also argue whether Vanellope went "Turbo"; mainly depending on intepretation of whether the term had to include a malicious intention to take over another game.
  • Contested Sequel: While the movie overall has been viewed positively by many, it still has its fair share of detractors. Some fans find the movie to be enjoyable, with cleverly-handled humor and some meaningful Character Development for its protagonists, and an Aesop that is the opposite and yet equally as true and relevant as the first film's. Others feel that the movie's humor feels forced and immediately dated itself, that the storyline is weak and fumbles with the moral that it's trying to convey, and the ending creates a Broken Aesop for the first movie. And other people (even Disney fans!) see the whole thing as marketing ploy from Disney to push their various brands. Some even suggest that the reason this film isn't panned as much as The Emoji Movie even though they have similar premises is due to being, well, Disney, and a large sense of brand loyalty coming from fans, though The Emoji Movie has many more glaring and obvious flaws unrelated to the Internet-based premise that Ralph simply does not.
  • Critical Dissonance: Critics consider the film to be an Even Better Sequel, while fans tend to see it as more of a Contested Sequel, as documented above.

  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • Ralph feeds an anthropomorphic bunny so many pancakes that he explodes offscreen; judging from the reaction of a toddler who was playing the game he was in, it wasn't a pretty sight.
    • Vanellope's "A Place Called Slaughter Race" song, on account of it being a typical Disney "I Want" Song... sung in the middle of (and about) a game called Slaughter Race.
    • One particular scene has several Disney Princesses happily proclaim of having a Missing Mom, which is already Black Comedy in its own right, until you remember that some of their mothers are dead.
    • The gag with the TRON game being overrun with a virus? Two of the franchise's video games (TRON 2.0 and TRON: Evolution) had that as a central plot and Played for Drama.
  • Crossover Ship: Due to the nature of this movie, many popped up; the most prevalent was the preexisting Joke Ship between Ralph and Elsa. The second trailer created another one, between Ralph and Aunt Cass.
  • Creepy Awesome: Arthur, the Insecurity Virus, since he's inhaling and copying the insecurities of various programs and spreads them throughout the area he's in. He would be terrifying in Real Life...
  • Creepy Cute: Gord, Spamley's assistant. His behavior is bizarre and unnatural, but his design is pretty adorable.
  • Designated Hero: Some viewers see Vanellope as this, as she did the exact same thing that Turbo was villified for in the first movie.
  • Don't Shoot the Message: The scene where Ralph reads mean comments about him was likely meant to be a commentary on cyberbullying. This is not necessarily a bad thing to tackle, but it falls hilariously flat since the commenters do not know he is a sentient being, making their behavior not so much bullying as getting ridiculously worked up over a video game meme... not that this doesn't actually happen on the Internet, though.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Epileptic Trees:
    • The very second this film's premise was announced, everyone immediately theorized that it would prominently feature memes.
    • In the second official trailer, in one scene there's a visible stack of yellow question mark blocks in the background. The unmistakable 8-bit typeface of the question mark had people believing this would be hinting at Mario making an appearance in the movie, only to be disappointed to see that wasn't the case.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: Vanellope is happy, but she effectively "went Turbo" to do so, abandoning her game and its people. Meanwhile, Ralph himself is left with one less friend to confide in even if he's happy that she's happy, and she was better off than him when she decided to hang out in someone else's game.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • The Disney Infinity Movie has become a fairly popular one for this movie thanks to the Massive Multiplayer Crossover sequence featuring numerous Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and even The Muppets franchises.
    • Due to the large amount of meta-humor in the trailers, particularly the second trailer (and presumably in the movie too), Ralph Breaks The Fourth Wall became another popular alternative title for the movie.
    • An acceptable nickname for the toddler who had the misfortune of witnessing the bunny blow up would be Mona, given her resemblance to Moana as a baby. Funny enough, Disney seems to accept this name to some degree, since her mother refers to her as "Mo" when this scene got added during the credits.
  • Fan-Preferred Cut Content:
    • Fix-It Felix Jr. and Sergeant Calhoun parenting the Sugar Rush racers could have been a fun little subplot, but it's never brought up again until the end; even then it's never revealed to the audience exactly how they handled them, or how the couple and the racers felt about Vanellope leaving Sugar Rush. As it turns out, the writers (sort of) agreed — this sub-plot was supposed to be a much bigger part of the movie, but ultimately was left on the cutting room floor to help reduce the movie's run-time.
    • While the Disney princesses were well-received by many, a lot of their Hidden Depths such as Jasmine's allergy to cats that were told on promotional media were never shown in the movie, making it come of as an Informed Attribute.
  • Fanfic Fuel:
    • The Disney Princesses wearing modern clothing gives fuel to fans of "Modern AU Fics". There's now an official basis for what type of fashion they like. The movie itself explains that they actually have no concept of what modern fashion is. They have to wear their default outfits.
    • Characters from various media interacting with each other in Cyberspace and entering various websites is a goldmine for writers of Crossover.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Due to the... controversial nature of the ending (with a considerable amount of the fanbase deriding it for breaking the original movie's aesop and making Vanellope Unintentionally Unsympathetic) some fans preferred that the events of this movie did not happen at all, or at least felt like the movie could have ended on a different note.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The "Oh My Disney" site Vanellope visits and where she meets the Disney Princesses? It doesn't actually exist anymore. In 2022, it merged with the Disney News website, this movie technically showing a remnant of a now bygone era.
    • Colleen Ballinger voices a beloved, well-known internet personality who interacts with minors. While it was meant as an Actor Allusion, in real life Ballinger would come under controversy for grooming young children, many of who were her fans.
    • In fact, the same could be said about most references in the movie.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • A character called eBoy being in the internet, given the rise of "e-boy" culture (along with "e-girls") in 2019.
    • 9 months after the movie's release, Shank's voice actress Gal Gadot was signed to not only star in, but executive produce a miniseries about the life of actress Hedy Lamarr, who during World War II invented a frequency-hopping technology responsible for laying the founding bricks of Wi-Fi as we know it today.
    • The movie's main story is about Ralph and Vanellope going on a quest and ultimately ending with Vanellope deciding to stay on the internet after a self-discovery journey. The following Disney sequel, Frozen II, is about Elsa and Anna going on a quest and ultimately Elsa deciding to stay where the journey took them after a self-discovery journey. Keep in mind these films came out within a year and a day of each other (November 21st, 2018 for this film and November 22, 2019 for Frozen II). Even more funny is that the sisters are in this movie too (albeit as cameos, but still). Did she follow Vanellope on a Twitter account or something?
    • The film features a personification of spam messages known as Spamley, portrayed here as a struggling salesman. Three years later, there would be a similar character in Deltarune Chapter 2 known as Spamton.
    • The Sassy Housewives ad depicting Aunt Cass. She already had a reputation as a MILF (or rather AILF) in the fanbase, but it took a whole new turn in 2021 with the Busty Aunt Cass and the NSFW Aunt Cass Checks Your Browser History memes.
    • Zangief is shown to have a book club, which could be seen as a joke about Zangief doing something you wouldn't expect of a Hot-Blooded wrestler. In comes Street Fighter 6, released five years later, where Zangief is revealed to actually be an avid reader, spending much of his free time in the library and reading over 300 books a year.
    • The scene where Ralph cuts off a woman's internet connection become darkly hilarious once grooming and pedophilia allegations came out against the woman's voice actor Colleen Ballinger (aka Miranda Sings), with jokes that Ralph saved a kid from her.
  • Ho Yay: The ending has Tiana wake Ralph up with a kiss... from Frog Naveen, who gives Ralph a flirtatious smile. Ralph isn't really bothered by it at all either.
  • Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Like the first movie, this gave birth to a couple:
    • Heart Breakers (Ralph/Yesss)
    • Wrecking Fam (Ralph/Yesss with Vanellope as their daughter)
    • While not a ship, "Slaughter Race Sisters" has been used for Vanellope and Shank.
  • Just Here for Godzilla:
    • Some people saw the movie just for the scene where the Disney Princesses gathered.
    • Gal Gadot is this for fans of the live-action Wonder Woman.
  • LGBT Fanbase:
    • Merida and Mulan were already queer icons, but their portrayals in the film made them even more popular.
    • Shank has her fans amongst LGBT people.
  • Memetic Badass: Cinderella breaking her glass slipper and ready to use it like a prison shank has gotten her labelled as "Having no chill" and the way she does it implies it's not her first time using one of her slippers like that.
  • Memetic Mutation: See here.
  • Narm:
  • Nightmare Retardant: The zombie Ralphs are hard to take seriously. The giant Ralph in particular looks goofy being made up of the zombie Ralphs.
  • Older Than They Think:
  • Pandering to the Base: The movie's detractors accused the entire "Oh My Disney" segment of being a marketing ploy to draw in fans of various Disney brands, especially the Disney Princesses. While it is only one scene of the movie, it is chock full of references and properties from the brand.
  • She Really Can Act: It's already established that Gal Gadot can give a great performance, but who'd ever knew she'd have a great singing voice as well? And on an Alan Menken song, no less!
  • Ships That Pass in the Night:
    • Ralph/Shank is pretty popular, even if all of Ralph's interactions with her are antagonistic, due to him being worried about Vanellope and suspecting that Shank is a bad influence, however, he seems to get along with her at the end. Most shippers are drawn to the original concept for Shank, with her becoming his official Love Interest.
    • Ralph/Yesss is also pretty popular, even if all of their interactions are business based, and how would a relationship between a video game character and an algorithm work anyway? She does seem to grow fond of both Ralph and Vanellope later.
    • Going full circle, Shank/Yesss is also a thing, mostly because those two were the first new characters advertised for the sequel, who also both happen to be female. Both Shank and Yesss confirm that they know each other, so they have met before, but they would also run into the same problem as Ralph/Yesss would.
  • Signature Scene:
    • The exploding bunny scene from the trailers, which quickly achieved Memetic Mutation status for the film. It wound up barely averting Missing Trailer Scene status, being included as the first stinger with a meta-joke acknowledging that it was only included due to its popularity.
    • Vanellope meeting every Disney Princess released up to that point.
  • Spoiled by the Format: The surprise factor of The Stinger is mitigated when you realize that "Never Gonna Give You Up" is listed in the credits but hasn't appeared in the film up to that point.
  • Tainted by the Preview:
    • Some people are not happy due to the apparent lack of other (video-game) characters that appeared in the first film being present in the trailer (save for a brief Q*bert cameo), though this may be more a legal issue rather than a creative decision, being Screwed by the Lawyers shooting down the chances of some characters (re)appearing.
    • This is either better or worse for those who were hoping to have Mario show up, since while all he got was a namedrop in the first film, he is getting his own movie (again).
    • Before that, the D23 reveal of Vanellope chatting with the Disney princesses was extremely controversial, with many accusing Disney of self-promoting pandering. Many feel the princesses act horribly out of character, and dislike the classic 2D-animated ones being rendered in CGI. The former concern was at least addressed, as Disney altered the scene for the finished movie so that the princesses come off more like themselves rather than parodies.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • The stylization and Only One Female Mold syndrome of the Disney Princesses, even the ones that were already from CGI animation. Though others argue that it makes sense given that these are versions of them on a digital medium such as a game, similar to Disney Infinity.
    • The few stand-out princesses have also been criticized to a certain extent, as some have derided Jasmine for looking more Indian than Arabian.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Felix and Calhoun only show up in three scenes (four if one counts Felix at Tapper's) despite being half of the main cast of the original. The "subplot" of them parenting the Sugar Rush racers goes nowhere. Tweets by the production crew leading up to the movie's release suggested they were meant to have a much larger role, which was later confirmed to have been cut for timing reasons.
    • Shank was revealed in August 2018, and the final trailer the following month featured her rather prominently. But in the movie, she doesn't have any development or much of a role beyond furthering Vanellope's plot.
    • Many fans of The Muppets weren't pleased that their only presence in the film is Kermit's head on a sign and Beaker appearing on a poster - no actual Muppets appear.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The nature of internet comments is briefly touched on, but only in a short scene that has little bearing on the plot and is quickly forgotten.
  • Trailer Joke Decay: Considering the frequency that a lot of the trailers showed the parts with the Princesses, including Cinderella breaking her glass slipper to use as a weapon, the people who work the trailers would have you think the parts with the Princesses were the only parts of the movie.
  • Unexpected Character:
  • Unintentional Period Piece: It draws heavily from contemporary internet culture of the early 21st century, even to the point where Ralph raises the money for the replacement part via becoming a meme (and part of the viral marketing campaign involving a Rickroll that, to be fair, is stunningly accurate to the original music video for Never Gonna Give You Up).
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Vanellope. While Ralph is justifiably criticized for being overprotective and clingy towards her, Vanellope's own misdeeds are not condemned (even by those who suffer from them). She is seemingly unappreciative of Ralph's enormously impressive effort to save Sugar Rush, which she broke in the first place, and abandons her game for Slaughter Race, not discussing the move with others. It doesn't help that game-jumping was associated with the Big Bad and even Ralph in the previous film; Ralph's actions were not intended to be permanent, not to mention having a much worse situation there than Vanellope does in this film.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome:
    • A lot of people found the Internet world absolutely gorgeous, with fantastic and creative designs for the various settings. "Oh My Disney" in particular stands out. For most detractors, this is one of the only (if not the only) redeeming factor of the film if nothing else.
    • The Stinger where Ralph Rickrolls the audience. It looks so accurate to the original video that it almost looks like the characters were just edited into it. Word of God says the scene was also a last-minute addition and the animators pulled it off even with the time crunch.

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