YMMV / Wreck-It Ralph

Spoilers involving this movie will remain unmarked. Spoilers involving other works will remain marked, though. You Have Been Warned!

A-F

• Abandon Shipping: There were fans who shipped Ralph/Vanellope before Vanellope's age was revealed and then chose to jump ship immediately afterwards to support an adorable big brother/little sister relationship instead.
• Accidental Aesop: Based on the Nicelanders' treatment of Ralph and how their hostility to him prompts him to leave the game to retrieve a medal so that he can be treated with respect, it most likely has a hidden message to treat your co-workers with respect even if their jobs are "dirty" because the lack of respect can cause them to quit their jobs rather than put up with you, especially if what they do is important.
• Adorkable: Fix-It Felix Jr. is an old-fashioned goody-two shoes who is sweet to a fault and turns into a lovestruck dufus when he meets Calhoun.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: See Here
• Applicability: This Letterboxd review makes an argument that Ralph's and Vanellope's struggles through the movie are a metaphor for autism.
• Award Snub: It lost to Brave in the 85^th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, which Ralph fans decry as having an inferior story, and say that the only reason it won was because Pixar made it, and that the Academy was bowing to the first female director to win the award after she got replaced. It's also plausible that the Academy judges balked at giving the award to "a movie about video games" as opposed to a movie considered to be a strong feminist tale. The snub is made all the more significant as Ralph had won the Annie Award (basically the Oscars/Golden Globes for animation) for Best Animated Feature, the winner of which almost always goes on to win the Oscar in the same category.
• Awesome Music:
  • While some people think that the pop music isn't video game-y enough, "Good Feeling" by Flo Rida and "Some Nights" by fun. set the mood really well in the first two trailers.
  • "Once in a Lifetime" was another great song used in the trailers.
  • Owl City's "When Can I See You Again?"
  • Henry Jackman's score, and impressive blend of synthesized 16-bit-style melodies and orchestrated film score. The orchestra swell as Ralph enters Game Central Station is magnificent.
  • "Bug Hunt" by Skrillex in the Hero's Duty scene.
  • "Sugar Rush" by AKB48.
  • "Shut Up and Drive" by Rihanna during Vanellope's Training Montage (although someone seems to have not realized that Rihanna wasn't singing about cars...).
  • "Sugar Rush Showdown". This, as well as many other parts of score, was composed by Henry Jackman of Kick-Ass, Monsters vs. Aliens, and X-Men: First Class.^note He ultimately replaced Thomas Newman.
  • And freakin' Buckner & Garcia do the Fix-It Felix Jr./Wreck-It Ralph theme, in the style of their one hit, "Pac Man Fever". Garcia didn't live to see the song finalized, but Buckner kept his name in as a tribute.
  • "Life in the Arcade", a small compilation of the 8-bit tunes that play during Ralph's introduction, is short but catchy. One of them even got remixed for Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed!
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Vanellope. She's either funny, cute, and very likable, or she's the most annoying brat in film history. It doesn't help that many of her detractors are people who can't stand Sarah Silverman.
  • The Sugar Rush racers. Some fans love them for their unique designs and interesting personalities and are willing to forgive them for bullying Vanellope when they get their memories back. Other fans find their actions towards Vanellope too cruel to forgive them.
  • Gene. You've got people defending him and claiming that he has a point in being a jerk to Ralph or believing that he's incredibly unlikable. In particular, fans can't seem to agree if he was at fault for Ralph abandoning Fix-It Felix Jr. in the first place.
• Broken Base: Sadly, a lot of members of the WIR Fandom on DeviantArt, Tumblr, and FanFiction.Net are not getting along at the time of typing. The base is split between the people who pair Turbo with their OC(s)/Roleplay/Cosplay/Worship Turbo, and the fans who think that Turbo shouldn't be having all the attention and there should be more focus on the main characters and the Sugar Rush racers as well. This is ironic since Turbo wanted A LOT of attention during the movie.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • While it's meant to be a Mass "Oh, Crap!" and Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment, the Nicelanders freaking out when Ralph fails to appear the night after the party is quite satisfying. They and Felix realize belatedly the problems with ignoring their coworker and insulting him about not being a hero are that he may snap and walk off the job, or in this case, "go Turbo." Especially when, as an Apology Gift, they make a new cake for him at the end where he's on top.
  • After being bullied by them, and nearly being cheated out of her victory, Vanellope trolling the other racers by ordering their execution is hilarious, especially Calhoun's excited reaction. She quickly reveals she was kidding after they start crying.
• Crosses the Line Twice
  • Even with Saitine correcting Ralph on the pronunciation of his name when he thanks him, it's freaking hysterical that a Disney movie got away with mentioning Satan^note Though this isn't unprecedented. Satan was explicitly mentioned in the introduction to the Night on the Bald Mountain segment of Fantasia.. Or that they actually featured Kano's most iconic fatality, cleaned up only by the fact that 1) the victim is already dead and doesn't seem to mind that much, and 2) the blood/organs aren't red.
  • Calhoun's deliberately melodramatic backstory. Having your fiance eaten at the altar by a robot bug? Silly. Shooting said robot bug in a wedding dress with a machine gun you pulled from your hammerspace? Even sillier. Being traumatized by this despite knowing full well that this was a fictional backstory designed for you? Now it becomes a double whammy as it melds into Mood Whiplash: the over-the-top-ness of the backstory itself may be played for laughs, but the comedic tone is dropped as soon as we see the trauma it causes for Calhoun, at which point the scene turns seriously sad. The brief montage of her and her lover's "courtship" beforehand (where they wear their giant bulky space marine armor every single waking moment, including on romantic dates) and the fact that her betrothed speaks a grand total of four words to her (most of which is just the same thing repeated over and over again) turns it practically into something out of Starship Troopers.
• Crossover Ship:
  • Ralph×Elsa (a.k.a. Icebreaker) is steadily growing in popularity, thanks to Frozen (2013) co-director Jennifer Lee joking that the two would make a good couple. Rich Moore, the director of Wreck-It Ralph has also teased the ship.
  • Turbo×Giffany has taken the rounds on Tumblr, because both of them are psychotic video game characters who corrupt other games. Both being from Disney doesn't hurt.
• Designated Villain: Wreck-It Ralph, or rather, his ‘in-game’ portrayal. Even if you ignore how he is in reality, the story of his game makes him out to be the bad guy when he really isn't. Ralph's home was the forest in the game he originates, which was torn down in favor of Niceland Apartments. At least one YouTube comment said:
  "I'm not altogether certain Ralph is in the wrong here..."
• Die for Our Ship: Dr. Brad Scott seems to be a Nice Guy, but certain shippers of the Hero's Duty characters portray him as a Ron the Death Eater type, as a jealous, resentful, psychopathic and angry ex that is willing to hurt or kill Felix and Calhoun. Particularly bizarre since most of the fics published right after the film's release portray Brad as a much more sympathetic character. The fact that he gets exactly six words of dialogue and is dead (and probably never really even existed at all outside of the Hero's Duty backstory) just makes all the Brad hate even weirder.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • King Candy/Turbo gets this from the fandom, resulting in a Broken Base.
  • DILP-ers of the members of Bad-Guys Anonymous are probably wiping tears of joy right now...
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The various cameo characters from real life games have enormous followings (for obvious reasons).
  • For those who don't hate them, the Sugar Rush racers are intensely popular, to the point where some think that they deserve their own spin-off series. Particularly Rancis is popular for being the most prominent male racer, fanfiction frequently turns him into Vanellope's Love Interest.
  • The Surge Protector, for being a Deadpan Snarker and one of the few characters living in the arcade who isn't a video game character.
  • The "First Person Shooter", for being a brilliant take on the Featureless Protagonist, as well as also having a personality.
  • Sour Bill is quite popular, due to his simplistic, yet interesting design and deadpan delivery.
  • The NPCs from Turbo Time appeared for about 3 seconds, but since they were likely erased from existence, many are fascinated with them nonetheless, giving them personalities and backstories.
• Estrogen Brigade:
  • Ralph and Felix are drawing in an increasingly large base of fangirls.
  • The three male Sugar Rush racers (Rancis Fluggerbutter, Gloyd Orangeboar, and Swizzle Malarkey) are very popular with female fans, especially Rancis.
  • King Candy/Turbo has his fan girls who give him the full Draco in Leather Pants treatment.
• Evil Is Cool: King Candy gets this once his true identity as Turbo is revealed, showing how manipulative and ruthless he really is. His terrifying One-Winged Angel form upon fusing with a Cybug also helps.
• Fan Nickname: The four main characters are often called "the Core Four".
• Fanfic Fuel: How many other video game bosses also attend Bad-Anon, and what problems are they having? What was Sugar Rush like originally and what will it be like afterward? What else exists in the world of Hero's Duty. The movie's writers themselves have said that they only "scratched the surface" of story potential here.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Later Disney Revival films Frozen (2013) and Zootopia were criticized for having a Hidden Villain which The Reveal was centered around. However, Wreck-It Ralph was the first movie to have this trope, and was actually praised for it at the time. The difference is that it did several other things the other films didn't.
    • First: It didn't leave the film without a clear antagonist, as it's pretty clear from the start King Candy is not someone who should be trusted. The twist of the reveal is ultimately less about whether King Candy was the bad guy, but rather just how bad he really was, and the depths he would go to ensure his position as the false ruler of Sugar Rush and hiding his true identity, Turbo.
    • Second: It was clearly foreshadowed and set-up.
    • Third: The Reveal had a clear purpose in the narrative in revealing Turbo as the Evil Counterpart to Ralph, which further added a lot of weight to the dangers of abandoning one's game and purpose, and the kind of damage that being selfish and uncaring can cause (a direct parallel that is further emphasized by Turbo and Ralph's characters, but also highlighted in Felix and the Nicelanders, as their lack of care (In Felix's case, unintentionally) and disregard for Ralph's well-being ultimately started this whole mess in the first place.
    • By contrast, many later Disney films after Wreck-It Ralph had a bad tendency to use a twist villain without properly setting things up, or making it incredibly vague and difficult to get a pin on the characterization of said villain's reasoning and motives that didn't feel contrived or just wasn't well thought out.
  • While Ralph destroying Vanellope's kart is played as a heartrending test of the friendship they've built up together, it's also the first instance of him making a controlling decision because he thinks he knows what's best for her future — which is something he's criticized for doing in the movie's sequel, to an egregious degree. The key difference that makes destroying the kart more forgivable is that he's genuinely convinced that he's acting in Vanellope's best interests, and yet he's still extremely broken up because he knows how much it will hurt her. Ralph Breaks the Internet has him going behind Vanellope's back for selfish and possessive reasons, using methods that absolutely put her in danger and with little thought for the consequences.
  • One criticism towards the ending of Ralph Breaks the Internet is the possibility of the owners of Sugar Rush suing the creators of Slaughter Race for having Vanellope in their game. While the first movie's ending sees Q*bert and company moving to Fix-It Felix Jr. and becoming enemies in bonus levels, the difference is that this only occurs in a single cabinet in an arcade, and wouldn't draw too much attention or be seen as a big deal. That, and Q*bert's game was unplugged, so he and his peers were given a new home. In the sequel, Vanellope moves to Slaughter Race, an online multiplayer game where people are far more likely to notice her, making a lawsuit more likely. That, and she moved there purely because she was bored with Sugar Rush, which does not get unplugged in the end, making her motives come off as selfish and careless, effectively "going Turbo".
• Game-Breaker: Vanellope. Even after we find out that she is actually a part of the game, she can still glitch-warp around the track. Maybe she's supposed to be a boss character?
• Genius Bonus: Ralph bears a noticeable physical resemblance to Bluto from Popeye—also a big, burly man known for his distinctive broad chest, thick arms, and scraggly hair. This is quite appropriate, given that Fix-It Felix Jr. is quite openly based on Donkey Kong, which was originally conceived by Nintendo as a Popeye game. According to most accounts, Donkey Kong himself (Ralph's primary inspiration) was originally supposed to be Bluto before the game was reworked as an original title.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The Japanese have taken a liking to Vanellope, especially since she bears a resemblance to AKB48's Ami Maeda.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The retro commercial for Fix-It Felix Jr. says Ralph loves living up to his Wreck-It name. Compare that to where he is 30 years later.
  • The movie's ending becomes harder to watch after Ralph Breaks the Internet, where Vanellope becomes bored in Sugar Rush and accidentally gets it unplugged, then leaves her game to live in Slaughter Race permanently.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: When Ralph finds out Vanellope can't drive, he mocks Vanellope for thinking she'd be able to win the race despite her lack of experience just because she "really wanted to". Later on, she's so unwilling to let Ralph die in his Heroic Sacrifice that she finds it in her to control her glitch skillfully enough to jump through a horde of CyBugs unharmed and save Ralph from falling into boiling Diet Cola!
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Remember those old Dreamcast commercials for the U.S? Well hey, they moved to an arcade, added more characters and made a movie about it!
  • When Vanellope asks Ralph if he knows how to drive, he says he does but that he's never actually gone driving. Only a few weeks later, Ralph was racing alongside Sonic and other Sega Superstars. And in the UK, Ralph first appeared in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, so him saying he's never driven before is hilarious for anyone who played the game first.
  • Sugar Rush is a spoof of Mario Kart. Almost two years after the film's release, Mario Kart 8 came out with a dessert-themed track called "Sweet Sweet Canyon."
  • Mario was originally intended to appear in this movie. Eleven years later, the plumber would get his own animated movie...but by Illumination Entertainment, owned by Disney's rival Universal.
  • Calhoun's line "It's make your mamas proud time!" becomes this in the sequel when she becomes the adoptive mother of the Sugar Rush racers.
  • One of the graffiti on the Game Central Station reads "Aerith Lives" after rumors persisting for years that Aerith could be revived after her death in Final Fantasy VII, fast forward to the second installment of the FFVII Remake trilogy and while Aerith's fate seemingly plays out as it does in the original game (albeit due to timeline distortions than directly at Sephiroth's hands), her fate is handled in a way that makes it quite possible to argue that Cloud did actually save her life this time along depending on how one interprets the ending.
  • One ironically for Vanellope's Japanese voice actress, combined with Actor Allusion: Vanellope is a kart racer, and a cute one to boot. Fast forward to her role in Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger, where she voices Yaiyai Yalcar. If one watched the JP dub of the movie, then watch this show, you'll probably never see Vanellope the same way again.
• Ho Yay: Ralph and Felix. You saw it. Don't say you didn't. It didn't make it into the full movie, but they have a small moment in this deleted scene towards the end.
• Ho Yay Shipping: Felix is a primary target of this (despite his canon marriage to Calhoun), most commonly with Ralph or Turbo.

I-W

• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: The fandom's been pretty creative about coming up with ship names.
  • Most notable is "Hero's Cuties" for Felix/Calhoun.
  • "The Yows" for Ralph/Felix
  • "'80s Boyfriends" for Felix/Turbo (Yes, this is actually a ship.)
  • "Street Wreckers" or "Bara Boyfriends" for Ralph/Zangief (Though the former is more prevalent.)
  • "Jawbreaker" for Ralph/Older!Vanellope
  • "Vanilla Butter" for Vanellope/Rancis (A popular Toy Ship.)
  • "Vanilla Taffy" for Vanellope/Taffyta
  • "Sweet Ride" for King Candy/Turbo
  • "Lovelanders" for Gene/Mary
• I Knew It!:
  • Before it was confirmed a lot of fans correctly guessed from the first trailer that Felix and Calhoun were going to be paired up.
  • Many fans also guessed that King Candy would be the main antagonist of the film, which was confirmed by a pulled-down preview for one of the tie-in novels on Amazon.
  • One fan guessed impressively early on the WMG page that Vanellope was the true ruler of Sugar Rush.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Vanellope. This little girl is a tough cookie despite being considered a "mistake."
  • Ralph endured thirty years as a pariah in his game before "going turbo" and even then he planned to return before anything bad happened.
• It Was His Sled: King Candy is actually Turbo, something that some fans are glad to bring up about him. You're more likely to find "Turbo" than "King Candy" when looking for pages about him on wikis.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • The Surge Protector. Yeah, he's an ass, but he apparently has people regularly tell him that they hate him.
  • Sour Bill. After putting up with an employer like King Candy for years, it's not that shocking that he's such a miserable little grump.
  • Vanellope may be a snarky Bratty Half-Pint who stole a medal from Ralph and regularly screws with others for fun, but it's easy to feel sympathy for her given how much she's been abused by the other racers, considered a "mistake" and unable to leave her game for somewhere better.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: King Candy/Turbo is a self-absorbed sociopath who not only deliberately ruins the life of a child for sake of his ego but also attempts to murder said child when the chips are down. However, he manages to stand out for both his childish antics and his hamminess, the latter of which is especially shown when he becomes a One-Winged Angel at the climax. Meanwhile, the Nicelanders (Gene in particular) are simply a bunch of unlikable jerks who treat Ralph like crap, even when he actually tries to make a first impression on them.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many fans have openly admitted that the main reason they went to see this movie is because their favorite video game characters have cameos in it.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Felix, apparently. In addition to his canon marriage to Calhoun, he is also frequently shipped with Ralph, Turbo/King Candy, Ralph AND Calhoun, and Gene.
  • Ralph gets quite a lot of this as well.
  • Vanellope also has been shipped with most everyone in the cast, and is included in a few crossover ships as well.
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • Zangief. The trailer made a lot of bara fans swoon.
  • Calhoun has a fanbase comprised of women/girls who identify themselves as lesbians despite Calhoun herself not actually being a lesbian.
• Love to Hate: Those who don't give King Candy the Draco in Leather Pants treatment think he's a wonderfully entertaining villain, as well as a surprisingly terrifying threat when his true identity as Turbo is revealed.
• Mandela Effect: The movie includes multiple entirely fictional video games and characters created for the film, including the titular Wreck-it Ralph and Fix-it Felix Jr. However, many viewers remember seeing an actual video game with Wreck-it Ralph and Fix-it Felix, either in an arcade or as an advertisement.
• Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
• Moe:
  • Vanellope. Between her design, enthusiasm for racing, interactions with Ralph and the "you're my hero" candy medal she made for him, she is just oozing adorable-little-sister levels of moe. Even the bratty-ness can come off as endearing (adorable-yet-annoying-little-sister).
  • The other racers could qualify too, but being bullying Jerkasses towards Vanellope in the beginning makes them exceptional to some fans.
• Moral Event Horizon: Turbo is established to be a nasty Green-Eyed Monster whose previous escapades in trying to win himself attention ended up with both his game and another unplugged, but it's not until he's revealed where he goes from "selfish jackass" to "monstrous villain" in trying to force Ralph to watch as Vanellope's torn apart by Cy-Bugs in the climax. "Let's watch her die together, shall we?"
• No Yay: Ralph×Vanellope. Quite a few film reporters didn't check their facts and stated that Vanellope was gonna be the Love Interest, which put the idea in fans' heads. Shippers do still exist for the pairing, though usually with an aged-up Vanellope.
• Older Than They Think: A "hobo" helping an outcast candy girl in Level Ate become a princess with the help of candy, cookies and other sweets? Behold "The Cookie Carnival"!
• Paranoia Fuel: A villain could infiltrate your world without anyone noticing, because he can rewrite your memories. He could take your place in your game, take away everything you have, make everyone in your game hate you, and render you an outcast.
• Preemptive Shipping: Shippers already started shipping Ralph and Vanellope the moment their names were revealed for their movie. This completely stopped when it was revealed Vanellope was a child. Although after the movie was released, fans loved their rather close friendship and tend to write or draw familial and platonic content for the duo.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Some feel this way about Sarah Silverman as Vanellope, saying that her scratchy, tenor voice (as high-pitched as it is) doesn't fit a nine year-old girl, and that they would have sympathized with her more if she was voiced by an actual child instead of a 40+ year-old woman.
  • For similar Vocal Dissonance reasons, some have criticized Jane Lynch's voice work on Calhoun as sounding too old, as Lynch was in her fifties at the time of recording, and Calhoun was designed to be in her early-twenties to early-thirties.
  • In another similar case, the people behind the Latin American dub decided it was a good idea to cast Maria Antonieta de las Nieves, better known for her character La Chilindrina, as Vanellope. This did not sit well with lots of viewers who complained about it due to Maria Antonieta being too old for the character and giving her an unfitting voice that was indistinguishable from La Chilindrina. This led to Vanellope being recast with Liliana Barba in the sequel.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Some fans wish Vanellope was deleted for good. Why? Because she's apparently too much of a "spoiled brat" to be likable. She was a brat at first but most of her rude attitude is justified. Alternatively, fans that hate her and prefer King Candy believe she "murdered" him and took away his kingdom and will apply very alternative interpretation to the film to cast her as a villainous menace. Or paint her as a bully to Taffyta, when it was the other way around.
  • Also, although Dr. Brad Scott seems to be a nice guy, some fans like to bash him and portray him as a jealous angry ex.
  • A minority, but a handful are convinced Felix is an asshole for apparently acting "entitled" to Calhoun and neglecting Ralph before. Nevermind that he is never directly angry or spiteful at Calhoun for rejecting him, or that he immediately helps Ralph after he finally understands why he left — he never shows any hints of arrogance or "nice guy syndrome", only naïveté. Some haters though claim that Felix only helps Ralph after he says that he would never go "turbo" again, as if expecting to have it exactly the way it was before.
  • Another minority think of Calhoun as an abusive girlfriend because she hits Felix. Out of context, it does feed a bit into a negative stereotype, but within context, she only does it to stop Felix from panicking when they fall into the NesQuicksand and to bait the Laffy Taffy, the latter of which was Felix's idea and she was actually hesitant of. It's explained very well here.
  • Fans also apparently like to portray Gene as a jealous creeper around Felix, even going as far as being manipulative and abusive. Because him being a dick to Ralph just wasn't enough. Some fans even tend to exaggerate that Gene's even more vicious than King Candy, though Gene's just a jerk rather than an outright villain. He did rudely tell Ralph to stay in the penthouse, but he was most likely just being sarcastic (if harshly sarcastic).
  • Ralph×Vanellope or Jawbreaker fans are bashing Rancis Fluggerbutter, portraying him as a psychopathic boyfriend who is willing to kill Ralph and hurt Vanellope despite neither "psychopathic" nor "boyfriend" being anywhere near his on-screen portrayal.
  • Some Vanellope×Rancis fans portray Ralph as being overly violent, going so far as having him nearly kill the boy for simply liking her. Others make it to where Ralph is the villain of the story, especially in the multitude of wangst-laden redemption-themed Turbo fanfictions out there.
• She Really Can Act: Sarah Silverman isn't known for doing serious parts (or anything considered family- and kid-friendly, judging by her stand-up, her show on Comedy Central, and the fact that she got her start on Saturday Night Live^note even if she ended up getting screwed over), but as Vanellope, your heart will break from how she cries as she's Forced to Watch Ralph wreck her kart.
  Vanellope: [sobbing] You really are a bad guy...
  • Alan Tudyk deserves a mention as well! Who else do you know that can do a genuinely sinister-sounding Ed Wynn impression? No wonder he became Disney's equivalent to John Ratzenberger after this film!
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Felix/Turbo is frequently shipped despite them having no personal interaction at all.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Ralph/Vanellope shippers and Rancis/Vanellope shippers are usually not on the cool end.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • With all its plot and themes involving an outcast main character deciding to rebel against society leading to calamity as a result, the film is probably the closest Disney has to Taxi Driver.
  • It is also one to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, what with the basic premise about video game characters going off-duty when the arcade closes being similar to the Toons' antics when they have nothing to do. There's also the Crossover aspect in which various characters from animation (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) or video games (Wreck-It Ralph) end up making cameo appearances that flesh out the worlds of each film. Not only that, but both King Candy and Judge Doom have a major twist in regards to their true nature that plays for horror some aspects about their world that were previously seen as innocuous or even quirky, and meet their demise through being dissolved by a destructive substance.
  • Also, one could possibly argue that this is a better TRON sequel than TRON: Legacy.
• Squick: Some of the Sugar Rush characters' names. Taffyta Muttonfudge? Yuck. This is actually referenced in the Taffyta talking doll:
  Taffyta: Muttonfudge is just a name, not a recipe. Really... don't try it.
• Strangled by the Red String: The film presents Felix and Calhoun's relationship as thus: they meet (and Felix comments on Calhoun's high definition), they have a Slapstick routine that ends with them gazing into each others' eyes (and are shipped by the Laffy Taffy), Felix calls Calhoun a dynamite gal (which doesn't end well), they share The Big Damn Kiss, and they get married in the epilogue (presumably after a year or so has passed offscreen). That's it. Apparently, Word of God admits they paired the two together because they found it cute/funny (and because it was hard to work out Felix's odd proportions without a realistic reference), so it could be intentional, in addition to the fact that Ralph and Vanellope's stories were the central focus of the movie. The removal of several Hero's Duty scenes from an earlier scrapped plot meant less screen time for them, which resulted in a few confirmed Felix and Calhoun interactions (and likely Calhoun's formal introduction as well) being omitted.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • The bullies in Sugar Rush tell Vanellope, who is a glitch, that she can't race with them because she is a "disaster waiting to happen". They are portrayed as bullies prejudiced against glitches, but Vanellope does nearly damage Diet Cola Mountain later in the film and it's a legitimate concern for all characters that if their game is viewed as broken that the whole thing gets its plug pulled. This detail is actually exploited by King Candy against Ralph, who almost relents until he discovers the truth.
  • Gene is relentlessly vindictive towards Ralph at the party, but given the visual implication it's held in his apartment, which Ralph promptly trashes without so much as an apology, his accusations of Ralph being "the bad guy who wrecks the building" take a personal touch.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Wreck It, Wreck-It Ralph for Pac-Man Fever; the former was even written by one of the writers of the latter. Also, the movie theme tune (which plays when the movie's title appears on the screen) is similar to the title music from Boulder Dash.
  • The song "When Can I See You Again" sounds very similar to "Good Time", also performed by Owl City.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: While the movie is a refreshing aversion of Video Game Movies Suck, the tie-in game wasn't lucky enough to avert this trope, as it's an ugly, boring, poorly voiced and animated platformer that fails to capture the spirit of the movie.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • A number of fans' reaction to Dr. Wily being removed and replaced with M. Bison, particularly in light of everything else that has transpired to the Mega Man franchise in the span of 2011-2012 outside of the comics and that other crossover involving both Capcom and Sega.
  • The filmmakers are also getting flak for not being faithful to Zangief's canon depiction.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Some fans think that the rest of the Sugar Rush racers should've gotten more screen-time. They only appear in four parts of the film and when they do, it's rather brief. And they spent most of the film tormenting Vanellope and don't reform until the end once they got their memories back so we don't know how they really act.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The video game Fix-It Felix Jr. is astonishingly complex for an Excuse Plot. The basic story is, of course, Ralph losing his home and solitude in one fell swoop to the Niceland Apartment building and deciding to get even by destroying the penthouse. Unfortunately, people are already living in it (innocent people, mind you — any objection to Ralph's loss should be directed to the building's owners, planners, and builders, who are inaccessible from within the game), and Felix has an obligation to defend them. The premise of the game itself is plenty ripe for conflict, or at least for character motivation and backstory, but is rather dishearteningly ignored, as if the writers themselves didn't realize its potential. Of course since the movie itself is a Deconstruction of the Designated Villain trope, this was likely the entire point.
• Unexpected Character:
  • While fans knew he was involved in the movie's soundtrack, Skrillex's actual appearance in the movie caught a lot of people off guard in a good way.
  • Altered Beast isn't exactly the first gaming franchise crossing your mind in general, even more so when talking about villains, making Neff's appearance take people by surprise.
  • Show of hands, in a movie about video game characters, who expected a cameo from Beard Papa? For those unaware, Beard Papa is a Japanese-based restaurant chain that specializes in desserts, mostly cream puffs. There are 300 locations, but 250 of them are in Japan itself. He's the guard of the kart bakery in Sugar Rush.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • Ralph and Vanellope are both outcasts in their own games and don't have any real friends until they meet each other. Movie's first trailer comes out... insta-fandom love for both of them.
  • Sour Bill, an insignificant non-racer civilian in Sugar Rush and King Candy's personal Butt-Monkey, is an Ensemble Dark Horse with the fans.
  • The blue racers from Turbo Time, who were meant for the gamer to defeat as "enemies" in the game, are also very popular in the fandom despite having no names, never speaking, and only being on screen for only a few seconds.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Manages to do this straight and mention it in-universe such as when Felix is awed by the high-definition of Calhoun.
• Woolseyism:
  • In the English version, Felix says "I'm hopless, this is hopeless!" when drowning in chocolate with Calhoun. However, in the Swedish dub, "jump" and "hope" is the same word, hopp in any definition. So they would be the same word; Jag är hopplös, det här är hopplöst, which is the exact translation of the English line, but more fitting and with more alike words.
  • King Candy's "fungeon":
    • Swedish: combines fängelsehåla ("dungeon") and kola (a type of candy) to get fängelsekola.
    • Icelandic: combines dýflissa ("dungeon") and flissa ("to giggle").
  • Vanellope's "duty"/"doody" joke:
    • In the Italian dub, to make the pun work, Ralph says that he got his medal "nientepopò di meno che in Hero's Duty!", which literally translates as "in Hero's Duty, no less!", but also contains the word "popò" which is childish slang for poop, allowing Vanellope to crack in Toilet Humour with no problem.
    • The Greek dub replaces the toilet puns with puns regarding gyros and souvlaki.
    • The Finnish dub makes a rather interesting choice to make the pun fit, by translating the name Hero's Duty quite straightly to "Sankarin Duuni" ("duuni" being quite typical Finnish slang word for "work" or "task") and Vanellope's rhyme for it is "Sankarin Tuubi" ("Hero's Tube"), taking the intended metaphor about the rectum a bit closer to home...
    • In the Icelandic dub, the name of Hero's Duty is "Hetjunnarskylda", with "skylda" being a standard term for "duty" or "obligation". Vanellope mishears "skylda" as "skita", an Icelandic word for "diarrhea" (instead of simply "poop") that is also much more vulgar than English "doody".

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