The Video Game Movie Answer to Who Framed Roger Rabbit Is Still a Classic After 12 Years

For decades, video game movies have had a reputation for being bad. Ever since 1993’s Super Mario Bros. became the first theatrically released live-action feature adaptation of a video game, the practice of bringing gaming icons to the big screen has only brought about failure after failure. However, change came from an odd source: Disney.

Nowadays, video game movies have been faring a lot better, with the 2020s bringing about hits like the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy and 2026’s Resident Evil. However, 12 years ago today, Disney managed to bring together some of gaming’s biggest icons for one of the studio’s best modern animated movies.

Wreck-It Ralph Hit Theaters 12 Years Ago Today

Since the 1980s, Disney had been developing a project centered around video games, with it telling the story of an arcade game bad guy who wants to prove that he can be a good guy. The project was meant to do for video games what Who Framed Roger Rabbit did for animation and Toy Story did for toys, with it centering its story around original characters while simultaneously featuring some of the most beloved icons of the medium. After years of development, Disney finally managed to pull the project off, and Wreck-It Ralph hit theaters on November 2, 2012.

Sandwiched between more traditional Walt Disney Animation Studios films like Winnie the Pooh and Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph felt like a far cry from Disney’s typical fare. Rather than being a fantasy film or a story set in a timeless era, Wreck-It Ralph‘s gaming setting makes it feel a lot more modern (despite it being centered around arcade games of the 1980s). The film’s original characters like Ralph, Vanellope von Schweetz, and Fix-It Felix Jr. have become just as beloved as Cinderella or Peter Pan, while King Candy has been praised as one of the best Disney Villains of the modern era.

The true magic of Wreck-It Ralph, however, is just how many video game properties Disney was able to pull together. The film features characters and elements from Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Q*bert, Dig Dug, Tapper, Frogger, Paperboy, Pong, BurgerTime, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Sonic the Hedgehog, and even Super Mario Bros. In the current era of video game movies, it would be nearly impossible to get video game studios to license all of these properties to one film. However, Disney managed to do the impossible, making Wreck-It Ralph a lightning-in-a-bottle experience that may never be recreated.

Unfortunately, Wreck-It Ralph’s Sequel Couldn’t Recapture The Magic Of The Original

For the longest time, Walt Disney Animation Studios stayed away from making direct sequels to their animated films, instead letting Disney subsidiaries release follow-ups direct-to-DVD. However, Walt Disney Animation Studios changed its policy in the mid-2010s, and Wreck-It Ralph was chosen to get the first internally produced sequel that the studio had made since 1990’s The Rescuers Down Under. Thus, Ralph Breaks the Internet hit theaters on November 21, 2018.

As the title suggests, Ralph Breaks the Internet takes things out of the arcade and into the cloud. Ralph and Vanellope use the arcade’s new Wi-Fi router to access the Internet, where they find an exciting new world of websites, games, avatars, and more. The film features real-world websites like eBay, as well as a visit to the Oh My Disney fan website. The latter of these allowed Ralph Breaks the Internet to become the ultimate Disney crossover, with the film featuring nearly every Disney Princess, as well as properties like Star Wars, the MCU, The Muppets, and more.

Unfortunately, Ralph Breaks the Internet is a major step down from Wreck-It Ralph. Rather than being a coherent love letter to retro video games, the sequel is a definite case of too many cooks in the kitchen. The film can’t decide if it wants to be a homage to websites of the classic internet, a love letter to modern games like Fortnite, or an advertisement for all the properties that Disney owns. The latter of these makes Ralph Breaks the Internet feel much more cynical than its predecessor. Unlike the video games that Disney licensed to appear in the film, Disney has a vested interest in cramming as many of its characters and movies in as possible, and it probably isn’t a coincidence that Disney+ launched less than a year later.

There are elements to enjoy in Ralph Breaks the Internet, but it is still a major decrease in quality from its predecessor. Luckily, Wreck-It Ralph is still around for us to enjoy, and since the games featured in the film were already dated at the time of its release, that makes the movie all the more timeless.