The Wreck-It Ralph franchise set the bar very high for itself with the first film, a terrifically creative fantasy about sentient video games living in an arcade. It’s a fantasy-land, but the creative team really put the leg work into thinking it through and coming up with rules for that fantasy which is why it held together so well. The world is consistent, and so everything the characters do within the dream logic of that world makes sense. And the animation was of course fantastic.

This should come as no surprise. The original film was helmed by Rich Moore and Jim Reardon, two Simpsons veterans who understand and respect the fundamental logic of first plotting a coherent, well-structured narrative that is deserving of the great animation that will follow. Because animation is expensive, the bones of the story better be right before it goes into production. This is something that pretty much everyone from the early days of the Simpsons has internalized and it shows in the work they do, like WALL-E and Wreck-It Ralph.

Of course, the success of that first film naturally led to a sequel which basically does what every sequel does. It takes what worked the first time, and does it again. But bigger. This time instead of being confined to the arcade, Ralph gets out onto the internet. From a practical standpoint, this was the logical route to take because it opens up a lot of new areas and worlds to explore, set pieces to design, ideas to hammer.

But I don’t know, I felt like the magic of the first one had kind of worn out by the time Ralph is bopping around the information superhighway getting tangled up in memes. Also, the idea that Penelope is ultimately kind of a hostage to Ralph’s emotional neediness didn’t strike me as a great note to go out on. Sure, the bubblegum message here is not to forget your friends, but in this case if Penelope wants to go out and explore the world and she doesn’t check in enough with Ralph to assuage his all-consuming loneliness he will freak out. Not the greatest of messages.

So was it an enjoyable way to pass an afternoon at the movies? Yeah sure, it’s good clever fun for what it is. But of course, it doesn’t live up to the original.