After unofficial announcements, mentions from the cast and crew, and rumblings for the last four years, Walt Disney Animation Studios finally announced that “Wreck-It Ralph 2” is indeed happening, opening on March 9, 2018. The next fairy tale, “Gigantic” will now be released on Thanksgiving). “Wreck-It Ralph” is one of my all-time favorite Disney animated movies because it is wildly creative with wonderful characters. After being pushed away by Frozen the last three years, I’m thrilled to see that Disney is finally going to pay attention to it like most of the other revival movies. The premise of the sequel will include Ralph and Vanellope exploring the wide world of the Internet and seeing why kids are suddenly into the Internet, not retro games. If Disney was fantastic building video game worlds, I can’t even imagine what they are going to do with the Internet. In fact, I’m curious about the whole movie and I can’t wait to suddenly see it much sooner than I thought. But, I do have a few hopes for the movie.
1. RPG Games
There is a lot of potential. The first movie satirized “Call of Duty,” “Super Mario Bros.,” and “Mario Kart.” With today's popular Internet RPG such as “World of Warcraft” and “Wizard 101,” there is no telling what Ralph and Vanellope will discover out there, besides, of course, the memes and cat videos. But, if Disney can afford the famous Mario as promised in the sequel, they can get the money together to have a actual RPG in the sequel. Perhaps “Club Penguin” because it’s owned by Disney and it’s highly popular with kids.
2. More interaction with the four characters
It was only in the end of the movie when our four main characters, Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, and Sgt. Calhoun interacted with each other. The relationship between the four is also briefly shown in the credits. I would love to see how strong the bond is between the four characters. How are Ralph and Calhoun getting along? Is Vanellope annoyed with Felix because he is too much of a father to her? What concerns me is that it says only Ralph and Vanellope are going across the Internet. Are Felix and Calhoun going to do the same plot as the first movie by having them chase Ralph around again? Or will they only make cameos at the beginning and come out again at the climax? Moreover, the voice actors of Felix and Calhoun, Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch, aren’t mentioned in the press release. Perhaps McBrayer and Lynch haven’t made any deals yet, but it is odd to have left two of the main characters out in the press release.
3. Turbo’s return
[MAJOR SPOILERS]
My favorite part of the first movie is the twist of the villain. Right before the movie’s climax, it is revealed that Sugar Rush’s sweet ruler with a largely sour side, King Candy was no other than Turbo, a old video game character who took over Sugar Rush to have power. From there, we see more of a classic Disney villain. He’s ruthless and insane, trying to take over the whole arcade and going as far as trying to murder a little girl and saying, “Let’s watch her die together, shall we?” However, a problem I have with King Candy/Turbo is that when after the truth is revealed, Turbo is still in his King Candy form. I want him to return as Turbo and have him be evil as Turbo, not in disguise. We see how dark he is, but let’s see how Turbo’s evilness plays out, not King Candy’s evilness. We can also explore his backstory more and how he survived without a game for 5-10 years before hacking Sugar Rush. Yes, Turbo does die in the movie in a hot Coco-Cola fashion, but he was still encoded in the game when he died, and the rules are that you must be in your game to not die. Plus, Alan Tudyk needs a character to play.
4. Multiples worlds and not focusing on one
A problem I have with the first movie is that it mainly only explores one world, which is Sugar Rush, Vanellope’s world. Fix It Felix, the world of Ralph & Felix, and Hero’s Duty, the world of Sgt. Calhoun, are the two only worlds that are briefly featured. But, other than that, like 95 percent of the movie is just Sugar Rush as Ralph helps Vanellope race in her video game. As much as this works, they should have gotten to other worlds. The three worlds are unbelievably creative, so Disney could have shown what else they can whip up.
But, the thing is “Wreck-It Ralph 2” is not about a tiny, limited arcade. No, it’s about the unlimited, giant Internet which connects everyone to everything in the world. Ralph and Vanellope could live out their digital lives, exploring the Internet and never have anything to run out off. So, Disney needs to take advantage of that. In the first released concept art, we see them going near the satire versions of StubHub, Google, and Amazon, among the others. There is also RPG sites like I mentioned, social media, and e-mails. Have the movie be like classic novel, “Around the World in 80 Days,” and have our heroes jump from place to place, meeting new characters and learning how the Internet goes. This time for real, the possibilities are endless.
5. Felix/Calhoun babies?
Video game characters from other games can marry each other, but can they ”make their own characters?” The movie can figure that out. Maybe the reason why Felix and Calhoun aren’t mentioned is because in the movie, they are expecting and Calhoun is not well enough to go (cue the Mario cameo with him as Dr. Mario). If Calhoun and Felix do have a child, it’ll be interesting. Not only would it be development for the characters and the relationships, but it’s also development for the world itself. It would be fun to hear from Disney how the baby system works in the fake, virtual world and what this means for everyone. After all, it is mentioned that Felix had a father, implying that he could have been a baby at one time. Plus, Felix has an absolutely adorable character design while Calhoun is actually really stunning to look at, so they would make the cutest babies. Plus, it could be a good spin-off. Will the child be like his father or his mother?
Hopes aside and whatever they surprisingly come true or not, I know Disney is creating something excellent. This will be WDAS’s first sequel since “The Rescuers Down Under” (1991) and with the directors back on board, I know they will nail the sequel with fun and incredible imagination. Is March 9, 2018 here yet?