Sequels are rarely welcomed by a fanbase with open arms. In fact, just the opposite often happens no matter what fan group you are a part of in today's society. Perhaps it is the inherent money-making aspect behind the idea of sequels; often sequels get made because the first movie proved to be profitable enough to warrant a second movie to earn even more profits. However, I think it mostly has a lot to do with the idea of expectation mixed with love. We all loved the original source material and hold it to such a high esteem that if the sequel doesn't match our expectations, we get greatly disappointed. Thus it is that love for the original film, show, or art that holds us back from greeting the second warmly.

Knowing this, people were hesitant about the second 'Wreck-it Ralph' movie 'Ralph Breaks the Internet.' The first one was a pretty big success and had a lot of love, so the second one had to carry that same spirit as well in order to be viewed as a success. However, taking place in the internet, people were hesitant about the movie, worrying that it would stray from the path like the "Emoji Movie" did previously in its quest to be filled up with pop cultural references. Would the newest Disney film be on the same level as a movie about talking emojis?

I am pleased to say that this newest 'Wreck-it Ralph' movie does not follow along with this trend. In fact, it handles everything so much better.

I suppose one can jump straight for the jugular and ask the million-dollar question: Was this movie as great as its sequel? Personally, I think that the first one was handled a bit better in terms of pacing and overall story development. However, there are several things within this movie that are worthy of being noted.

First of all, I think that this movie really handles its leads very well. Ralph and Vanellope have a very genuine friendship that you really want to see develop and survive throughout this movie. It is really sweet to see these two characters interact on screen and their friendship feels really genuine. I think that development wise, their desires and wishes make complete and total sense when you consider where these two characters come from and what they experienced in the first movie. The big and overall moral lesson of this movie that Ralph personally has to learn is handled really well in this film and honestly is a topic that is impressive to tackle within a movie aimed for a younger audience. For that, I really admire the way that this movie handles this lesson as well as its main leads.

I have to say as well that I think the version of the internet they build is very nice to look at. I personally wish that we got to see a little more of it. The internet setting was very pleasing and looked like it would be fun to explore or to have the characters roam in, but we feel kind of limited to how much of the internet we actually see. We stick more to just a few select websites and these are good, but I just felt overall kind of underwhelmed by the internet and by the movie in general. I feel like this movie could have been grander and wider in scale or size, but it just felt...tired or trapped in location.

Despite this, the locations and websites we get to see are pretty darn great for what they are worth. The violent video game that Ralph and Vanellope explore called "Slaughter Race" is very pleasing to look at and a lot of fun for the main characters to explore given its wild and unpredictable nature. Plus for this place, and for the movie in general, the animation is absolutely stunning to look at and I enjoyed just the visual aspect of the movie as a whole. The Disney animation quality was there and shone through the movie's bright colors and fun character designs. Speaking of fun characters, this movie is great for fans who love to explore Disney hidden "Easter Eggs" or characters because this movie is full of them! We get to see favorite characters from Groot to the Disney princesses and it is a lot of fun to see them interact and show up on screen.

So is this movie perfect? No, like I said I feel like this movie is limited in scope and size. Plus, I can't say that the pop culture references are handled perfectly. They definitely are pretty dated and get a wince from me every once in a while. However, as a whole, I did enjoy the film. I think it has a lot of heart deep down, but I really can't wait to see what Disney has in store for us in the future.