If there’s one modern Disney franchise that has cemented itself firmly in the company’s
catalog of classics, it’s the Wreck-It Ralph series.
These two movies, with their unique worlds and charming characters, are unlike anything
Disney has ever created.
And, of course, with exciting characters come some genuinely interesting relationships.
The two films have brought us all kinds of great character connections.
From friendships to couples to the classic villain and his sidekick, Wreck-It Ralph has
done in all!
But, in this world full of beloved arcade games, which relationships are the healthiest,
and which could use a day or two of counseling?
As usual, we’ll be looking at the healthiest relationships first, and then work our way
until we’re down to the toxic ones.
These relationships are healthy.
In first place, we have to give the Golden Medal of Healthiness to Vanellope and the
Disney Princesses!
It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, given the princesses in the second movie are
practically the personification of positivity, but we’re impressed nonetheless!
In the movie, Vanellope meets with the princesses, and, while they’re a little unsure of her
at first, they quickly warm up to her.
Vanellope manages to show them how to better relax and in return, the princesses offer
a little nugget of wisdom to her.
At the very end of the film, the Disney princesses even unite and work together to save Ralph,
showing that they’re also willing to take care of Vanellope’s other friends if they
need to.
Overall, we see their relationship as the most healthy because it has none of the issues
other relationships in the franchise see.
There isn’t any sort of power imbalance or falling out here, just a friendship in
its purest form.
Again, not too surprising considering who makes it up, but in the world of Wreck-It
Ralph, you can never be too sure!
Make no mistake, this is a relationship that’s guaranteed to have a happily ever after!
Coming up next, we’re going to go ahead and give Fix-it Felix and Sergeant Calhoun
the Silver Medal of Healthiness!
When these two first meet up, the relationship is a bit tenuous.
Calhoun and Felix both have the same motive, finding Ralph, but while Felix is goofy, Calhoun
is serious.
Though the two come from different worlds, and we mean that literally, they soon begin
to fall in love with each other.
This romance that begins between them helps bring out the best in both characters.
Felix starts to become a lot more heroic, and less sheepish.
Meanwhile, Calhoun starts to open up to others after the loss of her husband crippled her
emotionally.
By the time the second movie rolls around, they’ve been together for quite a while,
and seem even more at home with each other.
They go as far as to adopt a family during this film!
Really, the only reason they get second place is because their relationship does go through
some notable growing pains in the first film.
There’s also the fact that you just can’t beat the Disney princesses at being healthy,
but this couple definitely gives it their all!
Either way, we think these two would be more than happy with a silver medal!
Rounding out the top three, we’re giving Yesss, Ralph, and Vanellope the Bronze Medal
of Healthiness!
In Ralph Breaks the Internet, Yesss introduces herself as the head of the site BuzzzTube.
She quickly becomes good friends with Ralph and Vanellope, and helps the former make viral
internet videos.
Afterward, she begins to help even more by pushing traffic towards the video, something
that Vanellope is eager to also help with.
Really, what makes Yesss such a good friend to Ralph and Vanellope is how willing she
is to help the two of them.
And she’s not out to do this to better her website, either.
When Ralph sees some of the more negative comments directed at him online, she is quick
to console him, showing that she does have a genuine care for him.
At the climax of the film, she saves both Ralph and Vanellope from the dangerous Ralph
virus, again showing her willingness to help friends.
Yesss could have very easily sold Ralph out and only focused on success, but she is better
than that and sees Ralph and Vanellope as good friends.
Ralph and Vanellope themselves thank her every step of the way, and while we don’t see
it much in the film, you know that they hold her in high esteem as well.
In conclusion, while Yess might not have a lot of screentime in the films, her relationship
with Ralph and Vanellope is strong enough to be among the most healthy in the entire
franchise!
Rounding out the healthy tier is another relationship formed in the sequel, Vanellope and Shank!
These racers meet when Ralph and Vanellope are trying to find loot in the online game
Slaughter Race.
Vanellope takes a liking to Shank almost immediately, as she believes her game is a lot more suited
for her tastes than her own.
While Shank stops her and Ralph from getting her car, she also begins to bond with Vanellope.
They both share a mutual love of cars, racing, and total mayhem.
Shank also offers some wisdom to Vanellope at times, which only serves to strengthen
their friendship.
It’s not at all surprising that Slaughter Race becomes one of Vanellope’s favorite
destinations by the end of the movie!
The only thing we could say that paints their relationship in a negative light is that,
while their friendship blossoms, that does come at the cost of Vanellope’s friendship
with Ralph worsening.
However, that is a whole different can of worms that we’re not ready to discuss just
yet!
There may be more healthy relationships inside these films than this one, but we can’t
find one where both characters are so well suited for the other, making them an obvious
choice for the last healthy spot on the list!
With the healthy relationships covered, it is now time to talk about the ones that…well,
let’s just say that they could use a little bit of work.
These relationships are in the Grey Area.
Starting us off is the hero and villain pair to end them all, Fix-It Felix and Wreck-It
Ralph!
For over twenty years, these two have been playing the same game, but their relationship
has taken an interesting turn throughout that time.
At first, Felix seemingly wanted nothing to do with Ralph.
He never hung out with him after the game and, during its anniversary party, he didn’t
even invite Ralph!
He invited Pac-Man, but not the man whose name is the title of the game!
However, after Ralph begins to enter other games, Felix starts to see Ralph in a more
positive light.
He sees that he really is crucial to the game, and starts to treat him as such.
By the end of the film, Ralph and Felix have a legitimate friendship, and both are happier
for it.
In the second film, they’re even able to discuss their more personal troubles with
the other, not unlike a real pair of good friends.
Unfortunately, for all the great improvements made to their relationship over the course
of the two films, we still think it’s pretty insane that Felix just never interacted with
Ralph for twenty years until the films.
For that reason and that reason alone, we have to put their friendship in the grey area.
Still, it’s a more healthy relationship than the one we’ll be talking about next!
That “next” relationship is Ralph and Vanellope!
Yes, the most important and pivotal relationship in the whole series is in the grey area!
But why exactly is that?
Don’t get it twisted, Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship has some truly great moments to
it.
Ralph and Vanellope make each other’s lives better in their unique ways during the events
of the films.
Ralph learns from Vanellope that he can do more than just wreaking things; Vanellope
has finally found somebody who wants to be her friend.
It’s no real surprise that these two outcasts were able to become good friends.
For us, it’s in the second movie where things start to fall apart.
Ralph becomes possessive of his friendship with Vanellope, to the point where he doesn’t
want anyone else to have a relationship with her.
He intentionally creates a virus for the Slaughter Race game, as he knows it will harm her friendship
with Shank.
When this is revealed, Vanellope is understandably hurt, but things get even more disastrous
when a virus unleashes a horde of Ralphs all across the internet.
Think about that for a moment.
The main “villain” of the second film was basically born out of Ralph’s control
freak nature.
As a result of that, we really can’t find a reason as to why their friendship shouldn’t
be in the grey area!
Ralph and Vanellope might be made for each other, but do you wanna know what website
we think they need to look out for?
A friendship advice site!
Our next relationship goes to the Sugar Rush racers Vanellope and Taffyta!
When we first see them in the original Wreck-It Ralph, we learn very quickly that they have
a bit of a rivalry.
Taffyta might hate losing, but the only thing she hates more than that is losing to a glitch.
She thinks Vanellope has no place in the game, and even tries to get her out of the race
before it begins!
Only some intervening on Ralph’s part can get her and her friends out of Vanellope’s
hair.
Once Vanellope is restored to the game at the end of the movie, Taffyta does start to
show a nicer side to her personality.
In the second movie, though their relationship isn’t shown in detail, we can see that they
have a much friendlier rivalry, rather than the confrontational one seen in the first
film.
This change in relationship is the main reason we place them here on the list.
Taffyta is pretty nasty in the first movie, so nasty that we could easily call her toxic,
but her change in attitude saves her from that fate!
Besides, at the end of the day, they are merely rivals.
If that isn’t a classic grey area relationship, we don’t know what is!
Finishing off the grey area is Ralph and Spamley!
Spamley operates in the Internet as a conman who creates all of those annoying advertisements
and pop-ups that people see while using the web.
At first, he seems to have an alright relationship with Ralph.
He helps give Ralph and Vanellope gigs that will make them money.
Admittedly, doesn’t give them much of a warning about what they’ll be getting into,
but he at least seems to be helping.
It doesn’t take long, however, for Ralph and Spamley’s relationship to take on a
darker turn.
Ralph wants to get Vanellope out of Slaughter Race, and Spamley has no problem helping him
there.
He takes him to the dark web, and with the help of some friends, unleashes a dangerous
virus onto the game.
This in turn led to the Ralph virus, which nearly took down the entire internet.
Spampley’s relationship with Ralph is one of manipulation.
Spamley took advantage of Ralph’s lack of knowledge regarding the internet, not unlike
how real-life viruses and spam messages prey on the unsuspecting.
You could definitely make the argument that this relationship is toxic, but for our money,
Spamley and Ralph are only with each other for a small fraction of the movie, so it seems
a bit extreme.
Still, if you ever find yourself stuck inside the internet, learn from Ralph’s mistake
and don’t trust Spamley!
We think you’d know that just by his name, but it never hurts to help!
With the grey area covered, we now move on to the relationships nobody wants to be in.
These relationships are toxic.
First up, the Bronze Medal of Toxicity has got to go to Turbo and Ralph!
The main hero and villain of the original movie, it’s no surprise that they end up
this low on the list!
Turbo, disguised as the kindly King Candy, does to Ralph the same thing that he’s done
to all the inhabitants of Sugar Rush.
He lies to him, filling his head with lies in an effort to get what he wants from Ralph.
Turbo wants nothing more than to get rid of Vanellope, so he feeds Ralph a narrative that
Vanellope cannot race, and that her status as a glitch would only cause the game to be
unplugged.
Ralph genuinely believes this, and destroys Vanellope’s kart afterward, straining their
friendship.
Later on, after Turbo reveals his true form, Ralph rushes to save Vanellope, but is very
nearly killed by the racer.
They have a truly toxic relationship, but because Ralph and Turbo don’t share a ton
of screentime, we can’t quite put them any lower on the list.
Even if they did have more interactions though, we think the last two have more than enough
reasons to be lower than them.
Get ready, because the next one’s going to be sour!
Up next, the Silver Medal of Toxicity goes to a classic villain and sidekick team-up,
Turbo and Sour Bill!
Like the relationship between Turbo and Ralph, manipulation is the name of the game here.
Turbo hijacked the Sugar Rush game and became known as King Candy, with the sour ball Sour
Bill stepping into the role of his right-hand man.
Bill helped King Candy turn Vanellope into a glitch, and was with him every horrible
step of the way.
Don’t think for a second that Sour Bill was some sort of pawn that was unwittingly
forced into his position.
While Bill helps Turbo throughout all his evil deeds, Turbo doesn’t seem to think
highly of Bill in return for his help.
Sour Bill is essentially his butler, which means he has to do some pretty embarrassing
things for his master if he wants to stay in his position.
Overall, it’s a classic villain and their overworked sidekick, and it’s as toxic as
the rest of those relationships usually are in Disney movies.
For those reasons, we have to throw the king and his pawn into the second-to-last spot
on our list.
Racing into first place, the Golden Medal of Toxicity goes to Turbo and Vanellope!
While Ralph might be the hero of the movies, it was Vanellope that Turbo was more focused
on getting rid of, and for good reason.
Turbo is an incredibly jealous foe.
He wants nothing more than to be the center of attention, so it’s not too much of a
shocker to learn that when he entered Sugar Rush, he took the place of its ruler, Vanellope.
From that point on, he rewrote the game’s code, turning Vanellope into a glitch.
This act has huge ramifications on Vanellope’s entire character.
Most notably, it is the main reason she has so many insecurities that she deals with during
the films.
Remember, he didn’t just turn her into a glitch.
He also made all of the game’s citizens think of her as a glitch.
This made it incredibly hard for her to make friends, as most of them didn’t want to
associate with somebody who was glitching.
When Vanellope finally puts everything together, Turbo decides he’s had enough and tries
to destroy her.
He might’ve tried to get rid of Ralph also, but there’s a lot more going on in this
instance as you can see.
While King Candy might look sweet, he holds a dark and scary secret.
That secret is what earns him all three spots on the toxic section of our list!
But look on the bright side.
It also means Vanellope earns the gold medals on both sides of the list!
If there’s anyone who deserved such an honor, it’s most certainly her!
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking.
And tell us what we should cover next.
Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist, where we
break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows, and movies.
But most importantly, stay wicked.