Ralph Breaks the Internet ★★★

When Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph hit multiplexes in 2012, it was curious that the computer animated tale of the fictional arcade game character—the Donkey Kong-like villain of “Fix-It Felix,” where he’d spent the previous 30 years smashing things to 8-bits—didn’t acknowledge the interconnected online world at all. That seemed especially glaring as existential angst drove the lovable big galoot (wonderfully voiced by John C. Reilly) to leave the confines of his game in search of a larger meaning behind his ones and zeroes. It may have taken half-a-dozen years, but the Mouse House finally unleashes Ralph on the web in Ralph Breaks the Internet. As the title of this more ambitious sequel—once again directed by Rich Moore, who’s joined by co-director Phil Johnston, a writer on the last film—implies, things don’t go so smoothly. Ralph and his returning sidekick, annoying Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman), enter the matrix on their journey to locate the mythical eBay, which harbors a rare part that will keep Vanellope’s candy-coated cart racer from being tossed into the scrap heap. The original film’s syrupy message of embracing who you are now extends as the duo encounters viral videos and memes, along with even more cameos from gaming’s past and present. The end result is that the new picture successfully humanizes the digital best friends, despite a bloated climax that threatens their intimacy. Watch it at Assembly Row, Boston Common, Fenway, Seaport, South Bay and in the suburbs.