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The Menken involvement in Ralph Breaks the Internet is really a wonderful dose of musical continuity that one doesn't expect to hear in film scores these days, even parody-defined ones such as this. The composer does have a sense of humor about his own place in animation history, with his song for Sausage Party absolute proof of that fact, and his entry for Ralph Breaks the Internet is a fantastic tribute to Menken's past princess ballads and Broadway-inspired set pieces, even down to his usual crew's flighty orchestrations and classic choral crescendos. Sarah Silverman's lead vocals in "A Place Called Slaughter Race" are intentionally comical as Vanellope discovers an awesome new game she hopes to be her future, but listeners will be pleasantly surprised by Gal Gadot's dynamic and strong vocals as the racer Shank. (One could wish that Disney would allow a future princess such a beefy, "Wonder Woman" resonance in voice.) For the second end credits song placement, American pop singer Julia Michaels adapts Menken's song into a generic rock alternative, "In This Place," and, frankly, this regrettable rendition should have replaced its electronic manipulation and Michaels' voice with an equivalent, straight pop performance by Silverman and Gadot. Jackman thankfully builds upon the same melody to represent Vanellope's aspirational dilemma in his score, more than simply a representation of the Slaughter Race game and building to its melodramatic catharsis in "Breaking Up." The general demeanor of the score is on par with Wreck-It Ralph at its core, but the vintage arcade electronics are provided another ten years of musical maturity to bring them into the internet age. With the Shank storyline, you also receive an interesting reversion back in time, with hip 1970's funk punctuating her stylish coolness. A few of the individual instrumental representations return, including a tuba for Ralph's antics and the fantasy choir for the grandiose scale of his impacts on the digital world. There continues to be some difference reported in Jackman's album edits of the music as compared to those for the film; the presence of electronics is intentionally diminished in his album edits, but listeners may find the differences too insignificant at most junctures to really notice. Like the previous score, there are times of heightened orchestral action, especially near the end of the story, as well as nearly insufferable portions of electronic mayhem owing to the arcade inspiration. The funk material for Shank can be challenging to tolerate at its most exuberant moments.

Thematically, Jackman and his team reprise all the major ideas from Wreck-It Ralph in this sequel, led by the vintage electronic bounciness for Ralph himself. This idea is expressed almost verbatim in "Best Friends" and punctuates the character's heroics in the story, particularly memorable in "Overnight Sensation" before closing out the arc in "Comfort Zone." Vanellope's material was more nebulous in the previous work, and her identity is overtaken by the Menken melody, it seems, though some of the music for her Sugar Rush game does live on. The funk for Shank and clubby electronica for the Yesss character do fragment the listening experience at times, though they are consistently applied. For listeners desiring the orchestral highlights, the concluding cues are again the greatest concentration of solid but not spectacular material in this vein, though the score ends with a rather tepid, minimally sentimental "Worlds Apart" cue that underperforms. Be sure not to miss the fantastic combination of electronics, orchestra, and choir in "The Internet," partly reminiscent of Basil Poledouris (like the first score) and partly of Alan Silvestri. Another attraction in the music for Ralph Breaks the Internet is its parade of parody applications, many of which are not included on the album release. Most of these affable interpolations are related to Disney princess scores, though Jackman offers a humorous rendition of John Williams' "The Imperial March" and the closing fragment of the opening Star Wars fanfare in "Vanellope's March." A snippet of Neal Hefti's vintage "Batman" theme didn't make the album. On that product, the Disney princess themes are condensed to "A Big Strong Man in Need of Rescuing," where melodies from Moana, The Little Mermaid, Frozen, Brave, Mulan, Pocahontas, and The Princess and the Frog are provided in less than a minute of snapshot fragments. The only melody to really thrive here is Menken's "Part of Your World," which is orchestrated beautifully for its seven seconds of glory. Themes in the film that didn't make the album include those from Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, another from Frozen and a few other odds and ends. Overall, Ralph Breaks the Internet is a wild and frenetic ride, as to be expected, and many film music listeners won't have the patience for it. The album release is also incomplete, missing moments of high parody in the score. The CD doesn't include the instrumental versions of the Menken song while the digital version does. But Menken and Jackman's approach to the project is commendable, lending a familiar but unique musical voice to an equally singular concept.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Henry Jackman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.8 (in 25 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.79 (in 7,748 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 74:51