Disney Ralph Breaks The Internet Fun Facts!

Hey All!

I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend the press junket for Disney’s Ralph Break’s The Internet aka Wreck it Ralk 2! I can not tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out. I was hoping they would make another film since the last movie came out. When Disney Animation showed us footage from the film last D23 Expo, I was counting the days until the movie released. Prior to the junket, I did get to see an advanced screening of the film, but you’ll have to wait for my complete thoughts on the film. Today I’m going to share some fun facts the cast and film makers shared about the movie while at the press junket.

In attendance were John C. Reilly (voice of “Ralph”), Sarah Silverman (voice of “Vanellope”), Taraji P. Henson (voice of “Yesss”),  Jack McBrayer (voice of “Felix”), Director Rich Moore, Director Phil Johnston, Producer Clark Spencer, and Co-Writer Pamela Ribon. The junket was done in a Q&A format with someone hosting the junket and kicking off the questions.

If you were wondering why did the Directors want to revisit these characters, here is your answer!

RICH MOORE:

We did. Until we looked at the very last line of the first movie where Ralph says, after going friendless for the whole movie and then finally making a friend, he’s back home and says, if that little kid likes me, how bad can I be? And it seemed at the time, it’s so sweet. It’s a wonderful sentiment. But then as we continued to kind of pick at it, we said, that’s really, really dysfunctional. That this guy is defining himself by what his best friend thinks. And it’s a great best friend. But what if she were not to like him someday? What would that lead to?

PHIL JOHNSTON:

And so knowing that he still had quite a bit of insecurity, he still had farther to go in his journey. Then we had only known Vanellope for like 35 minutes or 40 minutes. So she has a whole other story. We had to keep going with these characters.

How did they visualize what the Internet was going to look like?

PHIL JOHNSTON:

The simplest comp is after several horrible ideas that didn’t really make sense, we finally landed on something where we thought of it like an old city like Rome or Istanbul where the ancient city is buried deep beneath. Then they build a new version on top of that and a new version on top of that like that. And that’s kind of actually what the Internet is. You go down to the guts of it and you find.

RICH MOORE:

Oh, even below the dogs on trampolines.

PHIL JOHNSTON:

But that’s how we envisioned it. Like a city that is multi multi layered with the newest, biggest Websites are up on top. Then the old forgotten stuff is down at the bottom.

How did they decide which social issues of the internet to feature and how they impacted the film? John C. Reilly tackled answering this one.

JOHN C. REILLY:

I’m sure everyone has something to say about this, but I jumped in first. I went in and met with the animators a couple of times to talk about the way Ralph moves. And also just to check in with them. And establish a relationship with them so that I could feel like I was working in concert with them. And I remember this one really moving conversation I had with them where I realized, the Internet is like the central issue of our time. Our relationship to this technology, its power, and its effect on us, we don’t even quite understand yet. It’s as powerful as like a nuclear bomb. But it uses other means. So it was really exciting in the context of an entertaining Disney film to be able to talk about some of these issues in a really real way and its effect on people. Why do we crave the anonymous acceptance of people we don’t know? All of this stuff. The way we’re bombarded with commerce on the Internet. So we made this fun entertaining story. But I think certainly you must have asked this question for this reason. That you come away from the film thinking about some of the most important issues of our time.

What do the cast and film makers wish we could go back to pre-internet?

TARAJI P HENSON:

Kids going outside, being home when the lights come on. Go outside and play. Use your imagination. How about that?

JACK MCBRAYER:

I don’t remember phone numbers anymore. I couldn’t tell you any phone number besides my own. And I’ll tell you now. That number is.

TARAJI P HENSON:

You’re good. I got so lazy, I don’t even memorize my own. Embarrassing. I have to look it up.

RICH MOORE:

I miss broadcast TV. Where it’s like you had to see the show when it was on. If you missed it, you missed it.

JOHN C. REILLY:

Yeah. I would say jumping off of that, that I miss a time when we were all one choice, even though it’s wonderful to have all these choices of what we focus our attention on, it was a very good thing to have an objective truth. This is what’s going on in the world. This is what we are all dealing with. Instead of all these versions of what’s going on in the world depending on what sites you visit. I think the human race could use a unifying way to communicate again like that.

SARAH SILVERMAN:

We all came together like Baby Jessica was in a well.

RICH MOORE:

It did work out.

SARAH SILVERMAN:

Yeah. It did. Everybody tuned in. Everybody was concerned. Everybody, she was everybody’s kid.

I personally had to ask Sarah was it like to finally get her own Disney princess song, in case you were wondering what it feels like to have one.

SARAH SILVERMAN:

It was a dream come true. I couldn’t believe it. When you guys told me I was going to have a song, we had already been recording for a while and I couldn’t believe it. The music was written by Alan Menken and I got to meet him and work with him and rehearse with him. And he played somewhere that’s green for me to sing from my favorite musical. He wrote Little Shop of Horrors, my favorite. And of course he’s like this Disney icon of iconic songs. But yeah. It was incredible. We recorded with a whole orchestra, like you see in old timely movies. It was crazy. It was really the thrill of a lifetime.

What did they think kids are going to take away from this movie?

PAMELA RIBON:

One of the things I hope they think about is when you have to start a new school or your friendships change and you move into a new place, that fear that you have. That everything will be different and you’ll never know those friends again. We really thought about that, that shift in life. Because it keeps happening. No matter how old you get, you move into a new place and you meet new friends. And you don’t have to lose your old ones.

JOHN C. REILLY:

Among many things, first of all, I hope kids are entertained and feel like this story relates to them. And that they recognize some of their own friendships in these characters. But I do hope, you know when you do something unhealthy or something that makes you unhappy, and you just do it in a kind of mindless way. You get caught in these patterns of behavior. And then at some point, if you make a move towards being more healthy, you say, why am I doing that? Why am I doing that? And I think this idea of chasing after anonymous love, these hearts. In our movie, these hearts or this idea that kids are reaching out for acceptance from people they don’t know. That’s ultimately kind of an empty feeling. I hope that kids come away with that aha moment that I just described. Which is like why do I do that? Why do I want to do that? Because that’s the first step to really understanding a situation like that is asking yourself, personally, well, why am I doing that? Maybe I can do something differently once you have that realization.

Was the film ever going to be called Ralph Wrecks The Internet? Here’s your answer!

RICH MOORE:

It’s one of those conundrums where no matter what you call it, someone is going to say, well, but shouldn’t it be Ralph Breaks the Internet since that’s the expression? And since we liked that it has a dual meaning of him going viral and then also actually destroying the Internet, we thought, let’s go with that. Let’s go with Ralph Breaks the Internet. Knowing that there would be backlash. Of shouldn’t it be called.

Those are just a few fun facts that I wanted to share with you all today that I learned from the cast and film makers. I hope you enjoyed these little tidbits from the amazing folks that are bringing Ralph back to theaters.

I’m sure you as excited as I am aboutRALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET!

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET arrives in theatres everywhere on November 21st! Get your tickets to see it now! Also stay tuned for our thoughts on the film later this week!

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