Secrets Revealed for Disney’s Ralph Breaks The Internet

 

OMG!!!  I am the biggest Disney geek/fan/critic EVER!!  So, it suffices to say that I lost my mind when the studio hosted a day for bloggers/critics providing insight into how the film literally brought the internet to life for Wreck it Ralph 2:  Ralph Breaks The Internet.

A few facts:

• When “Wreck-It Ralph” opened on Nov. 2, 2012, it turned in the highest opening weekend ever for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film at the time of release.
• “Wreck-It Ralph” won the PGA Award for outstanding producer of an animated theatrical motion picture as well as five Annie Awards, including best animated feature, director, screenplay and actor. The film was named best animated feature by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, earned outstanding achievement in casting for an animated feature by the Casting Society of America, and won the Kids’ Choice Award for favorite animated movie. The film was also nominated for an Oscar® and Golden Globe® for best animated feature.
• The film re-teams the original director, producer and co-writer behind “Wreck-It Ralph.”  The screenplay is written by Phil Johnston and Pamela Ribon.
• Director Rich Moore, producer Clark Spencer, and co-writer Phil Johnston partnered with fellow director Byron Howard and co-writer/co-director Jared Bush to create the Academy Award®-winning blockbuster animated feature “Zootopia.”
• It took 15 storyboard artists who drew over 283,839 total storyboards for Ralph Breaks The Internet
• Ralph Breaks The Internet boasts 434 characters/6752 variants (plus color swings – changing hair, skin color and logos) and 500,000 + options compared to 57 characters for BOLT, 223 characters/421 variants  for Wreck it Ralph and 182 characters/687 variants for Zootopia
• To create the World Wide Web it took 150 master sets, 5736 unique assets, 100,000 elements in internet shot and 1.9 million render hours per day
• Most Disney films involve extensive research and consultations worldwide.  Researchers for Ralph Breaks The Internet traveled a whopping 30-minutes on One Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, where all the wires and boxes that control the internet worldwide are housed.

 

Whew!  That’s a lot of numbers and facts.  All true and all amazingly impressive.  Guest speakers involved Directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, who broke down the premise of this sequel revealing  a new character coming onboard by the name Yesss!  voiced by Empire’s Taraji P. Henson.  Phil shared his “obsessed” with IMDB (Internet Movie Database) and Rich gleefully confessed his love of clowns that he and John C. Reilly (Ralph) share.  Rich literally owns and has bidded on over  200 clown paintings…LOL

Josie Trinidad (Head of Story – Disney), Jason Hand (Story Artist) and Natalie Nourigat (Story Artist) broke down the process of storyboarding an animated feature of this nature revealing it done in three acts between 30 artists.  Each artists pitch their ideas to the creative team through screenings (at least 9 in total).    We learned the internet world was populated via animation with netizens, users, Knowsmore and of course Yesss – the curator of cool with fiber optic hair that has data flowing throughout.

It was refreshing to know that for this internet based animation Disney looked to sites like “Oh My Disney” for inspiration, But, my favorite all time moment of this session was being shown a sneak preview  involving a scene with all the Disney Princesses voiced by the original actresses that brought them to life.  Stay tuned right here for more news about this wonderfully animated film that addresses such subjects as online gaming, shopping, and racism.

 

“Ralph Breaks the Internet,” video-game bad guy Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) and best friend Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman) leave the comforts of Litwak’s arcade in an attempt to save her game, Sugar Rush. Lending a virtual hand are Yesss (voice of Taraji P. Henson) the heart and soul of the trend-making site “BuzzzTube,” and Shank (voice of Gal Gadot).  Directed by Rich Moore (“Zootopia,” “Wreck-It Ralph”) and Phil Johnston (co-writer “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Zootopia,” writer, “Cedar Rapids”), and produced by Clark Spencer (“Zootopia,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Bolt,” “Lilo & Stitch”), “Ralph Breaks the Internet” hits theaters on Nov. 21, 2018.