Moviefone Editorial

Tag: wreck-it ralph

  • ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Directors Phil Johnston on Rich Moore About How the Film Once Opened with a Funeral

    ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Directors Phil Johnston on Rich Moore About How the Film Once Opened with a Funeral

    Disney

    “Ralph Breaks the Internet” was one of the most delightful surprises of last year. The follow-up to 2014’s “Wreck-It Ralph” saw Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) transported to the Internet, where their friendship was tested and they met a bunch of Disney Princesses. It’s a hoot. We were able to sit down with directors Phil Johnston and Rich Moore and producer Clark Spencer about the movie’s deeper themes, the upcoming “Zootopia” land, and how at one point the movie (an Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature) once began on a very, very different note. 

    So at one point the movie used to open like the classic Disney storybook, right?

    Johnston: Yeah.

    Moore: For about 30 seconds.

    Johnston: It could have worked, actually.

    Moore: Ralph had written his own book about their friendship. It was his book about Ralph and Vanellope. It was kind of a recap of what happened in the first movie but through Ralph’s point of view. It was a little skewed.

    Johnston: Yeah, it was arrogant. It’s as if he were the white night. I was so convinced that was going to work. I think it could have. I’m trying to remember why we took it out.

    Moore: Well, it skewed the story. He kind of looked like a jerk. It was so full of himself in that version. And it was a little confusing to people who hadn’t seen the first movie. Because it wasn’t the right story. So they would say, “Is that what happened in the first one?” No!

    It also started with a funeral at one point, right?

    Moore: Yeah. Tapper was unplugged and they were having a memorial. And Ralph and Vanellope were making the eulogy all about themselves. Then Gene got mad and started booing the eulogy.

    Johnston: That also worked!

    Disney

    Also, in the Oh My Disney scene with the princesses, there was a moment when Vanellope jumped on Dumbo’s back and got into a dogfight with some TIE fighters right?

    Johnston: She had a clickbait pop-up sign and was flying on Dumbo and bopping people on the head to force them to click on it.

    Moore: It was a little too long.

    Johnston: It made the scene too big.

    Moore: It turned more into her getting clicks. It was too much story.

    Spencer: And it was an issue of – how do we enjoy the website before she meets the princesses? But the princesses are really the scene. So we would always be balancing that. Like people wanting to see more of the website before the princesses and then we’d spend more time in it and make a big scene. And then they’d say, “Well what is this scene about?”

    Disney

    There’s a lot of great, brave subtext in “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” just like there was in “Zootopia.” This time it’s about toxic masculinity and online bullying. How important is that stuff to why you made the movie?

    Johnston: The first idea was always going to be about their friendship and that they would go to the Internet and the Internet would test their friendship in some way. Once we landed on the story of it being Vanellope falling in love with this pace on the Internet and wanting to stay there for the rest of her life, that idea of Ralph’s insecurity becoming a force of antagonism sort of fed naturally into toxic masculinity. Because so many of the traits he shows on the negative side of his personality are textbook. In the same way we didn’t want “Zootopia” to be a message movie, this is a feminist story about Vanellope finding her voice as a woman and relying on other strong women to help her along the way. Without ever going, “We must make this message movie about toxic masculinity and feminism,” that’s definitely baked into the subtext.

    Moore: While we loved the relationship and feel like this is a relationship worth fighting for, we wanted to portray it as it was broken. They had fallen into a codependent friendship that they weren’t even aware of. It was going to the Internet that exposed how weak their friendship was at that point and that they were both feeding into negative aspects of it. But it was going to the Internet that sped up bow broken this was and that if not cared to was just going to fall apart.

    Clark was this ever anything you had to fight for?

    Spencer: Well I think the great thing is that these guys push hard on their ideas and stories and how they can go further. That’s what’s nice about having a story trust that pushes on us. So there’s always a discussion of, “Have we gone as far as we can go?” And “What else can we dive into?” But I think, to their point, we felt that if we were going to go into The Internet, we have a responsibility to show the good and the bad side of it and delve into these tougher topics. I think “Zootopia” is a great example of a film that was willing to tackle racism. So I think it gave us the belief that we could do that also.

    Disney

    Speaking of “Zootopia,” Tiny Lister has been out there talking about subsequent sequels.

    Moore: I’m not sure where Tiny is getting this information from.

    Johnston: I’m going to announce right now: there is a “Zootopia 5” in the works. Not “2,” “3,” or “4.” Just jump to “5.” Kind of like “Big Hero 6.” It’s going to be huge.

    Moore: Finnick is the star. Tiny plays all the characters. It’s going to have a $3 trillion budget.

    Johnston: It’s like “My Dinner with Andre.”

    Moore: I like how Tiny Lester was throwing out numbers and everything. Where is this coming from Tiny?

    Well something that is slightly more concrete – literally — is the “Zootopia”-themed land coming to Shanghai. How excited are you for people to enter the world of “Zootopia?”

    Moore: I’m excited for me to enter the world of “Zootopia.”

    Spencer: The cool thing is that we make these movies and if we create characters the audience falls in love with, then hopefully they live on in the parks. Sometimes that’s walk-around characters, sometimes that might be an attraction.

    Moore: Or a special funnel cake!

    Spencer: But this is a land, which is amazing. I think they’ve outlined what they want to do with the land and it’ll be up to these guys to help with the characters and everything else.

    “Ralph Breaks the Internet” is out now on digital HD Blu-ray!   

  • ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Actor Alan Tudyk on Contributing to the Legacy of Disney Animation

    ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Actor Alan Tudyk on Contributing to the Legacy of Disney Animation

    Disney

    Although he hasn’t gone through the official induction ceremony, for our money Alan Tudyk is already a Disney legend. The actor, who TV fans will remember from his collaborations with Joss Whedon (“Firefly” and “Dollhouse”), has become something of a lucky charm for Walt Disney Animation Studios, having contributed significant vocal performances in every animated feature since 2012. Late last year, he co-starred as Knowsmore, a helpful, erudite search engine in “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the visually astonishing follow-up to “Wreck-It Ralph,” adding another colorful cartoon character to his already robust portfolio.

    We caught up with the actor at the Walt Disney Animation Studios campus, the building constructed after the success of “The Lion King” in 1994 and adorned with a giant Sorcerer’s Mickey hat from “Fantasia” (for a long time the cone of the hat was home to the office of Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney). It was here that we discussed all things Disney, from his inspiration for certain voices to whether or not he’d show up in this fall’s “Frozen 2.”

    Moviefone: “Wreck-It Ralph” was your first Walt Disney Animation Studios film. Was that a dream for you?

    Alan Tudyk: It was one of those dreams that I didn’t dream because you’re like, ah, I don’t even know how that happens. That was crazy. I got called up to do a read through. We all flew up to San Francisco to do the readthrough. We all got on a southwest flight. It was like Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch. We were all on this Southwest Airlines plane and you go spend the day there and fly back. And after the reading I got the role, I got sent them big bucket of candy afterwards.

    Did you have the like Charles Nelson Reilly voice going into it?

    I’m glad you said Charles Nelson Reilly cause there was a little Charles Nelson Reilly in it. They said, “Go for Ed Wynn,” who was an old Disney voice. [Editor’s note: Wynn played the Mad Hatter in “Alice in Wonderland” and starred in a number of live-action Disney productions, including “Mary Poppins,” “The Absent-Minded Professor” and ”That Darn Cat!” He is an official Disney Legend.] And then as we went along, people kept piling on in there. Ruth Gordon was even in there because of how she talks and how she emphasizes the words.

    Disney

    And you’ve been in every Disney animated movie since. Are you expecting that call now?

    Now … I’ll just say when. Yes. I’ll be like, “I was expecting this day it was coming.” I mean it’s tricky. I can’t believe I’m in “Moana.” Because I’m the white dude from Texas, but they found the role for me.

    I was going to say, is anything beneath you?

    Nothing’s beneath. Heck no! It’s just … I know that Disney does a lot of movies that take place in far off lands where there aren’t people like me. So it’ll be interesting. I don’t expect to be in everyone. But gosh, I love them.

    Well, I was going to say were you surprised to be asked back for the sequel? Because obviously it seems like King Candy’s arc had ended.

    I’d hoped that I would. I wanted King Candy to live. You can’t kill him! He can’t be dead! He can’t be dead because he’s so much fun to do, but Knowsmore is fantastic.

    How did you come up with the voice for the Knowsmore character?

    Rich asked me before I came in, he said, “Watch a few interviews with Truman Capote and put him in that same sort of realm.” Not in terms of one of the characters from his books, but vocally. So I did [starts doing Knowsmore voice] and he’s more relaxed and he speaks much slower or it’s not higher but frailer voice depending on his age. We started there and then he became Droopy for a second. Like, there’s an interesting way those are two crossed over. And so then he came back and once we found, “Oh that’s interesting” and that high place where you can go, that’s when we found it.

    Do you have a favorite of your Disney characters?

    I like King Candy because he can talk about anything go on and on and he’s happy. But then he can be so angry. He’s so bad. He becomes a terrible, terrible person.

    Do little kids to recognize you?

    Um, no. You know who will recognize me? 15-year-olds. Because they have phones and they can look me up. They’ll see me and they’ll know me from something. Probably some movie or some TV show I’ve done. And then when they look me up, they see that I’m from “Moana” and that’s what they want to talk to him about. “Frozen.” They want to talk about the Duke of Weselton because they’re 15 now. So that they, that put them in, you know, the perfect age.

    So you’re really in meshed in that Disney culture. I’m assuming that you’re going to have your own stage at the D23 Expo this year. The Alan Tudyk stage.

    Yeah, the next show starts in 20 minutes! I’ll just come out on stage.

    I know that we are, you know, very secretive around here but have you recorded any voices for upcoming Walt Disney animated features?

    I have not.

    Even for the one that’s coming out in November of this year (“Frozen 2”)?

    Is it that soon? This may be the one …

    Disney

    There also has been a lot of talking about some further adventures in “Zootopia.” Would you be excited to bring your weasel out again?

    Yeah. He’s fun.

    I think that might be the most meta joke, going from the Duke of Weselton to Duke Weaselton.

    Isn’t that great?

    What did you think when they brought you that idea?

    I loved it! And then he’s also selling knock-off black market movies before they come out. And he’s got “Rhino Ralph.”

    Are you still dazzled when they show you the final cut? I mean, this movie is one of the most visually amazing animated movies ever.

    Oh absolutely.

    Disney

    What is the process like for you?

    It’s been different every time. Every single one has been different. Sometimes they’re later in the game, right? Like if it something was coming out this November, we don’t know. Because the story shifts. The way Disney makes movies is amazing. I got to go through the first “Wreck-It Ralph” from the very first reading and it was different. There were all these scenes that got cut. And I record the whole movie and they put it together and they go, “Oh hey, you know what, that doesn’t work. You know what, we need more of King Candy or he needs to be worried,” you know, until they get it into the final product. And so that one was always evolving. Take “Moana.” That one was pretty much done and they showed it to me and I just watched it about three times through with a microphone doing Hei-hei. Just going through different places.

    Well, you’re now part of sort of this like amazing legacy of the studio. Do you ever stop and think about that?

    I mean it hits me when I come here because of the hallway and the pictures on the walls that now especially cause it’s been so long since the first “Wreck-It Ralph” came out that they’ve accumulated on the walls. You can turn to everybody and say, “I’m in that. Um, oh that’s, that was my character.” And then you keep going down the hallway. That one too, that one too. It’s not just relegated to one little spot where like, that was the one movie I did. And there’s the little thing celebrating that movie. There’s so many now. It makes you pomnder.

    Children in 100 years are going to be listening to your voice, which is sort of amazing too.

    Oh, there’s not going to be people here in 100 years. 

    “Ralph Breaks the Internet” is on digital HD now and will be on Blu-ray tomorrow!

  • How ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Pulled Off That Awesome Disney Princesses Scene

    How ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Pulled Off That Awesome Disney Princesses Scene

    Disney

    The D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, is the kind of place designed to make Disney fans squeal with delight. After all, the Expo, which happens every two years, is like an exclusive Disney version of Comic Con. At D23, there are panels devoted to your favorite Disney TV shows, movies, and parks; plus signings and memorabilia and all of the other things you expect from a glossily produced extravaganza put on by a global media titan.

    At all of the panels, the fans are primed to go nuts. But I have never heard applause like that which greeted a “Ralph Breaks the Internet” sequence that was shown at 2017’s D23 Expo. It was insane.

    The sequence involved Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) visiting the Oh My Disney website, which is devoted to all things Disney. (So, essentially, a digital version of the D23 Expo.) It’s there that she runs into the canonical Disney Princesses — including Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Rapunzel, Merida, Anna, Elsa, and Moana. All of whom are voiced by the original actresses, who, true to show-stopping Disney dazzle, walked out on stage, arm in arm, at the D23 Expo right after the footage was shown.

    The Disney Princess sequence is laugh-out-loud funny, to the point that it was hard to hear some of the jokes, but also genuinely subversive and something of a technical achievement, since many of these characters were traditional, hand-drawn characters being rendered in CGI for the very first time. (There had been prototypical 3D models built for Mickey’s PhilharMagic, an attraction that opened at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and subsequently at Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. It just debuted at Disneyland Paris in early Oct. 2018.) I remember my jaw dropped when I noticed that Pocahontas’ hair is continually blowing in the wind.

    And, it turns out, it took a lot to bring all this to the big screen.

    At a recent long-lead press day for “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” there was a presentation on the sequence, with co-writer Pamela Ribon, art director Ami Thompson, and head of animation Kira Lehtomaki breaking down the particulars of a sequence that, pretty soon, everyone will be talking about.

    In 2014, Ribon started working on the film’s story treatment and she returned to it a couple of years later (after the production’s entire team was pulled into the production of “Zootopia,” an all-hands-on-deck type situation that worked out quite nicely). Ribon admitted to being nervous about “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” considering how sacred the characters are. She was instructed by director Rich Moore: “I think we just board it and see what happens.” (Sequences are storyboarded before being animated.)

    Once they began storyboarding the sequence, it was clear that it was working. They somehow managed to squeeze in a joke about how Merida is from Pixar and not Walt Disney Animation Studios; she’s the only outsider Princess.

    And what’s more, Ribon, who is a Disney Princess diehard, provided the Snow White voice during the scratch sessions and wound up voicing her in the movie. Talk about magical!

    Designing the sequence proved just as tricky. For one, the sequence features 14 (!) classic Disney Princesses, many of them having to be redesigned for the format and all of them interacting for the first time. (The Disney Princess product line has strict guidelines for how the Princesses acknowledge one another. If you look at any box art, none of them are making eye contact, but seem to be sharing physical space.) Thankfully, they had an all-star team on the Princesses’ design team, including designers Cory Loftis, Brittney Lee, and Lorelay Bove.

    And always willing to lend a hand was Mark Henn, the original Disney animator behind most of the modern Disney Princesses (Jeffrey Katzenberg once referred to him, somewhat strangely, as “The Julia Roberts of Animation”). Thompson trained with Henn and said that he was always there to help. Henn also created the animated Sorcerer Mickey that sits atop the virtual animation building at the top of the scene. And, if you’ll recall earlier this fall, Anika Noni Rose had a meeting at Walt Disney Animation Studios about how her character was being modeled in “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” and one of the people she met with was Henn, who animated Tiana in “The Princess and the Frog.”

    The fact that Henn created the original characters and advised on their new incarnations is just part of what makes Walt Disney Animation Studios (and the Princess sequence in “Ralph Breaks the Internet”) so special.

    Additionally, the Princesses were all given what are being referred to now as their “comfy clothes;” dressed-down versions of their iconic royal looks. Thompson said that they had to adapt each Princess’ signature style to “internet language” (perfect for a movie all about the Internet), hence why Moana is wearing a shirt that reads, simply, “#Shiny.” (If you want to know how lucrative just the new looks for the Princesses will be for the company, stop into your local Disney Store the next time you’re at the mall.)

    Animating the Disney Princess sequence was also challenging, for obvious reasons. Lehtomaki, a self-described “Disney hoarder” (she was wearing Toms emblazoned with original Cinderella concept art), worked with Henn on the sequence, learning how he “performed” the characters in the earlier masterpieces and bringing her own flair to the characters. Henn was an invaluable resource, having “acted” many of these parts before, for their classic films. The weight of the sequence was immense, since, as Lehtomaki said, it was required that “every moment feels true to who they are.” And it’s true — one false note would have made the entire, painstakingly produced sequence crumble. Talk about pressure.

    And maybe most tantalizingly of all, Lehtomaki teased that the sequence that they showed at the 2017 Expo — and has been featured in much of the marketing materials thus far — isn’t the only one to feature the Princesses.

    “You’ll see more of them,” she said. Can you imagine what the response to that would have been at the D23 Expo?

  • Disney Wouldn’t Let ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Mock Kylo Ren as ‘a Spoiled Child’ (Even Though It’s True)

    Disney Wouldn’t Let ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Mock Kylo Ren as ‘a Spoiled Child’ (Even Though It’s True)

    Kylo Ren, Adam Driver, Star Wars
    Lucasfilm

    To prove Kylo Ren is not a spoiled child, Disney protected him from the gentle mockery of “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”

    That’ll show ’em!

    The “Wreck-It Ralph” sequel, “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” has several in-house jokes about favorites in the Disney/Lucasfilm/Marvel family. We’ve seen a lot about the Disney princesses, and there will be some “Star Wars” references. But there will not be a shot at Adam Driver‘s character, Kylo Ren.

    Directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, and head of story Josie Trinidad, told IGN about the joke Disney nixed:

    “At one point we had a joke about Kylo Ren being kind of a spoiled child,” Moore said. “We went to Lucasfilm and said, here’s what we’re doing. And they said, well, we’d prefer that you don’t show him as a spoiled child. You know, he is our villain, and we’d prefer you don’t do that. So we were respectful of that.”

    The filmmakers did get to take some “playful jabs” at other characters, though, including showing C-3PO as the Disney princesses’ butler. Johnson said that “felt like that’s of his character. It’s really loving satire that we’re doing.”

    Disney has the Force to stop one of its own films from mocking Kylo Ren, but it had no such power over “Saturday Night Live.” Based on this reaction, they must’ve LOVED Adam Driver’s “Star Wars Undercover Boss: Starkiller Base” sketch. That video has more than 35 million views, and includes Kylo insults like this:

    “Kylo Ren is a punk bitch. That guy looks like he weighs 30 pounds soaking wet under that little black dress.”

    Yeah, “SNL” is comedy aimed at adults, but it’s still kind of surprising that Disney was so thin-skinned about calling Kylo a spoiled child. Because Kylo Ren is in fact a spoiled brat who killed his own dad and pouts all the time like a kid in constant tantrum mode over not getting to play Xbox.

    “Ralph Breaks the Internet” opens in theaters November 21st, 2018. Kylo Ren will probably be just as much of a spoiled baby in “Star Wars: Episode IX,” which opens December 20, 2019.

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  • How ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Will Blow You Away

    How ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Will Blow You Away

    Disney

    A few weeks ago, at the beautifully redesigned Walt Disney Animation Studios campus in Burbank, we were treated to a special screening of select footage from “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the sequel to 2012’s hit videogame-themed comedy “Wreck-It Ralph.” And let me tell you, it looks stunning.

    The basic gist of the sequel is this: There’s trouble at Litwak’s Arcade. Sugar Rush, the kart racing game that counts Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) as one of its racers, has a broken steering wheel. This leads Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly), the videogame ogre with a hart of gold, to launch a mission to get a new steering wheel; otherwise, the game will be unplugged and Vanellope, his best friend, will go poof.

    And where do they head to find that steering wheel? That’s right: the Internet.

    Far from the way that the internet has normally been visualized (in something like “Hackers“); this isn’t dense columns of ones and zeroes. Instead, it’s a living, vibrant city, and you can tell that much of the art department carried over the lessons they learned on “Zootopia,” in terms of bringing an entire metropolis to life. One of the scenes we saw had Vanellope bidding on a velvet cat painting on eBay, which, in the movie, looks like a typical auction house.

    Another scene, which serves as something of the emotional fulcrum for the movie, saw Ralph — after rising in popularity as an instantly meme-able personality — reading negative comments about himself, his large heart breaking. (Co-director Rich Moore said the Internet was the perfect dramatic place to put Ralph, a person whose entire sense of self is based off what other people think of him.)

    Disney

    And, of course, there was the princess sequence, which has been screened at D23 and teased in recent promotional materials, wherein Vanellope comes face-to-face with all of the classic Disney princesses (everyone from Snow White to Moana). It’s still a hoot and as the production works to complete the sequence, has become even more visually stunning and comically precise.

    We were also lucky enough to sit down with Moore, co-director and co-writer Phil Johnston, and producer Clark Spencer, but, alas, there was some kind of malfunction in the recording and only a few minutes were saved. Lucky for me, I’ve got a great memory, and can recount some of the awesome anecdotes that the team shared with me.

    First and foremost, in the princess sequence, they approach a glowing version of the Walt Disney Animation Studios campus, sorcerer’s hat and all. At the top of that building, there’s an animated sorcerer Mickey, posed like he was in Walt Disney’s experimental classic “Fantasia.” It turns out that none other than Mark Henn, the legendary Disney animator who worked on Belle, Princess Jasmine, and Mulan (Jeffrey Katzenberg once called him “the Julia Roberts of animation”), was responsible for that little snippet of classic 2D animation. And that is very, very awesome.

    They also told me that major videogame elements would be woven into the narrative, taking up much of the third act. (All the footage we saw was from the first and second acts.) This was, of course, before Disney announced that Gal Gadot would voice a character named Shank from a hardcore racing game called “Slaughter Race.”

    Overall, the footage that we saw and the conversation that I had with Moore, Johnston, and Spencer, let my jaw on the floor. This is some seriously next-level stuff. And like “Zootopia,” it’s not just a visual feast. There were moments we saw, like the one with Ralph reading all of the mean comments, that were genuinely affecting. We can’t wait until November, when we can see the whole movie. On pins and needles over here.

    Disney

    Moviefone: You started working on this sequel back in 2014 and it got sidelined by the production of “Zootoptia.” When you came back to it, did you start over or pick up where you left off? [Clark nods yes to the “starting over” comment.]

    Spencer: We had to take a big step back.

    Johnston: I had written a screenplay before “Zootopia” and we really liked it and started working on it. We then went off to do “Zootopia” for a year-and-a-half, came back, read that script, and went — “meh.” There are parts of that script that are good, one huge part we completely threw away and now we put it back in like three years later. But we can’t tell you what that part is. So nothing fully ever goes anywhere. It’s the circle of life, man.

    Moore: All the parts of the buffalo!

    What was the biggest change from those earlier versions of the movie?

    Moore: There was definitely a part where, we knew we wanted to explore social media as an aspect to the story. So there was a back-and-forth about who was going to be roped into it — was it going to be Ralph or was it going to be Vanellope? Initially, we said: “It’s got to be Ralph. He’s got the total personality of, ‘Please tell me you like me, I will define myself by the way you feel about me.’” That seemed obvious. But we thought, are we doing ourselves a disservice? Because Vanellope, who you think wouldn’t be susceptible to that, is actually the one who gets swept up in social media. We pursued that idea for a while and it seemed pretty good, but at the end of the day, it didn’t feel genuine. It didn’t feel like her character, like she would make those decisions. It didn’t feel like her character anymore.

    Johnston: That was the very first draft, actually, where she became susceptible and started buying into that. But that comment scene we showed you guys, [it] happened to Vanellope. That idea was in there and there was a later version where they got captured and they became a meme. But we found as they were chasing fleeting fame, it felt like the audience was ahead of them. Like, We know this is a bad idea. It felt like schmuck bait. Like lazy storytelling.

    Moore: And it seemed like would you just get to the point.

    Check out the new trailer below!

    “Ralph Breaks the Internet” is everywhere on November 21. We’ll have more from the long lead day before then.

  • Disney Princesses in Casual Wear! New ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Photo Breaks the Internet

    Disney Princesses in Casual Wear! New ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Photo Breaks the Internet

    Ralph Breaks the Internet
    Disney

    This “Ralph Breaks the Internet” scene with the Disney princesses needs to lead to its own spinoff. It would not be too much. There is never enough!

    Entertainment Weekly shared another photo of the upcoming “Wreck-It Ralph” sequel’s highly anticipated Disney princess meet-up. This time, we see the ladies lounging around in casual wear, like a sorority house meeting:

    Ralph Breaks the Internet
    Disney

    Fans went nuts for Elsa’s “Just Let It Go” shirt, Snow White’s edgy poison apple logo, Tiana’s natural hair, and Mulan looking so fly. Vanellope is a very lucky girl to get to hang out with so many queens — or princesses and Queen Elsa.

    Fans had some classic reactions:

    https://twitter.com/dem_doodles/status/1027599445938991104

    https://twitter.com/dagnificent/status/1027608481753268225

    Oh, don’t worry. Disney is going to sell you everything in that shot. Count on it.

    In these scenes of Vanellope hanging with royals, the official Disney princesses are voiced by the original living actresses: Ming-Na Wen as Mulan, Idina Menzel as Elsa, Kristen Bell as Anna, Jodi Benson as Ariel, Paige O’Hara as Belle, Linda Larkin as Jasmine, Irene Bedard as Pocahontas, Anika Noni Rose as Tiana, Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, Kelly Macdonald as Merida, and Auli’i Cravalho as Moana. Snow White and Aurora from “Sleeping Beauty” are voiced by new actresses.

    Some princesses, like Belle, are missing from the casual wear photo. But you can spot them in Disney’s goofy new sneak peek below (which also shows off Gal Gadot’s new character), and in the movie itself when it hits theaters on November 21.

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  • New ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Trailer: Ralph and Vanellope Meet Princesses and Search Engines

    The newest trailer for “Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet” takes Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) deeper into the realms of the world wide web, and all the highs and lows that accompany its vast wealth of technology.

    Like the first teaser, this clip is pretty light on actual plot (the film’s official synopsis describes our heroes searching the internet for a part to fix Vanellope’s broken arcade game), though it’s still fun. Case in point: Ralph and Vanellope meet a search engine, KnowsMore (Alan Tudyk), whose predictive prompts grow more ridiculous and hilarious as Ralph grows more perplexed and annoyed.

    We also finally get to see some footage from that epic Disney Princess round-up, when Vanellope stumbles upon them in the Oh My Disney section of the ‘net. (Yes, “Wreck-It Ralph 2” appears to be chock full of Disney self-promotion and product placement.) The startled royalty demand to know why she’s there, and when Vanellope explains that she’s a princess, too, they launch into a hilariously specific litmus test to prove her claim, involving magic hair, the ability to talk to animals, and whether or not she was “kidnapped or enslaved.”

    “Do people assume all your problems got solved because a big, strong man showed up?” Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) finally asks.

    “Yes!” Vanellope replies. “What is up with that?!”

    The trailer makes it clear that there’s going to be plenty of self-referential winks like the above exchange, including another bit of dialogue that pokes fun at the film’s title (“Shouldn’t it be, ‘Ralph Wrecks the Internet’?”). Whether or not that’s your cup of tea should determine how much you enjoy this sequel, though we have a feeling filmmakers are keeping many of the movie’s more heart-warming moments under wraps until it actually hits theaters.

    Fans can see for themselves when “Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet” opens on November 21.

  • ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Motion Poster Reveals Who Broke the Internet

    A new motion poster for the upcoming sequel to Disney’s 2012 video game flick “Wreck-It Ralph” poses the question, “Who broke the internet?” And while the answer is pretty obvious (spoiler alert: it’s in the movie’s title), it’s still got us plenty excited to see just how the titular action unfolds.

    The cute poster for “Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2,” unveiled on social media on Monday, depicts a search engine bar into which someone has typed the aforementioned question. Cursors appearing on the screen then point directly at Ralph (once again voiced by John C. Reilly), who looks surprised and a little chagrined at the charge.

    What on Earth could Ralph have done that would deem him an Internet Breaker? Based on what happens in the first flick, it seems like a safe bet to assume that it would have something to do with a well-meaning gesture that quickly goes awry. Or maybe it’s the very fact that he and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) have left their respective games in the first place, causing chaos simply by jumping into a different realm entirely.

    Like the first promo clip, this new teaser doesn’t tell us much, so we’ll have to wait for actual footage from the flick before we know more. But based on everything we do know, we’re definitely eager to see more.

    “Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2” is due in theaters on November 21.

  • Bust into 2018 With the First ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Teaser

    It’s going to be hard to top the magic of 2012’s “Wreck-It Ralph,” Disney’s wildly creative, surprisingly emotional video game-centric flick that’s due for a sequel later this year. But a brief new teaser for the follow-up has us itching to see what’s in store for our favorite reluctant bad guy with big fists and an even bigger heart of gold.

    The clip, shared by Disney Animation’s social media team over the holiday weekend, played up the film’s 2018 release date, having Ralph (John C. Reilly) literally bust his way out of 2017 and into the New Year. It’s a way not only to celebrate the change in the calendar, but get fans pumped to see more from Ralph, Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), Fix-It Felix (Jack McBrayer), and the rest of the gang from the first film.

    It doesn’t exactly tell us anything about the new flick — subtitled “Ralph Breaks the Internet” — but it does remind us how much we love this character. And based on everything we know about the sequel so far (the original Disney princesses! Taraji P. Henson as a sentient search engine!), it certainly sounds like this will be an adventure worth taking.

    “Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2” is due to boot up in theaters on November 21.

    [via: Disney Animation/Twitter]

  • Disney Officially Announces ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’

    wreck-it ralph, wreck-it ralph 2, sequel, concept art, ralph, vanellope, john c. reilly, sarah silvermanActor John C. Reilly revealed almost a year ago that a sequel to acclaimed 2012 film “Wreck-It Ralph” is definitely happening. Now, Disney Animation has officially announced the flick, and scheduled a release date.

    Co-directors Rich Moore (who helmed the original) and Phil Johnston (who co-wrote the original) made the announcement on Facebook Live on Thursday, explaining that they actually began thinking about “Wreck-It Ralph 2” as soon as they finished working on the first flick. The follow-up has been in development for several years now, Moore and Johnston said, and now, Disney is ready to officially unveil its plans for the project, and its release date: March 9, 2018.

    Reilly later popped up in the announcement video — sporting the toy version of his titular character’s giant, destructive hands — to utter his famous catchphrase (“I’m gonna wreck it!”), while also revealing a little bit about the sequel’s plot.

    “It’s top secret, but I’ll tell you this much: Ralph leaves the arcade, and wrecks the internet,” Reilly announced. “What could go wrong?”

    Disney animation also revealed some concept art, which depicts Ralph and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) towering over a bunch of familiar-sounding sites (though names like Amazing, Buzzaholic, and Gügle are just different enough to distance themselves from their likely real-life inspirations Amazon, BuzzFeed, and Google). Check it out below.


    “Wreck-It Ralph 2” hits theaters on March 9, 2018.

    [via: Disney, Wreck-It Ralph]

    Photo credit: Disney

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