‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’
Wreck-It Ralph tries working with a Net.
Wreck-It Ralph might just be the next viral superstar. If he can ever figure out what “going viral” actually means.
Disney’s animated sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 (in theaters Nov. 21) takes the oafish videogame bad guy (voiced by John C. Reilly) out of the neighborhood arcade and into the World Wide Web with best friend Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), the kid princess of the candy-coated Sugar Rush game.
The follow-up also features Taraji P. Henson and Alan Tudyk as new characters, familiar faces such as Star Wars Stormtroopers and Disney princesses, and a buddy comedy at its core.
“Every different person has a different experience with the Internet, regardless of age, and we felt it was a ripe world to push the boundaries of their friendship,” director Phil Johnston says of Ralph and Vanellope’s journey.
The pair visit cyberspace seeking a replacement part for Sugar Rush. Vanellope’s younger and more easily adaptable to the wonders of the Internet, while Ralph is a Gen Xer who’s a bit befuddled by the whole thing, Johnston says. “With Ralph, it’s like when your dad looks at the Internet and goes, ‘What is that? Why is that? What is going on?’ ”
A couple of netizens help out along the way, including Henson’s character, Yesss. A stylish algorithm that heads up the trendy video-sharing site BuzzzTube, Yesss wants to make Ralph hip and cool, too, by promoting his viralness. “Just putting her with Ralph as a foil and a friend was a lot of fun,” Johnston says.
Yesss is “a little snooty because she is smart and she does know the Internet so well. But then she kind of takes a liking to the big lug,” Henson says. “There’s something about a really smart person empowering someone who is not as intelligent — it’s like, ‘ Wow, see, I’m so good even I can teach you something.’ ”
Also along for the ride is KnowsMore, a know-it-all search engine voiced by Tudyk. He has been in every Disney animated film since playing King Candy in 2012’s original Ralph and “became our goodluck charm of sorts,” director Rich Moore says, adding that KnowsMore is “a little Truman Capote, a little Droopy dog from the old MGM cartoons and a little Mr. Peabody.”
KnowsMore’s Autofill function, which finds him finishing people’s sentences, does get on Ralph’s nerves, Johnston says. “Vanellope’s been in the Internet all of one minute, and she immediately gets it. And Ralph takes it personally as an affront to him.”
Jack McBrayer returns as Ralph’s repairman frenemy, Fix-It Felix Jr., Jane Lynch is back as Felix’s warrior love interest, Sergeant Calhoun, and Disney fans will find a lot to love in various Easter eggs and cameos, including a meeting between Vanellope and her fellow Disney princesses. (Though Cinderella initially freaks out at Vanellope’s surprise appearance, breaking her glass slipper and wielding it in self-defense.)
Moore says the sequence originated from the idea of Ralph finding an online quiz that asks, “Are you an Anna or an Elsa?”
The filmmakers recruited all the original living actresses to reprise their princess characters, including Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, Auli’i Cravalho as Moana and Idina Menzel as Elsa.
“The Internet is this random crazy place where you can mash together any number of things and find a reason for it to make sense,” Johnston adds.
Add Henson’s Yesss as another princess, with her kingdom being the Internet: “Her tiara is her hair and her ballgown might be a fur coat — digital fur, so no animals died.”