While I was not at New York Comic-Con this year, I did have feet on the ground! Thanks to Louise Sullivan from 3 Decades, 3 Kids for getting the inside scoop!
This year at New York Comic-Con, our favorite panel was the special preview of Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2, featuring director Rich Moore, director/writer Phil Johnston, head of story Josie Trinidad (who all also worked on Zootopia and the original Wreck-it Ralph!), and an exclusive look at over 20 minutes of the movie!
Disney Animation Team
The panel started with an introduction from the three members of the creative team, and a glimpse into what it’s like working for Disney Animation. Josie, in particular, shone here, detailing the great amount of work that goes into creating storyboards and plotting out sequences in the film. By the numbers, to create Ralph Breaks the Internet, it took:
- 15 story artists
- 10 screenings
- 45 total sequences in the film
- 153 total sequences boarded
- 7883 total sequence versions
- 283,839 total storyboards!
Of course, there’s always room for fun among the hard work as well – Rich, Phil, and Josie discussed the various trips that the teams for our favorite Disney Animation films got to take for inspiration! The team for Moana, for example, took a journey to the Pacific Islands to better understand the water and wildlife there. While Frozen’s team went to Norway to take in the environment and culture that they would later incorporate into the movie.
Much like the protagonists of Ralph Breaks the Internet, this team got to go to the internet! To achieve this, they visited One Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, the home of most of North America’s internet connections. The trip was definitely fruitful, as the appearance of the servers, wires, and connections provided some great groundwork for the team’s vision of the internet’s appearance. Now on to the most exciting part of the panel: the footage!
Ralph Breaks The Internet Footage (SPOILERS AHEAD!)
Minor spoilers for the first half of Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet ahead!
The new footage began by establishing the core problem of the movie: when the steering wheel of Sugar Rush breaks, Mr. Litwak is unable to find a replacement that fits his budget. He ultimately decides that the game should be unplugged. Vanellope, despite falling into a bit of a rut when she has to race the exact same unchanging courses, still loves Sugar Rush. She teams up with Ralph to try and find a way to get the game back in working order. This leads them to a mysterious new realm – the internet! With the help of Knowsmore (an adorable, Alan Tudyk-voiced stand-in for search engines like Google), the pair make their way to eBay.
Here, Ralph and Vanellope misunderstand the site’s bidding system, believing it to be a game where you shout out the highest number you can think of. This leads them to a hilarious “bidding war” where they end up promising to pay over $30,000 for a new Sugar Rush steering wheel. Of course, this sets up their next dilemma: where will they get the money? Along the way, they travel through various other games and familiar websites (including a run-in between Vanellope and the Disney Princesses!), meeting new characters Yesss and Shank (Taraji P. Henson and Gal Gadot, respectively).
Will Ralph and Vanellope be able to save Sugar Rush? Find out in Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet, in theaters November 21!
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. She is also a Freelance Writer. Tessa has been in the Entertainment writing business for almost ten years and is a member of several Critics Associations including the Critics Choice Association, Hollywood Critics Association, and the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association.