I received an all expense paid trip from Disney to attend the #RalphBreaksTheInternetEvent at Walt Disney Animation Studios. The opinions expressed here are my own and I received no monetary compensation.
Back in August, while in LA for the Christopher Robin premiere, I had the opportunity to attend a press junket for Ralph Breaks the Internet at Walt Disney Animation Studios. You already know my Wreck-It Ralph obsessed family is counting down the days until November 21st, when the sequel hits theaters! At the junket, I had the privilege of hearing from Josie Trinidad (Head of Story), Jason Hand (Story Artist), Natalie Nourigat (Story Artist), Matthias Lechner (Art Director, environments), Larry Wu (Head of Environments), Ernie Petti (Technical Supervisor), Cory Loftis (Production Designer), Dave Komorowski (Head of Characters and Technical Animation), Renato dos Anjos (Head of Animation) and Moe El-Ali (Crowds’ Supervisor). It was a “pinch me” moment sitting in the same room as these talented individuals!
Walking into Walt Disney Animation Studios felt a lot like my time at Pixar Animation Studios. You can almost taste the creativity and passion in the air. Everyone, from the story artist to the technical supervisor, speaks with so much pride and positivity about their work. They clearly love what they do and they do it so well. For Ralph Breaks the Internet, they had to figure out how to create new technology to generate a world as massive as the Internet. It only took 283,839 storyboards to create this film. No biggie. I definitely walked away with a greater appreciation for animated films and all of the people listed on the end credits. I’m not sure if this movie has an end credit scene yet, but I will stay just out of respect for everyone who worked on this film!
Here are 7 fun facts or sneak peeks of what you have to look forward to in Ralph Breaks the Internet:
- The internet citizens are called “Netizens” and they are the worker bees of the internet. A special formula was created to dictate blinking, movement and blending in crowds.
©Disney. All Rights Reserved. - The net users in the film are the avatars of the people using the internet. They run from website to website, depending on what their user is dictating.
©Disney. All Rights Reserved. - Yesss (Taraji P. Henson), is a digital algorithm at BuzzzTube and the trendsetter of the web. Her fiber optic coat was modeled after Cruella de Vil’s fur coat.
©Disney. All Rights Reserved - Ralph and Vanellope visit OhMyDisney.com in the film (which is an actual site by the way). To prepare for this scene, animators stayed overnight in the castle dream suite. Not a bad gig!
- The deep web, where anonymous users and viruses live, makes an appearance in the film.
©Disney. All Rights Reserved. - Be on the lookout for Easter eggs in the Internet world. You might even be able to spot some similarities to Bolt, Tangled and Zootopia. Many of the environments and characters were borrowed from these films.
- Knows More (Alan Tudyk), my favorite Netizen so far, is a google or wikipedia type character. Basically he’s a total know it all search engine. His eyes were hand drawn and he was given a very simplified “old website” look.
Ralph Breaks the Internet will hit theaters on November 21, 2018!
Check out the latest trailer:
