Head of Animation Renato dos Anjos, Production Designer Cory Loftis, Crowds Supervisor Moe El-Ali and Production Designer Dave Komorowski as seen at the Long Lead Press Day for RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET at Walt Disney Animation Studios on August 1, 2018. Photo by Alex Kang/Disney. ©2018 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
Meet the New Characters of Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet”
This past July, I had the incredible opportunity to visit Disney Pictures Animation to attend some presentations with the directors, producers, well with everybody was involved in the fantastic new animation Ralph Breaks the Internet. I was able to “taste”’ every aspect and details of this new chapter on this animation: storyboard, research, music, colors, formats, and new characters… And it was these new characters that stood out for me. Let’s check it out who is coming back to this second movie and who are the new ‘avatars’.
Ralph Breaks the Internet picks up six years after the events of Wreck-It Ralph (2012), when best friends Ralph and Vanellope discover the Wi-Fi router inside Litwak’s video arcade, they go into a new adventure to the unknown world for them called Internet. Actors John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman return as the voice of Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz, respectively. According to director Rich Moore, “John and Sarah have such great chemistry between them and it really comes across in their performances. Ralph and Vanellope inherited that chemistry.”
VIRUS ALERT – In “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Vanellope befriends a tough and talented driver in an intense online racing game, leaving Ralph feeling left out, confused and willing to do anything to preserve his friendship with Vanellope. But even with the best intentions, Ralph’s efforts don’t always go as planned—particularly when he enlists the help of Double Dan, the proprietor of the dark web’s apothecary. Massive, slimy and decidedly creepy with a second head called Little Dan tucked into his neck folds, Double Dan formulates destructive viruses. Featuring John C. Reilly as the voice of Ralph, and Alfred Molina as the voice of Double Dan, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” opens in U.S. theaters Nov. 21, 2018. ©2018 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
To make this animation more real and close to what they think of an actual World Wide World (WWW) is, they created some new characters. Animators divided them into two categories: the Net Users and the Netizens. The Net Users are us and, our avatars as we explore the Internet. On the other hand, the Netizens are the residents of the Internet, some of them are employees of the numerous websites that Net Users visit every second.
There are two important and funny Netizens that were highlighted during the presentation: Yesss and KnowsMore.
Yesss is the head algorithm of a trend-making website called BuzzzTube. She is voiced by talented actress Taraji P. Henson. Yesss has an eye for the next video and Internet sensation, “she anticipates the next best thing.” She will help Ralph and Vanellope to pay their debt on eBay. “What’s hot one second might not be the next. And every time we see her, she’s wearing a different outfit with a trendy new hairstyle,” says Moore.
KnowsMore is a search engine and is voiced by Alan Tudyk. KnowsMore can be compared to Google search where he frequently gets ahead of himself, finishing people’s sentences. He is fast and very helpful.
This time around, the animators were able to explore and develop more the characters due to the advance of the technology. According to Renato dos Santos, Head of Animation, the Wreck-It Ralph movie had 223 characters with 421 variants and, now, we have 434 characters with 6,752 variants plus colors. That number gave them a lot room to play around the Net Users and the Netizens.
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 breaks into theaters on November 21, 2018!
