1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Moana was the second Disney movie to have been set around the Pacific islands, after Lilo & Stitch (2002), which was located in Hawaii. Unlike Lilo & Stitch, Moana is another “princess musical” film from Disney Animation, yet it is different even to other fairy-tale stories made by Disney in the 2010s.

Moana has absolutely no focus on any romantic connections in Moana’s life throughout the movie. If we look at Tangled (2010) and even Frozen (2013), romantic interests may take a backseat to the strong heroines of the movie, but they are still there.

They do all have something in common and that is that they parody their fairy-tale format which became rooted in Disney history, thanks to the Disney Renaissance Era from 1989 to 2000: just think of the line “Anna, you can’t marry a man you just met”. Within Moana, Moana is teased by demi-god Maui for being a “princess”, because she wears a dress and has an animal sidekick, Heihei, the dumb rooster. He also expects her to spontaneously burst into song at times, which she does, but not in front of him!

I really like Moana. I first watched it in the cinema when it was released at the end of 2016. I loved it then, especially the soundtrack which I would constantly play, and then saw it many more times, either on Blu-Ray or on television. I even went to see it in a drive-in movie setting! However, I hadn’t watched Moana for a few years until this week, but I was pleased to say that I did still enjoy it as much as I remembered.

PLOT

Moana follows the story of a young girl, torn between her duty to her village, being the next in line to be chief, and her love of the ocean. Moana lives on an island called Motunui, an island within the Pacific. She was chosen by the ocean from a very young age to fulfil a task, but has been kept away from it by her father, Chief Tui. The task comes as a result of a poor decision by demi-god Maui. Many years ago, he stole “the Heart of Te Fiti”, a stone which allowed Te Fiti to create lands and make them prosperous. Maui was then hunted by Te Kā, a volcanic demon, shortly afterwards. He lost the heart as well as his magical fish-hook and disappeared, though many still hunt for the heart. Moana was given the heart by the ocean one day, though she dropped it when her father came to find her.

Chief Tui wants Moana to focus on becoming a great chief and taking over some of his responsibilities. Though Moana spends much of her childhood trying to get in the ocean and sail out beyond the reef, it is forbidden and she gradually comes to accept her lot in life. One day, Moana is being told that the villagers are struggling to find food: fish aren’t coming to their nets, and the coconut trees have become diseased. Moana decides that they must sail out beyond the reef to find food, but Chief Tui angrily refuses to allow it.

Moana is angry with her father, though her mother, Sina, tells her he is just scared as his friend drowned out at sea after him and her father went out there one day as children. Moana decides to prove she can sail out there, even if Tui cannot, but she finds that the ocean is not her friend today and her canoe is consumed by a large wave. Moana’s leg becomes trapped in coral, but she manages to free herself and makes it back to shore. Her grandmother, Tala, finds her and promises not to tell her father. Instead, Tala leads Moana to a cave and is told to bang the drum to find out about their ancestors. Moana learns that their ancestors were voyagers and that the cave is full of canoes, so they could sail again. Tala gives Moana the Heart of Te Fiti, which she picked up that day after seeing the ocean choose her. She tells her to find Maui and get him to restore the heart; he is said to be found under the “fish hook” in the stars. She excitedly goes to tell her father, interrupting a village meeting. Tui does not listen and threatens to burn all the canoes; however, Tala is taken ill and the two rush to her side. Tala tells Moana to go and complete her mission. She gives Moana her locket and places the heart within it. Moana tearfully leaves, with her mother’s approval. As Moana is about to cross the reef, the spirit of a ray, Tala’s spirit animal, crosses under her, showing that her grandmother’s spirit is still with her, despite her death.  

After some struggles with the canoe, as Moana doesn’t know how to sail or navigate, plus she has the added distraction of Heihei, the rooster, stowing away with her, they end up crash-landing on an island after a storm. This is where they meet Maui. Moana has unknowingly made it to his island; the ocean must have helped her. Maui is pleased to have found a boat so he can sail away to find his fish-hook, but has no intention of returning the Heart of Te Fiti. He traps Moana in a cave, hoping to never see her again, but Moana frees herself and the ocean carries her over to the canoe. No matter how hard Maui tries, Moana keeps being returned to the canoe. Maui warns Moana to not talk about the heart, but Moana doesn’t listen and soon they are surrounded by “Kakamora”, a group of vicious coconut-pirates. They steal Heihei, as he has eaten the Heart, with Maui wanting just to escape. Moana doesn’t allow him to, and retrieves Heihei and the heart. The two then make a deal to find his fish hook and then go to Te Fiti together.

The fish hook lies within the Realm of Monsters, or Lalotai. They travel to the entry point and jump down into a huge hole. Moana bounces down further than expected, and Maui looks for his hook, not bothered by Moana’s fate. Moana manages to free herself from the monsters and meets up with Maui at the lair of Tamatoa. The hook is on the back of his shell. Moana is used to distract Tamatoa, by getting him to talk about himself and his love of all things shiny. Maui steals back his hook and tries to use its shape-shifting powers, but it does not work properly and he is caught by Tamatoa. Moana saves him by covering a barnacle in algae, making it look like the Heart of Te Fiti. Tamatoa runs to get it, but soon realises he was duped. Moana and Maui manage to escape via a well-timed geyser.

Maui is sad that his hook doesn’t seem to be working properly but Moana encourages him to practise with it, and sure enough, he can use it again. At the same time, Maui teaches Moana about sailing and navigating. They soon reach Te Fiti, where Maui takes the heart, and starts to attack Te Kā. Him and his fish hook are hit, and it looks like they will lose the battle if they continue. Maui wants to turn back but Moana believes they can make it through a gap in the rocks. It doesn’t work and they are pushed far back into the ocean again. Maui is so angry with Moana that he transforms into a hawk and flies away, leaving her alone. Moana tells the ocean it chose the wrong person, and the ocean takes the Heart back sadly. Soon, Moana is joined by the spirit of her grandmother, who tells her it’s alright to go back if she wants, but Moana hesitates, knowing that she must complete the mission. Emboldened, she swims down and retrieves the heart, repairs the canoe and heads back to Te Fiti alone. She tries to get past the Barrier Islands, knowing that Te Kā cannot touch the water on the other side. Moana gets through but the canoe is thrown over by a shot of lava from Te Kā. Maui arrives to help, having changed his mind, and goes to attack Te Kā, using a variety of shape-shifting animals to distract it. Maui uses his final chance with the hook to overpower Te Kā, and sure enough, the hook is destroyed. Moana has found the site of Te Fiti, but the island is not there. She then realises that Te Kā is actually Te Fiti. She calls Te Kā to her, and returns her heart.

Te Kā transforms into Te Fiti, very thankful to Moana for restoring her heart. She reverts the darkness that had been taking over other islands, and even gets Maui a new fish hook, despite her initial disappointment that he stole her heart in the first place! They are also given a new boat, and Moana returns to Motunui a hero, where she becomes a great chief and leads the others in voyaging again, as their ancestors did.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Obviously, Moana is the lead character; her name is the title of the movie after all! Moana is a very likable character. She is strong, brave, and independent, yet is also very caring and has a sense of duty and family.  Moana may want to go out into the ocean, but she accepts that it has been forbidden by her father eventually. She becomes very helpful to her village during this time; she fixes roofs, teaches the children to dance, and comes up with solutions for problems, though Moana is aware that there is no escaping the darkness that is threatening their island and destroying their food sources. This is when she decides things must change and that they have no option but to go out to another island to save themselves. This is when she finds out from her grandmother that by restoring “the Heart of Te Fiti”, she can defeat the darkness once and for all. Her grandmother encourages her to go and complete the mission that the ocean chose her for when she was just a baby. Though it upsets Moana to leave her family, she knows she must go on. Throughout her journey, Moana overcomes obstacles and difficulties, always seeming optimistic, even when Maui is being the complete opposite, not wanting anything to do with her. Even though Moana loses her courage for a brief moment, her grandmother again guides her to the right decision, which shows how much Moana loves her family and knows what is ultimately the right thing to do. Moana succeeds as we all knew she would from the start, and is a hero for it, not only fixing the ultimate problem affect the islands, but also encouraging her village to go back to voyaging as they used to, being able to move forward in life. Moana may be a princess-type role, but she is certainly one of the good role models to have.

Moana is voiced by Auli’i Cravalho. Cravalho was born and grew up in Hawaii. She never expected to make her acting debut in something as big as Moana. The Disney team had an open call for the character, and on their last day in Hawaii, they said she stood out, with her singing being a particular highlight of her voice performance. Cravalho felt good being involved in a film about her culture and reprised her role for the film’s Hawaiian-language version. She has since gone on to star in the drama series Rise (2018), performed the part of Ariel in the TV special The Little Mermaid Live! (2019), and acted in the Hulu comedy film Crush (2022). She played the role of Janis in the new version of Mean Girls (2024) and has had many roles on stage in recent years, such as the lead role of Eva Peron in the 2023 West End production of Evita, and the starring role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret on Broadway from September 2024 until March 2025.

Maui is the supporting character to Moana. He comes across as very braggy and arrogant at the start, although quite lovable at the same time. Maui’s whole life story is tattooed over his body, detailing the accomplishments that the demi-god has fulfilled during his lifetime to help people, such as pulling islands up from the sea. His “Mini-Maui” tattoo is like his very own Jiminy Cricket, a conscience that pulls him back from making poor decisions or being too confident. We get some backstory to Maui during the movie, after he has retrieved his fish hook. It turns out that Maui was born mortal and was thrown into the ocean by his parents who did not want him. He was found by the gods, who gave him the magical fish-hook. It then turns out that Maui making all these amazing things happen was just to try and win approval from people as he doesn’t believe he is worthy of anything. Maui also thinks that the fish-hook is the only reason he has any meaning whatsoever and that without it, he is nothing. This is clearly why he struggles after finding that his shape-shifting powers aren’t working right when he gets the hook back, and why he won’t sacrifice it to help Moana the first time they fight Te Kā. He soon realises, with Moana’s help, that he is a good person and that he is more than just whatever power the gods gave him. If nothing else, this experience helps him and Moana become true friends.

Maui is voiced by wrestler-turned-actor, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. I’m pretty sure the whole world knows who he is, but Johnson has starred in multiple movies and franchises since leaving his career in WWE, such as the Fast and Furious franchise from 2011 as the character Luke Hobbs, as well as Spencer in the new Jumanji movies. For Disney, Johnson made multiple guest appearances in Disney Channel series in the mid-2000s, such as Hannah Montana (2007), and starred in the movie Jungle Cruise (2021). Johnson also created, produced and starred in the partly-autobiographical television series Young Rock (2021-23). He is currently being praised for his performance as Mark Kerr in the biopic The Smashing Machine (2025), with potential that this role may lead to an Oscar nomination. Johnson was the only person Disney had in mind for the character of Maui, partly because, as Maui says so many things that could come across as narcissistic, they needed someone so lovable as a person that it wouldn’t matter what he was saying! Johnson was happy to voice the role as an opportunity to showcase his culture as he is Samoan[1].

Tala is probably the next most important character in the movie, as she is the one to guide Moana to her destiny. Tala and Moana have a very close relationship, partly because they are quite similar; both of them don’t follow the crowd and have their own opinions. Tala is known as “the village crazy lady”; she tells legends of the lands, and stories of their ancestors despite Chief Tui’s, her son, insistence that she stop as she scares the children – all except Moana, anyway. Moana wants to follow her love of the ocean, which she shares with Tala. Tala is both a fun figure and a caring one for Moana. She encourages Moana to be whatever she wants to be – and to take what her father tells her to do with a pinch of salt!

Tala is voiced by New Zealand actress and director Rachel House. She has starred in films such as Boy (2010) and White Lies (2013), as well as in TV series such as Heartbreak High (2022-present). For Disney and Pixar, House has performed the voice roles of Terry in Soul (2020) and Mama Binturong in The Lion Guard (2019), and reprised her role of Tala in the Māori-language version of Moana.

Then there are Moana’s parents, Tui and Sina. Tui is Chief of the village. He is overprotective, wanting Moana to keep out of the ocean so she will stay safe. He does it because he cares about her, though it is a bit awkward hearing him say “and no-one leaves”, within the song “Where You Are” because why shouldn’t someone leave the island if they want to? Sina is Moana’s mother, who feels a bit stuck in the middle of the two of them, as she wants to be supportive of both of them. Though Sina does not feature too much in the film, when we see her watching Moana pack up to leave, you almost think that she’s going to convince Moana to stay – but Sina does the opposite, and helps her pack everything she needs. Sina obviously knows that Moana is not happy on the island, and most follow her heart in doing what she thinks is right for her and them.

Tui is voiced by New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, who is currently playing the role of Tom Curry in the DC Extended Universe, and portrays and voices Boba Fett in Star Wars projects such as The Mandalorian (2020-23) and The Book of Boba Fett (2021-22). Tui’s singing voice is provided by Christopher Jackson, who originated the role of George Washington in the musical Hamilton (2015-16). Sina is voiced by singer and actress Nicole Scherzinger of The Pussycat Dolls fame. Scherzinger also reprised the role of Sina in the Hawaiian-language version of Moana. She was born in Hawaii.

Tamatoa is the shiny-thing loving coconut crab who resides within the Realm of Monsters. He loves to talk about himself and collects new items to store on his shell so he can be fabulous and beautiful. But don’t be fooled by his appearance, because he is still the villain of this piece. As well as being huge, he has no problems with attacking anyone who comes into his lair, and threatening to kill Moana is just one of those times, I’m sure!. New Zealand actor and comedian Jemaine Clement voices the role of Tamatoa. He is one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Concords, alongside Bret McKenzie, founded in 1998. They have released multiple albums and had a comedy series of the same name from 2007 to 2009. Clement has also starred in numerous films and TV series including as Boris the Animal in Men in Black 3 (2012) and as Dr. Ian Garvin in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Tamatoa has a small “End Credits” scene, where he is still lying on his back, asking the audience if they could help him, saying that if his name was Sebastian and he had a cool Jamaican accent, then we would, clearly referencing Sebastian from The Little Mermaid (1989), another famous Disney crab! Although a villain in Moana, Tamatoa is still incredibly funny as a villain, and he is very different to many other Disney villains

On to the non-speaking characters in Moana, the ocean is a character of its own in Moana; it can gesture, so we can tell what it is trying to communicate, and becomes a good friend to Moana, helping her on her journey in many ways. We also have Heihei and Pua, Moana’s animal sidekicks. Pua is Moana’s loyal pet pig, who, unfortunately, misses out on this great adventure, only appearing in the first part of the movie in Motunui, though he does get to go out on the canoe for Moana’s first voyage attempt, which does not end well! The lack of appearances by Pua was one of the biggest complaints that came out of Moana. In early stages of the movie, Pua was going to go out on the trip, but this was changed to him being left on the beach, partly for his own safety and so that Moana could be isolated without the comfort of him, so she’d have to stand on her own two feet[2]. But Moana still did have a pet sidekick to keep her company, Heihei. Heihei is a silly rooster, who stowed away on Moana’s voyage, and he does not enjoy being out on the water. Moana has to rescue him multiple times, as he keeps falling in the ocean. He’s not a smart rooster by any means, but he is the comedic relief of the movie. Heihei is “voiced” by Disney veteran and lucky charm, Alan Tudyk, who has had roles in every Disney movie release since Wreck-It Ralph (2012). Tudyk is the only member of the voice cast to not have any heritage within the Pacific islands. Originally, Heihei and Pua were going to be modelled after directors John Musker and Ron Clements, as they have “appeared” in many of the previous films they have directed for Disney, such as Aladdin (1992) and Hercules (1997). This was then changed after Pua was kept on the beach and when Heihei was made to be more stupid[3]! Instead, the two directors feature printed on a cloth (tapa) during the song “Where You Are”.

The final characters, or should that just be character, to mention is Te Kā and Te Fiti. Te Kā seems to be the main villain of the movie, the lava demon, but in actual fact Te Kā is just Te Fiti, wanting her heart back. It’s a surprise villain twist, I suppose, and one that I was surprised by when I first watched, though it does make sense! Of course, she’d be angry that someone stole her heart. But all is well in the end, with Te Fiti reversing all the damage that has been caused by the unfortunate event. She is a benevolent goddess, forgiving Maui quite quickly for all the problems he caused! I think she understands why he did it – to try and win further approval from the humans – so I’m sure that helped.  

PRODUCTION

The idea for Moana came about from a discussion with John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation at the time, who suggested that Clements and Musker make a film based in the Pacific Islands. The two directors were happy to look into this idea further and went on a three-week research trip with some other members of the team. They went to Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, as well as some of the smaller islands around those areas, before ending the trip in New Zealand. Whilst on this trip, they experienced many things, such as being taken out on a traditional canoe. Their guide, Angel, told them about the ocean not being a barrier to each other on the islands but something that connects them, showing how big a role the ocean plays in their culture. Angel told them to speak gently and calmly to the ocean. This was a driving force in ensuring that the ocean was a character within Moana.

Moana was originally not going to be the main character of the movie; Maui was going to be. They moved over to the idea fairly early on, with Moana (which means “ocean” in Polynesian) having dreams of being a navigator, since that was such an important part of the ancestry of the area. 3000 years ago, navigators migrated from Taiwan and moved eastward. They went to the islands of Fiji and Samoa, before the migrations suddenly stopped. 1,000 years later they suddenly began again, going eastward once more to areas such as New Zealand. This gap in the timeline, called “The Long Pause” was used as the setting of the film, with Moana being the driving force for the migrations happening again. For the act of navigation, the team at Disney learnt the correct hand positing, whilst also detailing the importance of star and cloud patterns, getting as much information as they could into the film.

Disney also learnt how spiritual music and singing, along with dancing, is to the people of the Pacific islands. They listened to the communities singing, especially in church, and how they interacted whilst doing so. They learnt about the origins of the Haka which is featured in a couple of scenes with Maui. Tattoos are a rite of passage in the area, taking days to complete, and being quite painful, but they are incredibly important to the culture. As Maui is covered in tattoos, they had to be respectful of the traditions of tattooing whilst also letting them show Maui’s life story in a way that was easy for the audience to understand.

Another important aspect to include was the respect for nature. It is a vital message in the Pacific islands that you do not own the land and that it must be nurtured. No materials are wasted, with the coconut tree being a great example of that, with uses such as food, drink, fire and building materials. This is detailed within the song and scene of “Where You Are”. Family is also of great importance in the movie, as the team at Disney saw how close the communities are, by sharing meals together, welcoming in others with such warmth, always being kind and sincere, telling stories and legends.

Through this research trip, Disney established the Oceanic Story Trust, where field experts and groups of individuals from the Pacific areas were brought in to discuss their local culture as research for the film. The locals felt respected and were glad to see that Disney cared enough about their culture to involve them multiple times, with changes even being made based on their input. For example, Maui was going to be bald, however the Oceanic Story Trust said that he has long hair and that it is part of his power, so the character was changed to have long, flowing hair. Another point was that after Moana argues with Chief Tui, she was going to smash coconuts out of anger, but it was quickly pointed out that no-one from that area would ever do that, so instead, she throws sticks into the sand.

The Disney team came back changed and wanted to ensure that the audience felt some of the things they had done, like being connected to nature and having a strong sense of community, whilst watching the movie. They also hoped that those of the area would see themselves in the movie and that they would see that it was done respectfully[4].

Many scenes were storyboarded and then deleted from the final release. One idea was that Moana was going to have six brothers, with her father not seeing that she could do just as much as they could, as well as having her already be a great navigator and sailor in Motunui. These were ultimately changed to make her an only child and to give her the opportunity to use this new adventure as a chance to learn navigation skills; it made her journey more interesting to have her overcome obstacles. Grandmother Tala and Chief Tui would also have featured more, discussing Moana’s future and what was right for her. A song was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and deleted, titled “Warrior Face”, which had some basis in the Haka, and would have had Maui teaching Moana how to look strong before they faced the Realm of Monsters. It was written whilst Miranda was performing Hamilton; the demo even used some of the cast of the musical such as Christopher Jackson (George Washington) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza)[5]. 

As there are no photo references from 3,000 years ago, when Moana is set, the team had to guess what kind of pieces may have been worn then when deciding on the costumes for the characters. They spent time looking at the fashions of the Polynesian and Pacific islands, coming up with concepts of different pieces, before putting them together to make full costumes. Moana had to wear something functional, not just pretty, as she spends much of the movie sailing. They found that tree bark was softened and made into textiles, so a top based on that methodology was used for Moana, with the skirts being made from dried material as well. Flowers were used to accessorise, especially in the case of Moana’s mother. The team ensured that time was taken in choosing these pieces, and that they were careful to treat the culture with respect, with meaning placed into every detail[6].

For specific elements in Moana, much time was taken with those of water, lava, and hair. For the water, they had to develop software to be able to have the ocean interact with Moana. This was called “Splash”. The scene of baby Moana interacting with the ocean was actually an internal demonstration for the system, but as it was such a great scene, the movie was rewritten to include it! Making the ocean a character took a lot of work but made a huge difference to the movie. For the lava of Te Kā, the character was created as a mannequin to get the basic shape, before the effects of smoke and lava were layered onto it. It was difficult recreating the natural phenomena correctly, to make Te Kā a living, imposing volcano, but they succeeded. Hair was another big, but fun, challenge for Disney. Hair had been an important part of other Disney characters such as Ariel and Pocahontas, but hair is harder to deal with correctly in CG than in 2D animation. To begin with, many of the characters are animated bald or with a stiff basic hair shape. An unwritten rule in animation is also for hair not to be touched, however, as Moana is a teenager, they wanted her to be realistically playing with her hair, as teenagers tend to do. A new hair system was developed to make the hair realistic and dynamic, whilst reacting to natural elements. This new technology helped with the underwater sequences too. Disney also relied on previous software that had been designed in-house for previous films, such as the fur tooling, developed for Zootopia (2016) and the Hyperion renderer from Big Hero 6 (2014).

Another animation complexity is that at times 2D is mixed with CGI. This is most obvious with Maui’s “mini-Maui” tattoo. Mini-Maui was animated by veteran Disney animator Eric Goldberg, who had animated the Genie in Aladdin (1992). Lots of the team wanted to help him with these scenes so they could work with him! Mini-Maui was meant to be like Jiminy Cricket but with more attitude, and had to move around Maui’s body to get him to notice and listen to him. The tattoos were designed to be as similar to the Pacific traditions as possible, whilst also detailing Maui’s backstory. The body was split into different areas, with sequences of Mini-Maui moving between them being created. At one point, Maui pokes Mini-Maui so a reaction had to be drawn there. Disney managed to integrate 2D and 3D animation unlike anything before in these scenes[7].

MUSIC

The music for Moana is probably my favourite part of the movie, as I like every song on the soundtrack which is quite rare for me, even in Disney movies! Disney went for a similar set-up to that of The Lion King (1994) with their song-writing team: they had another trio, with a veteran composer (Mark Mancina vs Hans Zimmer), the star song-writer (Lin-Manuel Miranda vs Elton John) and a song-writer from the real-world setting (Opetaia Foa’i vs Lebo M)[8]. Mark Mancina was brought in to compose the score, as well as help with the songs. He had composed the score for other Disney movies such as Tarzan (1999) and Brother Bear (2003), and arranged the music for The Lion King Broadway musical for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Lin-Manuel Miranda was not yet known for his Hamilton fame when he was brought on to the Moana project, though he was known on Broadway for his musical In the Heights (2005) at this time. He has gone on to work with Disney again, for Encanto (2021) and the live-action The Little Mermaid (2023). Samoan song-writer Opetaia Foa’i founded the group, Te Vaka in 1995, with the group having had much success over the years. The band also contributed to the Moana soundtrack. He was very happy to collaborate with Disney on this soundtrack as he had spent years promoting his culture through music anyway. Originally, the trio were unsure how they would work together, all having different tastes and ways of working, as well as coming from different musical backgrounds, however, on the New Zealand leg of the Moana research trip, the music came together for “We Know the Way”, with that being the first song to be written.

They soon followed that good start with the rest of the music, such as “Where You Are”, where they capitalised on their love of the Pacific cultures on their return from the areas. “How Far I’ll Go” pushed the musical story-telling further and Miranda loved how Cravalho’s beautiful singing pushed it further. Miranda stated his favourite song was “You’re Welcome”, which he wrote specifically for Dwayne Johnson, using inspiration from his wrestling days when he could say anything and still captivate people! For “Shiny”, Miranda has said that he was inspired by the music of David Bowie, making a real rock ‘n’ roll piece, full of exuberance and fun, but also menace.

The score is heavily based in percussion and vocals, to suit the style of traditional Pacific music. Mancina wanted the music to match the incredible action, whilst also feeling like the audience is on the sea, or part of the island community. For the vocals, Opetaia Foa’i and Iglese Ete with the Pacific Voices Choir helped to do the arrangements. It was a spiritual time for him and the vocalists when they recorded their tracks[9]. The soundtrack certainly succeeds in being memorable outside of the movie itself, including those not in the English language. I personally love the opening song “Tulou Tagaloa” and “Logo Te Pate”, but, like I said, I really like all the music, especially “I Am Moana”, which is a very powerful song set within a very emotional scene.

RECEPTION

Moana was originally planned to be released in 2018, however, it was bumped up by two years, being released in theatres in November 2016. In August 2015, at the D23 Expo, expo-goers were treated to some footage and models of the characters that they would be seeing in the movie the following year. They showed the clip of Moana being chosen by the ocean, as well as one of Maui explaining his tattoos to an unimpressed Moana and Pua. This second clip must have been cut in the year or 18 months between the preview and actual release, as the D23 expo mentioned that Pua came along for the ride, and we know that this was an idea that was ultimately changed. The original concept for Te Kā also looked incredibly monstrous, so I’m glad it was toned down a bit in the final cut[10]. Regardless of how much the movie changed between these two dates, there was a very positive reaction to what was shown at D23 in 2015 and no doubt helped promote the movie.

The movie was released alongside a typical Disney short, titled Inner Workings, directed and written by Leo Matsuda. He was inspired by his joint Japanese and Brazilian heritage, and the idea of two different sides fighting against each other, a more focused, risk-averse approach battling against the opportunity to be fun and carefree. This short is a similar idea to the now-defunct Epcot attraction Cranium Command, in that it follows the main character’s, Paul, primary organs and how they deal with a normal day. Paul in the end leaves his boring office to have fun during his lunch-break, coming back with a whole new outlook on life, even encouraging his office to have a dance party! When Moana was released on DVD and Blu-Ray, a new mini movie was added to the bonus features, titled Maui Mini Movie: Gone Fishing (2017). This short film shows Maui trying to fish in Moana’s home island of Motunui, after the events of the movie, with the ocean and Moana stopping him from being successful in his attempts[11]!

Moana did incredibly well both financially and critically, making around $680 million at the box office in total, with many reviews stating that Moana featured a good message of embracing your family and community, and that Moana was a great heroine. Many also liked the catchy soundtrack and the amazing visual imagery.

However, Moana did not avoid all criticism. From some in the Pacific community, they felt that Maui had been depicted in an insulting way, by him being represented as narcissistic as well as coming across as a bit of a buffoon. Some also did not think that the cultures of the Pacific were represented correctly or deeply enough. This is similar criticism to that received by Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), despite Disney’s desire and dedication to including the local communities in their ongoing production and development of the story and its characters. I do feel like some of this criticism is unfair. Disney also did have to pull a children’s costume for Maui which featured a brown body suit with all of Maui’s tattoos printed onto it. This was blasted for cultural misappropriation; yhat is a fair critique. Another fair critique is that the “Kakamora” are in reality a legendary, short-statured people of the Solomon Islands, and that by having them be cute but vicious coconuts in the movie was considered to be in very bad taste, though I’m sure it was unintentional[12]. Having said that, like Raya and the Last Dragon, Disney goes a long way in representing cultures that had previously been ignored or misrepresented.

Moana was nominated for numerous awards, such as Best Animated Film at the BAFTAs, the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Annie Awards, unfortunately losing out to Zootopia (2016), Disney Animation’s spring release of that year, in many cases. Having said that, Moana did win many other awards in other categories such as for Outstanding Achievement in Animated Effects and for Voice Acting for Auli’i Cravalho at the Annie Awards; a Grammy for Lin-Manuel Miranda for the song “How Far I’ll Go”, which was also nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes; and two Teen Choice Awards for Dwayne Johnson as Choice Fantasy Movie Actor and Auli’i Cravalho as Choice Breakout Movie Star. The Moana soundtrack as a whole won Top Soundtrack Album at the American Music Awards in 2017 and at the Billboard Music Awards in 2018. Moana continued its fame way beyond its 2016 release, and the 2017 award season, by becoming one of the Top 15 movies to be streamed in the US in 2022, as well as the soundtrack breaking the Billboard Soundtrack chart record for number of weeks spent at No. 1. The record was won in 2021, after 52 weeks at No.1.

LEGACY

Though Moana was only released in 2016, the movie has already made a big impact in the 2020s, probably due to those incredible viewing figures that continued way after the initial release. The biggest development, which was announced in April 2023, is a live-action Moana film. Dwayne Johnson recorded a message in Hawaii making the announcement, with him planning to return as Maui. Auli’i Cravalho has been named as one of the executive producers. Johnson is very grateful to be able to bring this story into a live-action setting as he is so proud of the story and how it features his culture. Thomas Kail, director of Hamilton, directed the film[13]. The song writing team of Mark Mancina and Lin-Manuel Miranda returned to work on the music for the remake. I already dislike live-action adaptations of Disney animated movies, so I am probably biased, but I don’t think this is necessary. It just seems way too soon after the movie’s initial release. This new Moana film will be released in July 2026.

Another announcement came in 2020, stating that a Disney+ series based on the film would be released in 2023. However, in February 2024, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that this Disney+ series would actually be re-worked into a full-length feature film. Moana 2 was released in November 2024 with Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson returning to voice Moana and Maui. Although it made over $1 billion at the box-office, it did receive mixed reviews.

Within the Disney theme parks, Moana started a full-time residency at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, on 22^nd April 2023, as part of the park’s 25th anniversary celebrations and as part of the Disney100. Also at Walt Disney World, but this time within Epcot, a whole new attraction opened on 16^th October 2023, called Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, which is a self-guided interactive outdoor trail where guests can play and interact with water, as well as learn about its importance and its playful personality, as Moana did. It features an impressively tall Te Fiti topiary, as well as numerous beautiful waterfalls and streams.

Further appearances by Moana within the Walt Disney World Resort include her own scene within the heroes’ montage of Fantasmic! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as well as music and scenes from the movie being part of the nighttime fireworks show Happily Ever After at the Magic Kingdom. Furthermore, the rooms within Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort were updated in July 2021 to be themed to Moana, though this is done tastefully via Moana-inspired artworks and themed patterns on carpets and furnishings. Also at the Polynesian Village Resort is a shop named Moana Mercantile. Moana even has her own float at the new nighttime parade, Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, which debuted at Magic Kingdom in July 2025.

Outside of the Walt Disney World Resort, Moana can be found at meet-and-greets, and within shows and parades. At Disneyland, although she does not currently have a dedicated meet-and-greet location and time, Moana may still appear in the park. Moana’s music and movie scenes do appear in the Wondrous Journeys and World of Color – ONE show, plus Moana has a float in the Magic Happens parade, but these shows are not always running, being replaced seasonally.

In Shanghai Disneyland, Moana is a part of the Mickey’s Storybook Adventure live theatre show, and she even has her own stage show at Hong Kong Disneyland called Moana: A Homecoming Celebration, along with a dedicated meet-and-greet location in Adventureland. A new restaurant also opened at Hong Kong Disneyland in September 2025, and resides within Adventureland. This is quick-service dining location, serving a menu featuring typical foods from Oceania, called Wayfinders’ Table. At Tokyo Disneyland, Moana is featured within the Believe! Sea of Dreams nighttime show at Tokyo DisneySea. After the Moana 2 celebratory Moana meet-and-greet ended at Disneyland Paris, she has not returned to meet guests, however, music and clips from the film do feature in the Disney Tales of Magic fireworks show there, and may be a fixture in a float during Disney Stars on Parade. Moana can sometimes be found meeting guests at Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii as well.

On the Disney Cruise Line, on the Disney Adventure ship, there is a bar inspired by Moana called the Wayfinder Bar, as well as an eatery called Gramma Tala’s Kitchen, featuring a menu of Pacific- and Asian-inspired menu items. The Broadway-style stage show Disney The Tale of Moana, recounting the film’s story, also debuted in December 2024 on the Disney Treasure cruise ship, consisting of live performances and impressive puppetry.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This shows just how quickly Moana, the movie and the character, have gained in popularity and proves the success of the movie. It is a great movie from Disney: the songs and music are amazing; the characters are lovable, funny, and relatable; the story is easy to follow, yet full of excitement and adventure, and, to top it off, it showcases cultures that have previously been misrepresented. It may not have been perfect but the good intentions are clear. Moana tells us to always follow what we believe is right, and that family and protecting our natural resources are two of the most important things in life.

Moana is a princess film with a difference, and clearly, I’m not the only one who believes it to be one of the best Disney animated films to have come out of the 2010s. Its reputation and following speaks for itself.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, “Voice of the Islands”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[2] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ’10 fun facts about Moana that will make you say ‘Wow, what a fun Moana fact’, Entertainment Weekly (online), 15^th June 2022.

[3] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ’10 fun facts about Moana that will make you say ‘Wow, what a fun Moana fact’, Entertainment Weekly (online), 15^th June 2022.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Voice of the Islands”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[5] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[6] Credit: Disney, “Island Fashion” from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray (2017).

[7] Credit: Disney, “The Elements Of…” from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[8] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ’10 fun facts about Moana that will make you say ‘Wow, what a fun Moana fact’, Entertainment Weekly (online), 15^th June 2022.

[9] Credit: Disney, “They Know the Way: Making the Music of Moana”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[10] Credit: Ethan Anderton, ‘Disney Animation’s ‘Moana’ Looks and Sounds Absolutely Gorgeous [D23 Expo 2015]’, SlashFilm.com, 14^th August 2015.

[11] Credit: Disney, “Inner Workings” and “Maui Mini Movie: Gone Fishing”, from Moana (2016) Blu-Ray Release (2017).

[12] Credit: Doug Herman, ‘How the Story of “Moana” and Maui Holds Up Against Cultural Truths’, Smithsonian Magazine (online), 2^nd December 2016.

[13] Credit: Disney, ‘Dwayne Johnson Reveals Plans for Live-Action Reimagining of Disney’s ‘Moana’, The Walt Disney Company (online). 3^rd April 2023.

[14] Credit: Chloe James, ‘”Who Wants This?” Fans Criticize Plans for ‘Moana’ Land at Disney World’, InsidetheMagic.net, 4^th April 2023.

[15] Credit: Emmanuel Detres, ‘Moana-Inspired EPCOT Attraction Revealed in New Video’, InsidetheMagic.net, 7^th April 2023.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Did you miss out on Raya and the Last Dragon when it was released? Did it pass you by?

I wouldn’t be surprised if you said yes, given that it was released during the COVID-19 pandemic! Raya and the Last Dragon was supposed to be released in November 2020, but it was delayed until March 2021. It was released in theatres at that time in some countries, including the US, as well as on Disney+ at an additional cost as part of the Disney+ Premier Access service. This was the second Disney movie to be released on that platform, after the live-action adaptation of Mulan in September 2020. Raya and the Last Dragon was then available free to the majority of Disney+ subscribers from June 2021.

I watched it for the first time shortly after this date, and I have now only watched it twice. I remember I liked the film the first time, and I liked it even more the second time, although I will admit it still is not a movie that I’ll watch many times in the future.

Raya and the Last Dragon is not a princess movie, despite the female main character, nor does it involve any songs. This is no longer uncommon for Disney; they have been moving away from their well-used formula of the Broadway-style fairy-tale for at least the last decade. Raya and the Last Dragon was generally well-received, however, as Disney’s other release of 2021, Encanto, made such a storm, Raya and the Last Dragon, unfortunately, seems to already have been forgotten, though I would hope that it will make a comeback of some sorts in the next few years.

PLOT

Raya and the Last Dragon begins with a young woman travelling through a desert on the back of a rolling bug. She recounts the story of her land, Kumandra, which five hundred years ago, was threatened by dark forces called Druun. The “last dragon”, Sisu, put all her energy into a single gem, which destroyed the Druun, reviving the land’s people who had been turned to stone by the Druun, however, the same does not happen to the dragons who shared the same fate. This magical gem was coveted by the five separate areas of Kumandra: Heart, Tail, Talon, Spine and Fang, with Heart gaining possession of the gem.

Then, we see a young girl, Raya, being taught how to be “The Guardian of the Dragon Gem”, protecting it from being stolen by others, by her father, the Heart Chief, Chief Benja. He believes that the five areas should become one again and start trusting each other. His first step to gaining peace is to invite the other four lands and their people to Heart. The people are suspicious of why Heart has summoned them there, but Raya breaks the ice by bonding with the daughter of Fang’s Chief, Namaari, over their shared love of dragons. Raya is given Namaari’s necklace of the dragon, Sisu, so in return, Raya takes Namaari to see the dragon gem, however, Raya is double-crossed, and Namaari alerts the Fang warriors to the gem. At the same time, everyone else fights over the gem, causing it to fall to the ground and smash, which releases the Druun again. Each land grabs a section of the gem and flees. Raya’s father is hurt in the fight, and sacrifices himself to the Druun to save Raya, by throwing her into the river, as Druun are repelled by water. She is alone.

Six years later, we return to the opening scene in the desert. The woman is Raya, and her rolling bug is her friend, Tuk Tuk, part pill-bug, part armadillo, part pug, apparently! Raya has travelled to the end of every river in Kumandra, as it is rumoured that Sisu, the last dragon, resides at the end of one of them. Raya’s final visit is a river in the desert land of Tail. She sets up a shrine and prays to Sisu, who reveals herself. Sisu is real after all! Raya asks Sisu to make another gem, but as Sisu didn’t create the gem, just “turned it in”, and her siblings created it, she cannot do it. The two set off, instead, to find the other pieces of the gem and reassemble them to thwart the Druun once more. As they retrieve the first piece from Tail, within a booby-trapped cave, Namaari and Fang’s warriors come to stop them, and figure out why Raya is stealing gem pieces. Raya, Sisu and Tuk Tuk get away and board a boat, run by Boun, a child, orphaned by the Druun’s curse. He has been operating a restaurant on this boat, but happily takes Raya and Sisu to Talon for extra money! Boun joins them on their quest.

At Talon, Raya goes to find the next piece of gem, but is conned by a baby, again, orphaned by the Druun, and her trio of ongis friends (monkey-like animals), who steal her gem pieces. Raya wastes time retrieving them but succeeds. She then “hires” the con artists to distract the Chief of Talon to get the next gem piece, but find he was turned to stone. The new Chief, Dang Hu, has captured Sisu, who has shape-shifted to a human to conceal her identity; the new Chief wants the gem pieces and won’t release Sisu until she tells her where they are. Raya comes in to save Sisu and steals away Talon’s piece at the same time; they are free to keep going on to Spine. At Spine, they meet a warrior, called Tong, who is the only remaining member of Spine. Raya and Sisu have fallen into a trap and been captured by him, but he seems more bothered about having the company than actually wanting to kill them for trespassing! When Fang’s warriors arrive to stop Raya again, Tong releases the next gem piece and is told to leave with the others while Raya distracts Namaari. As Namaari and Raya fight, Raya is quickly overwhelmed. Sisu regains her dragon form and goes in to the fight to save her. Namaari is stunned to see Sisu in real-life, with Sisu believing there is some good in her; Raya isn’t so sure. They both escape.

Sisu asks Raya to try to restore peace with Namaari by returning her dragon necklace to her. In return, Namaari surrenders the final gem piece, but then pulls out a crossbow, aiming it at Sisu, as her mother, Fang’s Chief, has asked her to steal the other gem pieces, as well as Sisu, so Fang can be the holder of the full and complete gem. Sisu pleads with Raya to let her talk with Namaari, as she believes Namaari does want to help. Raya then attacks Namaari with her sword, believing Namaari will shoot. Namaari does, but only out of surprise, with the crossbow hitting Sisu, killing her; Sisu falls into the water. Namaari runs back to Fang. With the last dragon gone, all the water of Kumandra, which had been protecting some from the force of the Druun, drains away, so the Druun can now attack fully again. Raya, overcome with anger and rage at Namaari for killing Sisu, goes to Namaari to challenge her to a final duel. The duel goes on as the Druun start attacking Fang’s land, with Tong, baby Noi, Boun, and the ongis helping Fang’s people escape. Namaari tells Raya that she is also to blame for Sisu’s death, for not trusting her. Raya relents, and goes to help the others with the evacuation of Fang, with Namaari following suit.

However, the Druun start to gain ground on the group, with them falling into a crack in the ground. They are surrounded. Raya then remembers what Sisu told her; that on the day the gem was forged by the last dragons, they created the gem with their powers before entrusting it to Sisu to stop the Druun. It was trust, not magic, that stopped the Druun. Raya hands over her piece of gem to Namaari and is soon turned to stone. Boun, then Noi, then Tong follow with Namaari left holding the five gem pieces, using them to fight back the Druun. She sees an opening above her and goes to escape, but sees the others as stone, and decides she must reassemble the gem. She quickly does, and joins the others to be petrified as well. When all looks lost, the gem’s magic awakens sending a powerful wave of energy throughout Kumandra, destroying the Druun once and for all.

A rainstorm begins, reviving all the people of Kumandra. We then see that, unlike five hundred years ago, the dragons are revived as well and return. They come together to revive Sisu, with the group reuniting with her, happy to be back together again. Boun, Noi and Tong return to their prospective areas of Tail, Talon, and Spine to be reunited with their family members, with Sisu and Raya returning to Heart to see her father again. Sisu tells Chief Benja how his daughter has unified Kumandra, with everyone from the other areas convening at Heart as evidence of this. Kumandra is finally united again.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Raya is at the heart of this story. Raya is still only a teenager, but has to go out on this extraordinary journey to not only save her father, but also her land. She is an incredibly brave, strong character, as we see in the opening sequence, where she is training to be “The Guardian of the Dragon Gem” – she has to navigate all these traps and then fight her father to prove she can do it, and she does, even though I think she’s only twelve-years-old at that point! Raya clearly has trust issues, because of the fact she was betrayed by someone who she thought was a friend, and because her father’s attempts at building trust with the other lands failed and led to the Druun returning to Kumandra. She is much happier going off alone, with just her pet Tuk Tuk as her only companion. However, as more and more people start joining her and Sisu on their journey, Raya learns that she has to start trusting others, because she can achieve so much more by doing that. Raya does learn to trust Boun, Noi and Tong, but when it comes to Namaari, that’s a different story. When Sisu is killed, because of Raya’s distrust and Namaari’s fear, it sends Raya into a rage; it looks like Raya has completely lost any hope of trusting Namaari, but, when push comes to shove, Raya knows trusting is the only way to save Kumandra, and by taking the first step, the rest of her group know that they can trust Namaari too, because they themselves trust Raya. This is where Raya’s journey comes full circle. Within Southeast Asian culture, there is a strong history of female leaders and warriors, with Raya embodying that spirit, including through her clothing which allows her to stay agile, and her hair which is braided to keep her sightline clear. Her name means “great” or “celebration” in some of the languages of Southeast Asia[1].

Raya is voiced by Kelly Marie Tran, who is best known for playing the role of Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). As I haven’t watched the new Star Wars films, I can only assume she’s good in them! Tran does a brilliant job with the character of Raya, as she brings strength, vulnerability, and humour to the character, to make Raya well-rounded and relatable. Tran actually ad-libbed the prayer that Raya speaks when she is trying to summon Sisu. It was incredibly touching and proved to the Disney team that Tran was perfect for the role[2]. Tuk Tuk is “voiced” by Alan Tudyk, but, much like his performance as Hei Hei in Moana (2016), it is a non-speaking role, but, hey, it’s Alan Tudyk – you’ve got to find a part for him in every Disney movie, right?

Looking at Raya’s nemesis, Namaari, she is a victim of her own upbringing, I think. Though Namaari’s mother, Virana, does have a lot of belief in Namaari and clearly brought up her to be confident and self-sufficient, Virana is not particularly maternal. She is quite strict and sure of her own mind, making her a good leader and Chief for Fang, but not a brilliant mother-figure! She has taught Namaari to put the tribe above everything else, even if that means betraying those who are kind to you. This is where Namaari’s problems stem, in that she feels torn between what is good for Fang, and what she actually believes is right. You can see that when Namaari first looks at Sisu, that she goes back to being that little girl who just liked dragons, and that she isn’t an emotionless warrior. Sisu is correct that Namaari would rather have peace in Kumandra than have the endless fighting; she’s just scared. Namaari does assemble the dragon gem again and ultimately saves Kumandra; she just needed Raya to take the first step to show that it is ok to trust, and that it was what they had to do to save everyone else.

Namaari is voiced by English actor, Gemma Chan, who has been known in the UK for some time from her roles in television such as Fresh Meat (2011) and Humans (2014-15), but has gained more recognition for her roles in movies such as Astrid Leong-Teo in Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel (2019). Virana is voiced by Sandra Oh, who is most well-known for starring as Eve Polastri in Killing Eve (2018-22), as well as Cristina Yang in Grey’s Anatomy (2005-14). For Disney, she played the role of the Vice Principal in The Princess Diaries (2001), as well as voiced the part of Ting Ting, the eldest of the emperor’s daughters, in Mulan II (2004).

To get the relationship right between the characters of Raya and Namaari, the team at Disney wanted to look at examples within mainstream films of two female characters being the central relationship of the movie, but they found there weren’t many references that they could use during their early concept work! Frozen (2013) partly does this, though the sisters of Anna and Elsa are separated from each other for most of the movie. They did find that Marvel films contain many strong female action hero types but that, generally, only one appears on screen at any one time, and they also don’t tend to be warm, flawed or funny. Raya and Namaari had to be more than just warrior princesses, so the team looked at their own relationships and looked at the differing backgrounds of the two girls, to see how they were raised to be enemies[3].

Sisu is the other main female character of the film. She is the last dragon of Kumandra, famed for being the saviour of Kumandra from the Druun and lauded as a great legend in the area. Based on the stories, Sisu would seem to be a wise, strait-laced dragon, so imagine Raya’s surprise, when Sisu turns out to be funny, self-deprecating, and kind of accident-prone, barrelling into situations without thinking anything through, and being led by blind faith. Having said that, Sisu is just unsure how to be a dragon within the human world, with Raya trying to make her act like a human for the first half of the movie. Sisu is much happier just being a dragon! Sisu doesn’t think much of herself, saying that her only power is swimming well and that it is her siblings who had all the great power, not her, yet they trusted her to be the one to use the gem to defeat the Druun so she clearly just doesn’t have much confidence! When Sisu dies, a great dragon is lost, and the land of Kumandra knows it, as it drains away all the water. She is revived by her siblings as Sisu is needed in the world, proving that she is a great dragon. Raya learns a lot from Sisu, including how to trust others again, giving her the information she needed to reunite Kumandra.

Sisu is voiced by comedic actor and rapper, Awkwafina, best known for her roles in movies such as Ocean’s 8 (2018), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). Awkwafina also starred as Katy in the Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and voiced the role of Scuttle in the Disney live-action remake of The Little Mermaid (2023). Awkwafina won the award for “Best Voice Performance” for Sisu at the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards in 2021.

For Raya’s “crew”, Boun is the first to join. He is just ten-years-old when his family is petrified by the Druun, leaving him all alone. He knows he has to stand on his own two feet now, which is why he sets about starting a restaurant on his boat called “The Shrimporium”. In a deleted scene, Boun was going to originally run a “Mister Fix-It”-type shop, with him fixing Tuk Tuk’s broken shell[4]. He is a good chef, with the rest of the group very much enjoying his food, and he is more than capable in drumming up business with his cheeky persona. You can see that there is still vulnerability there, though, as he misses his family and wants to be reunited with them again, but isn’t sure when or if it will happen, but Boun knows he can’t spend time dwelling on that and has to get on, whether that’s running his business or helping Raya. Boun is voiced by Izaac Wang, whose first film role was in Good Boys (2019), a comedy produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, so you can imagine what kind of film that is! It’s on my list to watch soon.

Tong, the Spine warrior, is very isolated in Spine, being the last survivor to have escaped the Druun. He looks ruthless, but he is a gentle giant really. It’s clear he has no intention of harming Raya and Sisu when they are caught in one of his traps and would rather just talk to them! He also bonds with Little Noi, probably because, as we learn at the end of the movie, he seems to have a child about the same age as Noi, who was petrified along with the rest of his family. Little Noi is very cute and funny, but we can’t forget that she is first and foremost a con baby! She comes in handy for Raya along with her ongis friends, who are also very cute. They make a strange little con group, but it works for them, and much like Boun, they had to become self-sufficient after the Druun claimed their family, so you can’t blame them. Tong is voiced by actor Benedict Wong, who now plays the role of Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who first appeared in Doctor Strange (2016). Noi is voiced by Thalia Tran, who is due to play Mai in the upcoming live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender for Netflix.

Another actor with a part in Raya and the Last Dragon as well as Avatar: The Last Airbender is Daniel Dae Kim, who voices Chief Benja. Chief Benja is the Chief of Heart and Raya’s father. He wants peace and raises Raya to believe that Kumandra can be united once more. Benja is supportive of his daughter, setting her on the right path of ultimately stopping the fighting and tension between the other four lands. Chief Benja unfortunately is petrified for most of the movie, but it is clear the strong bond him and Raya have. Daniel Dae Kim starred as Jin-Soo Kwon in the TV series Lost (2004-10), as well as Chin Ho Kelly in Hawaii Five-O (2010-17). I know him for playing Jack Kang, leader of Candor, in Insurgent (2015) and Allegiant (2016), the second and third movies of The Divergent Series. I’m still bitter that the final movie was never released, and the series was unfinished.

PRODUCTION

Kumandra consists of five different areas: Heart, Tail, Talon, Spine, and Fang. As Chief Benja states, they are all named after body parts, based on where each land is located along the dragon-shaped river. Chief Benja uses this as evidence to prove that the lands should be reunited once more. Each area has a different landscape. Heart is a lush, green landscape, with a jungle setting; Tail is mostly desert; Talon is based on floating markets of areas like the Philippines; Spine is situated in a cold bamboo forest; and Fang is based within a temple on a series of canals.

Kumandra is a unique, amazing world with the movie only exploring a fraction of the area. The idea of Kumandra is rooted in Asian legends, much like stories such as Game of Thrones are based in Arthurian legend. The team joked that there are perhaps more scenes of characters eating than fighting as this is a big part of South Asian culture which they wanted to include in the movie[5].

To get the feel of Southeast Asia correct, and to be respectful to the eleven countries that make up this region, Disney collaborated with many experts, who had on-going conversations with each other throughout production on the movie, with the organisation being named the “Southeast Asia Story Trust”. It consisted of linguists, choreographers, musicians, architects, martial artists, and cultural experts. This was to ensure that aspects of Southeast Asian culture were represented accurately within the movie. The team at Disney also went on a research trip to Southeast Asia, before the pandemic hit, to see things in person, where they learnt about history, architecture, art, story and traditions, whilst meeting people in person and getting their perspectives and views, and insight into the culture. Sisu, for example, was inspired by Nagas, which are water creatures that honour the elements[6].

The use of martial arts is quite frequent in Raya and the Last Dragon, with different types of martial arts being represented. For example, Benja and Raya’s fighting is based on Pencak silat, an Indonesian martial art, along with the use of Arnis weaponry from the Philippines. Their fighting skills are more balletic with low stances, whereas Namaari’s fighting is based in Muay Thai, also known as Thai boxing, with strong and powerful punches and kicks. She also has two Krabi-Krabong swords, which are used in Thailand as well. Chief Benja has a spiritual blade, with its ability to expand being added as a fantasy element. This sword is passed from generation to generation, being similar to Excalibur in Arthurian legend[7]. Raya then receives this sword from her father, however, in early concepts for the movie, Raya was going to have made a sword herself, made specifically to defeat the Druun, which were going to be physical skeletal-like beings, not the dark energy that they became. Her sword would’ve been legendary across Kumandra, dubbed “the dragon blade”[8].

In terms of software used to animate Raya and the Last Dragon, the team had a bit of help from some previously in-house designed software such as the renderer Hyperion, developed for large-scale scenes in Big Hero 6 (2014), as well as the fur simulation tools used in Zootopia (2016), and the water tools in Moana (2016). These helped showcase the world of Kumandra, and develop the diverse landscapes and characters[9].

The initial idea for the movie came from discussions that some of the team had around what the world their children are growing up in looks like now, as divisions between political and social ideas have become more prominent, with “black and white thinking” taking place over a more inclusive discourse. They wanted to have the concept of a world that was shattered and fractured and have it be brought back together.  Disney were excited to look at a completely new location for their movie, Southeast Asia, which had not been the focus of a Disney movie before. Some of the team grew up in America with Asian heritage, and did not see any representation of themselves on screen; they didn’t want this to be the case for their kids.

The majority of production on Raya and the Last Dragon, almost 100% of it, took place during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Disney had spent time developing the original story in-house beforehand; they had written the script and gone over the storyboarding, but then all of a sudden, everyone working at the Disney Studios offices were told to go home. No-one was sure how this would work, as the collaborative atmosphere of film-making is much more suited to an office atmosphere than the working-from-home setup. The employees received an email one day saying that they needed to take everything they required to work remotely as it would be their last day in the office for a while. Nobody thought it would be longer than about three weeks; they were wrong. The lockdown in California, where the Disney Studios are based, officially lasted from March 2020 until June 2021, with California being one of the last US states to “open up” again.

The first challenge for the Disney workers was for their systems to deal with having more people logged on at the same time, so the bandwidth had to be increased in some cases. The team had to make new workstations for themselves, ensuring they could access all the systems they needed, and trying to get their Wi-Fi to work properly! Video conferencing was another difficulty due to potential freezes and audio-synchronisation issues; it is vital that every frame is viewed within a movie as one second of footage that is not exact can ruin the whole thing. Within a week though, the team were up and running.

Collaboration is key in Disney Animation so working remotely was a concern for creativity and morale. Sometimes new and exciting ideas would happen randomly, in passing in the office, not at set meetings, which became the norm during the pandemic. Now, people were in meetings with around 90-100 people, sitting in front of their computers all day, on Zoom for hours on end, and not seeing anyone from work face-to-face. They soon realised that this was going to be exhausting and make the work harder and less enjoyable, so things like “virtual happy hours” were implemented to keep that sense of community. They also recreated their usual in-office celebrations for milestones and team efforts online instead, as well as having other fun activities. As anyone who has worked remotely will know, you can encounter terrible Internet connection; weird noises from outside spoiling your Zoom calls; as well as random appearances of family members or pets! Luckily, the team were not bothered by this and enjoyed the strange distractions, recounting them as memories of the production process.

The creative team were not the only ones to have to work remotely; the voice actors had to do the same thing, by setting up their own at-home recording studio to record their lines. Disney sent them some equipment along with tips on sound-proofing their rooms. Some of them ended up in closets, and Awkwafina received a sound tent which took up the majority of her living room. Her cat would wander in occasionally during recording sessions!

The pandemic brought the Disney team together, as they rallied quickly and figured out a way to make this movie at home with the same motivation and creativity that they would normally have felt in the office. They wanted to make a great movie, but also help everyone else through this difficult time. The team couldn’t help noticing the similar themes between the pandemic and the messages of Raya and the Last Dragon. The movie is all about trusting others and working together for the greater good, with the Druun being the dark virus that sweeps the land quickly and unapologetically. This was quite reminiscent of the spirit of the scary times of lockdowns where no-one was really sure what was going to happen next, but had to build themselves and others up to deal with it. Though the team working on Raya and the Last Dragon overcame the obstacles of working remotely for an extended period of time to make the movie, they all admitted that they missed working in the office and were desperate to get back there to connect with everyone again[10].

MUSIC

The score for Raya and the Last Dragon was composed by James Newton Howard, who had not composed a score for an animated film since 2002 with Disney’s Treasure Planet; he also scored Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Dinosaur (2000) for Disney Animation. The longest piece of music within Raya and the Last Dragon is the five-minute opening prologue, which incorporates South Asian instruments as well as chanting, setting the adventurous tone of the movie. The whole score is generally inspired by the region of South Asia, without being specifically based in any one country. My favourite pieces are “Prologue”; “Running on Raindrops”, where Sisu is running on the rain; “The Druun Close In”, which is the scene of Raya and the others surrendering their gem pieces to Namaari to defeat the Druun – it’s a powerful scene, and my favourite, but the instrumental is understated and doesn’t take away from the action; and “Return”, which is the sequence where the group return to their respective lands to reunite with family. I like the score for Raya and the Last Dragon, much like I do the other three scores that James Newton Howard composed for Disney. James Newton Howard’s score was nominated for six awards, winning four, including “Theatrical Film” at the 2021 BMI Film & TV Awards, along with “Film Composer of the Year” and “Best Original Score for an Animated Film” at the 2022 International Film Music Critics Association Awards.

The only song in the movie is called “Lead the Way”, written and performed by singer Jhené Aiko. It is played within the End Credits. I like this song as it is a calm pop song, not loud and in-your-face, to match the overall tone of the movie, so that the message and powerful ending can stick with you after the movie is over; it doesn’t distract.

RECEPTION

As previously mentioned, Raya and the Last Dragon was released in some theatres in March 2021 along with the short Us Again, which features an elderly couple learning to dance and love life again after a rainstorm turns them back to their younger selves. Us Again was the first Disney short to be produced since Inner Workings in 2016, and was directed by Zach Parrish who had previously worked on Big Hero 6 (2014).

Many critical reviews of Raya and the Last Dragon were positive, praising the thought-provoking story and brilliantly detailed animation. They were also impressed with the strong characters and the voice work, but did admit that it would likely receive less attention as it was not released in theatres everywhere[11]. Others liked the movie, but could not help mentioning that the voice cast consists of more East Asians than Southeast Asians, which was disappointing to some as it was seen to have ignored the whole region that influenced Raya and the Last Dragon. It was also criticised for using an approach that blended the different cultures of Southeast Asia instead of focusing on specific ones. I understand why this would be disappointing, and where I cannot comment on the voice cast, apart from to say that Disney like to use well-known names for many of their movies to increase their marketing potential, I can say that the likely reason that Disney decided to use influences from many Southeast Asian countries, instead of basing it on one specific area, was to avoid criticisms around why they would have chosen that country and not others, as well as wanting to be more inclusive in their choices whilst not being constrained to a specific area. They probably thought it would be a better approach, which appears to have backfired, but as Disney push for diversity, they open themselves up to criticism and scrutiny. A similar critique came about from the release of Moana (2016)[12]. As so many people of Southeast Asian origin were involved in the making of Raya and the Last Dragon, it is clear that no offence was meant and every effort would have been taken to avoid this reaction.

Yet, Raya will always be Disney’s first Southeast Asian princess, being officially inducted into the Disney Princess clan in August 2022 and named as the 13^th Disney Princess. Kelly Marie Tran became the first Southeast Asian actor to lead an animated Disney feature. The movie was co-written by Vietnamese-American screenwriter Qui Nguyen and Malaysian screenwriter Adele Lim, who co-wrote Crazy Rich Asians (2018), and Thai-American Fawn Veerasunthorn was Head of Story on the movie. Adele Lim did state that Raya and the Last Dragon cannot fix everything around representation on screen, but can make a step forward and it can begin to make amends for the historic damage[13].

Unfortunately, though Raya and the Last Dragon was nominated in the “Best Animated Film” category at many award ceremonies including the Academy Awards, Annie Awards, and Golden Globes in 2022, it did not win, losing out to Disney’s other movie of that year, Encanto (2021), for the most part. What can I say, Encanto was just one of those smash hits, almost rivalling the whole Frozen phenomenon! Raya and the Last Dragon did, however, win awards for the soundtrack, as mentioned, as well as for “Sound Editing” at the Golden Reel Awards and “Outstanding Effects Simulations” at the Visual Effects Society Awards.

LEGACY

When Raya and the Last Dragon was first released, Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida did promote the movie in the park in March 2021. A sand sculpture of the movie’s title and some of the characters was built outside of the Flame Tree BBQ restaurant and some limited time snacks were available, like a chocolate mousse that resembled Tuk Tuk, and a blue ice cream cone in honour of Sisu. Baby Tuk Tuk, who is so adorable, was also featured as part of the Animation Experience at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, where you can learn to draw certain Disney characters[14]. It would seem Baby Tuk Tuk is not still included in the rotation.

In November 2022, Raya did make her debut at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom atop the float in the Disney Adventure Friends Cavalcade[15]. Raya still remains in this cavalcade walking down the parade route. Raya began meeting guests at Shanghai from September 2021, and at Disney’s California Adventure in January 2022 as part of their Lunar New Year celebrations. Raya has returned to Disneyland for the Lunar New Year celebrations, and has done the same for Chinese New Year in both Shanghai and Hong Kong in recent years. At Walt Disney World Resort, specifically in Magic Kingdom at Adventureland, Raya did meet guests over Summer 2025 as part of their “Cool Kid Summer” event. It would seem that merchandise relating to Raya and the Last Dragon is going to be found less easily throughout the parks. Raya also appeared at Disneyland Paris for World Princess Week in August 2025, as she is an official Disney Princess.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is particularly unlucky that Raya and the Last Dragon was released during the pandemic, with countries releasing the movie on different platforms, which would not have helped its box-office positioning and current reputation. By the time Encanto was released towards the end of 2021, the world was starting to come out of lockdowns, but with Raya and the Last Dragon, some countries, including the UK, were still in lockdown, with cinemas not open, so we had no choice but to watch it on Disney+, or let it be forgotten.

Raya and the Last Dragon has strong characters, a powerful message, and an adventure at the heart of it. I’m hoping in a small way to draw some more attention to Raya and the Last Dragon with this piece, and that I can encourage more people to watch it, because it is a great movie worthy of praise.

And if you don’t believe me, well, as Raya learnt to trust others, you’re just going to have to trust me.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Nicole Clark, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon: Creating Disney’s First Southeast Asian-Centered Movie’, IGN.com, 4^th February 2021.

[2] Credit: Disney, “Taste of Raya”, from Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).

[3] Credit: Petrana Radulovic, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’s creators struggled to find past films about female friendship’, Polygon.com, 17^th May 2021.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes – Meet Boun”, from Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).

[5] Credit: Disney, “Taste of Raya”, from Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).

[6] Credit: Disney, “Creating Kumandra”, from Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).

[7] Credit: Disney, “Martial Artists”, from Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).

[8] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).

[9] Credit: Disney, ‘Making History While Making ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’, The Walt Disney Company (online), 5^th March 2021.

[10] Credit: Disney, “Raya: Bringing It Home”, from Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).

[11] Credit: Brian Tallerico, ‘Review: Raya and the Last Dragon’, RogerEbert.com, 5^th March 2021.

[12] Credit: Aja Romano, ‘Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon is a sumptuous fantasy – but it makes a mess of Southeast Asian culture’, Vox.com, 5^th March 2021.

[13] Credit: Kat Moon, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon Introduces Disney’s First Southeast Asian Princess. Advocates Say Hollywood Representation Shouldn’t Stop There’, Time (online), 5^th March 2021.

[14] Credit: Seth Kubersky, ‘New Animal Kingdom Experiences Celebrate Raya and the Last Dragon’, The Unofficial Guide (online), 22^nd March 2021.

[15] Credit: Justin Giglio, ‘Raya from ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Makes Walt Disney World Debut in the Disney Adventure Friends Cavalcade’, WDWNT.com, 14^th November 2022.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Disney had only made two other theatrically-released animated sequels before Ralph Breaks the Internet in 2018: Fantasia 2000 (1999) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990).

Sequels aren’t something Disney tend to consider, at least not ones that aren’t released direct-to-video as many were in the 1990s and early 2000s. Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, the directors of Ralph Breaks the Internet weren’t even going to make a sequel, after Wreck-It Ralph (2012). Not unless they could find a good enough reason, and a good enough story, to do it.

After some consideration, Moore and Johnston decided that Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship was not finished being explored, especially as Ralph’s final words in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) show that he only doesn’t consider himself to be a bad guy because Vanellope calls him a friend[1]. This paved the way for an opportunity to bring conflict into this relationship, and for each of the two to learn just how friendships can, and do, change.

I watched Ralph Breaks the Internet at the cinema, and was much more interested in watching it than when I first saw Wreck-It Ralph, probably because I already knew the characters and it is based in the Internet, something that the majority of people know plenty about. I thought the whole movie was clever, much like the first movie, because it looked behind-the-scenes of the online world, and came up with concepts for how the people inside the Internet, like Vanellope and Ralph, would see a typical real-world user, and what the users would be seeing.

Though I like the overall concept and feel that this movie delves deeper into emotions and relationships, I do not like it as much as the original Wreck-It Ralph movie. It’s possibly because I have a love-hate relationship with the online world. It doesn’t boil down to much, other than I don’t care for social media, and I don’t want to stare at my phone all day.

PLOT

Ralph Breaks the Internet picks up six years after the events of the first movie. Vanellope and Ralph are still best friends, but Vanellope has become bored with her life and Sugar Rush. One day, a new “game” called “WIFI”, gets plugged in. Surge, the Security Guard, warns all the arcade characters not to enter with Sonic the Hedgehog explaining the basics of Wi-Fi to the others. Vanellope wants to go in, but Ralph doesn’t, and as he knows Vanellope is feeling bored, he decides to build her a new section of track in Sugar Rush. Whilst Vanellope is about to finish a race for an arcade-goer, she spots this new track and goes over to do it, much to the confusion of the real-world player, who tries to move the game’s steering wheel, but it comes off in the process and Vanellope crashes. The arcade-goers tell Litwak about the wheel, but as Litwak tries to force it back onto the console, it breaks in half. The kids find a new steering wheel on eBay – but it’s $200; Litwak can’t afford that. He unplugs the game, but luckily the characters have been watching from the screen, so manage to evacuate to Game Central Station, but they are now all game less.

Many of the Sugar Rush characters find new homes, including all fifteen racers who are adopted by Calhoun and Felix in a surprising move! Ralph is excited to get to spend more time with Vanellope, but Vanellope becomes depressed at not having a purpose without her game. Ralph expects to meet her at Tapper’s later, but she doesn’t come. Felix does though, stressed at having suddenly become a father of fifteen in the last few minutes! He makes a strange noise like “eee-oh boy”, which reminds Ralph of “eboy”, that site the kids were talking about that has the spare part for Sugar Rush. He thinks that if they can get the wheel, then Sugar Rush will be fixed and Vanellope won’t be sad anymore. They both head in to “WIFI”, like they would any other arcade game, but find a boring grey space and nothing else. When Litwak logs on to his Wi-Fi, suddenly the space illuminates in green and a mini Mr. Litwak, his avatar, appears and he goes into a tunnel. Vanellope excitedly follows, and Ralph reluctantly chases after her. They see a huge metropolis, full of skyscrapers, futuristic vehicles, and shiny surfaces.

Not knowing where to go in this Internet world, they meet KnowsMore first, the search engine, who finds their Sugar Rush steering wheel, sending them off to eBay. There, they find many users bidding on items. Vanellope and Ralph figure that all they need to do is come up with a number higher than the other person competing for the part. Instead of jumping up by normal auction amounts like in jumps of $10-$25, the duo just shouts random numbers, so the price rockets from $250 to $1000 to $27,001 – the amount Vanellope and Ralph win it for. But as they head to the cashier, they don’t realise that they need to pay with actual money, which they obviously don’t have. The cashier says they have 24 hours to settle the amount, or they will lose the steering wheel. Vanellope and Ralph encounter a pop-up, called J. P. Spamley, who sends them to his office to learn how to make money from video games. He gives them an assignment to get Shank’s car from the game Slaughter Race. If they can get it, they’ll be paid $40,000 – plenty to cover the cost of the Sugar Rush part. The two head in to Slaughter Race, to find a dirty, rundown city setting. They eventually find Shank’s car in a warehouse. Ralph wants to turn back and forget this whole assignment, after seeing Shank and her crew, but Vanellope comes up with a plan: she will steal the car and Ralph will distract them, pretending to be from the Department of Noise. It works, and Vanellope drives the car off, picking up Ralph on the way out of the game. They come close but Vanellope gets distracted and has to stop to avoid crashing into a bus; the crew surround her and the two are stopped. But though Shank won’t give them her car just to get this part, she is impressed with Vanellope as a racer and comes up with a new idea. She takes a video of Ralph having a leaf-blower shoved in his face and puts it on BuzzzTube, before sending them to meet Yesss, the Head Algorithm who will help them make some money.

With only eight hours to pay eBay for the wheel, Ralph and Vanellope quickly head over to BuzzzTube, where Yesss tells them both that if they can put up enough videos and get enough hearts, those will be converted into real-life money. Ralph starts making videos of just about every trend that we all see on YouTube: make-up tutorials, unboxings, the chilli challenge, screaming goats, that sort of thing. Yesss sends out a whole pop-up army to help the two get enough hearts, with Vanellope wanting to help. Though Ralph doesn’t want to be apart from her, she goes to Oh My Disney to be a pop-up. She does well, but is soon chased away by Storm Troopers for being “unauthorised clickbait”. She takes refuge in a room, and finds she is surrounded by all the Disney Princesses, who don’t like this intruder, until Vanellope assures them she is a princess too, though she doesn’t quite fit into their criteria as she hasn’t been poisoned, imprisoned, enslaved or cursed. The Princesses, after making lounge wear like Vanellope is wearing so they can get out of those restrictive, tight dresses, tell Vanellope that if she wants to figure out her dream, she needs to find “important water” and she’ll start singing, as Vanellope has realised she doesn’t just want this steering wheel.

With thirty minutes left to pay, Ralph can’t get his final video to upload, so goes out on to the BuzzzTube floor to get some more hearts from the users stood there. He succeeds, but also looks at the Comments Section, which has a mixture of positive and negative comments about him. Ralph is visibly upset, but carries on, and though he now has enough hearts, he knows the only important heart is the hero’s medal Vanellope gave him in the first movie. Yesss tells him never to read the comments but also that they now have over $30,000 so Ralph gets over to eBay to pay for the item, calling Vanellope to meet him. Vanellope is sad about going home, and while staring into a puddle, she starts to sing about her love for Slaughter Race, and how she wants to stay there as it feels like home. Vanellope explains how she feels to Shank, but accidentally dials Ralph, who overhears that Vanellope plans to stay in Slaughter Race.

Ralph is upset and sees Spamley again. He asks him if there is anything he can do to cause Slaughter Race to slow down, so Vanellope won’t find it fun anymore. Spamley takes Ralph to Double Dan, within the “dark web”. He gives Ralph a virus, which will find any insecurities in Slaughter Race and multiply them; Dan also tells Ralph that the virus must stay within that game. Ralph sets the virus lose, with the virus multiplying Vanellope’s “glitch” across the game. Shank tells her to get out as the game is about to reboot and as she is not part of the game, she will be deleted. Ralph helps get her out, and Vanellope is upset to have damaged her game, thinking it’s all her fault. Ralph tells her that he is to blame for putting the virus in. Vanellope is furious, feeling betrayed by Ralph, saying she never wants to see him again. She throws his medal down to the bottom of the web. At the same time, the virus has escaped the Slaughter Race game and witnessed this spectacle. The virus multiplies Ralph’s emotional insecurities, making a whole army of needy Ralphs who chase after Vanellope as Ralph is retrieving his medal; the medal has broken in half.

Vanellope sees one of the needy Ralphs and tells him to go away, as she thinks it’s real Ralph. Soon, many Ralphs chase after her, with real Ralph coming to save her. Yesss also comes to the rescue, telling them they need to lead the clones to the Anti-Virus gates to be deleted. This seems to go well, until the Ralphs hit Yesss’s cruiser and it crashes. The Ralphs then create a big Godzilla-King Kong-like monster. Real Ralph tries to stop it by punching it, but it doesn’t work and he is caught. As Real Ralph is about to be crushed to death, Vanellope surrenders herself to the monster, so that it will release Ralph, promising to stay with it for ever. Ralph is horrified, and tells the Ralph monster that it can’t treat its friends like this and that it needs to let Vanellope go for her to be happy; something Ralph is also learning for himself. The Ralph clones are healed and are deleted. As Ralph was still in its hand though, he falls down, looking like he will hit the bottom and die. Until the Disney Princesses swoop in to save “a big, strong man in need of rescuing”! Ralph is safe, and urges Vanellope to start her new life in Slaughter Race, where Shank has now added her to the game’s code. The two have a tearful goodbye, but they both know it’s for the best.

The movie ends with Ralph now having a healthier life with more purpose, like joining a book club, and having a Friday night meet-up at a different arcade game every week. Sugar Rush has also been saved, with those characters having homes again, although it turns out Felix and Calhoun have been very good parents and managed to sort out the Sugar Rush racers’ ego problems, so they are much nicer! Ralph and Vanellope still call each other often, with Vanellope coming to visit Ralph soon during a scheduled upgrade at her game. The two are both moving forward in their lives, but have remained good friends.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Ralph ends Wreck-It Ralph by saying that he is happy being who he is because Vanellope is his friend so he can’t be such a bad guy. That sounds like a nice idea; however, the directors went back to that ending and found that actually Ralph shouldn’t be basing his self-worth on how his friend sees him. This has led to an unhealthy friendship where Ralph has become quite clingy, needing constant reassurance from Vanellope that he is good enough and that they are still friends. Ralph becomes jealous of Vanellope’s friendship with Shank and annoyed that she would even think about leaving him. The team at Disney didn’t want to put a surprise villain into this movie, so they made Ralph the actual villain this time, as well as being the protagonist. The army of clones weren’t a big enough metaphor of danger, so looking at fire ants, they came up with the idea of the clones bunching up together to form a bigger entity, which is how ‘Ralphzilla’ was made. It was Ralph’s insecure emotions being personified as a monster. This idea came in quite late into production so it was a big hurdle for the animators to overcome to get the monster looking just right, but they managed to do it successfully, and made a monster that was both scary for his huge presence, and pathetic for his emotional response! It is great that Ralph finally sees the error of his ways, and tells ‘Ralphzilla’ that he has to stop threatening Vanellope and making her choose between him and what she wants in life; he has to let her go and know that their friendship will survive. It’s a touching moment.

Vanellope starts off the movie wanting to find some adventure in her life as she has become bored with her life in Sugar Rush, having found every bonus level and won every race; she wants something new. Vanellope is excited by this inclusion of “WIFI” to the arcade. Once her game is unplugged, despite being bored, she doesn’t know what she’ll be if she’s not a racer. Once Vanellope enters the Internet and sees all these new possibilities, she realises that she isn’t happy in the arcade, but knows she’d be happy racing in a game like Slaughter Race. Vanellope is scared to hurt Ralph so doesn’t tell him about it, kind of resigning herself to going back to her game initially and then trying to keep her love of Slaughter Race a secret until she can figure out how to tell him. It doesn’t go well, and Ralph feels hurt by her. Once Vanellope sees Slaughter Race glitching from the virus, she feels like she broke the game, but when Ralph tells her he did it out of fear of losing her, she is furious. Despite this, as Ralph is about to be squeezed to death by his own clones, Vanellope sacrifices herself and her happiness to save him, which tells Ralph all he needs to that he has to let her go and by happy, even if that’s not with him. The goodbye the two share is very touching and incredibly relatable as life is full of multiple “hellos” and “goodbyes”. Vanellope and Ralph try extra hard to keep their friendship going, even though it is more difficult long-distance, but they settle into a routine, making sure they find time for each other, to either chat or visit. It’s shows how much the characters grow within this movie. Sarah Silverman and John C. Reilly both return to reprise their voice roles.

Shank is the fearless female lead racer of Slaughter Race. She is cool, strong, and tough. Shank was originally going to be a background gangster, but then it was decided that she should be a role model to Vanellope and therefore becomes a threat to Vanellope and Ralph’s friendship. Shank is a solid and wise character, with a soft side and warmth to her. She tells Vanellope, quite rightly, that she is welcome to race in Slaughter Race with her and her gang, and that there is no reason why her and Ralph can’t still be friends if she chooses to join them. Shank also has her crew of four other members, who aren’t just a thug-like gang, but actually have discussions about whether or not they should be letting players win, and appreciating how much hard-work some of them put into that game. Despite Slaughter Race looking like a horrible place full of crime, the characters with in it are actually surprisingly nice! Shank is voiced by Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who shot to international fame with her role as Gisele Yashar in the Fast and Furious franchise. She currently portrays Wonder Woman within the DC Universe film franchise.

There is a distinction within Ralph Breaks the Internet of the two main types of characters: Netizens, which include Ralph and Vanellope, and Net Users. Net Users are basically the avatars of the real-world Internet users. They stand in for humans, but are not treated as such, which is good because Ralph throws stuff on top of some of the net users, or throws them off their routes. Luckily, they don’t die; it’s just how people get disconnected from the Internet! The Netizens are the workers who help the Net Users, such as the cashiers, or the pop-up people. As the Net Users aren’t part of the story and cannot interact with the Netizens as they would with humans, Ralph and Vanellope can only interact with Netizens, of which there are plenty.

For example, we have J.P. Spamley. He is a Netizen working in “clickbait”. He is the one to direct Vanellope and Ralph to the site where they can earn money by finding video game items for real-world users. He is also the one to lead Ralph into the “dark net” to speak to Double Dan about putting a virus into Slaughter Race. Spamley doesn’t appear too much in Ralph Breaks the Internet, but he seems to me like a Netizen who isn’t sure he’s chosen the right path in life! He is ignored regularly, and is scared of the “dark net”, despite working in that area most of the time! Spamley and his assistant, Gord, do try to save Ralph at the end of the movie, which shows he is a nice guy really, even though Ralph falls straight through Spamley’s car due to his weight! Spamley is voiced by American comedic actor Bill Hader, best known for voicing Fear in Inside Out (2015), starring in Saturday Night Live (2005-13), as well as writing and performing as the title character in hit TV series Barry (2018-present).

KnowsMore is another Netizen who doesn’t feature too much in the movie, though he makes an impact. KnowsMore was originally going to be a broken search engine, getting every fourth answer wrong, but in the end, he is a search engine with an aggressive autofill! He warms to Vanellope who is polite to him, but is annoyed at Ralph for his brusque attitude, not understanding how to properly complete a search. Disney designed KnowsMore to look quite cartoony and not overally complex, though his eyes are actually hand-drawn, therefore being a combination of 2D and 3D animation. Alan Tudyk, the voice of King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph, was asked to return to voice a character in Ralph Breaks the Internet, and they felt he’d be perfect for KnowsMore. He needed very little direction and came up with the voice himself.

Yesss is the Head Algorithm of BuzzzTube. She is glamourous, fabulous and big deal on the Internet! She is incredibly helpful to Ralph and Vanellope, by helping them get hearts, even sending out a whole pop-up army to help them. She puts a lot of effort into these two, wanting Ralph to boost his online profile but be able to complete their mission of getting the steering wheel for Sugar Rush so they can go home. Yesss is also instrumental in helping them try to delete the Ralph clones at the Anti-Virus software hub, though this doesn’t end up going to plan. Yesss had many iterations before the version we see today, with them wanting a bold, larger-than-life Kanye West-type of character, before settling on more of an agent vibe. Yesss is voiced by Taraji P. Henson who had a lead role in Empire (2015-20) as Cookie Lyon, as well as starring as Katherine Johnson in the biopic Hidden Figures (2016).

As I’ve mentioned, eBay was created to look like an auction house, with each item having its own auctioneer. Real auctioneers were used to voice these characters, such as Brian Curless, who had won the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship in 2017[2].

Unfortunately, two characters from the original movie who do not get enough time on screen in this movie are Felix and Calhoun. They have been married for six years at this point and then decide to adopt the fifteen Sugar Rush racers. Other than that, the two feature at the end of the movie, showing how they’ve become such good parents to the racers that they are no longer egotistical and narcissistic, but kind and caring towards each other whether they win or lose. Felix and Calhoun are explaining the secret to parenting to Surge, the security officer at Game Central Station, but cleverly timed cars racing by mean that we will never know what that is! It is a shame because I love those two characters. They were going to feature in a scene that had to be cut to keep the pace of the main storyline between Vanellope and Ralph. It would’ve been a scene checking in on how Felix and Calhoun were doing, while Ralph and Vanellope were in BuzzzTube. It featured a dinner with the whole family, including the fifteen “kids”. One of them wouldn’t want to eat their vegetables, another didn’t want to drink their milk, and it would essentially have ended in a food fight! Felix and Calhoun would go to their room to get away from them, stating that parenting is awful and hoping that Ralph would get back soon with that steering wheel so the racers could go home[3]! Jane Lynch and Jack McBrayer reprise their voice roles.

For the most popular scene in the whole movie, the Disney Princess one, Pamela Ribon, who had previously worked on Moana (2016) had an idea to have the Disney Princesses be in some sort of sorority, and then have this movie make fun of their Disney past. Ribon never believed that Disney executives would sign-off on this sort of scene, so she wrote whatever she wanted to at first. Ribon had wanted this scene to properly induct Vanellope into the Disney Princess sisterhood, as she is a princess that many people can relate to: she isn’t perfect and girly, like most of the others. Ribon was very surprised to find that the directors were happy with this, as they felt that Disney were best placed to do this kind of satire and mockery of their own movies, and as you can go anywhere on the Internet, then why not have Vanellope head to Oh My Disney? This scene ended up being a huge success so I hope Ribon is proud of it. The majority of the original voice actors of the Disney Princesses came back to reprise their roles and were very happy to do so[4]. The funniest voice, though, is probably Kelly MacDonald voicing Merida from Brave (2012) as she speaks with such a strong Scottish accent that nobody can understand her, not even the Disney Princesses who blame it on the fact she is from “the other studio”, i.e., Pixar. It was a clever move. The original voice actors of Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White had to be replaced as Ilene Woods and Adriana Caselotti, the voices of Cinderella and Snow White, had passed away in 2010 and 1997 respectively. Mary Costa, voice of Aurora, has retired. Any 2D animated princesses had to be digitally updated to fit in with the new CG animation style being used by Disney today. This was not always easy to achieve. At the 2017 D23 Expo, where a first-look was shown, there were comments stating that Tiana’s skin looked lighter, so Disney went back and amended it. It was not an exact science as CG models of 2D characters will naturally look different[5].

PRODUCTION

This movie would not have been able to have been made even in 2012, the time of Wreck-It Ralph’s release as the landscapes are so detailed and huge that it needed a new type of technology. Thankfully, for the production of Big Hero 6 (2014), the in-house rendering software, Hyperion, was developed, allowing huge, detailed cityscapes to be created. Hyperion helped Ralph Breaks the Internet to create environments that looked real and vibrant, and allowed for big shots with lots of characters.

There was never a plan to make a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph as Rich Moore, the director of both movies, felt that Ralph and Vanellope’s story had been wrapped up nicely in the finale of the first movie, so Moore had moved on to other Disney productions. During work on Zootopia (2016), Rich Moore, who directed the film, worked alongside screenwriter Phil Johnston and they decided that after making a movie like Zootopia, which delves into themes around societal prejudice, that maybe they could use a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph to explore Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship in a new setting, with new characters that potentially could create conflict between the two. They also felt that actually, as Ralph states in the ending to Wreck-It Ralph that he only sees himself as a good guy because Vanellope likes him, then that’s not a healthy relationship to have with yourself or with someone else, so they wanted to resolve that. Phil Johnston joined as both co-director and screenwriter[6].

The setting for the sequel to Wreck-It Ralph was never disputed – it was always going to take place in the Internet so instead of being sent on an exotic research trip to somewhere like Norway or the South Pacific Islands as the teams at Disney did for Frozen (2013) and Moana (2016), instead the team on Ralph Breaks the Internet got to open up different technology to have a look at the circuitry and go to One Wilshire Boulevard data centre, which houses the internet connections for the West Coast. It may not have been somewhere particularly exciting but it was still inspiring. An initial concept for their Internet setting was for it to be floating on clouds, referring to the metaphor of everything being “on the cloud”, but this wasn’t deemed the best move forward to show the audience what the Internet might actually look like.

When looking closer at the inner workings of tech items, the animators found that it looked a lot like a city, so that is the concept they went with. Their initial visual test was actually very similar to the final movie. When talking to technology pioneers, they also came up with the idea of new ideas just being stacked on top of the old, so having to go vertical, with all the skyscraper-type buildings. This is because nothing from the past actually goes away; it may be unsupported or not function correctly, but it’s still there. This concept is used when Ralph is trying to find the hero’s medal necklace that Vanellope threw away, as it lands in this old, dusty, unloved area right at the bottom of the Internet, with things like GeoCities and Dial-Up. Real websites were used to ground the world, and were able to be used as it was deemed to be within “fair use” of copyright law, and make it relatable to the audience, with new creations added in to add in that “Disney touch”. This is exactly what they did with the Arcade world in the original movie, by having new characters and references to older video games with those original characters[7].

Some original scenes and concepts were cut from Ralph Breaks the Internet. An early version of the scene of entering the router to see what “WIFI” is would’ve seen most of the arcade characters go into it, with Q*bert accidentally entering the Internet, and returning traumatised. The arcade characters decide it’s too dangerous and leave. Another would’ve seen Ralph with his own BuzzzTube page, where he had gone to Double Dan to get a stamp to duplicate hearts, and inflate his online popularity. Ralph would be sad without Vanellope, who had been annoyed with his new “prima donna” attitude, and use the stamp on himself to create a clone to be his friend. The clone would be left alone with the stamp, and duplicate himself numerous times, leading into the ending with all the Ralph clones. Another scene that was a favourite of the directors that was cut would’ve seen Shank recruiting real-world players to defeat the Ralph clones, with Shank accidentally recruiting one of the Slaughter Race players’ grandmothers. The grandma would be looking forward to kicking some butt and be all up for it! It was almost a fully finished scene before being cut[8].

For the new site of Slaughter Race, it was designed to look both amazing and dangerous. It’s set in a dusty, rundown city, with sort of dystopian elements to it, such as the brown-orange colour of the majority of the area, and the sense that the air quality there is not great, partly from industry, crime and all that racing! The team at Disney looked at game designs of similar games, such as Grand Theft Auto. For the driving aspect, some of the animators were sent to a race track for a day to do crazy moves, such as 180-degree spins, and drifting to keep the driving accurate to both gaming and real-life. Having the animators feel what it was like to be in the car also helped with their animation, so they could put that exhilaration that Vanellope is feeling when racing Shank’s car through the city into the character.

During production on the movie, in November 2017, John Lasseter was forced to step down from his role as Chief Creative Office at both Disney and Pixar Animation over allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”. The Ralph Breaks the Internet team were unsure what would happen next, and whether or not he would return, but they had to carry on as normal. Jennifer Lee, who had been a writer on Wreck-It Ralph, and had been in the same Film Program at Columbia University as Phil Johnstone, was named the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios in June 2018[9]. Jennifer Lee is also known for being the writer and co-director with Chris Buck of Frozen (2013) and Frozen II (2019), where Lee became the first female director of a Disney Animated film.

MUSIC

Henry Jackman returned to the Disney Studios to compose the score for Ralph Breaks the Internet. Jackman was very happy to come back to do the music for the sequel, as he was very proud of his work in the original movie, but this time he could experiment with what the Internet sounds like compared to an arcade. He ended up mixing classical orchestral sounds, along with a more modern element with synth and electronic notes to match the Internet. The orchestral sound was used for the inspiring and uplifting moments to suit the characters’ inner feelings. Some of the themes from the original movie were re-harmonised, to fit into the new realm of the Internet, which can be heard in the instrumentals “Best Friends” and “Comfort Zone”, featuring at the start and end of the movie. One of the best tracks from Henry Jackman has to be “A Big Strong Man in Need of Rescuing” as it features snippets of many of the best Disney Princess songs as they all come together to rescue Ralph, such as music from Frozen (2013), Brave (2012), and Mulan (1998).

This time round, there is an actual song sung by Vanellope called “A Place Called Slaughter Race”. She was told by the Disney Princesses that if you didn’t know what she wanted from life, then Vanellope needed to stare into some “important water” and the song would come to her. Sure enough, after staring into a random puddle, Vanellope bursts into song unexpectedly, which lovingly mocks the “I Want” songs of the Disney Princesses’ movies. Alan Menken, the famed songwriter for many of the Disney “Renaissance Era” movies, was brought in to write the music for the song, to give it that real “princess” feeling, despite the lyrics and the setting being of the morally ambiguous world of Slaughter Race! Sarah Silverman sang the song live with the orchestra, where she said it was a magical moment for her. Gal Gadot, the voice of Shank, also joins in with the singing, which was out of her comfort zone but she loved it. Phil Johnstone and Tom MacDougall wrote the lyrics to this song, as well as the pop reimagining that is performed by Julia Michaels as the second song in the End Credits, with the song renamed to “In This Place”, and some lyrics being changed. The first End Credits song comes from Imagine Dragons, who wrote the song “Zero” for the movie. It looks at Ralph’s vulnerability and how he feels like a “zero” at times. It has a very cinematic and upbeat feel to it, whilst also matching the overall message of the movie[10].

RECEPTION

Ralph Breaks the Internet was released in November 2018, six years after Wreck-It Ralph. It made almost $530 million at the box office, with a budget of $175 million. Much like the first movie, it did very well in its first weekend. In terms of critical success, both movies received similar reviews. For Ralph Breaks the Internet, the stand-out mention by many critics was how much they loved the scenes with the Disney Princesses. They found it to be both nostalgic and hilarious, as Disney took aim at their own characters. Though this is not technically new, as Disney’s Enchanted (2007) does something very similar to its fairy-tale musical movies! Other positive critiques were that it there was an impressive amount of detail and creativity put into the design of the Internet, and that it was surprisingly poignant and deep in places, comparing it to Pixar’s Inside Out (2015), for its similar view. However, on the more negative side, some reviews commented on the number of brands placed into the movie, feeling that the “product placement” would likely annoy some viewers. I think most people enjoy seeing those as it helps us to feel connected to this Internet that Ralph and Vanellope are seeing for the first time, as it is recognisable to us, so instead of the audience spending time trying to work out what’s what, and what Disney was parodying with that site, it allows the viewer to simply focus on what is going on with Ralph and Vanellope and to fully immerse ourselves in the new, original sites.

Ralph Breaks the Internet unfortunately did not win as many awards as Wreck-It Ralph, but was still nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Annie Awards and the Critics’ Choice Awards, though it lost all four awards to the underdog movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). The only award Ralph Breaks the Internet did win was the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects, but it won less awards at the Annie Awards than Wreck-It Ralph did, but I don’t think that it has anything to do with Ralph Breaks the Internet, and more to do with the fact that animation seems to have had a major revival in recent years, meaning it faced much more competition than just those from Pixar!

The teaser trailer for Ralph Breaks the Internet did a good job of interesting us in the movie, however, it also featured a very funny scene that was missing from the main trailer and the final movie, for some reason. But for those at the cinema that were willing to wait until the end of the full credits, a girl that looks very much like Moana comments on the fact there was a scene missing from the movie, featuring a game where you have to feed a kitty milkshakes and a bunny pancakes. Ralph comes into this game that the little girl is playing, and ends up over-feeding the bunny until it bursts! We don’t see this explosion but the little girl does, and she screams her little head off! If you waited until the very end of the credits, you were also told you’d be seeing a sneak peek of Frozen 2, which would be released the following November in 2019 – but then you’d be “rick-rolled” by Ralph. I loved this as I love Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” and the fact that “rick-rolling” was even a thing! Both of these scenes are still shown during the End Credits of home releases and on Disney+.  A different trailer also featured a comment on the fact the movie was not named Ralph Wrecks the Internet, to match Ralph’s arcade game character name, but called Ralph Breaks the Internet; many people did comment on the movie’s name when the title was announced! It is simply that “breaking the Internet” is a real thing, unlike “wrecking the Internet”, which is what Yesss explains to Ralph and Vanellope, though I have to agree with Ralph that “wrecks the Internet” does sound much better!

LEGACY

Director Rich Moore has apparently mentioned the possibility of making a spin-off film based on the princesses should the audience want it and if they can make a good story out of it. Although, having said that, the directors had also said at the time of the release of Ralph Breaks the Internet, that there were no plans for a sequel but maybe if they thought about it for long enough, they could come up with a story[11]! Judging by that response, I’m assuming they’d rather leave the characters where they are, knowing that they did a good job continuing and ending Ralph and Vanellope’s stories here.

I’ve already mentioned places related to the Wreck-It Ralph movie specifically at the Disney Parks in my review of that film, but what about Ralph Breaks the Internet? Well, you used to be able to meet Vanellope at the ImageWorks area in Epcot at the exit to Journey into Imagination with Figment, at Walt Disney World Resort. She even came out of her portal to the Internet, called “The Link”, to continue the story of Ralph Breaks the Internet. Ralph met there with Vanellope for a time, but after Walt Disney World Resort reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic, it was just Vanellope on her own. On 19^th August 2023, Vanellope’s meet-and-greet location was permanently closed, to make way for the much-anticipated and hugely popular meet-and-greet with Figment, which opened on 10^th September 2023. So now, there are no permanent meet-and-greet locations at any of the Disney Parks for Vanellope or Ralph, and even less chance of a specific reference to Ralph Breaks the Internet. But the two should still appear at special events, and some of the music or clips from both movies may show up in certain parades, nighttime shows, or fireworks shows.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Whether or not the audience believe this movie is a satire, or whether they buy-in to Disney’s idea of the Internet, Ralph Breaks the Internet is one of the few good sequels that Disney has made, but it can also stand alone. It is another example of Disney pushing the boundaries of their story-telling, by choosing a story outside of their regular format, which is something they are continuing to do today. Ralph Breaks the Internet is an entertaining and clever movie, full of Easter Eggs and interesting ideas. It is both comedic and thought-provoking, with highly relatable emotional moments.

Wreck-It Ralph taught us to accept ourselves as we are but, Ralph Breaks the Internet reminds us that it’s never too late to realise your dreams or change your ways. It also tells us that, like the ever-changing online world, we are also always changing, with there being opportunities to grow as people every day, if we choose to; to become the best version of ourselves and to become someone we are proud to be.  

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, ‘A Behind-the-scenes Look at Ralph Breaks the Internet’, Disney.co.uk, date unknown.

[2] Credit: Disney, “How We Broke the Internet” “Surfing for Easter Eggs”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[3] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[4] Credit: Michael Cavna, ‘How ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ spoofs the Disney Princess industrial complex’, The Washington Post (online), 20^th November 2018.

[5] Credit: Carolyn Giardina, ‘Making of ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’: How Disney Turned eBay and Amazon Into Cartoons’, The Hollywood Reporter (online), 13^th December 2018.

[6] Credit: John Hazelton, ‘’Ralph Breaks The Internet’ filmmakers: ‘we could not have made this six years ago’, Screen Daily (online), 27^th November 2018.

[7] Credit: Disney, “How We Broke the Internet”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[8] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[9] Credit: Carolyn Giardina, ‘Making of ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’: How Disney Turned eBay and Amazon Into Cartoons’, The Hollywood Reporter (online), 13^th December 2018.

[10] Credit: Disney, “The Music of Ralph Breaks the Internet”, from Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[11] Credit: John Hazelton, ‘’Ralph Breaks The Internet’ filmmakers: ‘we could not have made this six years ago’, Screen Daily (online), 27^th November 2018.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

After the smashing success of Tangled in 2010, the Walt Disney Animation Studios needed to prove that they wouldn’t be going back to their mediocre film releases of the 2000s.

With the 2006 purchase of Pixar Animation, the Disney Studios now had more resources at their disposal, not to mention John Lasseter being named the Chief Creative Officer of both animation studios. Disney didn’t have to follow their tried-and-tested method of basing features on fairy-tales or novels; they could do something different, and this time, make it work. That’s exactly what they did with their 2012 release: Wreck-It Ralph.

When I first saw the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph and saw it was about video games, I was sceptical. I’m not much of a gamer so I thought the whole story would be completely lost on me and there was no way it would be able to keep me interested. But we watched it at the cinema during its release and I actually really liked it. It had emotional moments and important messages that struck a chord with me, and I thought the whole video game premise was incredibly clever.

Wreck-It Ralph is very different to the majority of Disney animated features that came before it, but it started a precedent for Disney not to just do the same type of movie; that they could come up with unique concepts and those movies could still be hits with audiences. Apart from Frozen (2013), which is a phenomenon all of its own but still based on a fairy-tale, although twisted, Disney have continued to push the boundaries of story-telling and have moved away from their popular Broadway-style princess film territory to make memorable, popular films around independent characters going on hero’s journeys, discovering things about themselves and exploring the world around them. Disney had tried this in the 2000s, during their “Post-Renaissance Era” but had been unsuccessful for whatever reason. In the 2010s, they found it was finally working.

PLOT

Wreck-It Ralph begins by showing us the character of Wreck-It Ralph (or just Ralph), who is the villain in the 80s arcade game, Fix-It Felix Jr. He is struggling to accept his lot in life, and wants to be the good guy for once, because he doesn’t feel inherently bad. After finishing “work” for the day, i.e., when Litwak’s Arcade has closed, Ralph attends a “Bad-Anon” meeting with various other video game villains, but doesn’t get anywhere. After seeing the other characters in his game, the Nicelanders and Fix-It Felix Jr. (or just Felix), having a party to celebrate their game’s 30^th anniversary, Ralph invites himself over there, not wanting to be left out. He isn’t treated well by the Nicelanders and snaps, smashing cake all over the apartment. He makes a deal that if he can prove that a bad guy can get a hero’s medal, then he can live in the Penthouse apartment, and not the dump.

Ralph sees a soldier from the new game Hero’s Duty having a breakdown, telling him that it’s bad in there, even if you do get a medal. Ralph just wants a medal, so steals the soldier’s costume and heads in to the game via Game Central Station, the hub where the video game characters can go in to other games, though, as Sonic the Hedgehog warns, if you die outside your game, you won’t regenerate. Ralph heads in to Hero’s Duty, a first-person shooter game, a bit like Halo, in a dystopian world where you have to shoot “cy-bugs” and their eggs to prevent an invasion. Ralph immediately finds himself overwhelmed. After he disrupts the first-person shooter, a robot with a screen to them, a little girl playing the game in Litwak’s Arcade to us, the game is reset and Ralph takes the opportunity to climb the game’s tower. He receives his hero’s medal, even though he didn’t really earn it, but wakes the cy-bug eggs. He stumbles into an escape shuttle, with a cy-bug, and ricochets around Game Central Station before entering the über-sweet land of Sugar Rush, a kart racing game. At the same time, Sergeant Calhoun, the leader of the Hero’s Duty crew, and Fix-It Felix have seen Ralph in the shuttle, and figure out he’s gone into Sugar Rush. Calhoun and Felix follow; Felix to get Ralph back to their game so they can continue their lives as normal, as currently, their game is “out of order” and will be unplugged if it can’t be fixed, and Calhoun going to check the cy-bugs don’t start invading Sugar Rush.

Ralph crash-lands in a lake of taffy, and loses his medal up a candy-cane tree. He climbs up but before he can reach it, it is snatched away by Vanellope von Schweetz, a Sugar Rush character with a “glitch”. She races away, using the medal in lieu of a gold coin so she can enter the random roster race, to find out who will be able to race for the arcade-goers the next day. King Candy does not want Vanellope to race, and is annoyed to find she has managed to enter it. Ralph barrels in, demanding his medal back. Eventually, he is detained within a cupcake and taken to King Candy’s castle, where he orders Ralph to leave the game, as he doesn’t want anyone “going turbo” and taking over his game. Ralph runs away to confront Vanellope. Except, as he’s about to, he sees that Vanellope’s kart is being destroyed by the other racers. He scares them off to help her. They make a deal that if Ralph helps her build a new kart, then she will win the race and return his medal. They go to the mini-game kart builder where Ralph helps build the kart, until he breaks the containers, spilling candy all over her kart. Luckily, Vanellope loves it! As King Candy and his guards are chasing them out of the area, Vanellope and Ralph head into Diet Cola Mountain, her secret home. Ralph builds her a track, so Vanellope can practise racing.  

King Candy has not managed to scare off Ralph, so goes into the game’s programming and adds the medal into his character’s code so he can return it to Ralph. When he does this, he implores Ralph to tell Vanellope not to race, as he believes that if she becomes part of the race roster, then the players will see her “glitching” and will think the game’s broken. When it gets unplugged, the other characters will be able to take refuge in Game Central Station but Vanellope, being a “glitch”, will not be able to leave and will die with the game. Ralph, having just received a homemade hero’s medal from Vanellope, is torn over what to do, but tries to explain to her that she can’t race or she’ll die. When this doesn’t work, Ralph destroys her kart. Vanellope is devasted, simply telling him “You really are a bad guy” before running off in tears.

At the same time, Felix is falling in love with Calhoun. Felix tells her about Turbo, and the phrase “going turbo”. Turbo was the main racer in a popular game, until a new racing game got plugged into the arcade. Jealous, he entered the new game in his 8-bit form, disrupting the new game’s more modern format. Both games were considered broken and were both unplugged. He is presumed to have gone down with the games, and has not been seen since. Calhoun soon leaves Felix, after he calls her “a dynamite gal”, something her husband-to-be called her before he was eaten by cy-bugs on their wedding day. Yes, Calhoun is programmed with the world’s saddest backstory! Felix walks to King Candy’s castle to find Ralph, but is thrown into the “fungeon” (fun dungeon).

Sour Bill, King Candy’s sidekick, tells Ralph that King Candy messed with Vanellope’s code, trying to delete her from the game, but failed, causing her “glitch”, and locked up the other characters’ memories so he could take over the game. Ralph realises everything Candy said to him earlier was a lie, so Ralph crashes in to the “fungeon” to save both Felix, and Vanellope who has been chained up too. He encourages Vanellope to race, and get over the finish line to reset the game. She starts the race late, but manages to get to second place without too many issues. Calhoun then arrives to say that the cy-bugs are everywhere, and they start to consume Sugar Rush. Calhoun tells everyone not racing to evacuate, and tries to shoot as many as she can until Vanellope gets over the finish line.

But King Candy is horrified to find Vanellope close to taking the lead, and tries to push her off the track. When Vanellope “glitches”, it is revealed that King Candy is in fact Turbo! GASP! He took over Sugar Rush after he put the other two racing games out of order. Vanellope manages to tactically “glitch” and moves into first place, away from him, and King Candy gets eaten by a cy-bug. As Vanellope nears the end, the cy-bugs start to take over the finish line and she crashes, out of surprise. Ralph realises they can’t get the game to reset and tries to take her out of the game, but King Candy was right – she cannot leave. Calhoun says the game is doomed without a beacon, a beam of light that is in Hero’s Duty, to attract and kill all cy-bugs between resets of the game. Ralph has an idea and rushes over to Diet Cola Mountain. There are Mentos at the top of it, so Ralph punches the top of the mountain to try and get the Mentos to fall into the boiling Diet Cola below.

When he is one punch away, King Candy, now a cy-bug, because cy-bugs become what they eat, attacks Ralph trying to stop him from saving the game and Vanellope. King Candy flies him up high and says they should watch Vanellope die together, but Ralph breaks free, not caring what happens to him, and falls to the top of the mountain, delivering one last punch, which sets off the Mento-Cola reaction, creating the beacon. The cy-bugs fly towards it and are destroyed, including King Candy. Vanellope has raced over to catch Ralph in her kart. Thanks to her “glitching” she makes good time and he is saved. Felix fixes the finish line, and they push her kart over it, where it is revealed that Vanellope is actually Princess Vanellope, ruler of Sugar Rush. She jokes that she will execute anyone who was ever mean to her, before deciding that she’d rather just be herself, “glitch” and all, making Sugar Rush a democracy instead.

In the epilogue, we find that Ralph has returned to his game. The Fix-It Felix Jr. characters have become nicer to Ralph, and they build him a house within the dump so he no longer has to sleep in a pile of bricks. They have also taken in the “game less” characters, like Q*bert, and given them homes and a “job” within the bonus round of the game. Vanellope is a popular choice of racer within Sugar Rush, and the gamers love her “glitch” as it helps them win! Felix and Calhoun get married, with Ralph as best man, and Vanellope as bridesmaid. Finally, and most importantly, Ralph has realised that he’s happy being himself. The best part of Ralph’s day is when he gets thrown off the roof in his game, because he can see Sugar Rush clearly, and sees Vanellope happy with her racing career. He knows that he can’t be such a bad guy because he has a friend like her.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Wreck-It Ralph spends the whole movie on a journey of self-discovery. He doesn’t like being thought of, and treated, as an everyday arcade game villain, where he’s either ignored or dismissed. This is what leads him to attend his first “Bad-Anon” meeting at the start of the film, because he doesn’t want to be the bad guy anymore. The other villains just tell him that they’ve all felt that way before, but have now come to terms with it and he needs to as well. When he returns to his game and finds they are throwing a 30^th anniversary party without him, he feels upset and angry, deciding to prove he can be a hero and get a medal as evidence. Though Ralph does successfully get a medal, he doesn’t really get it for being brave or completing Hero’s Duty; he’s actually terrified of it and cheats to get his medal. Once he meets Vanellope in Sugar Rush, soon he realises that this little girl needs his help to be accepted in her game, and they bond over the fact that they’re both treated as outcasts. Ralph gets taken in by King Candy, and ends up destroying Vanellope’s kart, with Vanellope saying that he really is a bad guy, and that hurts him. By the end of the movie, he mends his relationships with Vanellope and Felix, and proves himself a hero when he stops the cy-bug destruction, even though he almost pays the ultimate price for it. Ralph has quite the journey, and eventually realises that all he can be is himself, and that he has to accept that. Though he may be a game villain, it doesn’t mean he’s not worthy of friendship or happiness, and that he isn’t inherently bad; he has many sides to him, like everyone.

The design for Ralph was changed many times during production. Originally, the animators wanted to make Ralph in 8-bit for the entire movie, but they decided that he wouldn’t be lovable enough in that form. Ralph then became an animal dressed a bit like a hobo, and then a big white gorilla. It took around five or six re-designs before Ralph finally became human, as he needed to resonate with the audience to get the viewers rooting for his end-goal[1]. John C. Reilly, known for his varied film roles such as Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002) and Step Brothers (2008) with Will Ferrell, is the voice actor for Wreck-It Ralph, as the team at Disney felt that Reilly could be both comedic and dramatic, and would make Ralph likeable. I think Reilly did a great job with the character.

Vanellope von Schweetz is kind of bratty, but very funny, with most of her opening scene featuring her making jokes about “hero’s doody”, which I think were added to the script purely to make kids laugh, though I know plenty of adults who laugh out loud at those too! Vanellope is a “glitch” within the Sugar Rush game, so she is isolated from most of the other game characters, being seen as either a threat or a nuisance, depending on who you ask. When her go-kart is destroyed by the other racers, you instantly feel sorry for Vanellope, as she is essentially being bullied just because she’s a bit different. It’s very heart-warming to see Ralph swoop in and scare the others off, as we know that the two have a similar problem in their respective games. Vanellope also learns to accept herself as she is by the end of the movie like Ralph does; she spends most of her time trying to control her “glitch” but then finds she can use it to her advantage and that instead of suppressing it, she should be learning how to use it more consistently. I like how after the game has reset at the end, she becomes a princess and learns she was the original ruler of Sugar Rush, but decides she just wants to be herself exactly as she is. Ralph and Vanellope have a great friendship, both helping each other out in times of need and learning from their mistakes. Vanellope is voiced by stand-up-comedian-turned-actress Sarah Silverman. Her iconic voice is perfect for Vanellope, as well as her comedic timing, making Vanellope lovable and easy to relate to.

Then, there’s Fix-It Felix Jr., the hero to Ralph’s villain. Though the other game characters seem to deliberately exclude Ralph, Felix isn’t like that. He doesn’t know how to act around Ralph, it seems, because Felix looks awkward about the party, like he wants to be kind to Ralph and invite him, but he knows the Nicelanders won’t like it. Felix isn’t mean to Ralph at all; he’s very positive, and upbeat, wanting to be friends with everyone, but it’s not that easy when everyone around him doesn’t want anything to do with Ralph. Felix is a bit irritating at the start of the movie because he believes his own publicity, accepting all the attention, praise and credit from his other game characters, but he does go to find Ralph. Felix wants Ralph back to get the game back to working order, but I believe Felix also wants to understand why Ralph left and try to amend his own behaviour. Felix then goes on his own journey, where he realises that not everyone’s life is perfect, not everyone is put up on a pedestal to be admired. He also does not become the hero at the end of the movie; Ralph is the one to save Sugar Rush, so I think Felix is humbled by that. Most importantly, Felix finds love with Sergeant Calhoun, something he was not expecting when he set off to find Ralph that day. Felix is voiced by Jack McBrayer, another very recognisable voice! McBrayer is potentially best known for portraying the roles of Kenneth Parcell in 30 Rock (2006-13) and Dr. Goodwin in The Middle (2013-18).

As I mentioned, Felix and Calhoun are married by the end of Wreck-It Ralph, but their relationship isn’t smooth-sailing. Sergeant Calhoun is the lead character of Hero’s Duty. She’s a strong, brave, independent woman, and does not tolerate fools, like Ralph, going in and destroying her game! She only follows Ralph into Sugar Rush to monitor the cy-bug invasion that could occur as one escaped from Hero’s Duty with him. Calhoun then finds herself liking Felix whilst stuck in the “Nesquik-Sand” in Sugar Rush; it’s a funny scene, especially as when the “laughy taffy” vines start to get lovey-dovey, she fires shots from her gun and they soon shrink away! When Felix calls her a “dynamite gal”, something her deceased fiancé said to her before his untimely death, she is horrified and throws Felix out of the space cruiser, leaving him on his own. The two are reunited at the time of the cy-bug invasion. Once Ralph sets off the beacon, destroying the cy-bugs, Felix kisses Calhoun on the cheek. She pulls him up to her face level, and we all expect him to get a sharp slap round the face – but he doesn’t get one; instead, she kisses him back. Aww, cute. They’re a strange couple, but they make it work, somehow! Jane Lynch, off the back of four seasons of Glee (2009-15), playing cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, voices Sergeant Calhoun.

Then, there is the actual villain of Wreck-It Ralph: the surprise villain of King Candy. At first, King Candy seems overly enthusiastic and overly protective of his kingdom. He doesn’t want Vanellope to race, because he claims that her “glitching” will put the game out of order and just wants Sugar Rush to go back to how it was, before these other game characters came in and ruined it! Little did I know that a big twist was to come. We learn that King Candy messed with Vanellope’s code in the game programming to try and delete her but it ended up just making her “glitch”, and that the only reason he doesn’t want her to race is because she’ll reset the game and he’ll no longer be King. I thought that was it, but it got worse! We then discover that he’s Turbo, the jealous racer from long ago. That was a brilliant plot twist from Disney. I’m very in-the-moment when I watch movies, not wanting to try and work things out before they’ve happened, so I didn’t see it coming, but maybe some people did. I just thought it was clever! Actor Alan Tudyk voices the character of King Candy. He was inspired by comedian Ed Wynn, who had voiced the Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951). The character of the Mad Hatter was also a reference point for the design of King Candy, and it’s very plain to see[2]! Alan Tudyk won an Annie Award for his voice work on this movie. He has had voice roles in many more Disney animated movies since, basically becoming Disney’s “good luck charm”, like John Ratzenberger is to Pixar, by getting a role in every new release!

That’s it for the main characters in Wreck-It Ralph, but there are many others. Some other voice artists worth mentioning are Modern Family (2009-20) actor Ed O’Neill as Mr. Litwak, the arcade owner, and The Office (2005-13) actor and writer Mindy Kaling as Taffyta Muttonfudge, one of the Sugar Rush racers. Both would go on to voice roles in Pixar films: O’Neill as Hank in Finding Dory (2016) and Kaling as Disgust in Inside Out (2015). Fun fact: the two doughnut-shaped policemen in Sugar Rush are named Wynnchel and Duncan, referencing two American donut chains – Dunkin’ Donuts and Winchell’s Donut House. There are almost 200 characters in the movie, including some from “real” video games, such as Bowser, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, and my personal favourite, Q*bert[3]. I don’t know much about video games – though I was disappointed to find Crash Bandicoot didn’t get a cameo – so I’m sure a gaming fan can spot many more than me! One that many people commented was missing, though, was Mario. This was due to the fact that Disney couldn’t find a good enough reason to include him in the story, and wanted to do the character justice. It’s also possible Mario would’ve pulled focus away from the main characters.

PRODUCTION

Disney had to create five different “worlds” for Wreck-It Ralph: the retro arcade game of Fix-It Felix Jr., the sugar-filled racing game of Sugar Rush, the more modern shooter game of Hero’s Duty, and then Game Central Station, the characters’ portal to other games, and Litwak’s Arcade, where these are all based. Game Central Station, the portal for all the arcade games, but really a power strip or extension lead in real-life, was inspired by New York City’s Grand Central Station, unsurprisingly. It’s a large space, and feels like a train station, with it also having grubby-looking subway-style areas, with graffiti sprayed on the walls. Litwak’s Arcade is obviously the most real of the worlds, based on arcades from the past and present. It’s a dark area, with just light coming from the door, but with flashing lights coming from every game station. It’s fascinating to see how the video game characters perceive these real gamers, and to see how their actions affects the real-life players[4]!

The world of Fix-It Felix Jr. was based on a sketch by director Rich Moore. It resembles a small, quaint town, with a little train and lights in the trees like Central Park. It is an 8-bit game, so it consists of simple repeating patterns, square shapes, and simple, clean landscapes. No complex animation was required here, but I like how authentically the characters move, by bopping, making staccato movements, and never moving diagonally, always on a grid. The high score for Fix-It Felix Jr. is displayed as 120501, a nod to Walt Disney’s birthday: 5^th December 1901. Hero’s Duty was made to look aggressive, with sharp lines and triangular shapes, to really a place so different to Ralph’s game. He had to be seen to be completely out of his depth. Hero’s Duty is hyper-realistic and is the most high-definition of all the games. There are strobe lights, mist shoots, ash falling from the sky, with something happening in every shot. It’s very busy and action-packed. They also made simple colour choices, by making the area dark, with orange to show the good guys, and acid green for the bad cy-bugs. For Sugar Rush, initially the team struggled to get away from the overused tropes of sugary lands like Candyland and the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel, so they went in a different direction; they looked at Gaudi’s architecture. His designs almost looked like cracked candy to them. Art Director Mike Gabriel asked for a candy model of Sugar Rush to be made, which was then used as a reference point for months. The land had to look appealing to everyone, so it’s very colourful, with soft shapes, and fantasy elements.

Wreck-It Ralph is an original story idea, however, in the 1990s, there was an early version of a film based around video games being developed, called High Score. For whatever reason, this did not go forward. In 2006, a movie called Joe Jump also themed around video games was being worked on at Disney, but again, this did not go ahead[5].

In 2008, Rich Moore joined the Walt Disney Animation Studios after working for animation studio Rough Draft Studios for a number of years. Soon after his arrival, John Lasseter approached him about directing a new movie for Disney. Lasseter suggested basing the movie around video games, with Moore agreeing as he liked gaming. Neither of the concepts from the older story ideas were considered; it was a brand-new idea. Producer Clark Spencer said he loved the concept as he grew up being a big gamer, and he liked that the initial idea about going behind-the-scenes of video game characters, in a similar way to Toy Story (1995), by seeing what toys get up to when their owners aren’t around.

It was decided early on that they wanted a Donkey Kong dynamic for their two main characters of Ralph and Felix, with Ralph being the villain, like Donkey Kong, and Felix, like the hero of Mario. It’s clear that the design of Ralph was partly inspired by the gorilla character of Donkey Kong, and Felix is kind of similar to Mario, in that he’s small, but upbeat and positive, working hard to defeat the villain’s destructive ways. Originally, Felix was going to be the protagonist of the whole movie, with the plot structure already being decided just a month or so into development. But then, it was decided that the plot might be stronger if they had the 8-bit villain of Wreck-It Ralph having an existential crisis, so the film was re-structured around this new idea[6]. 

Obviously, there were some other changes between the movie we know today and how it was doing production. Firstly, there were deleted scenes detailing Ralph being thrown into the prison of the then-military-style Hero’s Duty.  Ralph would be persuaded by a new prisoner, a lazy, surfer-dude kind of person, to break them out and go to a relaxed new online game called X-Treme EZ Livin’ 2. Ralph would be left alone and end up in Sugar Rush. After things went wrong there, Ralph then did travel to X-Treme EZ Livin’ 2. The game was meant to be a mixture of The Sims and Grand Theft Auto. These scenes were dropped as there is no game like this, and it would’ve been on Mr. Litwak’s laptop in the arcade, so they felt it would’ve been too complicated to have a different way for arcade characters to get in there, with cheat codes and things like that.

Another unused concept was that Vanellope’s home was actually in the abandoned nugget mines of “Mount Fudgsuvius”. There wasn’t any Diet Cola or Mentos, but it would’ve still erupted at the end of the movie. In this deleted scene, Felix is already with the duo, and Ralph and Vanellope would have been trying to explain to Felix what it was like to be an outcast and not have everyone love you. Also, there were going to be individual mini games to get different parts to rebuild Vanellope’s kart, and King Candy would show up at the start of each one to make them harder, but Ralph’s “wrecking” would help Vanellope win[7].

MUSIC

The score for Wreck-It Ralph was composed by English composer Henry Jackman, who had written the score for Disney Animation’s previous release, Winnie the Pooh (2011) and would go on to do the score for Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Strange World (2022), also for Disney. He has won and been nominated for other awards too, for example, a nomination at the BAFTA Awards in 2014 for Best Film Music for Captain Phillips (2013). Jackman researched for the Wreck-It Ralph score by revisiting video games from his youth, as he had to be in touch with the vast world of video game music, which varies from many different genres, such as pop, rock, heavy metal and electronic music[8]. I like the music in Wreck-It Ralph but only one piece really stands out to me and that is the instrumental piece titled “Wreck-It Ralph”. It plays during the scene where Ralph is leaving the game Pac-Man after his “Bad-Anon” meeting. It’s electronic and bouncy, and sounds very video-game-like.

There are also a few songs in the movie, though none are sung by any of the characters. Apparently, a song was written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez but it was cut. The Lopez duo would go on to write the songs for Frozen (2013), the Disney animated release to follow Wreck-It Ralph, so I doubt they were too disappointed[9]! Wreck-It Ralph features three original songs, as well as incorporating three tracks from other artists. The song “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang is played at the party at the start of the movie, in the Nicelanders’ penthouse suite. It’s a classic song, perfect for a party, so not much to say on that one really. Another one is “Bug Hunt (Noisia Remix) by Skrillex. This was an original song by Skrillex which was remixed specifically for the opening of the Hero’s Duty game. It is perfect for that game. Plus, Skrillex even has a cameo in the movie – as the DJ at the anniversary party. The biggest surprise addition to the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack to me is the use of Rihanna’s “Shut Up and Drive”. It’s a great song, and works really well in the scene of Vanellope learning how to race on her Ralph-built Diet Cola Mountain track.  

For original songs, the best one is “When Can I See You Again?”, written by Adam Young, Matt Thiessen and Brian Lee, and performed by Owl City – the American band that had that big hit “Fireflies” back in 2009; I heard that song so much around then! “When Can I See You Again?” fits in with Owl City’s electronica style of music, as well as the video game brief. It does only play as the first song of the End Credits, but I watch the credits until the song is finished without fail, because it’s so good. Then, there is the song “Sugar Rush”, which is played intermittently in the scenes within Sugar Rush. It was written by Jamie Houston and Yasushi Akimoto and performed Japanese girl group AKB48. It’s very much “bubble gum pop”, which fits the tone of the game very well. I like the parts of it you hear in the movie, mostly just the chorus part, but I don’t particularly like the full song! The full song is the second song to play during the End Credits. Finally, there is the song, “Wreck-It, Wreck-It Ralph”, written by Jamie Houston, and performed by Buckner & Garcia. It’s the third song in the End Credits, so I hadn’t heard it before! It’s a bit weird, kind of electronic, to match the 80s vibe of the game Fix-It Felix Jr., as it tells the storyline of the game itself, but it also almost sounds a bit country. I’m not a fan of it, personally. Buckner & Garcia released an album in 1982 called Pac-Man Fever, with each song in the album being themed to a classic arcade game so it makes sense for them to feature in Wreck-It Ralph’s soundtrack.

RECEPTION

A first look at the first five minutes of Wreck-It Ralph was revealed at the D23 convention in the summer of 2011, where it was confirmed to be released in November 2012. Wreck-It Ralph was released in November 2012, along with the short Paperman. The movie was received well by many critics, who praised the artistic styling and cleverness of the whole theme of the movie, along with the entertaining plot and nostalgia factor, thanks to the retro video game references. Though some critiques were more negative, with them claiming that this was Disney trying to pull off a Pixar concept and failing in comparison[10].

A “mockumentary” titled Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives was made to promote the home media release in 2013. It follows the fictional journey of child gaming prodigy, Garlan Hulse, trying to reclaim his title as the high-score holder on Fix It Felix Jr. as a down-on-his-luck adult.

Regardless of the critics’ opinions, Wreck-It Ralph was a hit at the box office, making $471.2 million worldwide against a budget of $165 million. It had a brilliant opening weekend, staying at Number 1 for one week, until the James Bond movie Skyfall (2012) was released. But that didn’t matter, because Wreck-It Ralph was still nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85^th Academy Awards in 2013. Though it lost out to Pixar’s own release of the year, Brave (2012), Wreck-It Ralph did win the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, along with music and directing, as well as winning the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie of the Year.

LEGACY

Wreck-It Ralph was such a success for Disney Animation that they decided to make a sequel: Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). The sequel would prove to be even more popular than the original with many viewers, though I personally prefer the first one. Apart from that, the Wreck-It Ralph franchise isn’t all that big, at least not compared to other Disney animated hits. Both movies had their own video game releases, and the characters feature in other Disney-aligned video games, such as Disney Infinity and the Kingdom Hearts series. Ralph and Vanellope have made cameo appearances in episodes of television series, such as Futurama (1999-present), and The Simpsons (1989-present). Rich Moore worked on both series before joining the Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2008.

At the Disney Parks, both Vanellope and Ralph used to feature in the annual Once Upon a Christmastime Parade at Walt Disney World during the festive season for many years. Until 2023, when, although Vanellope still appears in her sugar-covered kart, Ralph is no longer on the gingerbread house float; Clarice the Chipmunk has taken his place. They also used to both feature in the annual Mickey’s Boo To You Halloween Parade, with Ralph riding in a truck carrying a load of candy corn and Vanellope pedalling a float of a candy train with a huge container of gumballs on the top, however, Ralph was removed from this parade in 2023. Wow, what did Ralph do to deserve that? They both used to meet and greet guests in the now-closed Magic of Disney Animation building at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort soon after the film was released, before moving to a different location, this time at Epcot. Ralph and Vanellope did also meet guests at the other Disney Parks soon after their movie’s release, such as at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, however, they are now much rarer to encounter. The Wreck-It Ralph characters are appearing in the Harmony in Color Parade at Tokyo Disneyland to celebrate the park’s 40^th anniversary.  A sweet shop called Vanellope’s Sweets & Treats, selling desserts and candy, exists on the Disney Dream Cruise Ship.

There have been rumours, circulating for years, of a Wreck-It Ralph-themed attraction coming to the US Disney Parks, with some even expecting one to be announced at the D23 Expo in 2022; it never was. Permits were apparently filed in 2020 for a Wreck-It Ralph attraction to replace Stitch’s Great Escape at Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, but there has been no further news on this. Many people also wish for Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland Speedway to be rethemed to Sugar Rush, but this is also not confirmed. A real Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade game was built, though, for guests to play within Disneyland’s Tomorrowland[11]. These machines have since been removed.  

But it was announced that Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters at Tokyo Disneyland would close at the end of 2024, to make way for an attraction themed to Wreck-It Ralph, with an apparent storyline around defeating sugary bugs that have taken over the Sugar Rush game, courtesy of the evil King Candy. This indoor interactive attraction is due to open in 2026.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Wreck-It Ralph turned out to be a hugely successful film, becoming the 14^th largest film of 2012 at the worldwide box office, which is good going, seeing as releases from Pixar had been dwarfing those from Disney Animation for years. It’s even more impressive when you consider that audiences loved it despite it not being a traditional Disney movie with the usual format and structure, like the popular movies of Disney’s “Renaissance Era”. It cemented the future of Disney Animation, which, more or less, is still continuing today[12].

Though Wreck-It Ralph is an entertaining film, with a clever concept, memorable characters, and amusing jokes, it is also a journey of self-discovery. It reminds us that we shouldn’t let labels define us; we are all different and we aren’t just one thing, or one emotion, all the time. As the “Bad-Anon” meeting motto goes: “I’m bad and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no-one I’d rather be than me.”

Wreck-It Ralph teaches its viewers to accept themselves as they are, just as Ralph and Vanellope learn to do, and if the gaming theme doesn’t already pull you in, then Disney hoped that message would do it instead. It certainly worked with me!

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.

[2] Credit: Chris Morgan, ’20 facts you might not know about ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, YardBarker.com, 11^th November 2022.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Bit by Bit: Creating the Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[5] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7^th November 2022.

[6] Credit: Disney, “Bit by Bit: Creating the Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[7] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Blu-Ray 2-Movie Collection (2018).

[8] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7^th November 2022.

[9] Credit: Chris Morgan, ’20 facts you might not know about ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, YardBarker.com, 11^th November 2022.

[10] Credit: Christopher Orr, ‘‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Aims for Pixar…and Misses’, The Atlantic (online), 2^nd November 2012.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, pp. 154-156.

[12] Credit: Douglas Laman, ‘These Wreck-It Ralph Details Are Boss Level’, Looper, 7^th November 2022.