Wreck-It Ralph: Filmmakers Discuss What Makes a Good Comedy and Who is 'The Secretary of Awesome'

Comprised of 190 unique characters and four distinct video game locations, 'Wreck-It Ralph' is a playground for the eyes and nostalgic hearts. A collaboration between screenwriter Phil Johnson and director Rich Moore, it took about four years to make it to the big screen and was a team effort from the start. "Rich Moore comes from The Simpsons, and I'm a huge fan. So I said to the head of the studio that I wanted to work on this film," laughs producer Clark Spencer. As Johnson and Moore began crafting the script, they both had one goal in mind – to make the funniest animated comedy as possible.

Thanks to suggestions from lead voice actor, John C. Reilly ("It's very much a democracy in animation and he was secretary of awesome," proclaimed Johnson), they decided the most interesting version of their film would showcase Ralph completely out of his element. "You've got this big, boorish guy who’s ticked off most of the time," Johnson begins. "He certainly wouldn't like kids so let's put him with children in the most sickly, sweetest game imaginable." That saccharine location ended up being Sugar Rush, where Ralph spends the second half of the film entangled in it's candy-coated wonderland with eventual side-kick Vanellope. Humor was also evident in Ralph's home console, Fix-It Felix Jr, thanks to its old-school animation and comedic 8-bit movements.

Despite its very simple and dated feel, animating that world was actually the most difficult task for Moore's highly skilled team. Working with animators trained in the classic Disney style of full character and personality animation, it took a lot of trust in the first time director to get them to disregard their usual style and engage with a very erratic design plan. Adds Johnson, "It's hard creating different animation styles for each (game) with different art direction and styles and they pulled it off."

The remainder of the film is split between the hyper-modernized first person shooter Hero's Duty and Game Central Station. Serving as a social hub, Game Central Station (taking cue's from New York's own Grand Central Station), is where the arcade's characters gather after dark. This is also where the audience is treated to a variety of familiar faces (Q*Bert, Sonic The Hedgehog, Bowser) from the past. "Early on we said let's not limit ourselves because it will take us a while to know whether we're going to keep these character's (cameos) in the film," explains Spencer. In the vein of ‘Toy Story’ or ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’, Spencer recognized how much fun the audience would have being able to see different video game characters inhabiting a singular universe. After approaching a few companies in the spring of 2010, things lined up quicker than the producer could have ever imagined. "We always said that we would be true to their characters and even let them approve the finished animation," says Spencer. "As a result, I think that gave them a lot of confidence that they would be on the journey with us."

With so much to discover throughout the movie, the filmmakers ultimately wanted ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ to wear its heart on it's sleeve. "The hallmark of a good comedy," begins Moore, "Can make you laugh but also take you to the point where you're in love with these characters and want to see them happy." As Ralph, Vanellope, Felix and Sergeant Calhoun expose their true selves to each other and the audience, the movie succeeds in becoming as heartwarming as any movie in Disney's extensive catalog. "What makes Rich such a good director was that he knew what the story always was," explains Johnson. "We chased a lot of shiny new toys and tried a lot of different things, but ultimately came back to the heart of it all."

Wreck-It Ralph is in theaters now!