The directors of 'Ralph Breaks the Internet' address the Princess Tiana backlash and teases more scenes featuring Disney princesses in the movie
- "Ralph Breaks the Internet" directors Phil Johnston and Rich Moore talked to Business Insider about the controversy surrounding the way Princess Tiana from "The Princess and the Frog" is depicted in the movie.
- Following the online backlash, they went back and worked on the character again, saying it is now "as close to the 2D version as you can get."
- The filmmakers also revealed that there is more than one Disney princesses scene in the movie.
In "Ralph Breaks the Internet," the sequel to Disney's 2012 animated movie "Wreck-It Ralph," main characters from the original, Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), leave the friendly confines of their arcade games and launch into the world of the internet, where anything is possible.
That includes Vanellope finding herself in a room full of Disney princesses.
The scene has been in most of the promotions for the movie (which opens in theaters November 21), since it debuted at last year's D23 expo. And though it's a hilarious look at everyone from Snow White to Elsa talking about the unique similarities that make them all princesses, the scene was also caught up in controversy over how one of them was depicted.
Rose posted her thoughts on Instagram:
The outcry led to the directors of "Ralph Breaks the Internet," Phil Johnston and Rich Moore, to go back in with their team and improve on Tiana before the release of the movie.
Business Insider sat down with the filmmakers on Thursday leading up to their presentation of footage at New York Comic-Con, and they opened up about the process to get Princess Tiana right.
"In the last six or eight months we started getting some feedback that people didn't think Tiana looked like the original character from 'Princess and the Frog,'" Johnston said, who noted the challenges of converting a 2D-drawn character, which Tiana was in "Princess and the Frog," to a CGI version.
"It was the first time many of those princesses were done that way," Johnston said.
"If we don't get it perfect, we want to hear that," Moore added. "And even from outside sources. If we hear that something is not the best it can be, we look at it, because we want to honor those characters. We want it to be the best it can be. And we take that very, very seriously."
The filmmakers brought in Rose as well as advocacy groups like Color of Change and had them look at the revised Tiana. It' almost reminiscent of what Disney's Pixar Studios did with the making of "Coco," in which director Lee Unkrich invited in cultural consultants though different phases of the making of the movie to make sure the story correctly represented Mexican culture.
"There were tears, everyone was thrilled and happy that it was done," Johnston said. "And at the end of the day we are thrilled with the way that she looks and feel like it's as close to the 2D version as you can get in CG, knowing that there are going to be differences because the process is so different."
The filmmakers also said that the princesses scene will be a little different in the movie version compared to the footage in the trailer. Specifically, a few new jokes and a couple lines of dialogue from Vanellope.
And it sounds like that won't be the only time Princess Tiana will be seen in the movie. Johnston and Moore revealed that all the princesses show up again later in the movie.
"I have friends who are like, 'It's just that one scene with them, right?' All I can say is you'll definitely see more of them," Moore said.