We wanted to explore good, bad of Internet: 'Ralph Breaks the Internet' co-director (IANS Interview)

Along with a heart-warming tale of friendship, "Ralph Breaks the Internet" puts the spotlight on the dark side of the Internet, and co-director Phil Johnston says they wanted to explore the good and bad of the virtual world with the animated film.

With "Ralph Breaks the Internet", Johnston along with Rich Moore is bringing the second chapter from the story of the adventures of Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz, on the big screen once again. The sequel of "Wreck-It Ralph" balances between the good and bad. Though the core theme revolves around the emotions of friendship, it doesn't shy away from tackling important social issues like bullying and online trolling.

"The Internet sort of invites a lot of issues to be dealt with. Because there are so many things that are right with it and so many things which are wrong with it," Johnston told IANS in an exclusive interview here.

"We wanted to explore both sides of it. Both the things that are remarkable and amazing, the friendships that can be formed in the online community but also the more toxic elements like bullying and trolling and things like viruses -- the darker side of the Internet."

Johnston thinks "a movie which is about friendship particularly with one of the friends being insecure with self-doubt facing Internet does allow you to explore some of the more complicated sides of human emotions from joy to sorrow".

"I think the Internet does allow you to tackle things that might be difficult to do in a movie that takes place in real world," he added.

This time, Ralph and Vanellope go on a journey to explore the world of Internet, where they hope to find a replacement steering wheel for Vanellope's own racing game, the arcade classic Sugar Rush. The Walt Disney Animation Studios' project will release in India on November 23.

Talking about the second instalment, the director said: "We didn't start thinking seriously about making a sequel unless we had a good story. But we had a concept on one of the great thing -- Internet. What will the movie be about came to us when we were re-watching the first movie."

He continued: "The first part had a sweet ending. But the more we thought about it, it seemed a little emotionally unhealthy that Ralph feels this way. What if the other person doesn't think of him as a best friend? What would happen if Vanellope didn't love him. How would Ralph feel without her? What will that do to him?

"And that is when we realised that Ralph has a lot of growing and maturing to do. And we felt that there is another story to be told."

What about the third part?

"It is interesting that when we finished the first movie we thought that was it. We are done and story has been told. And then with a little bit distance from it, we found this story. I think right now it feels to me that these two movies serve as a very nice and complete story of a friendship that goes from childhood into adulthood -- even though our characters' ages are sort of irrelevant -- but that is how I think about it right now.

"I personally can't think of another story that I am eager to tell. But I am also tried and maybe after some time off, I can think about it," said Johnston, who has also worked on "Zootopia" ,"Cedar Rapids" and "A Merry Friggin' Christmas".

(Sugandha Rawal was in Los Angeles at the invitation of Disney. She can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)

--IANS

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