How "Ralph breaks the Internet" distorts the Disney Princess industrial complex

PAMELA RIBON was so worried about her idea that she had to pause to ask herself: If I write this, will it make me fired?

As a storyteller, Ribon is familiar with a modern Disney princess, having worked for about two years on the "Moana" tube. And she says that her gift for creating dialogues with strong and fun female characters helped her become a writer on Disney's. Ralph Breaks the Internet "(opening Wednesday), the sequel to the success of Rich Moore, an Academy Award nominee in 2012," Wreck-It Ralph ".

So it is with a taste for satire that Ribon began to think: And if, at one point in the film, I surrounded Vanellope Von Schweetz, the video game runner of the franchise "Ralph" (voiced by Sarah Silverman), with enough Disney princesses to look like a sorority meeting – and then tease their tropes?

Ribon tackled the first draft of the concept with the merry abandonment of someone who believed that his studio heads would never allow such a comical twist. And so, she dredged the well-crafted Disney young women, representing eight decades of animation studio history, to question the new child by asking her if she fulfilled one of the criteria of her life. 39, a princess of Disney origin, such as the victim of poisoning. or condemned filiation.

But the real turning point came: Vanellope's detour of history not only got the green light, but the meta-meeting of the princesses also became one of the best scenes of the film. Despite the long history of parodies, memes and YouTube usurpations by comedians outside the Disney Princess, the magical realm has surpassed it. As Cinder-Satire says, the match is over – the winner, the "Ralph" team.

All because Ribon, the writer and comedian of itinerant education (his many childhood homes included a stint in Germantown, Maryland) – adored Vanellope enough that jumped on the Internet, to the point that She believed that the big-hearted girl deserved to be crowned as a Disney royalty.

At the beginning of the filming of "Moana," Ribon told The Washington Post, the authors wonder about their island heroine: "Will she be a princess? What is it? mean? "

This conversation was postponed to the early stages of the "Ralph" sequel. "I said to myself, 'Good God, why is not Vanellope hot?' ", Said Ribon. "For me, she's my kind of princess – in a hoodie."

"At first we were joking about Vanellope photobombing the [seven] dwarves, "said Ribon. This brainstorming has resulted in Vanellope – who is slipping from his Sugar Rush game – coming to the Oh My Disney Internet Zone.

"And if they try to determine if she is canon or not – whatever this thing [is] that they decide at Disneyland to allow some of them to get their coronation, "says Ribon, inviting the princesses to grill Vanellope in his potentially royal resume. "And so I took it from there."

Ribon says she started experiencing a "real panic attack," so she contacted a friend, a Wikipedia talking about Disney facts, and told her, "I have all these tropes and I just want to be sure I have good princesses. Which ones were kidnapped? Which ones have problems with dad?

"She was like," What are you Make? "

What Ribon did was engage in a type of scene to which she had been gravitating for a long time. Almost two decades ago, she put on a show based on actress Anne Heche's 2001 memoir – more than a dozen different performers reading parts of the book.

"I realize how much the show of monologue Anne Heche is in direct line with the princess's stage," said Ribon, who studied theater at the University of Texas in Austin. "I did this show because I wanted my friends to have a showcase and when I was reading [her] In my book, I kept hearing their voices in my head and I said to myself, "I think they are monologues with which you can audition." And then it became the show.

Ribon began hearing the voices of many actresses behind the roles. The film has led many of them to return to their roles, including Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel of "Frozen", Mandy Moore of "Rapunzel" and Kelly Macdonald of "Brave".

Finally, almost hopeless, she passed the idea in front of the directors, Rich Moore and Phil Johnston ("Zootopia"), and the producers, while saying to themselves: "They will not let me do this joke of Ariel" .

Instead, Moore's encouraging response. "The idea of ​​satirizing Disney," he told La Poste, "is the greatest gift we have received."

In addition, said Johnston, they explained that because the frame of the film is "Internet, we can do everything, we can go anywhere. So, why can not Vanellope visit a website where the Disney princesses are? "

As the princess's encounter evolved, writers played on the fact that not only are Disney princesses often kidnapped, but they still look in "waters of importance". (In their attention to detail, a princess fan of the studio told Ribon that Mulan is not looking in a puddle of water, but rather in a trough.) Robin's enthusiastic response: "Even better!") scene also encourages you to rely on a hunk to solve the thorny problem of a damsel.

Ribon recorded all the scratch tracks of the princess (the reserved recordings of the voices used during the development) so that the filmmakers could understand how the whole scene would unfold.

Producers secured other former voice actors of Princess, including Irene Bedard ("Pocahontas"), Jodi Benson ("The Little Mermaid"), Auli "i Cravalho (" Moana "), Paige O" Hara ("Beauty and the Beast"), Linda Larkin ("Aladdin"), Anika Noni Rose ("The Princess and the Frog") and Ming-Na Wen ("Mulan") – and Ribon remained the voice of Blanche- Snow. (Adriana Caselotti, who pronounced the title of princess in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937, died in 1997.)

And all the actresses, says Ribon, have clearly enjoyed filming their characters with affectionate respect, explain the filmmakers, especially by highlighting the way the princesses let themselves be unconcerned and speak with a heightened awareness of their lives.

"It's like when I'm making fun of my dad," says Johnston. "Yes, I can do it. I love my father and his weaknesses. We arrive there from a place of love. "

This is not because Ribon is not yet on guard to make fun of the princesses who populate the Kingdom.

"I'm glad people really liked it," she says, "but I do not think I've really expired yet."