Note: This article contains mild spoilers for Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Ralph Breaks the Internet directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston have revealed that the incredible Disney princesses scene almost didn't make the final cut.
One of the stand-out moments of the Wreck-It Ralph sequel comes when Vanellope ventures to Oh My Disney and encounters some iconic Disney princesses, including Ariel, Mulan, Elsa and more, in a sequence that hilariously challenges princess tropes.
But for a while, Moore and Johnston struggled to find a way to make it "earn" its place in the movie.
"I think the thing about the scene with the princesses was making sure that it deserved to be in the movie so it wasn't just a satirical deconstruction of the Disney princesses, but was actually an integral part of Vanellope's story," Johnston told Digital Spy.
"Our story changed too," Moore added. "What Ralph and Vanellope were doing, the whole thematic shifted at one point. For a long time, it didn't make sense to how the story was adding up."
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Fortunately, they worked out a way for it to fit as Vanellope's meeting with the princesses leads her to deliver a princess staple: an "I Want" song. "We kept banging away at it and that's where the idea of, 'Oh, they inspire her to sing this song' came from," Moore recalled.
They ended up working with Disney legend Alan Menken on Vanellope's big number 'A Place Called Slaughter Race', but they didn't actually think to ask him originally.
"He was the first name on the list of how we described it. We always said, 'It's an Alan Menken-type song' and finally our VP of music said, 'Guys, you want me to call Alan Menken? Because I have a good relationship with him and I'm sure he'd love to do this'," Moore explained.
Johnston added: "I think I was singing all of the parts just as proof of concept. Alan came in and listened to that. We pitched him the scene, showed him an animatic of it and he said, 'There's something here, you're at about 30% now'. Alan Menken gave me a low F, that's wonderful."
And if you think that the duo had to be careful when it came to their Disney jibes, that wasn't the case at all, as they discovered when they first showed the princesses scene.
"We did take it to the powers-that-be at Disney just to make sure it was kosher and they loved it, and they actually encouraged us to go farther. There were really no sacred cows. It was us pushing the envelope as far as we could, but doing a satire with genuine love," Moore said.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is in US cinemas now and is released in UK cinemas on November 30.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
