20 facts you might not know about 'Wreck-It Ralph'

Wreck-It Ralph came out in 2012, but it was a long road to get there. Not in the traditional animated movie way, either. The idea for Wreck-It Ralph began in the era of arcades, the late 1980s. Back then, it was called “High Score.” In the ‘90s, it was reworked as “Joe Jump,” and then in the 2000s as “Reboot Ralph.” Finally, we got to the version that actually came out.

Disney offered Rich More the opportunity to make his feature film directorial debut with Wreck-It Ralph. That’s daunting, but Moore did have some notable directing experience in animation. He had served as a director on both The Simpsons and Futurama.

Tudyk plays King Candy, a.k.a. Turbo, has a distinct voice. He based it on Ed Wynn, a popular comedian whose career began in the 1930s. In the world of voiceover work, Wynn voiced the Mad Hatter in Disney’s version of Alice in Wonderland, and that in particular served as a reference point for King Candy.

The two donut cops, Wynnchel and Duncan, are obviously a joke on the stereotype that cops love donuts. However, that’s not the only joke there. Duncan’s name is a riff on Dunkin’ Donuts, while Wynnchel is in homage to Winchell’s Donuts.

The look of Mr. Litwak, who owns the arcade that Ralph and friends are housed in, wears a distinct outfit, including a referee-style shirt. His look is inspired by Walter Day, who was the founder of video game record-keeping organization Twin Galaxies. If you’ve seen The King of Kong, you’ve seen Day.

The security guard in Sugar Rush has the unusual name of Beard Papa. However, Beard Papa is a real mascot from the world of sweet treats. Beard Papa’s is a Japanese brand of cream puffs. It’s primarily a Japanese brand, but there are Beard Papa’s available in the United States.

If you played video games in the Nintendo era, you likely know the Konami Code. It was a famed code in many Konami games that opened up a world of possibilities (especially in Contra). Fittingly, when King Candy is accessing the programming in Sugar Rush, he uses the Konami Code to do so.

The high score on “Fix-It Felix Jr.” is 120501. That number wasn’t chosen at random. It represents Walt Disney’s birthday, as he was born on December 5, 1901.

Plenty of real video game characters pop up in Wreck-It Ralph, but that’s as far as Moore wanted to go. He has a "story by" credit on the movie, and he said that he didn’t want to make a movie about an existing character because “there's so much mythology and baggage attached to pre-existing titles that I feel someone would be disappointed.” Moore cited this as a reason why so many video game adaptations fail.

So many video game icons are in Wreck-It Ralph, but a certain plumber doesn’t make an appearance. It was long rumored that was because Nintendo wanted too high a licensing fee to use Mario or Luigi. However, Moore has debunked that. He said that they just couldn’t find a way to use Mario that didn’t overshadow the story and the main characters.

Wreck-It Ralph is a baddie, so plenty of video game villains appear in the movie. One of those bad guys was supposed to be Dr. Wily from Mega Man. In fact, he was originally in the film, but he got cut out.

There are a few original songs in Wreck-It Ralph, but one that was going to be in it ended up not making the cut. That song was written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. It’s a little surprising that they weren’t able to get their song in the movie. After all, they were responsible for a lot of the music in Frozen, and Robert Lopez is an EGOT winner.

At one point in the film, a sullen, dejected Ralph was going to hide away in the game Extreme EZ Livin' 2. This was going to be a game somewhere in between The Sims and Grand Theft Auto. However, they couldn’t crack how to make a non-arcade game like that work, so they nixed that whole storyline.

A lot of video game food shows up in Wreck-It Ralph. That’s especially true in Sugar Rush, which is chockfull of candy. To try and improve the look of the movie, the animation team brought in profession food photographers to get tips on how to make food look more appetizing.

A lot of animated films involve the actors recording their lines by themselves when they have the time. Sometimes, they don’t even come into a recording studio if they have the equipment themselves. Wreck-It Ralph did things differently, though. The main cast recorded together in the same room, which made it easier for them to improvise.

In the world of Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph is the villain in Fix-It Felix’s game. Based on Donkey Kong, it’s not a real game…or that is to say it wasn’t. For E3 in 2012, Disney made a mockup arcade cabinet where people could play Fix-It Felix Jr. They also released a browser version and a mobile version.

For the home release of Wreck-It Ralph, Rich Moore made a short mockumentary called Garlan Hulse: Where Potential Lives. The whole thing is a parody of The Kong of Kong set in the world of the movie.

Disney is a brand in and of itself, but Wreck-It Ralph was not based on a real game. Would the movie be a hit? Well, in addition to being liked by critics, the film made $471.2 million worldwide on a budget of $165 million. However, it was only No. 1 in the box office for one week, as Skyfall came out in its second week.

Wreck-It Ralph was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Alas, it lost to Brave. Of course, Pixar is owned by Disney so that worked out for them anyway. That being said, it did win the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, and it also won the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award as well.

Like we said, animated films can take a while. As such, it wasn’t until 2018 that we got Ralph Breaks the Internet. While the budget rose to $175 million, the sequel made $529.3 million worldwide. At the moment, there is no plans for a third movie, and Rich Moore no longer works for Disney.