EXCLUSIVE: RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET Directors Explain The Film's Title & Why They Took The Story Online

PHIL: *lengthy laughter* - Worst decision we ever made. So glad that conversation is still going on.

That was a big debate and it’s exactly what you're thinking it was, he's ‘Wreck it Ralph,’ so it should be ‘Ralph Wrecks the Internet,’ but, then, it doesn’t have the double meaning of one breaking the internet by going viral and that's going to be part of his story because he later literally breaks the Internet.

So, I don't know. We yelled at each other for a week and finally, we're like ‘fine just call it Ralph Breaks the Internet.’ and everyone will be happy, but no one is happy. *laughs*

CLARK: We knew that 50 percent of the people would be angry. There was no winning. It was a Sophie's Choice. *laughs*

RICH: It was definitely not on our mind during the first movie. We didn't start really thinking about it, in earnest, until the first movie was finished and it wasn't until six months to a year after the first movie came out that we really sat down and started talking about ‘Okay, if we did a sequel, what would that look like, what would it be like.’

Since the first movie was still very much a love letter to those arcades of the ‘80s, to our childhood, to those games that we loved playing when we were young. We said to ourselves that we don't need to do that again. We don't need to write another love letter to our childhoods. One is plenty.

Then, we’re thinking what could we do that brings the characters up to the present, make it feel more contemporary and the very first idea was ‘Well, what about if they go to the Internet?’ and immediately, we could see the potential in that idea and with these characters.

PHIL: We didn't, simply because the movie has themes of change and Ralph is a guy who is really holding on to his past. And we wanted it to be okay that he didn't leave the arcade, but that he sort of learned to embrace the idea of the Internet and sort of learned to embrace change and embrace the future, if you will.

But, we actually liked the idea of treating the Internet and the arcade as kind of a big city in a small town and that, Ralph loves his small town even if it's not the most exciting, even if not a lot of people live there or show up there. It's sort of treating it the way you would consider a rural community versus a big city and Ralph can go visit the Internet from time to time and see her, but he loves his way of life and we kind of wanted that to be part of the theme, that there's no judgment between the big city and the small town or someone that's a little bit more of a Luddite, who can still have a relationship with the Internet, but not live every moment of their life online. We like that balance in front of the two sides of that coin that is their friendship.

In Ralph Breaks the Internet, video-game bad guy Ralph and best friend Vanellope von Schweetz leave the comforts of Litwak’s arcade in an attempt to save her game, Sugar Rush. Their quest takes them to the vast, uncharted world of the Internet where they rely on the citizens of the Internet—the Netizens—to help navigate their way. Lending a virtual hand are Yesss, the head algorithm and the heart and soul of the trend-making site “BuzzzTube,” and Shank, a tough-as-nails driver from a gritty online auto-racing game called Slaughter Race, a place Vanellope wholeheartedly embraces—so much so that Ralph worries he may lose the only friend he’s ever had.