EXCLUSIVE: RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET Directors Phil Johnston & Rich Moore Talk Cast Improvisation

RICH MOORE: We encouraged them to, kind of, go off the page after we’d get a few takes that are as written because, as you said, these are very gifted comic actors and if we have a very democratic process, not only in the recording room, but just every step of the way with these movies - And we want to be the best that it can be and you only get that if you, kind of, leave the process open enough that people can stretch their arms and legs and move around in it.

So, we'll always get the scene recorded as written, but there's always a point where we kind of go off the reservation and play around with it a little bit and then try to take what we've learned from that playing around and then, maybe apply it to what's on the page to get the best of both. That’s just how we work.

PHIL JOHNSTON: Our editor has a terrible job - *laughs* - because we do a lot of takes and really do let the actors play around quite a bit.

CLARK SPENCER: One thing I'd like to add, is that the thing, I think, is unique about Rich and Paul is that they like to record the actors together.

Typically, in animation, we don't do that oftentimes because of schedules, sometimes because of overlap, and in the way actors might step on top of each other's lines but, they (Rich & Paul) want that naturalistic and organic performance and because, to your point, they hire such great comedic actors, putting two comedians into a room together, with the basic idea of what the scene needs to be, is going to allow it to go to a whole other level. So, John C. Reilly recorded with Bill Hader and he records with Sarah Silverman, and he recorded with Alfred Molina and then, Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch always record together. It gives them the ability to play off of each other and take that talent they have to a whole different level.

And yes, Rich and Paul will have to make sure that it's still going to fit within the story itself but it allows there to be exploration that I think makes the performance that much more natural or something that's that's a kind of non-spontaneous process of animation.

PHIL: That one was actually not - because that was a lot of people.

RICH: Yeah, you have 15 people, so we don't really have the capability to record a group that large and especially when so many of those actresses were coming from lots of different places around the country and around the world actually. So, in that case we had to be a little more traditional in recording the performances individually.

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.