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Wreck-It Ralph Junior Novelization/Movie comparison

In (belated) honour of WIR's 2nd Anniversary and for #WiRRevival2k14, I felt I should write something that is long overdue. There will always be some minor changes in things like dialogue, omitting copyrighted character names, and story structure (the book has to have a prologue that details the world of WIR that the movie did mostly with visuals), but this will mainly look at/analyze the major changes between the junior novelization and the movie (and there are surprisingly quite a lot). To this day, I'm curious if this book was based on an earlier draft of the movie or if the author took some liberties. Anyways, long post beneath the cut.

So at the beginning when, instead of saying "My name's Ralph. And, I'm a bad guy", he says "I guess that kind of makes me the bad guy". The former implies that Ralph doesn't beat around the bush in that he has a less than favorable role. The rest of the scene of him at the Bad Anon mostly plays out like in the movie (though Satine is never addressed as Satan at any point), though I think there is an added emphasis on how fortunate he is to have been active for 30 years but to him it doesn't feel like much. In the scene where Ralph is heading back to his own game, there are gamers who acknowledge who he is: "That's Wreck-It Ralph. Bad Guy. Better get out of his way", rather than just any other Bad Guy. Also when Ralph meets up with the Surge Protector, he snaps "You know my name" rather than "Lara Croft", along with the author saying that the SP "clearly needed more memory".

Now, the first MAJOR change is when Ralph arrives at his game. There's an added scene that didn't make it into the film. When Ralph sees that there's a party at the penthouse, he actually recites the Bad Guy Affirmation to himself, though it doesn't make him feel better. This actually would have been interesting if they kept it in the film, I think, especially when you have him say it to himself with more confidence at the climax. When he goes to the party (boldly saying "Don't mind if I do" before entering the room), Gene surprisingly isn't the only asshole to him. In the movie, it's implied that Gene is the only Nicelander that genuinely dislikes Ralph, and the others are just afraid of him. Here, they're pretty much ALL assholes to him. When Ralph confronts Gene over the cake, another Nicelander (Roy) is the one to say "Only Good Guys win medals, and you, sir, are no good guy". You then have Gene say, with a mocking smile (!), that Ralph can live in the penthouse if he wins a medal, and the Nicelanders all LAUGH. Holy crap! The rest of the scene plays out like in the movie, although Gene's line of "Yes, you are [just the bad guy who wrecks the building]" is omitted.

The scene where Ralph is at Tapper's is played out mostly like in the movie (although all references to beer are completely left out), though at the beginning Ralph DOESN'T tell his server that he needs a medal so that he won't have to live alone any longer; instead, he gets motivation by looking at the Good Guys smiling and wearing their medals. When Ralph leaves to go to Hero's Duty, there's actually an added detail of the SP saluting Ralph as a soldier and letting him proceed without checking him (with Ralph expecting him to do so). Ralph then thinks to himself "So this is what it feels like to be a Good Guy". I think this would've been a neat detail to keep in the film. Most of the scenes of him in Hero's Duty involve pretty minor changes (though I notice Kohut has a slightly bigger role in the book than he does in the movie). When the Nicelanders realize he's gone, instead of saying "Without Ralph, we're doomed!" (which implies that they finally realize how important he is to their livelihood, and it would make sense for them to start being genuinely good to him later on), they say "Ralph has doomed us all!". Again, HOLY CRAP! I can think of various reasons why that line was better left out of the film. There's another change where, instead of saying the very dramatic "Ralph's gone Turbo", Felix says "Ralph's gone to Hero's Duty!"

The next really significant changes happen once Ralph enters Sugar Rush (for one thing, he doesn't go "Sayonara Sucker!" when he thinks the cybug is dead, he just sighs in relief). The exchange Felix and Calhoun make before pursuing Ralph is a little different. In the book, Calhoun nods in agreement that Felix should go along with her; it's a subtly difference in character development for her, since in the movie she snaps her fingers and points to her hoverboard to indicate that she'll let Felix come with her, which is a lot more forceful. Once Vanellope enters the race, we get a little more insight as to how badly the Sugar Rush residents view Vanellope (King Candy asks where she got the medal and Sour Bill guesses she stole it, and while she TECHNICALLY stole it, the point is, they're quick to assume she did something without knowing everything). There's a little added detail in the book of Vanellope throwing candy at Ralph's eyes when he chases her, but most of the scene is the same as the movie (though Taffyta's line of "There's no way I'm racing with a glitch" is removed).

The first confrontation between Ralph and King Candy cuts out a lot of jabs the two make at each other, focusing only on the dialogue that's important to the plot (probably for brevity). Their relationship in the book is a little different because, in the movie, King Candy clearly takes enjoyment out of tormenting and torturing Ralph (both during the climax and in this scene, where in the movie he gleefully threatens to lock Ralph in his fungeon). In the book, he just wants Ralph to GTFO or to kill him immediately. I also notice that King Candy's zaniness is more subdued in the book, and he asks Ralph "What are you doing in my game?" instead of "What are you doing here?"That can indicate that he truly believes he owns/belongs in this game or he's just covering his track. Either way, that's quite some nerve.

Skip to the next scene. There's a little more detail in Ralph's adventure escaping the guards, but then the book starts to STRONGLY diverge from the movie in the scene between Vanellope and the other racers. For starters, Ralph doesn't follow the kids to Vanellope in the hopes of talking to them like in the movie; he's the first to find Vanellope at the junkyard, and the racers suddenly show up. Then there’s this whole moment that didn't make it into the film whatsoever:

“But you know the rules,” Taffyta told her. Rancis handed Taffyta a scroll. She opened it and began to read: “By royal decree, glitches may never, ever, ever race.” She unrolled the scroll some more and showed a circle-slashed picture of Vanellope at the bottom.

This adds a whole new layer to the story; it does a better job of implying that the racers are indeed indoctrinated into thinking Vanellope should not race and are doing what they do because they feel like they HAVE to. The movie somewhat implies that, but for the most part, the kids just come across as unnecessary bullies. There’s also another added moment that doesn’t make into the film, after Vanellope insists she has Pixlexia (and the book doesn’t mention how she glitches when she says she has it):

“Pixlexia?” Taffyta asked skeptically. “Uh, it’s a code-reading disability,” Vanellope said, hoping they’d believe it. “It occurs when the corpus does not properly recognize certain symbols.” From up on the hill, Ralph thought to himself, Huh, good to know.

I have no idea what to make of that. Anyways, the rest of the scene is slightly different; Vanellope still gets pushed into the mud, but not by Taffyta, and their “You’re nothing but a glitch!” spat happens before that. The exchanges between Ralph and Vanellope are also a little different (no prolonged “Hero’s Doodie” joke, no Vanellope making a jab at Ralph that causes him to hammer at a jawbreaker).

Then we get to the (in)famous scene of Felix and Calhoun in the quicksand, which is completely different from the movie. They don’t fall in because of a double-striped vine (they just wander into it by accident), Felix is the one to realize that struggling makes it worse, and when Calhoun laments on how she’s going to die in chocolate milk mix after all her intense battles, Felix giggles at her. Felix discovers that their laughter amuses the Laffy Taffies, so he ends up tickling Calhoun to make her laugh, and then she tickles him, and that’s how they get out. (I guess they didn’t want to make the book too violent? I’m not sure how it would’ve played out if it was left in the movie.) Then there’s this:

“What is this feeling?” Felix asked, smiling dreamily. Calhoun grinned. “I haven’t laughed this hard since…” Her voice trailed off. Felix looked at her expectantly, hopefully. “Brad.” Calhoun’s expression became hard, and her eyes narrowed. “Time to look for more bugs,” she told Felix.

Felix’s comment is a little unnecessary (show, don’t tell), but the rest of this is actually a REALLY nice touch, and I wish they kept that in the movie. It would’ve given both the relationship and Calhoun’s character more development/an added layer of sweetness (at least in my opinion).

The scene of Vanellope and Ralph making the kart is also quite different. In addition to some changes in dialogue (Ralph doesn’t accuse Vanellope of being a full-on criminal in the book), instead of having ‘one minute to win it’, the two of them have free time to make the kart by hand, and they are shown having a lot of fun making it together (they even laugh and squeeze frosting at each other). Vanellope comments on how Ralph is “all proud of what you made” (which is less subtle than in the film, when Ralph starts to smile, Vanellope points out how she hasn’t seen it smile, and at first Ralph denies that he is). King Candy is more furious than scared to see Ralph is still in the game, and instead of Ralph propelling the car away from the backseat while Vanellope remains in the front, he sits in the front seat with Vanellope on his shoulder and chastises her all the way for not telling him she can’t drive. When they arrive at Vanellope’s home, the placement of scenes is different; in the book, Vanellope shows Ralph around her home (and he starts to feel sympathy for her) first, THEN he rants about how much he needs his medal. I like the placement of scenes in the film better, since it makes more sense for his character development (it’s kind of a dick move to see a kid in a similar/worse situation than you and whine to her and still go on about how you need a medal to better your life; even after Vanellope tells Ralph that she cannot leave her shitty situation and explains how racing would better HER life, Ralph makes it mostly about him/doesn’t seem too sorry for her before making the racetrack for Vanellope to practice, and, again, the way it plays out in the movie makes Ralph’s actions look more sincere.) The racetrack practice scene is mostly just like in the movie, just with more dialogue (although Ralph’s line of “I’ll get that medal!” when he sees how good Vanellope is doing, which I’m not sure I like, is not in the book) rearranged (Ralph says “Top Shelf” before Vanellope gets excited that she’s going to win, and he’s a little more forceful in telling Vanellope that she needs to get her glitching under control).

The scene with King Candy in the code-room is altered a little (there isn’t a scene beforehand where he is told Vanellope can’t be found, and it looks like Sour Bill does NOT accompany him there). The scene with Calhoun and Felix in the shuttle is altered a LOT. There is no moment where Calhoun is triggered; instead, when Felix makes it clear that he has affection for her, asking her to go out on a date later (rather than call her a ‘Dynamite Gal’), Calhoun suddenly pulls over and tells Felix that they need to part ways, and that she has cy-bugs to catch and that Felix can get help finding Ralph at the castle. This sort of makes sense (Calhoun doesn’t want to rush into romance after Brad), but it’s a lot less powerful than in the movie (which I guess was too intense for the book?), and it can leave people wondering why the sudden change of heart after it looked like she was warming up to Felix earlier (even Felix himself is confused here.)

When we get to the part where Ralph and Vanellope are about to go off to the race, it feels a little lacking. Like in the movie you can clearly see that Ralph is warming up to Vanellope, giving her the ‘adorable winner’ speech and being good natured about Vanellope going back inside the mountain to get something; the former is absent, and the latter he just shrugs in the book, which could imply ‘okay hurry up’. I don’t know. Once King Candy enters the picture, the scene plays out more or less like in the movie, until the end of the flashback, after Ralph insists that the gamers could love Vanellope:

“Are you willing to bet her life on it?” King Candy asked. As he spoke, he dangled the medal in front of Ralph’s face. “Now, it says here that you’re a hero. I don’t think a hero would let her get in that kart, Ralph.”

In here, he comes across as even more forceful/manipulative (and it’s a little more than obvious that he’s the villain; in the movie, this is the brief moment where it looks like King Candy is being sincere). Ralph also urges King Candy to stop hassling Vanellope with a wavering voice and King Candy promises he’ll do so (of course he’s lying) before giving him the medal. It’s a subtle change, because in the movie, King Candy looks like he sympathizes with Ralph and gently persuades him into doing the deed (or ‘talk a little sense into her’). The kart-wrecking scene plays out more or less like in the film, just condensed, although Vanellope sees Raph’s medal first THEN is told he talked to King Candy.

The scene where Ralph interrogates Sour Bill is more or less the same with an added emphasis on how King Candy cruelly made Vanellope a glitch, though I notice that Ralph is a lot more harsh (and gleeful) to Sour Bill in the movie than in the book.

Felix in the dungeon is a little different. For one thing, he doesn’t sit on his bench and cry out for help out the window; he paces around his cell and bangs on the door before going to the window (and saying “I can wreck it” rather than “I’M GONNA WRECK IT”). There’s also an added emphasis on how Felix needs to get home to his game since the arcade is going to open soon (which could imply that he’s given up on finding Ralph, or maybe assumed Ralph went home before he did). Ralph is quick to show Felix Vanellope’s kart and tell him that it needs to be fixed (to which Felix says “I don’t have to do boo”, but doesn’t say “forgive my potty mouth). When Ralph fully explains his situation and what happened, Felix responds thus:

“Oh, Ralph,” Felix said, touched by Ralph’s selfless desire to help someone else. He reached for his golden hammer and set to work.

I kind of wish they left something like this in the movie, rather than just have Felix smile and silently set to work. Just to cement that Felix understands that Ralph wants to help people. I don’t know, I think it just would’ve been a nice little touch. The next scene with Vanellope has an added detail of her being chained by the ankles and that Ralph breaks those chains first before apologizing.

Now we get to the Sugar Rush race scene. The crowd actually screams in horror to see Vanellope racing (in the movie they either didn’t seem to notice or didn’t care), and gasps when Rancis, Candlehead, and Taffyta are out of the race. And Calhoun calls Ralph “Johnny Disaster-seed” (which is actually really funny/clever) instead of “Junkpile” (which is extremely harsh). When we get to King Candy and Vanellope on the track together, there are a lot of added details:

“Hello!” Vanellope shouted. King Candy was stunned. “Vanellope? How did you break out?” Vanellope smiled. “I didn’t break out, I wrecked out!” she said, and cut him off, taking the lead.

This would’ve been awesome, but the scene in the movie (where Vanellope pulls off the most epic trollface while King Candy just goes “WHUT?”) is priceless. When they’re in the tunnel, King Candy tells her to get off of THIS track (instead of my track, not sure if that’s a significant change or not). One change that is slightly significant is when King Candy is revealed to be Turbo. Both Felix and Ralph cry out his name in alarm, and “a wave of recognition swept through the crowd” as the audience gasps his name as well. I think this adds a whole new layer to Turbo’s need for attention/fame (and how it literally all crumbles before him now) and how infamous he really is, though I think the movie handles it a bit better by having only two people actually recognize him, if you know what I mean.

When Turbo is revealed, he doesn’t go on a rant on how he’s the greatest racer ever and how pissed he is at Vanellope and Ralph. He just says “You’ve ruined everything!” before trying to ram her into a wall. The book also adds in King Candy actually ramming into the wall himself when Vanellope glitches out of the way, and how it causes him to skid and spin out. He doesn’t get eaten by a cybug until after the racetrack gets eaten, and this is what he says:

The destruction caught the king by surprise, and he was furious. “Cy-bugs! No, no! Where did they…?” He paused, realizing how all this had happened. “Game jumper!” he screamed at Ralph. “You wrecked my beautiful game. I’ll get you, Ralph! I’ll get you if it’s the last thing I--” [gets eaten by a cybug]

Well, he has quite the nerve calling Ralph a game jumper and how he wrecked HIS game! But this does add an interesting perspective on the character. Maybe it implies how King Candy really and truly believes that Sugar Rush is rightfully his/deludes himself into thinking he’s in the right. Though now his hatred is focused more on Ralph than on Vanellope.

When Ralph tries to get Vanellope to leave her game and fails, he puts his finger on her shoulder and says “I’m not leaving you here alone” and apologies to her when Calhoun says she’ll have to blow up the exit. I do kind of wish this was kept in the movie, but I think ultimately Ralph’s actions and expressions speak louder than words. There’s another added line of dialogue that didn’t make it into the film when Ralph is about to go to the mountain. He tells Felix “As soon as the bugs are dead, fix that finish line and get her across it”. This implies that Ralph is confident that his plan will work…but I think it also implies that he knows he might not survive. ;_;

When Ralph makes his way to the mountain (while punching cy-bugs out of the way, what a badass) and after he starts punching the Mentos, his confrontation with King Candybug is shortened. He is immediately swept into the air, and Ralph simply goes “Uh-oh” when KCB takes him higher into the sky, and decides to do away with him immediately by stabbing Ralph with a pincer before Ralph wordlessly breaks free and falls. Since the scene is shortened, I guess it makes it less scary for the younger readers, but it also takes away a lot of the film’s dramatic weight. Thankfully, the film keeps Ralph’s “I’m bad and that’s good” scene intact. When KCB is about to meet his fate, the book actually includes a scene of him grabbing onto a double-strip peppermint tree before the branch dissolves and he is forced to meet his end! This is a little clever, but would not have worked in the movie.

When Sugar Rush is reset and Vanellope’s reign is restored, Rancis actually asks if Vanellope can ever forgive them (I think the movie might’ve worked better if something like this was in, just to make their apology look more sincere). Vanellope jokingly tells them that they’re going to be executed, and actually says “Yes. Heads cut off. Chop, chop!” That’s so morbid! XD But of course she tells them that she doesn’t really mean it.

Now one detail that’s in the book is that Ralph tells Vanellope to “Hang on to that crown, in case you ever want to leave your game”. So the book implies that Vanellope’s princess form is the only way she can go around Game Central Station (and her hoodie form is permanently her glitch form). This does make sense, but in the movie, it implies that she CAN leave her game in her hoodie. I wish the film made it more clear how her mobility works.

Finally, we get to the part that I REALLY wish was kept in the movie. When Ralph returns to his game, it’s Moppet Girl who tells Mr. Litwak that the game isn’t broken, Ralph and Gene appear to have reconciled (Ralph asks Gene if he’s ready before throwing him out the window, as per their gameplay), and Felix and Calhoun kiss and Calhoun tells him to call her (as in go out on a date with her) before he happily returns to his game.

When Ralph goes to Bad-Anon again, he tells them that he’s a ‘changed Ralph’ (but omits the “I’m taking life one game at a time”, which I think is important) and seems to recall how, at Felix and Calhoun’s wedding, ALL the guests had their wedding pointed at the windows in case of a cy-bug attack (which makes the imagery of all the other video game characters at the wedding hilarious). And that’s about it in terms of major changes (let me know if I may have missed any).

Overall, I guess I can say that, for the most part, I like the direction the movie went, but there are a few things from the book that I mentioned before I would’ve kept. So I guess the junior novelization is a good companion piece/alternate look at the movie.

Well, that was my post. Happy Anniversary, Wreck-It Ralph! May you continue to capture the hearts of audiences for many years to come!

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