Script To Screen: “Wreck-It Ralph”

A scene from the 2012 animated movie Wreck-It Ralph, screenplay by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee, story by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston and Jim Reardon.

Plot Summary: A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.

Here is the scene from the script:

THE MEDAL IN THE PEPPERMINT TREE — MOMENTS LATER

The tree is surrounded by a bubbling taffy pool. Ralph
teeters across some wobbly gum drops floating in the pool. He
grabs the tree and climbs, eyes on the medal.

VANELLOPE (O.S.)
Hi mister!

RALPH
AHHH!

He looks up, terrified. But it’s only VANELLOPE VON SCHWEETZ,
a 9-year-old girl, looking down from a branch above him.

VANELLOPE
Hello!

RALPH
Man! You scared me, kid! I nearly
soiled myself!

VANELLOPE
What’s your name?

RALPH
Ralph, Wreck-it Ralph.

VANELLOPE
You’re not from here, are you?

RALPH
No, well, yeah, I mean not from
right in this area. But I’m just
doing some work here.

VANELLOPE
What kind of work?

He continues climbing.

RALPH
Some routine candy-tree trimming.
You probably want to stand back.
In fact, this whole area is
technically closed while we’re
trimmin’ so —

VANELLOPE
Who’s we?

RALPH
Candy-tree department.

He climbs higher.

VANELLOPE
Ah. Where is everybody else?

RALPH
Oh, it’s just me, today.

VANELLOPE
So, you just meant like the royal
we?

RALPH
Yup. That’s right.

Vanellope springs up to a branch by his face and hangs upside
down.

VANELLOPE
Are you a hobo?

RALPH
No, I am not a hobo. But I am busy,
so you go, go home.

VANELLOPE
What’s that? I didn’t hear you.
Your breath is so bad, it made my
ears numb.

RALPH
Listen, I try to be nice —

VANELLOPE
(mimicking him)
I try to be nice.

RALPH
You’re mimicking me.

VANELLOPE
(still mimicking)
You’re mimicking me.

RALPH
Okay, that is rude, and this
conversation is over.

He climbs on.

VANELLOPE
(still mimicking)
That is rude and this conversation
is….hahaha.
(watching him)
I wouldn’t grab that branch if I
were you. It’s a double stripe.

RALPH
I’m from the candy-tree department.
I know exactly —

He grabs the branch. DING! SNAP. Ralph Falls.

RALPH (CONT’D)
— WHOA!

He barely manages to catch a lower branch with one hand.

VANELLOPE
Double stripes break, ga-doi.
Hey, why are your hands so
freakishly big?

RALPH
Uh, I dunno. Why are you so
freakishly annoying?

VANELLOPE
Well, why are you so freakishly —

Just then, she notices the glistening medal.

VANELLOPE (CONT’D)
Sweet mother of monkey milk! A gold
coin!

RALPH
Don’t even think about it. That is
mine.

VANELLOPE Race you for it!

Vanellope moves like a monkey up the branches. Ralph follows.

RALPH
I don’t have to race you for it,
because it’s mine.

Grabs a double stripe. DING! It BREAKS!

VANELLOPE
Double stripe!

Vanellope makes it to the top and grabs the medal.

RALPH
Come back here! Give it back, give
it, give it!

VANELLOPE
The winner! Whoa!

Ralph grabs the branch she’s on and flings her off. She drops
the medal. He catches it. She dives for it, misses. Ralph
lands on a double-stripe. DING!

VANELLOPE (CONT’D)
Double stripe!

CRACK. He falls. The medal goes flying again.

RALPH Aahhh! Nooooooo!

He grabs the bottom branch and hangs inches above the
BUBBLING taffy. Vanellope snags the medal.

VANELLOPE
Thank you.

She hops off the tree to the ground, safely beyond the taffy.

RALPH
Look, wait. Let me talk to you for
one second. Here’s the thing, I’m not
from the candy tree department.

VANELLOPE
Lying to a child. Shame on you,
Ralph.

RALPH
But I wasn’t lying about the medal.
That is my medal. That’s why I was
climbing the tree. It’s mine. It’s
precious to me.

Vanellope polishes the medal, admiring it.

RALPH (CONT’D)
That thing’s my ticket to a better
life.

VANELLOPE
Yeah, well now it’s my ticket.

Vanellope glitches.

RALPH
What the…?

VANELLOPE
See ya, chump.

She runs off.

RALPH
Come back! I’ll find you! I will
find you!

Ralph hears a DING. He looks up. CRACK!

VANELLOPE (O.S.)
Double stripe!

Ralph falls into the gooey taffy pool! He bubbles up, looking like
a taffy beast.

RALPH
Nowhere to hide!

He disappears back beneath the sticky surface.

Here is the scene from the movie:

As with all animated movies, the movies hews quite closely to the script, the story written and rewritten multiple times, then pretty much locked down before going into production.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

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