Disney Princess Spin-Off Movie is “An Idea Worth Exploring”, According to ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Directors
Posted on Monday, March 4th, 2019 by
Ben Pearson
I’ll admit that I rolled my eyes when I first saw the now-famous Disney Princess scene in the trailers for
Ralph Breaks the Internet.
You know the one: Vanellope Von Schweetz meets Belle, Jasmine, Moana, Cinderella, and several other princesses as they make self-referential jokes about the ordeals they’ve experienced. But while the trailer made it seem slightly crass, the scene plays much better in context and the princesses actually end up factoring into the plot; the movie gives them more to do than just lounge around in pajamas.
But after the princesses’ warm reception in the movie, would the studio consider making an entire animated Disney Princess spin-off movie? The
Ralph Breaks the Internet directors say it’s “an idea worth exploring.” But don’t get your hopes up too much…yet.
In an interview with
The A.V. Club, directors
Rich Moore and
Phil Johnston explained how the Disney Princess scenes in the film have connected with audiences in a big way (
Spoilers ahead):
“When you’re in Stockholm and they’re saying like, ‘Have you considered doing a movie just about the Princesses?’ I think it’s an idea worth exploring, because everywhere we go, we hear that response. ‘Oh my God, I love the Princesses like that.’ Not just the scene meeting Vanellope and talking about what it means to be a princess, but then to see them in action – it does feel like there’s something to that — that people are finally seeing the Princesses do what you’ve always believed they could do, but you’ve never seen it before.”
Before you get too excited, though, Moore made it clear that nothing official is in the works:
“I don’t know if there’s any conversations going on here seriously about [a spinoff], but we’ve definitely heard a lot of [positive response from the fans]. The fans are off the charts with the ideas that are out there.”
Knowing Disney, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if there actually
are conversations about uniting these characters again in some form. The princesses are one of the studio’s biggest merchandising juggernauts, there’s a built-in nostalgia factor, and
Ralph Breaks the Internet showed that they can still work in a modern context. That’s a jackpot situation for Disney, who is always looking for content that boosts the company’s key brands.
Typically when the idea of any spin-off is floated, we wonder if the character in question will be able to hold the focus of a story on their own. That notion seems moot in this case, since these princesses have already held up several stories individually. It seems inevitable that some sort of Disney Princess team-up will happen eventually. So will it be a theatrical event (maybe even in live-action?) or a show/movie designed specifically for Disney+? After all,
the villains are about to get their time in the spotlight, so it’ll probably only be a matter of time before the Princesses unite once again.
To learn more about how the Disney Princess scene came together in
Ralph Breaks the Internet, be sure to
check out our detailed breakdown.
