Academy Award-nominee John C. Reilly (“Chicago”) breathes life to Ralph, a heavy-handed wrecking riot with a heart, while Emmy-nominated comedienne Sarah Silverman lends her voice to Vanellope von Schweetz, a scrappy little girl who’s the first to spot Ralph when he crash-lands in the Sugar Rush arcade-game in Walt Disney Animation Studios' 3D comedy adventure “Wreck-It Ralph.”

For 30 years—day in, day out—Wreck-It Ralph has been doing his job as “The Bad Guy” in the arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr. But it’s getting harder and harder to love his job when no one seems to like him for doing it. Suffering from a classic case of Bad-Guy fatigue and hungry for a little wreck-ognition, Ralph embarks on a wild adventure across an incredible arcade-game universe to prove that just because he’s a Bad Guy, it doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy.

Reilly was called on to provide the voice of Ralph. “When we were talking about making the main character a ‘bad guy,’” says director Rich Moore, “we knew we needed someone the audience could get behind—support and love—even though he’s kind of rough around the edges. John inhabits the characters he plays and he connects to the humanity. He brought a lot of himself to Ralph, too, which is amazing.”

Reilly actually spent time with the production team, learning about the animation process, physically acting out certain scenes to provide reference to animators and contributing his own thoughts on the level of emotion a certain moment might demand. “After we talked with John, I think everybody felt a much deeper connection with the project,” says Renato dos Anjos, animation supervisor. “He really believed in the character and he probably knows Ralph better than anyone.”

“Wreck-It Ralph is an amazing character,” says Reilly. “He has a huge heart, but he’s misguided. He has all the foibles of a real person even though he’s an arcade-game character. He means well in the beginning, but just goes about it in all the wrong ways. But in the end, he realizes what a hero really is.”

“He’s a man-child,” adds head of story Jim Reardon. “He wants to put his bad-guy days behind him, but it’s not until he starts thinking about somebody other than himself that he gets what he really needs, which is love—appreciation. A lot of kids’ movies are about becoming whatever you want to be just because you really want it, with no strings attached. Ralph's story is a little more realistic."

Known as “The Glitch,” Vanellope is a pixelating programming mistake in the candy-coated cart-racing game Sugar Rush. With a racer’s spirit embedded in her coding, Vanellope is determined to earn her place in the starting lineup amongst the other racers. Only problem: the other racers don’t want her or her glitching in the game. Years of rejection have left Vanellope with a wicked sense of humor and a razor-sharp tongue. However, somewhere beneath that hard shell is a sweet center just waiting to be revealed.

“With Vanellope, we were looking for a character that would mirror Ralph’s struggles,” says screenwriter Phil Johnston. “She’s an outsider. The kids pick on her. Nobody really likes her and they exclude her from the races. And all she wants to do is race—to be part of the game—just as Ralph wants to be a part of his community in Niceland.”

When it came to casting Vanellope, filmmakers knew what they didn’t want. “We didn’t want a child to play the part,” says director Rich Moore. “We wanted someone who was acerbic and quick, and could carry the more serious parts of the performance.”

Enter Sarah Silverman, whose quick wit and likability lend themselves perfectly to the Sugar Rush resident. But Silverman brings something to the role that audiences might not expect. Says Moore, “We all know Sarah Silverman is funny—she’s a comedian. But Sarah’s a great dramatic actress as well.”

With the friendship between Vanellope and Ralph being integral to the emotional core of the movie, filmmakers had Silverman and John C. Reilly (who provides the voice of Ralph) record many of their scenes together, which is uncommon for an animated film.

“John and I were able to record together a lot,” says Silverman. “It’s fun to be able to look into someone’s eyes when you’re saying the lines and to improvise off of each other. We improvised, we overlapped. It felt very organic.”

“Ralph and Vanellope don’t really like each other at first—she gives him a hard time—but they start to realize that they’re a lot alike. They’re both misfits. “They’re both broken characters when we meet them,” says producer Clark Spencer. “They both are desperate to be something else, which they think will help them get the acceptance and love they crave.”

“Wreck-It Ralph” is now showing in theaters and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.