Vanellope Von Schweetz

Vanellope von Schweetz is the deuteragonist of Disney's 2012 animated feature film Wreck-It Ralph.

She is the true ruler of Sugar Rush who has been turned into a glitch. She is also the lead character, she was also the in-game world's princess. However, at some point prior to the start of the film, an old racing video game character named Turbo hijacked Sugar Rush, turned himself into a character named King Candy, and tried to delete Vanellope's code (but couldn't), turning her into a glitch instead. Once Vanellope became a glitch, King Candy was free to rule the kingdom, having all the inhabitants of Sugar Rush 's memories of Princess Vanellope locked away. However, if Vanellope was to ever cross the finish line in an official race, her code would be restored and the throne would be hers once more. To prevent this from occurring, King Candy, with the help of his minion, and Vanellope's former assistant, Sour Bill, had the citizens of the game believe having a glitch race could lead to the game being unplugged. Due to this lie, Vanellope was repeatedly tormented and ostracized by the game's citizens, most notably the other racers, led by Taffyta Muttonfudge. Vanellope was able to find sanctuary within Diet Cola Mountain, a volcano that towers over the land of Sugar Rush that also homes an unfinished bonus track.

As a result of her being a glitch, Vanellope was unable to leave the game and escape her tormentors. However, she also gained the unique ability to glitch, or teleport, from place to place in the blink of an eye, though she didn't have much control over it, and it sometimes hindered her efforts to get into races.

Personality
Years of bullying has left Vanellope with a sharp tongue and a sour disposition. When first greeted, she comes off as purposely annoying, obnoxious, and rude, with little concern for the feelings or ambitions of other people, in comparison to benefiting herself. However, these aspects of her character are not entirely truthful. While sassy and razor-tongued, Vanellope is, deep down, loving and loyal to those who show kindness and sympathy towards her. After she befriends Wreck-It Ralph, the tragedy of her situation is brought into the forefront, revealing the reasonings behind her previously obnoxious acts. She thusly reveals herself to be an enthusiastic dreamer, wanting nothing more than to be accepted by the inhabitants of her game, despite said inhabitants constantly mistreating her, both physically and mentally. She is very forgiving in this regard, unwilling to hold grudges and prefers to continue on with life with a positive outlook.

Despite her programmed age, Vanellope is also crafty and intelligent. Throughout the film, she has been shown to be an opportunistic quick-thinker, with enough intellect and cunning to concoct elaborate schemes on the spot, making her a threat to the villainous agenda of King Candy. Strong-willed and independent, she takes troubled matters into her own hands, and shows efficiency in reaching her goals.

As mentioned above, Vanellope is razor-tongued, and takes pleasure in insulting and berating others, in either a serious or teasing manor. This is seen through her friendship with Ralph, as the two are known to have playfully condescending nicknames for one another, establishing a relationship similar to that of two fun-loving siblings. This is also an example of Vanellope's spunk and moxie, as she has the habit of sassing and standing her ground against characters with the potential to pose a serious threat. When she encountered Ralph, the two were at odds, and despite the wrecker being thrice her size, Vanellope generally showed no real fear of the bad-guy. She also has a twisted sense of humor, as her first decree after regaining her royal status was to sentence her tormentors to execution, though she quickly revealed it to be a jest, wanting to see their cowardly reactions.

Interestingly, although her years of being shunned left her with negative traits, Vanellope is one of the only characters in the film with a lack of prejudice. After learning Ralph is classified as a video game "bad-guy", Vanellope never berates him on his position, instead viewing him beyond his programmed occupation, and understanding that his label is only a job title, and doesn't define who he is, as a person. Her kindness would heavily influence Ralph, and it was through their friendship that Ralph learned what it truly means to be a hero.

Appearance
Vanellope is a 9-year old girl whose overall appearance is often described as adorable, even by Ralph himself. Being a child, she is short in stature and has long raven-black hair with candy sprinkled over it. She has fair skin and hazel eyes that are rather large with an Anime influence and also carries a slender body. She noticeably has an overbite, as well as a small pink chipmunk-like nose, as do most of the Sugar Rush racers. As said before, Vanellope's design, as well as the other Sugar Rush racers, were inspired by Japanese/Anime influences, notably by the art style of Chibi. Similar to how the other leads in the movie have their faces based off their voice actors, Vanellope's face and hair are designed to resemble a younger Sarah Silverman.

Vanellope's signature "glitch" outfit is a mint green hoodie with a double-layered brown skirt that resembles the wrapping of a peanut-butter cup (many of the girls have skirts like this), green, white and purple tights, and small black boots. It is notable that her tights are mismatched, one covered in broad mint green bands, the other in thinner mint bands and purple lines. They are designed to resemble candy cane stripes. Her hoodie laces and stitches are red and resemble licorice candies, such as Twizzlers. Underneath her hoodie is a violet shirt, it's only seen in a "blink and you'll miss it" scene in the video game's last cut scene. Her high ponytail is also tied with a Twizzler. The pink squiggles under Vanellope's boots resemble icing. Vanellope also owns red racing goggles that were seen during the Random Roster Race's coin depositing.

On the side of the Sugar Rush game cabinet, Vanellope can be seen in her royal racing attire which is a teal, orange, and white jumpsuit with brown gloves. In the film's concept art, Vanellope's racing attire comes with a white helmet with a golden crown design detailed onto it.

As a princess, Vanellope wore a full skirted glittery long-sleeved gown with lacy white gloves. Her gradient pink petticoat is noticeably covered in pink, white and red gumdrops, sprinkled everywhere like beads. However, chocolate sprinkles can be seen on the lower end of the petticoat. The skirt has many layers and opens in the front to show a deep pink underskirt. Her gown was also given a pink, flowing cloak, and a large, high, white lace heart collar, resembling Elizabethan royal attire. The collar is edged in a cut-out pattern of candy canes and lollipops, and in addition she wears another, somewhat smaller, white ruffled collar. In this outfit, Vanellope's hair is up in a bun instead of a high ponytail, and is covered in sprinkles that are various shades of pink. She also wore a red tiara. With the outfit, Vanellope also owns a pink lollipop scepter with a noticeable crown symbol over it. Although she dislikes it, she wore it at Calhoun and Felix's wedding as her maid of honor outfit.

Trivia

 * According to Rich Moore and Sarah Silverman, Vanellope is 9 years old. However, according to Executive Producer John Lasseter, she is 12 years old.
 * Vanellope is the only main character that never called Ralph by his title 'Wreck-it'.
 * Vanellope's hands only have four fingers, as opposed to Ralph's five.
 * Vanellope's name is actually a portmanteau of "vanilla", a type of dessert flavoring, and "Penelope", a Greek-based girl's name (which means weaver).
 * Also, her title, "von", is actually German for "of", which is often used by German nobility.
 * And plus her last name, "Schweetz", is a pun of the word "sweet" with a slightly German touch. (Schweetz). "Schweetz" may also be the way a young child would pronounce the word "sweets".
 * Upon close inspection, you will see that Vanellope's skirt is made of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup wrappers.
 * When creating Vanellope, she was described as having "a hint of Sarah [Silverman], a hint of Cindy Lou Who, combined with this grubby little Pippi Longstocking moppet kid."
 * Despite having hazel eyes in the movie, posters, etc., Vanellope can clearly be seen with bright green eyes when she is shown on the side of the cabinet after Ralph throws away his medal.
 * Interestingly enough, Vanellope is never shown racing in her white tracksuit after she resets the game, nor is she seen racing in her original cart which was stolen by King Candy.
 * Vanellope is the only character in Sugar Rush who wears a hoodie, as the other characters wear jackets, and she is also the only one who does not wear a helmet or cap; instead, she wears red goggles.
 * Supposedly, when Vanellope refers to Ralph as "Gladys", she is actually referencing the main antagonist of the Portal series, GLaDOS. However, if that is true, then she mispronounced the name, as it is most likely pronounced "Glah-Dos", and is actually an acronym (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System).
 * Vanellope's princess dress resembles the dresses worn by royal women during the 16th-17th century (Ex. Queen Elizabeth).
 * Originally, Vanellope was going to have grayish-green skin to show viewers that she was a glitch, but her animators eventually decided against it since they thought it would make her look too much like a zombie.
 * Vanellope is the only character from Sugar Rush to see in person King Candy's real identity as Turbo.
 * Throughout the whole movie, Ralph usually refers to Vanellope as "kid" instead of her real name. He only refers to her as "Vanellope" twice in the whole film.
 * Some fans wonder why Vanellope isn't an official Disney Princess; this is due to her young age and fact she didn't want to be a princess and made herself president of Sugar Rush instead.
 * In a reference to video games, Vanellope appears to be an allusion to Midna from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, as they are both imp-like princesses who both accompany the hero after being cursed by their villains, who are the false rulers of the place they came from. Near the end of their stories, both are revealed to be the true rulers of their respective realms, and remain within their kingdom to allow a new rule from them.
 * In 2013, there were 63 babies named Vanellope in the US, up from zero in previous years.
 * During renovations of the Walt Disney Animation Studios building, beginning in 2014, Vanellope was one of the character silhouettes featured on the wall mural.