Watch this: ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ comes to life in hand-drawn test footage

When Disney cleared out its hand-drawn animation department this year, one of the many animators to be laid off was Nik Ranieri, a 25-year veteran of the company. But rather than lash out at his previous employer, Ranieri opted to post his final test animation to Facebook, a 30-second clip to guide the look and feel of Wreck-It Ralph’s titular antihero.

Ranieri describes drawing every frame of the clip himself, saying “most animators don’t do every drawing in a scene, but I wanted it fully animated and since I didn’t have any inbetweeners, I had to draw everything.” After getting unceremoniously pink-slipped months away from his 25-year anniversary at the company, you might expect Ranieri to be a little hostile, but that isn’t the case. “I’m not so much sad that I was let go as I am sad that they gave up on a medium that, if given the right treatment, could be a viable product once again,” he said.