Originally Posted By mawnck Since I seem to be on a cynical tear this weekend, I might as well have a big finish and post this link, in which a former Warner Bros. Television animation producer/writer gives you meticulous, and eerily accurate, instructions on how to write a modern animated feature. Remember, there's a writers strike on, so this could come in handy. Enjoy. <a href="http://kingofbreakfast.livejournal.com/72294.html" target="_blank">http://kingofbreakfast.livejou rnal.com/72294.html</a>
Originally Posted By Dlmusic While somewhat clever, the whole thing seemed rather over the top to me. <<Most cartoon features begin on the plot set-up, usually a revelation of the villain (or villainess) and their plan (usually take over a kingdom, or kill a rival, or get rich or a combination of all three)>> Establish a villain's motive early is not found in almost any animated film. I'm not sure what the writer was getting at. <<then establish your hero or heroine, usually a likable loser if male (Aladdin, the guys in Treasure Planet or Atlantis, that dumb panda that's already showing up everyhere), a comically-scattered, sweet, smart, ugly duckling type if female (Belle, Anastasia, the girl in "Enchanted")>> This again only goes so far. This certainly doesn't cover any of the Pixar films (minus A Bug's Life) and I don't think that the "girl in Enchanted" (who is named Giselle by the way) is an ugly duckling type whatsoever. <<and the obligatory wacky sidekicks, always one, sometimes as many as three (Flounder, Scuttle, Timon, Pumba, monkey, flying rug, etc., etc.). The villain also usually has a sidekick, either the bungling nincompoop type (Kronk) or the loudmouth (Iago) or very rarely, some actually sort of threatening creatures (the hyenas in "Lion King.").>> Ok, this I agree with. But sidekicks are a common theme in stories in general. You make characters that can compare and contrast to the main characters, and in a more simple story like those designed for children you generally do not want your sidekicks to overshadow the main character as that would be somewhat confusing. The main reason for giving a villain a less threatening type is to make sure the villain seems the most evil and to also make sure that children aren't too afraid of the villains as well. <<The screen action lumps along for 80 minutes or so, consisting of initial skirmishes between hero and villain, the set-up of the traditional hero/heroine love story (these days they usually hate each other at first sight, snark back and forth until the end, then inexplicably fall into each other's arms)>> This is a ridiculous oversimplification that's not even worth commenting on. <<songs that explain what the hero, the villain and the heroine each want,>> That's called good song writing. <<a vomit and/or fart joke or two from the sidekicks,>> Ok, this again is a trend I can't stand. PLEASE STOP. <<and action sequences designed to pad out what could usually be a story told in 10 minutes.>> Yes and no. While many of the stories could in their simplest form be told in 10 minutes, you could say the same for seemingly more complex stories. Even Shakespeare can be condensed if you wanted it to be, but obviously you lose the character arcs and any depth. <<Your primary objective as a modern animation feature storyteller is to get the audience members emotionally charged (i.e., distracted from logic gaps and not thinking too much) so they will be ready for your big finale.>> Getting an audience charged for the big finale should be any filmmakers goal I would hope. It terms of not thinking too much, well that's just an overstatement not worth my time. <<This usually consists of the hero defeating the villain (almost always by some initial violent action of the villain that the hero has "cleverly" used to boomerang back on the bad guy; real heroes never being allowed to slay dragons on their own these days)>> When were they ever? You show me a Disney hero who did. Prince Phillip had help from the fairies remember? The Dwarfs watched as the witch plummeted to her death. Bambi never gets revenge on the hunters. <<and the villain falling to their death from a great height, the only acceptable way for a baddie to meet their end in a cartoon (Gaston, Frollo, the bear in "The Fox & The Hound," Scar, the poacher in "Rescuers II", anyone notice a trend here?).>> What about Hopper being eaten by birds, Syndrome being grounded up to bits by a helicopter, Jafar being imprisoned, the critic in Ratatouille being reconverted, Ratcliffe being arrested, Hades being taken by his victims, Shan Yu being blown up, Farquaad being eaten, Clayton being strangled, Long John Silver getting away, and so on and so forth. Oh and Scar didn't die from falling, he died by being eaten from hyenas. <<If the villain can trip over the edge while trying to get in one last cowardly stab at the hero, so much the better.>> Not sure what this is referring to. <<Any key dangling story points are lazily and cynically tied up in quick "funny" cut-aways during this sequence. In well-written movies, those points would have been melded skillfully into the plot, but most modern animation execs don't want the audience to have to mentally process new information that close to the picture's end.>> Ouch! I really can't think of dangling plot points that seem to exist at the end of animated movies. The stories are simple enough that it pretty much wraps itself up. <<They want to send their audience out on an emotional high, so kill the bad guy, cue the music, and get in the next load of kids. >> Well it's already been established above that the bad guy doesn't always die. And if the main person keeping the characters from their goal is the villain, they why doesn't it make sense for the movie to end when that obstacle is taken away? <<If a villainous sidekick has been found not all that bad, like Kronk, he is also given a inter-credits tag that shows he was really an okay guy all along>> Ok, totally agree with this and I can't stand this. <<A few more credit cut-ins handily wrap up whatever the heroes' sidekick's big dream was ("Ah always wanted to fly in a helicopter." Right, explain that one to me)>> It's a shame that the person who wrote this can't understand how Cars was making the point of a simple minded person who just wanted a simple thrill. Whatever. I thought Mater's big desire to always wanting to fly in a helicopter as very cute and quite realistic. I've met plenty of people who have some silly little thing that would mean a great deal to them personally. <<or bring about some family healing between the leads and their respective parents>> Well I would hope that you would want to make a movie where conflicts are resolved. Maybe that's just me though. <<Also note - this template can be used for most current comedies and any Bruce Willis action picture.>> I could probably come up with a more accurate template to how to write a bitter blog entry. But I will decline at this time.
Originally Posted By DisneyFreak96 I took some of this to be clear sarcasm. <<a vomit and/or fart joke or two from the sidekicks,>> <<Your primary objective as a modern animation feature storyteller is to get the audience members emotionally charged (i.e., distracted from logic gaps and not thinking too much) so they will be ready for your big finale.>> Key word here is Modern, he is often sadly right, that's what people want.
Originally Posted By Midoriri <<and the villain falling to their death from a great height, the only acceptable way for a baddie to meet their end in a cartoon (Gaston, Frollo, the bear in "The Fox & The Hound," Scar, the poacher in "Rescuers II", anyone notice a trend here?).>> <<What about Hopper being eaten by birds, Syndrome being grounded up to bits by a helicopter, Jafar being imprisoned, the critic in Ratatouille being reconverted, Ratcliffe being arrested, Hades being taken by his victims, Shan Yu being blown up, Farquaad being eaten, Clayton being strangled, Long John Silver getting away, and so on and so forth>> And in some non-Disney films, they have other methods. Tzekel Kahn was dragged away and his fate is left to the imagination, Rasputin withers away, Ruber...goes crazy and "explodes," Zigzag is eaten alive by aligators and a vulture, the Duke shrinks and is chased off...
