Pixar Storytelling

1. Choose "Mother Lode" Ideas with Built-in Potential

Pixar goes for the mother lodes.

Select rich concepts. Pixar excels at choosing ideas that are inherently engaging and offer multiple layers of dramatic and narrative possibilities. These "mother lodes" often involve relatable concepts placed in unique, imaginative worlds, like toys being alive or emotions living inside a person's head. Such ideas provide a fertile ground for creative set pieces and visual richness.

Built-in stakes. Strong ideas come with powerful, built-in emotional weight and physical stakes. This makes them immediately enticing and accessible to audiences. For example:

• Toys fearing obsolescence and abandonment.
• Monsters needing to scare children for energy.
• A rat dreaming of being a gourmet chef.
  These core concepts provide immediate conflict and drive.

Foundation for growth. A strong core idea acts like a seed containing the potential for the entire story. Every element, character, and plot development should ideally stem from and enrich this central concept, ensuring efficiency and focus throughout the narrative.

2. Embrace Discomfort: More Discomfort Equals More Story

This state of discomfort is gold for writers for a couple of reasons.

Force characters out. Good stories place protagonists outside their comfort zones, challenging what they want most by throwing the exact opposite at them. This immediate state of discomfort generates narrative questions and provides material for scenes. A rat cooking in a sewer is less dramatic than a rat cooking in a gourmet restaurant.

Propel emotional journeys. Being forced out of their element compels characters to work hard to regain comfort, driving actions, decisions, and emotions. This struggle is the heart of the story's inner narrative. Woody's discomfort when Buzz arrives forces him on a wild adventure and makes him confront fears about Andy's love.

Catalyst for change. Discomfort isn't just bad luck; it's a catalyst that forces heroes to react, grow, and change. Pixar creates pre-existing problems or flaws in characters' worlds that the plot then pushes to the extreme, ensuring the discomfort is deeply personal and related to their core issues.

3. Create Compelling Characters Who Care Deeply

Great characters care because they have strong opinions.

Characters must care. Beyond unique design and specific traits, compelling characters must deeply care about something – anything. We become invested in characters because they are invested in their world and the events happening around them. Woody's obsessive care for Andy is the basis for all his conflicts.

Strong opinions matter. Deep caring often stems from strong opinions, which amplify dramatic effect and serve as fuel for conflict. These opinions are usually rooted in a character's past experiences, especially painful ones, giving them depth and making their actions more intelligible and relatable.

• Elinor's opinions on duty in Brave stem from past wars.
• Helen's caution in The Incredibles comes from past hardships.
• Jessie's distrust in Toy Story 2 is born from abandonment.

Experience shapes beliefs. Pixar often uses meaningful sequences, like prologues or flashbacks, to show the experiences that shaped a character's core beliefs and opinions. These glimpses into the past provide texture and make present actions more meaningful, even transforming antagonists into relatable figures.

4. Build Empathy Through Specificity, Desire, and Determination

Empathy is about recognizing ourselves in someone else by getting to know their idiosyncrasies and life experiences.

Show their inner world. Empathy allows audiences to see themselves in characters, making the character a proxy for their own hopes and fears. This goes beyond superficial liking based on charisma; it requires revealing a character's specific idiosyncrasies, hobbies, routines, and inner life in an honest, relatable way. Wall-E's love for Hello, Dolly! and his coming-home ritual make him deeply human despite being a robot.

Focus on clear desires. Audiences quickly empathize with characters who clearly desire something, whether small or grand, and understand why they want it. This motivation propels the character and makes us root for them. Remy's desire to cook stems from his unique senses and feeling like an outsider among rats.

Exhibit determination. Characters must pursue their goals with determination, bravely battling self-doubt and never giving up until every imaginable course of action is exhausted. This relentless pursuit, even in the face of overwhelming odds, is inspiring and deeply satisfying to watch, reflecting a human ideal we admire. Characters may falter momentarily, but they always push forward.

5. Layer Your Story with Action, Bonding, and Inner Struggle

This triple and sometimes quadruple structure seems to satisfy all the reasons we go to the movies: high-end adventure, meaningful relationships, and deep emotional struggles.

Multilayered approach. Pixar films often employ a layered structure combining multiple narrative threads. Typically, this includes an epic, adventurous main plot with high stakes (e.g., searching the ocean, saving humanity), an interpersonal story of bonding between unlikely characters, and an internal emotional struggle for the protagonist.

Interconnected narratives. These layers are not isolated but are deeply interconnected, reinforcing one another. The emotional weight of the internal struggle gives meaning to the daring actions, and the bonding process often mirrors or facilitates the protagonist's inner change. Marlin's journey to find Nemo is intertwined with his struggle to overcome anxiety and his bonding with Dory.

Enhanced satisfaction. This complex structure satisfies diverse audience desires for action, relationships, and emotional depth. It also creates more opportunities for major events and character development, leading to richer, more satisfying stories. Sometimes, an additional parallel subplot is included, further adding complexity and engagement.

6. Drive the Narrative with Major Events as Crossroads

Major events are crossroads, which usually offer a chance for a character to cut their losses or continue bravely ahead.

Key turning points. Stories require a setup, trials, and resolution, punctuated by major events like the inciting incident, plot points, and climax. These events are integral to the main story, directly pertaining to the protagonist's core problem and driving the narrative forward. They are the "what happens" moments.

Decisions and consequences. Major events aren't just exciting scenes; they are crossroads where characters must make significant decisions that affect their path. These moments often offer a chance for either "destruction" (succumbing to the flaw, losing hope) or "construction" (overcoming the flaw, finding a new path).

• Marlin finding the address (Plot Point 1) offers hope.
• Marlin thinking Nemo is dead (Plot Point 2) brings despair.
• Carl deciding to fly his house (Plot Point 1) commits him to the adventure.

Relating to the core. Each major event should relate directly to the existing flaw introduced early in the story, either threatening it further or offering a chance to fix it. The scenes between these events depict the "hows" and "whys," keeping conflict alive and the audience invested in the protagonist's struggle.

7. Conflict Exposes Flaws and Propels Character Change

Change is the measuring unit of conflict.

Beyond physical struggle. While life-or-death situations are engaging, conflict is broadly defined as anything standing between the protagonist and their goal. The most powerful conflicts are internal, forcing characters to confront their flaws, beliefs, and fears. These emotional struggles are harder to convey but create deeper resonance.

Risking identity. Effective conflict puts something dear to the character at risk, often a part of their identity or core belief. Woody risking his loyalty to Andy for safety in Toy Story 2 is an example of this inner conflict dramatized externally. The struggle between opposing forces (loyalty vs. fear) creates dramatic tension.

Construction through change. The best conflicts offer a chance for both destruction (losing something) and construction (building something new). This construction comes from believable character change, which is inherently difficult and moving. Characters must dismantle old parts of themselves to build anew, emerging stronger and better equipped to face future threats. This change is the ultimate measure of the conflict's impact.

8. Antagonism Comes in Many Forms, Not Just Villains

Antagonism refers to anything that stands between your protagonist and their goal.

Obstacles are diverse. Antagonism isn't limited to mustache-twirling villains; it can be a character, object, concept, environment, or even the protagonist's own flaws. The vast ocean in Finding Nemo is a major antagonist, as is Marlin's anxiety. Identifying diverse sources of opposition enriches the story.

Evil vs. Troublesome. Sentient antagonists can be "evil" (malicious, indifferent to harm) or "troublesome" (mean well but inadvertently cause grief). Even "evil" villains like Lotso are more compelling when their actions are rooted in understandable, albeit twisted, experiences. "Troublesome" antagonists, like Russel in Up, create conflict through their nature or goals clashing with the protagonist's.

"Good" villains have principles. Pixar often features "good" villains who appear malicious but have a benevolent core belief aimed at benefiting their community, acting with integrity according to their principles. Anton Ego seeks to elevate food criticism, and Dean Hardscrabble aims to maximize scaring efficiency. They aren't purely self-interested and have lines they won't cross, making them complex and sometimes redeemable.

9. Develop Ideas by Exploring Worlds and Subverting Expectations

One of the great joys of Pixar’s films is the way they subvert expectations.

Explore your universe. Developing an idea involves deep exploration of the fictional world, discovering its inhabitants, rules, and ways of life. This process generates details that make the world feel real and provides material for scenes, satire, and drama, even if not all discoveries make it into the final plot. The details of the Axiom spaceship in Wall-E are a result of this exploration.

Subvert the familiar. Pixar excels at taking familiar concepts or settings and twisting them in unexpected ways, subverting audience expectations. This keeps the audience engaged and pushes the story into more original territory. Vegetarian sharks, talking dogs, or superheroes forced into suburban life are examples of this technique.

Creative limitations help. Imposing creative limitations can paradoxically aid development by forcing writers to find innovative solutions. Deciding not to include a love story, for instance, pushes the focus onto other relationship dynamics. These self-imposed constraints encourage deeper exploration within the chosen framework.

10. Endings Must Be Earned by Character Action, Not Coincidence

The final action must be a direct result of the journey your characters have taken.

Avoid deus ex machina. A satisfying ending is a direct result of the protagonist's actions and journey, not random chance. Coincidences might happen in life, but they should not resolve the main conflict in a story. Flik luring Hopper to the bird is earned; a random bird attack is not.

Tie back to the beginning. Strong endings often subtly reference or resolve elements introduced earlier in the story, sometimes details the audience may have forgotten. This creates a sense of cohesiveness and reinforces the meaning of the journey. Ellie's message in her scrapbook in Up provides a crucial, earned turning point for Carl.

Show the new world. The most moving endings demonstrate the positive ripple effect of the protagonist's journey, showing how they have changed themselves and, often, improved the world around them. This resolution should ideally be shown visually, illustrating the new, healthier state of the characters or their community. The multicolored memories in Inside Out visually represent Riley's emotional growth.

11. Theme Permeates Every Element of Your Story

Theme is what your story—your scenes, your chases, your one-liners—seeks to create and present.

Theme is universal. Theme is the abstract, universal concept your story is fundamentally about, distinct from the plot. It's the inherent human truth explored through the narrative. Finding Nemo's theme is parenthood, Ratatouille's is creativity and individuality, and Toy Story's is the passage of time and acceptance of change.

Emerges organically. Ideally, theme arises naturally from the chosen fictional universe and characters. The themes of obsolescence and loss are inherent to a story about toys. Once the core concept is chosen, the themes bound to it must be addressed and explored.

Weave it throughout. To make a theme clear and impactful, it must permeate every element of the story. This can be achieved by:

• Using supporting characters as embodiments of thematic values (Gusteau vs. Ego).
• Crafting antagonists as thematic mirror images of the protagonist (Syndrome vs. Mr. Incredible).
• Imbuing objects or locations with thematic meaning (Carl's house, Brave's bears).
• Stating the theme or variations of it through dialogue.

Last updated: May 18, 2025