"Rain" by Paolo Munoz (c. 1996)

A quote from ON FAIRY STORIES, an essay by professor J.R.R. Tolkien:

We may indeed be older now, in so far as we are heirs in enjoyment or in practice of many generations of ancestors in the arts. In this inheritance of wealth there may be a danger of boredom or of anxiety to be original, and that may lead to a distaste for fine drawing, delicate pattern, and “pretty” colours, or else to mere manipulation and over-elaboration of old material, clever and heartless. But the true road of escape from such weariness is not to be found in the wilfully awkward, clumsy, or misshapen, not in making all things dark or unremittingly violent; nor in the mixing of colours on through subtlety to drabness, and the fantastical complication of shapes to the point of silliness and on towards delirium. Before we reach such states we need recovery. We should look at green again, and be startled anew (but not blinded) by blue and yellow and red. We should meet the centaur and the dragon, and then perhaps suddenly behold, like the ancient shepherds, sheep, and dogs, and horses— and wolves. This recovery fairy-stories help us to make. In that sense only a taste for them may make us, or keep us, childish.

Reposted from Sci-Fi Author John C. Wright.

This could have been an incredibly different story

After watching a lot of the special features and extras in the Pixar DVDs, I have a strange feeling that Pixar uses something akin to “Agile Development” methodology in their storytelling.

In the “Incredibles” deleted scenes, the villain, “Syndrome”, actually makes an appearance at the start of the movie while Violet is just a little baby.  He invades the home of Mr. and Mrs. Incredible while they are still a young couple. This scene was supposed to be the prelude to the story introducing the characters and their super powers.  It included a fully animated storyboard with sounds and voices. The dialog of Syndrome breaking into the home and capturing the family even included a mention that there was a prohibition on “supers” marrying and having children.

The final movie did not include any of this. In fact, if this was the original scene for the movie, it would have radically altered the entire story, plot trajectory, theme and mood to the narrative. This wasn’t a “deleted scene” so much as it was a complete rewrite of the entire story.  In fact, in some of the “Behind the Scenes” dialog, Syndrome was not even considered the main antagonist of the plot.  He was supposed to just be a random villain that allows the characters to display their super powers.

What Pixar appears to do is that they storyboard, voice and create the entire movie more than once and get audience feedback. This allows the storytellers the ability to refine the story ideas over and over again – scrapping bad ones, changing scene orders, and completely rewriting the story if need be. It is the “Agile Development” method of software taken to film – quick iterations, and lots of opportunities for feedback loops.

Linguini was voiced by Lou Ramano, Art and Production Design

In fact, that is how the voices for Linguini and Emile were discovered for “Ratatouille” – they were Pixar staff who did the voice work for these storyboard sessions and fit the characters so well, they kept them for the final production.

Keep in mind, this is merely conjecture from viewing a lot of “Behind the Scenes” features on the DVDs and on the Internet for the latest Pixar movies. But at the same time, I cannot help but think that a massive amount of research was done to perfect the movies that Pixar produces.

Both “Ratatouille” and “Up” stunned me in their storytelling craft. But if you attempt to describe to someone what these two stories are about, they would be incredulous to believe that someone could actually tell a good story from such a ridiculous plot premise.

It is almost as if someone at Pixar is taking bets that using their storytelling method, they can tell a good story from anything that you can throw at them: from a mouse who wants to learn how to cook in France, to an old man who strings his house up on helium balloons and wants to fly to South America.

With so much story refinement done up-front with tons of research done on audience reaction, I think that it would be nigh impossible for Pixar to make a bad movie. At worse, you won’t get a Pixar movie next year because they are still iterating the kinks out of the current story they are developing, but you will never get a bad one.

"Up" was probably created by a random plot generator

Dolphin shows used to be nature lectures and factoids punctuated with animal tricks.  Now they are full scale musical productions complete with a narrative story.  Instead of focusing on teaching facts on dolphins and birds, Sea World took a page from the astounding performances of Cirque-du-Soleil and told a story of a young girl who dreamed of meeting the god of the Dolphins and the goddess of the Skies.

No longer are the people in the show merely trainers – but gods and goddesses.  The performance takes a life of its own as the sea god and his cohort would ride the dolphins and flip in the air with them.  The dancing sky goddess and her birds would swoop from the skies touching the ocean surface while birds of paradise were released to fly over and around the dazzled crowd.  To punctuate the performance and bringing the show to its climax where the sea and sky meet in a singular dance would be a pulse-pounding musical number that resonated the entire theatre.  But what brings the whole performance together as a whole is the dreaming girl and her story.

Stories give people purpose and meaning.  It helps people make sense of their lives in an otherwise chaotic and meaningless world.  In a study conducted on children as young as two, it was found that children as young as two formulate and understand their world mostly through narratives and stories.  These studies were condensed into a volume called “Narratives from the Crib” and it shows a surprising amount of comprehension and understanding of the world through the stories a child who would tell herself before falling asleep.

Many of the rides and shows I’ve been seeing have been altered or changed so that they become part of a larger story.  For instance, to revitalize the “Enchanted Tiki Room” in the Magic Kingdom, the animatronic birds were given new life by infusing two characters into the song: Iago (the parrot from Aladdin) and Zazu (the bird from the Lion King.)  By adding these two characters into the performance, the “Enchanted Tiki Room” becomes part of two larger stories rather than an exhibit that doesn’t mean anything by itself.

Even through adulthood, we also are inexplicably drawn to the power of stories.  We spend billions of dollars on watching TV shows and movies.  It is an unquenchable thirst for meaning that fuels this desire for stories.  And, given the opportunity, people want to be part of the story – part of history.  That is part of the reason so many people are drawn to celebrities.

You may agree or disagree with this person.  But you cannot deny the power of his life story.