Grand Prize Winner

Jenkins and Watts: Paranormal Attorneys At Law by Michael Brennan

In a world where ghosts exist and have rights, Jenkins and Watts defend them against overzealous law enforcement, organized crime, and literal demons from hell...for fair market price.

Feature Winner

Medusa by Tristan Bellawala

A young girl with snakes for hair and a petrifying gaze traverses ancient Greece in an attempt at self-preservation and on a journey of self-discovery alongside a hero aiming to prove himself in this twist on the Medusa myth.

Short Winner

I'm Sorry I Missed You by Ethan Rogers

In the wake of a traumatic loss, the Clarke family finds itself grasping for answers to make sense of their son’s death. Older brother, Theo, plunges into his late brother’s comic book world to face the beast that took him—a beast that has since been stalking his family.

TV Winner

New Earth by Devon Sharma

Centuries after humanity abandoned dying Planet Earth for manmade New Earth, private investigator Brandt Truman searches for a missing android, only to get caught up in a far-reaching conspiracy that will force him to face his troubled past.

Honorable Mentions

Kaltera by Will Kisor, Gage Swanston  
Offspring by Hannah Silverman

The Add-on Prize Winner will be decided at a later date after further consideration by the prize partner.

View the quarterfinalists, semifinalists and finalists by clicking the corresponding link. And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

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Beyond the visuals of Studio Ghibli’s films, which are astonishing on their own accord, Miyazaki’s storytelling is what grounds these films as masterpieces. Kiki’s Delivery Service, the double feature of Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro, and Miyazaki’s latest and last film The Boy and the Heron are stories that are radically at odds with Hollywood storytelling, yet have a level of gravitas that is often overlooked as something wholly unique that can’t be taught. It just is. 

While we can’t teach you to create stories like Miyazaki — which is why Studio Ghibli stopped making films for almost a decade–there are trademarks of Miyazaki’s storytelling that we can learn from and mold into our own stories. Let’s get into it. 

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

1.) Using the Kishōtenketsu Story Structure  

Rather than using the American standard three-act structure to tell his stories, Miyazaki’s stories follow a plot structure known as kishōtenketsu. Used since ancient times in Japan, kishōtenketsu is the method of storytelling composed of four parts: ki (introduction), shō (development), ten (turn or twist), and ketsu (conclusion).

While most stories have a rigged structure that is easy to follow and break down, kishōtenketsu has a wandering quality that can feel unusual to people who are not familiar with East Asian storytelling. The structure lends itself to a long, quiet beginning that is quickly twisted to shake up the story. In the end, the twist is settled, revealing the connecting theme between everything. Miyazaki always uses the kishōtenketsu structure in his storytelling, dividing his story into four parts. In the third part, there is always a big hurdle the hero must overcome to get to the end of the film. While the conflict might impact the story, it is not the focus. Instead, the story features a conflict, but the purpose of the story is the change in the protagonist. 

My Neighbor Totoro is the clearest example. It lacks a conflict, which has led many American critics to believe that nothing happens in the film. But the kishōtenketsu structure is at work, revealing that Satsuki and Mei are attempting to adjust to life without their mother. The sudden twist of Mei running away is shocking, but order is quickly restored. It is an easy film with a structure that isn’t overwhelming. There is more than one type of structure out there in the world of storytelling beyond the three-act structure. It is up to you to decide what type of structure fits your style of storytelling. 

Read More: The Simple Guide to Writing Animated Screenplays

A diagram of the kishōtenketsu structure (Courtesy of Randy Finch)

2.) Unfinished Scripts 

While the structure of Miyazaki’s stories is set, he typically doesn’t finish the story once his team is ready to start working on a film. A key part of Miyazaki’s filmmaking process is the creation of storyboards, a series of images that help map out a movie’s sequence of events. While storyboarding is an essential part of the animation process, Miyazaki tends to forego screenplays of spontaneity. 

“I don't have the story finished and ready when we start work on a film,” he said in a 2002 interview. “I usually don't have the time. So the story develops when I start drawing storyboards. The production starts very soon thereafter, while the storyboards are still developing. We never know where the story will go but we just keeping working on the film as it develops. It's a dangerous way to make an animation film and I would like it to be different, but unfortunately, that's the way I work and everyone else is kind of forced to subject themselves to it.”

At the core of his process, Miyazaki’s goal is to capture the beauty of the world he is creating. He can’t fully or clearly see them, nor does he know how his stories will end. Miyazaki leads the group of animators to find the film based on the few ideas he brings to them. 

Takahata, Miyazaki’s late mentor, explained the process in the 2000s:

Hayao Miyazaki stopped writing screenplays a long time ago. He doesn’t even bother to first finalize the storyboards. … After diving into the process, he then begins to create storyboards while doing all his other work, from key animation on down. Using his powers of continuous concentration, the production starts to take on the elements of an endlessly improvised performance.

Read More: Hayao Miyazaki Says 'Ma' is an Essential Storytelling Tool

Storyboard from 'Kiki's Delivery Service'

3.) Female Protagonist 

In a majority of Miyazaki’s films, the story is driven by strong female leads, who are brave girls or women who don’t think twice about fighting for what they believe is right. Inspired heavily by his own mother, Miyazaki’s female characters are complex and conflicted, like Princess Kushana in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke, and the witches Yubaba and Zeniba in Spirited Away.

Miyazaki stated, “In my family, it was a very male universe. I only have brothers, the only woman was my mother.” Miyazaki is one of four brothers. Perhaps this is why mother figures in his work have such a grounding nature, while the female leads, inspired by his mother, are on a quest for self-fulfillment, helping each other and humanity along the way. They share a universal language of compassion, tolerance, and fairness. These female leads do not want to be anything other than themselves, which is a powerful message in itself. 

'Princess Mononoke'

4.) Flying Scenes 

Another childhood influence in Miyazaki’s work is his love for airplanes, particularly old ones. His family owned a company that produced wingtips for Zero fighters, and this is possibly what has led to each of Miyazaki’s stories containing flying scenes of some kind. From Tombo’s flying bicycle in Kiki’s Delivery Service to Haku’s transformation into a flying dragon that Chihiro eventually rides in Spirited Away, flying has become a staple of Miyazaki’s work. 

While flying is a key trademark of Miyazaki’s storytelling, the filmmaker tends to stay away from military aircraft. Miyazaki released the destructive power of military aircraft. This feeling of conflict Miyazaki feels is highlighted in The Wind Rises when Jiro Horikoshi dreams of building planes, but realizes the consequences that warplanes can have. 

'The Wind Rises'

5.) Conflicts Solved Through Pacifism 

What makes Hayao Miyazaki movies so beloved by a wide range of audiences is that his films do not depict any violence. That’s because Miyazaki, who grew up during World War II, despises unnecessary violence and advocates for pacifism through his stories. 

In multiple interviews that Kotaku found through Japanese blogs, Miyazaki spoke out about his disdain for violence in Hollywood films, saying, “If someone is the enemy, it’s okay to kill endless numbers of them. Lord of the Rings is like that. If it’s the enemy, there’s killing without separation between civilians and soldiers. That falls within collateral damage.”

Hayao Miyazaki movies share a common theme that disputes can be resolved without the use of physical force. Castle in the Sky, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke are examples of this since the main characters strive to bring peace to a world filled with conflict. Of course, physical confrontations are also present, but they are used to point out the uselessness of it.

'Howl's Moving Castle'

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Hayao Miyazaki movies are beautiful and meticulously crafted, taking a single film year to build from the few ideas that Miyazaki brings to his team at Studio Ghibli. While there are several trademarks that signify that a story belongs to this filmmaker, Miyazaki’s scripts are almost non-existent. Everything lives in the storyboards. While it is highly recommended that you finish a script before moving into the production process, there is beauty and a level of acceptance to Miyazaki’s creative process. 

Read More: 101 Enchanting Animation Story Prompts

CHECK OUT OUR ANIMATION NOTES SO YOU CAN START YOUR STORY OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK!

The post 5 Trademarks of a Hayao Miyazaki Movies appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Stay tuned for the Winner announcement on November 29th on our blog and on our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages! And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

Here are the Finalists:

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Stay tuned for the Finalist announcement on November 1st on our blog and on our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages! And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

Here are the Semifinalists:

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Stay tuned for the Semifinalist announcement on October 4th on our blog and on our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages! And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

Here are the Quarterfinalists:

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What is "Ma"? 

In an interview with film critic Roger Ebert from 2002, Ebert tells Miyazaki he appreciates what he calls “gratuitous motion” in his films, adding that, “Instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are,” said Ebert. 

Miyazaki answered with, “We have a word for that in Japanese," he said. "It's called Ma. Emptiness. It's there intentionally."

Spirited Away (2001)

Miyazaki then clapped his hands several times and said:

"The time in between my clapping is Ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it's just busyness, But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb."

Read More: 101 Enchanting Animation Story Prompts

A Moment of Rest 

Using Ma allows the audience to reflect, imagine and interpret what is happening – not only visually, but emotionally. Instead of using dialogue to tell the audience how a character is feeling, Ma allows the audience to simply experience what the character is feeling along with them. 

Another way to think of Ma is like a gap, a pause, or a space between actions. In music, this pause is called a “rest” and balances the music with silence, which can have a very powerful effect by helping to build tension and suspense.

Hayao Miyazaki

Rests also help to create and maintain the rhythm for a piece of music, just as Ma helps to determine a rhythm in a story. Whenever there is a moment of silence or stillness in a movie or piece of music, the audience is able to prepare for the upcoming emotional or physical peak. 

Read More: WATCH: Domestic Trailer for Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises

Ma in Spirited Away

In this famous scene from Spirited Away, Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino takes a train ride with a masked spirit called No-Face as she contemplates the world around her. While the train is moving, Chihiro is almost completely still. This allows the audience to see what she is seeing (the outside world passing by) and feel what she is feeling (being just a small part of a big world). 

Spirited Away (2001)

This scene is incredibly effective for several reasons. First, the music is just achingly beautiful and doesn’t overpower the images. The sounds of water around the train add a feeling of nature, adding to the smallness of the people who exist in the world. The color palette is pale and haunting, and the ghost has an ethereal, transparent quality. The other people on the train look like dark shadows, as if they might disappear in the night. At the end of the scene, the ripples in the water behind the train indicate a fleeting sense of purpose. The camera then zooms in on Chihiro’s face, making it clear we are still in her world as night falls and the train sputters away. Chihiro’s stillness juxtaposed with the moving train gives a sense of time and place that is unique to her character and absolutely gripping to watch. 

Read More: 5 Trademarks of a Hayao Miyazaki Movies

Use of Ma in American Films

In American films, Ma can be seen in the way filmmakers use pauses, stillness and the timing of shots to create tension, atmosphere, and emotional impact. To create suspense, directors often use moments of silence or slow pacing to build anticipation and heighten the impact of a sudden event. 

Theme Music From Jaws 

In this scene from Jaws, the famous music goes, “Dun, dun,” then pauses before another “dun, dun,” as the lady swims in the dark and murky ocean. The music symbolizes the shark (or life’s hidden dangers) and the audience comes to associate danger and dread with the unnerving music that stops and starts.  

Jaws (1975)

The Whisper Scene in Lost in Translation

In dialogue-driven films, the use of pauses and silence between lines can add meaning and weight to the spoken words. But sometimes silence says more than any line of dialogue ever could. Writer/Director Sophia Coppola had a stroke of genius by not letting the audience hear what Bob (Bill Murray) whispers to Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) in this scene. In fact, they are standing in the middle of a busy Tokyo street and all the street sounds have been subdued to give emphasis to the quiet emotional moment the characters are sharing. 

Mexican Standoff in Reservoir Dogs

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino is known for bold violence and witty dialogue in his films, so there’s no chance of traditional Ma making its way into his movies. Instead, this Mexican standoff serves as a restful moment where the characters pause the action to reassess the situation and come up with a plan for moving forward. The characters are literally just standing there, with no action taking place so the audience can prepare for the bloodbath that’s about to come. 

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While the traditional concept of Ma may not be widely used in American filmmaking, the idea of creating tension, balance, and meaning through the use of pauses, silence and stillness are certainly popular techniques seen in many movies and can trace their roots to the Japanese aesthetic of Ma. 

Read More: The Simple Guide to Writing Animated Screenplays

NEED HELP ADDING MA TO YOUR OWN ANIMATED SCRIPT? CHECK OUT OUR ANIMATION NOTES!

The post Hayao Miyazaki Says 'Ma' is an Essential Storytelling Tool appeared first on ScreenCraft.

We’re excited to share that Family Guy’s current showrunners, Richard Appel and Alex Sulkin, are the grand jurors for the ScreenCraft Animation Competition. But before we task them with reading finalists' scripts, we sat down with Appel and Sulkin to hear their thoughts about TV writing, as well as writing for animation.

Check out the full interview below and continue on for five of the most inspirational takeaways from that chat. 

1. There Are Many Paths to Becoming a TV Writer

It used to be that if you wanted to be a TV writer, you had to write a spec script of an existing show, get representation and wait by the phone until your script got read by someone important. Nowadays, there are many ways to get noticed – especially if you write comedy.

Though Appel doesn’t have a lot of extra time to spend on social media, he does enjoy scrolling through Instagram to see what catches his eye. 

“There are so many things that make me laugh out loud that people post!” says Appel, and admits that they’ve hired a writer to work on Family Guy based on his Twitter account. “Seth [McFarlane], who is on Twitter, was following a writer named Damien Fahey who kept sending me his stuff. We brought him in and he's developed into a really strong writer and presence at the show. It's not just that showrunners like me and Alec read things, I'll get links sent to me. We'll follow up.” 

Appel adds that it’s important to just make stuff. “You have your phone, make little short videos, something is going to get out there if it's really funny and really good or creative and just find that platform, that venue,” he says. 

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2. The Secret to Your Spec Script is Revealing Your Voice

If you don’t get discovered on Twitter, you’ll still need to write a spec script to be considered for a TV job (and even if you DO get discovered on Twitter, having a spec ready to go can only help your chances!). But putting your own voice into that script is crucial.  

Appel says when he plans to hire someone at Family Guy, it’s normal for him to read upwards of about 80 scripts, “Let’s say 60 are a ‘No’ and 10 are a ‘Maybe.’ Then you read one and it has a voice. There is a character in it who you think, ‘I couldn't write that!’ The structure may not be sound. The story may peter off, but 99 out of 100 times, I'm going to want to hire the person with the voice because the truth is you can't teach someone of the elements of writing.”

Appel goes on to say that having a voice, understanding stakes, making them earth-shattering and highly personal, and knowing how to escalate conflict, are all elements of a great spec.

Read More: How to Choose a TV Show to Spec

3. So, What Exactly is Voice?

Coming up with a universal definition of ‘writer’s voice’ is difficult and Appel gives an honest answer: “I'm not sure I know.” He likens it to that famous Supreme Court oral argument about pornography: I know it when I see it. It’s the same with writing. 

“When you read something that makes you stop and take notice,” says Appel. “For me, often it's a character speaking a certain way or with an observation or a line that seems so authentic and something that wouldn't have come to me.”  

Based on Appel’s answer, perhaps we can attempt to define voice this way: Voice comes from writing that is so authentic, so personal, that it couldn’t come from anyone else but you. But it’s also written in a way that is coherent and accessible to others. 

Read More: How to Give Your Screenplay Your Voice

4. Advice If You’re Struggling on Defining Your Own Voice

Some showrunners like to read original pilots and some like to read specs of existing shows. Appel recommends writing the latter, especially if you’re not yet sure how to express your authentic self in an accessible way.

“I’m always happy to read a spec script for a Modern Family, or whatever the show is, because the job you're being hired to do is to channel the voice of another creator with his or her characters and bring them to life week after week. And you can tell in a spec script of Veep or Modern Family, whatever it is, if the writer gets the characters and gets the voice of the show. To me, if you don't yet know your own voice - and I'm not being facetious -  write in someone else's,” says Appel.

'Family Guy'

5. How to Deal with Writer’s Block

So many writers struggle with either starting a project or more likely, finishing a project. Luckily, Appel says he can help.  

“I have a trick that I'm proud of. Whenever I'm stuck, hit with writer's block, which happens to us all – and [writer’s block] is a fancier name for the absence of ideas, laziness, exhaustion, whatever it is – I always do the same thing and maybe it works because I’ve been an A-type personality my whole life.” 

Read More: 7 Tips to Stay Motivated When Writing Isn't Your Day Job (Yet!)

Appel says he imagines he’s taking a final exam in college. “It's nine o'clock. You have to turn in your blue book. I know they don't do that anymore, but you have to hit send or whatever they do at noon and you sure as hell don't want to turn in nothing because that's a guaranteed fail. You've got three hours: go!”

After the three hours, he says to take a break and then open the computer and review what you have. 

“Even if it's shit,” says Appel, “get it on the page so you can come back to it and just see what's there.” It may not be much, but it’s likely something will be usable or, at the very least, there’s half a scene or an idea to build on.  

Read More: 6 Animated Shows That Changed the World of Comedy

CHECK OUT OUR PREPARATION NOTES SO YOU START YOUR STORY OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK!

The post 5 Screenwriting Tips from 'Family Guy' Showrunners appeared first on ScreenCraft.

In the latest film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the audience follows two main Spider-People: Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) as they skip through multiple universes, meet several different Spider-People and attempt to fix a broken Spide-Verse that is hanging on by a thread.

It’s a wild, wonderful cinematic experience and offers a lot for screenwriters to take away, even if they’re not writing the next superhero tentpole film.

Got a great animation script? Enter it into the ScreenCraft Animation Competition!

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Open with a Recap

It’s been five years since the last Spider-Verse film. Throw in multiple Marvel movies, a few live-action Spider-Man films and everything else going on in the world and the audience needs to be brought up to speed.

The first scene in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse does just that and explains Gwen Stacy’s role in the version of Earth she inhabits. A lot of things that you know about Spider-Man ring true including characters like Peter Parker, J. Jonah Jameson, George Stacy and others, as well as the origins of gaining the spider powers.

At the end of Act 1, Miles has his first moments of screen time where he starts off recapping what’s been going on since the last film and explaining his origins as well.

Not everyone follows every detail of an original film or idea, so having the recap is important. It doesn’t have to be long, but it’s a piece of exposition that helps the audiences engage better with the story because they have a greater understanding of what happened in previous films. Shazam!: Fury of the Gods is another recent sequel to use the recap at the beginning of the movie.

Read More: 5 Serious Takeaways from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Co-writer Rodney Rothman

Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Vigilante or Villain?

There’s nothing more demoralizing than being a misunderstood hero. Just ask Spider-Man in several of his films or Batman, Superman, the Ghostbusters and the list goes on.

Gwen Stacy’s Ghost Spider starts off the film accused of killing Peter Parker and trying to reclaim the trust of those who want her captured; which includes her father who’s a detective. The hero who becomes a villain provides another level of challenges for the protagonist to overcome. It’s hard to beat a super-villain but having the whole world against you makes it so much harder.

While this device is used a lot in superhero movies, it works well in other genres. Legal dramas can pit a lawyer against a system who thinks they’re defending a guilty person (i.e. To Kill a Mockingbird) or an action-thriller where someone is on the run from the law and must prove their innocence (i.e. The Fugitive, Enemy of the State).

Read More: 6 Reasons Screenwriters Should Consider Animation Writing

Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Keeping Secrets

Often superheroes fight behind masks hiding who they are to protect their real identities and the people they care about. Spider-Man is no exception. For Gwen Stacy, she desperately wants to tell her father that she’s the Ghost Spider and that she didn’t kill Peter Parker, but she can’t reveal who she really is.

Miles Morales also can’t reveal to his parents that he’s a superhero crimefighter even when it impacts their trust in him.

Main characters with deep secrets are another way to make the hero of your story consistently in conflict. Not only are secrets something that the characters fight with internally, but it’s something they’re afraid will be found out.

For superheroes, a reveal of their secret identity is truly horrifying. On a consistent basis, they are fighting villains who want to hurt people so it’s no wonder they wear masks. Secrets are great tools for characters. Whether it’s a student who doesn’t want people to know she can turn into a panda (Turning Red) or a love affair between two men (Brokeback Mountain), secrets drive conflict both internally and externally for characters.

Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Exposition in Action Scenes

In the first major action piece of the film, Gwen Stacy hears about a supervillain causing trouble at an art museum and heads that way to stop him. It’s there that she encounters a Renaissance version of The Vulture and a battle begins. As the fight ensues, more Super-People from different universes show up. It’s during this action sequence that the audience learns who these new versions of Spider-People are and where they came from: Jessica Drew a.k.a Spider-Woman (Issa Rae) and Miguel O’Hara a.k.a Spider-Man from 2099 (Oscar Isaacs).

Exposition in action scenes is ridiculous when you think of it in the context of the real world, but is one of the best ways to fill the audience and the characters in on backstories and thoughts in film. As Gwen, Miguel and Spider-Woman try to capture the Vulture, they have a discussion about who the new Spider-People are and we learn of Gwen’s awe.

From car chases to hand-to-hand combat, if you’re looking for a place to add exposition, consider putting it into an exciting action set piece in your story.

Read More: 101 Enchanting Animation Story Prompts

Get Super Creative

Don’t hold back on creativity. While there is the standard comic book version of Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse offers a look into a unique, fun and unconventional way to tell the story. This is just one example of imaginative storytelling.

The Best Picture winner at the Oscars this year was Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, which was another multiverse story that had scenes where the characters had hot dogs for fingers. The Lego Movie was made with the characters mobility limited to how the Lego brick characters moved.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is another example of how you can find new and creative ways to share your story. Most important is not to be creatively unconventional for the sake of it, but rather to use it as a tool that best tells your story.

Superheroes are human. It’s important to remember that they have their own personal lives with everyday issues. Sometimes they revolve around family or school, other times it’s love or a death. In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, both Gwen and Miles must deal with personal issues. And while they aren’t as menacing as a super-villain trying to destroy the multiverse, these are relatable conflicts that helps keep the audience engaged while adding another layering of problems for the hero.

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The post 5 Screenwriting Lessons from ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Even if you’re working on a story in a different genre, the character breakdown of Ariel can teach you about setting up the story, devising a backstory, building family dynamics and using familiar character traits to make a character relatable to your audience.

Here are some of the aspects that make Ariel such a beloved character that audiences have celebrated for over thirty years and who also started a major Disney run of successful animated features which included treasured princesses such as Belle, Jasmine and Pocahontas.

Read More: 50 Disney Movies Inspired By Public Domain

Got an amazing animation script? Enter the ScreenCraft Animation Competition!

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The Little Mermaid (1989)

Rebellious Young Female

If there’s one thing that Disney princesses are known for, it’s their rebellious nature.

Ariel dreams of life outside the water, up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun. Against her father’s wishes, she explores shipwrecks and goes above the surface to watch the humans on land or ships. She collects their items and wants to know all about people. King Triton, her father, is furious when he learns of her going to the surface, believing that humans are barbarians and dangerous. What appears to be an authoritarian rule is really just a concerned Dad, but Ariel can’t see that.

Ariel refuses to accept her father’s thinking, and she goes against his wishes because she wants something more than “life under the sea.”

Longing for more is something Disney princesses are known for. Moana wonders what is beyond the reef and ultimately travels where she’s forbidden to go. Jasmine frequently sabotages suitors because she believes it is her choice to whom she wants. And Rapunzel yearns for life outside her tower.

Ariel is no different. She’s the young woman who is eager to test her boundaries and explore what lies behind her walled off world.

Read More: 101 Family-Friendly Story Prompts

The Little Mermaid (1989)

Too Naïve, Too Trusting

Everything from Ariel’s ribbing of her pal Flounder to her believing everything Scuttle the seagull tells her about the items she collects (like a fork being called a dinglehopper and its function being like a comb), indicates she’s naïve and inexperienced in the world.

This means the character will get in over their head and undergo a coming-of-age moment in which they need to correct the mistakes they’ve made. For Ariel, she is willing to fall for Ursula’s persuasive tactics to become human for three days – the catch being that Ursula will hold onto her voice. Should Ariel succeed by getting true love’s kiss from Eric, the man she knows nothing about but loves wholeheartedly, she will remain human and live happily ever after. If she fails, she becomes a soulless worm under Ursula’s control.

Being overly  infatuated with Eric and a romantic at heart, Ariel accepts the nefarious deal.

Most writers don’t want their characters to be this naïve, but here it adds value to the story. It’s no different than a horror movie when everyone knows the character shouldn’t check out the noise in the basement with a barely functional flashlight. Being naïve or trusting opens the door to create scenarios that engage audiences because they wonder how this character will overcome the obstacles in front of them.

Read More: How to Write a 4-Quadrant Family Film

The Little Mermaid (1989)

A Fish Out of Water

When Ariel gets her legs, she literally becomes a fish (or mermaid) out of water. Everything that was set up at the beginning regarding how humans behave and the items they use start to play out. For instance, she uses the fork at the dinner table to comb her hair and she blows ash into a man’s face when she uses his pipe.

Fish out of water must learn about the world in which they find themselves. Ariel gets a tour of Eric’s kingdom and discovers amazing things she could never dream of from under the sea. This is common in lots of movies and TV shows including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever when Shuri explores the undersea world of the enemy or in Tangled when Rapunzel roams the world that her mother has kept hidden from her.

A fish out of water scenario plays on your character’s expectations and introduces the audience to a new world from a fresh pair of eyes.

The Little Mermaid (1989)

Coming-of-Age Character

Ariel’s story is a coming-of-age tale of a young teenager forced to grow up quickly and realize the world isn’t as innocent as it may seem. When we first meet Ariel, there is very little about her world that challenges her. She’s a teenager who falls in love with prince, only she can’t actually speak to this person.

As she struggles with the decision to become human, Ariel grasps with the reality of the situation should she sign Ursula’s contract and what growing up and moving away to the human world means.

“If I become a human, I’ll never see my father or sisters again,” Ariel says aloud to Ursula.

“Life’s full of tough decisions,” Ursula replies.

And this is where she starts coming of age.

The Little Mermaid (1989)

This bad deal with a sea witch leads to Ariel to getting what she wants – a chance to be with Prince Eric. That is until Ursula returns and tries to snatch it all away. This is Ariel’s moment to rise to the occasion and prove she isn’t a naïve sixteen-year-old but someone willing to fight for what’s important: both her father and the love of her life.

Coming-of-age is about characters who start out young and innocent, but then they have to face the reality of their world and make a big decision. It was Ariel’s decisions that led her down the road to disaster, but in the end, it’s up to her to save King Triton, Eric and the sea kingdom from a powerful villain. 

There are other factors that help create a compelling lead character. 

The hero of the story must have real stakes, a great antagonist who challenges them and supporting characters helping to drive their story. In The Little Mermaid, the story grows beyond a young girl trying to get the attention of a young boy. It’s about an overly protective father, a witch trying to claim the throne by any means necessary and a group of friends who will do anything to watch their friend succeed.

CHECK OUT OUR PREPARATION NOTES SO YOU START YOUR STORY OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK!

The post Character Breakdown: What Makes Ariel More Than Just A Little Mermaid? appeared first on ScreenCraft.

While Shrek had his last onscreen performance in 2010 with Shrek Forever After, his feline companion Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) starred in a 2011 prequel, Puss in Boots, that followed Puss’s adventures before joining Shrek and Donkey in their adventures. After ten years, Puss returns with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which takes place after the events of the Shrek franchise, where Puss struggles to live up to his reputation. 

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

From the opening scene, the film declares that “this is a fairy tale,” and the film remarkably changes everything we have expected from the franchise in the first ten minutes. Director Joel Crawford injects stylized action sequences and visual gaps reminiscent of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but makes the style own through unique visuals that we haven’t seen in animation before.

Read More: 5 Serious Takeaways From Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Co-Writer Rodney Rothman

For an animated film targeted towards younger audiences, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a great movie to learn from for any person interested in making live-action or animated films. Let’s break down the story of The Last Wish and what made this story a technical and visual delight.

What Happens in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

After renowned hero and outlaw Puss in Boots is fatally crushed by a bell, Puss wakes up in a hospital where a doctor informs him that he has used eight of his nine lives. With one life left, the doctor urges Puss to retire from his life of adventure. 

Puss refuses but later changes his mind after meeting a mysterious black-hooded wolf (Wagner Moura) who disarms Puss, cuts him on his forehead, and taunts him to pick up his sword. Out of fear of dying, Puss flees to the house of Mama Luna, a cat lady, and ceremoniously buries his attire in her garden. 

Later, the crime family of Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears show up at Luna’s, looking to recruit Puss to steal the magical map of the Wishing Star from Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney) so they can grant a wish. After only finding Puss’s “grave,” the crime family leaves, and Puss follows with a stray dog that is only referred to as Perrito (Harvey Guillén).

Once Puss breaks into Horner’s bakery to steal the map and restore his life, he unexpectedly reunites with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault), who is seeking the map to find someone she can trust. The map leads the trio of Puss, Kitty, and Perrito into the Dark Forest, a pocket dimension that changes its terrain depending on the map’s holder. While Puss and Kitty both receive dark, hellish landscapes, Perrito’s is a colorful and tranquil forest.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

During another run-in with Honer and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Puss spots the hooded wolf again and flees. Perrito follows and calms down Puss from his panic attack. Puss confesses to Perrito that he is living his last life and leaves Kitty at the altar on their wedding day. Kitty overhears this and tells Puss that she never attended the wedding either because she knew she couldn’t compete with someone who loved themselves more than her. 

After reclaiming that map from Goldilocks, the landscape morphs, and Perrito is captured by the bears while Puss is trapped in a crystalline cave. Inside the cave, Puss encounters crystal reflections of his past lives, who mock him for changing his perspective on life.

During this argument, the hooded world appears, saying he followed the scent of Puss’s fear and introduced himself as Death. Death reveals that he seeks to kill Puss as retribution for wasting his past lives. Again, out of fear, Puss flees with the map, leaving Kitty and Perrito behind. 

Meanwhile, Goldilocks reveals that she wishes for a human family, which devastates the bears, who see her as one of their own. Even though they are hurt, the bears agree to help her if this wish ultimately makes her happy.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Ending Explained

At the wishing star, Kitty confronts Puss for his selfishness. During their argument, Goldilocks, the bears, and Horner arrive, and another fight ensues.

Goldilocks forfeits her wish to save Baby Bear’s life during the fight. Horner is trapped inside his magical bottomless bag. When Puss is given the map, Death arrives, trapping Puss and himself in a ring of hellfire.

When Death challenges Puss to a duel, Puss agrees, forfeiting his wish and choosing to be brave and face Death. During the fight, Death notes that Puss has lost his arrogance and has finally accepted his mortality, and spares him after promising Puss that they will meet again. 

Having eaten a magical growth cookie, Horner reemerges from his bag as a giant and takes the map from Puss and Kitty. As he attempts to make a wish, Perrito distracts him so Puss, Kitty, Goldilocks, and the bears can rip the map to shreds. This causes the Wishing Star to collapse and consume Horner. 

As they watch the meteor shower from the ground, Goldilocks accepts the bears as her family, while Puss rekindles his love for Kitty and includes Perrito as a member of their group.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

The Existential Crises of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish 

There comes a time in everyone’s life when we start to understand the finality of death. While the concept of death is relatively simple, the “ah-ha” moment of realizing that everything has an expiration date is…well, terrifying. 

Understanding this grim subject matter is hard to make comforting, yet The Last Wish breaks down this existential crisis in an honest and comforting way. How does an animated movie about a suave anti-hero cat in the Shrek universe handle death? Let’s get into it. 

For one, death is present from the beginning. A bell kills Puss, but the audience must remember that we live in a fantasy world, and the myth that a cat has nine lives becomes true in this story. The world’s rules are established without any room for misinterpretation: Puss is in his final life and will die if he doesn’t change his perspective on life. 

Puss’s previous deaths resulted from his arrogance and lack of care for himself or others around him. He believes that his bravery came from a belief that he was invincible, which means that he had never felt accountable to himself or to anybody else. 

If you truly want to understand Puss’s perspective on life, listen to the opening song of The Last Wish:

After being confronted by Death, both physically and methodically, Puss realizes that he can die. His last life is all he has. To persevere in this life, Puss chooses to let the legend of Puss in Boots fade into oblivion as he lives the rest of his days in a cat retirement home where he is miserable and goes through the motions of life. 

After being forced into an adventure, Puss realizes how physically vulnerable he is and that he needs others’ support as much as he needs to support theirs. 

In one of the most beautiful scenes of The Last Wish, Puss has a panic attack and disappears into the woods. When the animators put us into Puss’s perspective, the world is blurry, and the voices are distorted. Perrito finds Puss in this state, understanding that Puss is having a panic attack, and lays his head on Puss to comfort him in his time of need. 

It is a simple moment, yet so profoundly moving because it shows how being there for someone in their time of need can make all the difference. 

Death is scary, but The Last Wish reminds us that we all have to face death one day. Nobody dismisses Puss’s fear of death, yet they are all encouraging him not to run away in fear of it. Instead, enjoy the life you have and do what you can to be happy in the end. 

Once Puss finds happiness from this adventure, a feeling he has never had before, his joy becomes a source of courage. He battles Death and admits that while he may not be able to defeat him, he will continue to fight for his life.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Smelling the Posies With Perrito

I am also skeptical about side characters in animated films, especially ones as adorable as Perrito. These characters are often reduced to being the butt of the joke, but Perrito is different. Perrito is okay with being the butt of the joke because he is involved with the other characters. 

Dreaming of being a therapy dog, Perrito is relentlessly optimistic, offering insight into a new perspective on life. There are many reasons Perrito exists in this narrative, but one of my favorite moments is when the trio walks into the field of posies.  

In this scene, posies violently shoot from the ground and block the path ahead. Puss and Kitty chop through the posies, attacking the enemy as they normally would, but the posies overwhelm them. Perrito, blissfully unaware of the dangers of the flowers, sniffs the posies, which allows him to walk past the flowers easily. Puss and Kitty must let go of their survival instincts and learn to take the time to smell the flowers. 

When confronting death, we often lose sight of the small joys of life. Perrito reminds us to take the time and find value in those small, joyful moments.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Finding Your Chosen Family

While death is the ever-looming theme in The Last Wish, the B story, which often features secondary characters and their problems rather than having them support the main characters, focuses on Goldilocks and her wish to have a family of her own.  

In this version of the fairy tale, Goldilocks is an orphan, or at least so young that when the bears discover her sleeping in Baby Bear’s (Samson Kayo) bed, they decide to keep her and raise her as one of their own. When we meet them in The Last Wish, they’ve been operating as a crime family. 

The foursome works so well together that it is a gut punch to the bears and us when Goldilocks reveals that she wants a “proper” family. Papa and Mama Bear (Ray Winstone and Olivia Colman) make a heart-breaking decision to continue helping Goldilocks find the star anyway because they love and care for Goldilocks and want her to be happy. 

The unawareness of the hurt Goldilocks causes something we have all done with people who care for us. It’s natural to be caught up in your ideas of what you want that you don’t take a step back to realize that you already have everything. 

The relationship between the bears and Goldilocks is a perfect example of a chosen family and the mutual love and support we all crave in our lives.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Is This the End of Puss in Boots?

With his confidence restored and a newfound appreciation for the company, the future for Puss is open to new possibilities. 

One possibility that The Last Wish explicitly teases at the end of the film is the possibility of checking back in with Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey as Puss and his team sail for the kingdom of Far Far Away. We did see many familiar faces from the Shrek films in The Last Wish, like Gingy the Gingerbread Man (Conrad Vernon) and Pinocchio. We also see brief glimpses of Shrek and Donkey with Puss as his lives flash before his eyes. 

Puss is a wonderful character that is open to any challenge that comes his way. Although he tends to stick to his Zorro-esque ways, Puss is a revolutionary figure who is open to change if it means helping those he does care about. Even though it took more than ten years to get the first sequel to Puss in Boots, the spin-off franchise is fully realized and knows how to tackle heavy conversation in a fun and honest way.

The post Why Legends Never Die in ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Let's go over these classic Disney characters and delve into their character development.

Enter Now  |  Final Deadline in 22 days

Who is Mickey Mouse?

It seems like a silly question because the character is recognized as a symbol of joy and innocence in virtually every corner of the globe.

Mickey Mouse was Walt Disney's answer to a character whose intellectual property rights were taken from him. Walt had initially created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal Pictures. Several Oswald animated short films were produced by Disney's animation studio and released in theaters under the Universal banner from 1927 to 1938.

Read More: 15 Inspiring Walt Disney Quotes for Screenwriters

Rights issues later forced Walt to create a new character that he could have full control over. That character was Mickey Mouse, first making his public appearance in 1928'S animated short STEAMBOAT WILLIE.

The character went on to appear in over 130 films, ten of which were nominated for Oscars. The short LEND A PAW won the animated short Academy Award in 1941.

Mickey became an overnight sensation after the debut of Steamboat Willie. In the decades that followed, the almost 100-year-old character evolved into many strikingly different versions that reflected Walt Disney's life and the world around him as the years went by.

The character, having now appeared in animated commercials, shorts, series, video games, books, comics, and movies, also became the iconic face of Disney, both as a figurehead and logo.

Mickey Mouse's Character Development

As the years went by as Mickey's popularity grew, and as Disney grew as a pop culture powerhouse, the control of Mickey's character development changed.

If you watch the older shorts, Mickey is much different than what we've seen in the last half-century. He was a troublemaker of sorts. He also had an attitude that doesn't match what we know of him today. But as he became such an icon, the stories he was involved with called for a particular type of character.

Walt Disney explained:

"Too many taboos [were] put on to Mickey Mouse... he had to maintain a certain dignity." 

These days, Mickey is the quintessential nice guy. For well more than half a century, he's been a do-gooder. And Disney storytellers weren't able to show him as anything but that.

The Evolution of Mickey Mouse | The Walt Disney Archives

Why Donald Duck and Goofy Were Created

Disney explained:

"In order to give ourselves a latitude [for character development], we created this terrible-tempered Mr. Duck."

Story after story for Mickey was being rejected because they didn't portray the character as the Disney company wanted. The pitched stories presented him as:

• Too silly
• Too selfish
• Too angry
• Too violent
• Too dimwitted

They found out that pairing Mickey with two new characters that could take on those additional character dynamics would offer better stories while also protecting the core dignity of Mickey Mouse. Those characters were Donald Duck and Goofy.

They worked so well together in those first shorts that debuted in the later 1930s, primarily because their personalities rubbed off against each other so well.

Donald was getting Mickey's anger. Goofy was getting Mickey's silly side. That backfired somewhat because Donald and Goofy began to overshadow Mickey, who had then become somewhat of the straight man in the comedic dynamic between the three. Basically, Donald and Goofy were getting all of the laughs.

When Walt saw this, he wanted to create a feature that could bring Mickey back to the forefront. The character aesthetics were redesigned to the more contemporary look we know today via the celebrated Disney animated feature, Fantasia. Mickey starred in The Sorcerer's Apprentice piece of the animated anthology.

The story allowed Mickey to become a more emotionally emphatic character. He was allowed to make mistakes — and later atone for them. But the writers and animators never allowed him to sway too far beyond the dignified spectrum. Donald and Goofy retained their grumpiness and silliness, taking on those stories and characterizations. They would later be developed to contain further empathy and depth as they became involved with families of their own, showcasing the heart and (eventual) dignity that Mickey had.

What Do These Dynamics of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy Teach Us About Character Development?

The relational dynamics between Mickey, Donald, and Goofy can reveal a lot about not only character development as a narrative function but the importance of including different types of supporting characters in your storytelling.

The Purpose of Supporting Characters

Supporting characters exist for a number of reasons:

• To make the protagonist better
• To make the story better
• To fulfill plot needs

In the case of Donald and Goofy, they were created to take on character dynamics that didn't fit the intended mold of Mickey, the protagonist.

• Mickey couldn't showcase anger towards a situation, so Donald did.
• Mickey couldn't be perceived as dimwitted or overly silly, so Goofy did.

Supporting characters can help you portray story dynamics that don't fit the characteristics of your protagonist. Some story and plot situations call for a reaction that can't be given by the hero.

• A threat may need to be taken out in a way that would conflict with the protagonist's established morals.
• Levity by way of silliness or humor may be needed without affecting the validity of the protagonist's stoic nature.

With the creation of Donald and Goofy, we know and understand that supporting characters can help further the story and offer more story and plot depth while retaining the focus of the protagonist's arc.

Read More: Understanding the 3 Types of Character Arcs

Character Inconsistency

Character inconsistency stands out like a sore thumb. Sure, all protagonists become better with depth. But you can and should only take things so far before you fall into character inconsistency.

Case Study: The Godfather

If you look at a film like The Godfather, you'll see this dynamic in play.

Michael Corleone is the lead protagonist, tasked with handling family affairs with a more even keel, as opposed to his brothers Sonny (Violent, Short-tempered, Immoral) and Fredo (Silly, Incompetent, Dimwittted, Cowardly).

The depth of Michael as a character is that he is forced to embody or combat the characteristics that his brothers have.

• He's going to need to make violent and immoral decisions.
• He doesn't want to come off as incompetent, naive, and cowardly as Fredo.

However, because we (and the Corleone family) can't have him fully take on those characteristics if he's going to be a consistent character, Sonny and Fredo must exist to shoulder those story and plot points.

Donald and Goofy Are Mickey's Sonny and Fredo

That's what Donald and Goofy teach us about character development. And that's what Sonny and Fredo teach us as well.

Supporting characters can be used to shoulder characteristics, actions, reactions, and story/plot points that the protagonists can't (or shouldn't).

Read More: 3 Types of Supporting Characters Your Protagonist Needs! 

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed, and many Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies

The post What Mickey, Donald, and Goofy Teach Us About Character Development appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Grand Prize Winner

The Craftsman by Harron Atkins

Raz’s life is upended when his estranged father shows up with a request: help him rescue Raz’s kidnapped twin sister before a power-hungry tech tycoon can use her magic for his own sinister plans.

Feature Winner

Coins by Anthony Gaudioso, Erik Cardona

During a routine rescue mission to save a group of pennies stuck to train tracks, two quarters - George and his best friend, Flanagan - make a fatal mistake. Three years later, George must forgive himself and learn to shine again to protect his own family when a new enemy puts their circulation at risk.

TV Winner

Heirheads by Kayla Baken

Heirheads follows the misadventures of a dutiful medieval princess – caught up in a lifelong feud between king brothers who both need her to produce an heir – and the mediocre witch she unknowingly summons.

Short Winner

Little Tommy's Dance by Zachary Jones

A young boy is finally allowed to connect with his passion for dance after years of being forced into sports when a magical orb grants him his wish.

Add-on Partner Prize Winners

Dinah by Brandon Feldman, Ben Agron

Cryptozoology by Rick Mitchell, Matt Quinn

We would also like to acknowledge the following projects as Honorable Mentions:

Anomaly by Daniel Parra

Blob by Summer Benowitz

We would like to thank again our incredible industry jury: Justin Littman (Manager, Gotham Group), Sam Hoffman (Creative Executive, Fuzzy Door), Mitchell Bendersky (Manager, Gramercy Park Entertainment), Nadya Panfilov (Coordinator, Writ Large), Edward Mejia (Exec. Director of Current Series, Disney TV Animation), and screenwriters Lauren Hynek & Elizabeth Martin (MULAN).

Congratulations again to these writers, and thank you to everyone who submitted projects. If you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post 2022 ScreenCraft Animation Competition Winners appeared first on ScreenCraft.

We're excited to share these projects with our incredible jury that includes: Justin Littman (Manager, Gotham Group), Sam Hoffman (Creative Executive, Fuzzy Door), Mitchell Bendersky (Manager, Gramercy Park Entertainment), Nadya Panfilov (Coordinator, Writ Large), Edward Mejia (Exec. Director of Current Series, Disney TV Animation), and screenwriters Lauren Hynek & Elizabeth Martin (MULAN).

Stay tuned for the Winner announcement on November 30th on our blog and on our Twitter and Facebook pages! And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

Congrats to the Finalists:

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post 2022 ScreenCraft Animation Competition Finalists appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Stay tuned for the Finalist announcement on November 2nd on our blog and on our Twitter and Facebook pages! And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

Here are the Semifinalists:

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post 2022 ScreenCraft Animation Competition Semifinalists appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Stay tuned for the Semifinalist announcement on October 5th on our blog and on our Twitter and Facebook pages! And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

Here are the Quarterfinalists:

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post 2022 ScreenCraft Animation Competition Quarterfinalists appeared first on ScreenCraft.

If you haven't watched Turning Red yet, check out the trailer below, and stream it immediately.

Appearing on my podcast Script Apart, in which great screenwriters break down their early drafts of acclaimed movies, Julia Cho told me all about how the film came together – sharing some useful screenwriting tips and tricks along the way.

Here are just a few of the main takeaways that I’ve since applied to my work – listen to the episode in full below to learn more.

Write the Thing That's Missing from Your Cultural Landscape

One of the many things that made Turning Red so unique was how unapologetic and forthright it was about discussing female puberty on screen. Yes, the red panda that Mae turns into is itself a metaphor for puberty – feeling like you have a monster within, waiting to erupt whenever you get emotional, is a feeling most people who can remember their teenage years can relate to. But Julia and Domee didn’t want to just hide behind that metaphor. They wanted to openly discuss female puberty on screen because historically, pop culture has shied away from depicting it.

Read More: Pixar Storytelling Works: 'Elemental' Writers Use All the Rules

“One of my great joys was writing that scene where Mae turns into a panda for the first time and there's a pyramid of menstrual products behind her,” says Julia. “The joy of being able to put that on screen and have her mother ask: "What do you need? Liners? Pads?" Every single woman knows those products. It’s such a human, natural part of our everyday experience. Why's that not been up there [on screen] before? Once we started finding those moments and realizing how fun it was to write in those moments that we hadn't seen before, we tried to do as many as we could.”

If you’re frustrated by parts of your experience you don’t often see represented on-screen, writing them into your next screenplay might help you deliver something as fresh and vitally needed as Turning Red.

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

An Antagonist Can Be a “What” Instead of a “Who”

Does Turning Red have an antagonist? Julia isn’t sure it does. At various points in the film’s first act, the movie teases the possibility of a mean classmate from Mae’s school developing into its bad guy. Instead, that plot thread turns out to be a red herring and Turning Red moves forward without a clear villain – historically an essential part of any screenplay, especially in the realm of kids’ animation.

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While developing Turning Red, Julia Cho and Domee Shi realized it was more compelling (and true to life) to use a concept as the movie’s antagonistic force, rather than engineering a villain for the sake of it. “There's no real antagonist because it was clear early on that Mae's biggest obstacle was going to be her mom and all the things her mom embodies. But you can't make a villain out of a parent because at the end of the day she loves Mae, right?” explains Julia. “So what really became the villain was the cultural expectation that not just Mae but her mom were saddled with. Unknowingly, they're both fighting the same thing and not really knowing it.” 

The lesson? Don’t just drop a mustache-twirling bad guy into your story because screenwriting convention demands it. Sometimes, a societal force like generational trauma can be just as, if not more, powerful. 

Check out more screenwriting takeaways from Script Apart!

Al Horner is a London-based journalist, screenwriter and presenter. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Empire Magazine, GQ, BBC, Little White Lies, TIME Magazine and more.

The post Script Apart: Screenwriting Lessons from Pixar's 'Turning Red' Co-Writer Julia Cho appeared first on ScreenCraft.

We get our ideas from many sources — news headlines, novels, television shows, movies, our lives, our fears, our phobias, etc. They can come from a scene or moment in a film that wasn’t fully explored. They can come from a single visual that entices the creative mind — a seed that continues to grow and grow until the writer is forced to finally put it to paper or screen.

They may inspire screenplays, novels, short stories, or even smaller moments that you can include in what stories you are already writing.

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

Why Should Your Script Be Animated? 

Too many screenwriters have sent screenplays out to animation studios without the initial intention of creating a story bred for animation. Animation isn't a fallback or secondary option for the marketing of your screenplay.

You need to explore what animation can bring to your screenplays and stories. You need to ask yourself why your script should be animated — and why you should approach animation houses and producers. One of the first things they will ask you is: "Why should this be an animated movie?"

The best genre options for animation include:

• Fantasy
• Science Fiction
• Children Book Adaptations
• Comic Adaptations

Animation can bring these types of stories to life in a way that live-action can't, even in this day and age of CGI. The medium allows creative and stylistic visuals and imagery to come to life — visuals and imagery that wouldn't translate as well to live-action. And some that just wouldn't be possible in live-action.

There has to be a reason, though. There needs to be a communicable pitch for why your story is perfect for animation. Animation can't just be a marketing option for your screenplay.

For more guidance on that, Read ScreenCraft's The Simple Guide to Writing Animated Screenplays!

In the spirit of helping writers find those creative seeds, here we offer 101 originally conceived animation story prompts that you can use as inspiration for your next animated screenplay.

Note: Because we’re all connected to the same pop culture, news headlines, and inspirations, any similarity to any past, present, or future screenplays, novels, short stories, television pilots, television series, plays, or any other creative works is purely coincidence. These story writing prompts were conceived on the fly without any research or Google search for inspiration.

101 Animation Story Prompts

1. Two treasure-hunting families of mice set out on a journey that takes them around the world.  

2. Canine siblings that lost their parents find a portal to the Rainbow Bridge leading to pet heaven. 

3. A gamer finds a portal that allows him to enter his favorite games.

4. A young bear cub searches for his lost father in the mountains.

5. A family of space travelers crash lands on an exotic planet.

6. Siblings discover a series of mysterious tunnels underneath their town.

7. Animals of Africa put on a show for visiting human safari tours. 

8. A family befriends a monster discovered living underneath the children's bed. 

9. Starving ants fight to infiltrate a seemingly impenetrable suburban home for food.

10. A society of cockroaches inhabits the post-apocalyptic Earth.

11. A canine mother wants to realize her life-long dream to train for the pet Olympics. 

12. The hidden canine life of dog show participants.

13. A family of mice is chosen to be the first living being to fly in space.

14. A family of chimps is to be the first to colonize Mars.

15. A little boy begins to develop superhuman strength. 

16. A chipmunk that idolizes the Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoons tries to emulate their success. 

17. A family is sucked into their favorite TV shows. 

18. The cartoons of the 1980s escape into the real world. 

19. The first dogs of the Presidential family enjoy life as part of the first family. 

20. West Side Story with Cats vs. Dogs. 

'Puss in Boots'

21. The Wizard of Oz with animals. 

22. Dogs and horses travel with their human counterparts to the American Frontier to find their new home.

23. The Kentucky Derby through the eyes of the horses.

24. Dog races through the eyes of the dogs.

25. Siblings learn that their parents used to be international spies.

26. A family on a wilderness retreat stumbles upon a society of talking animals.

27. After a rich and affluent family loses everything, their pet cat and pet dog must adjust to living in the suburbs. 

28. Suburban pets are transported back in time and see how their ancestors lived. 

29. A family of explorers searches the ocean for the lost city of Atlantis. 

30. A family finds a lost city underneath their farmland. 

31. A professional dog walker has a magical gift — she can talk with dogs. 

32. Two canine brothers do everything they can to ensure that their human family keeps their house. 

33. The wildlife on the Mississippi react to seeing white explorers for the first time. 

34. An old mansion of ghosts reacts to someone buying the property.  

35. A family of mice is shipwrecked on an uncharted island. 

36. Small animals partake in a Cannonball Run-like race across the country using RC cars. 

37. A teenage bird looking for adventure discovers a strange bird city in the clouds. 

38. A robot from the future befriends a family.  

39. A family of urban rats is whisked away to the wild during a horrible storm and flood. 

40. A civilization of robots discovers their human roots. 

'Robots'

41. A bullied boy wakes up as a strong knight in a fantasy world. 

42. A boy living in a dangerous neighborhood pretends his family is actually a royal family in a fantasy world. 

43. Humans are actually the scary things in the closet of a monster household that lives parallel to the human world. 

44. A little boy on a sailing trip he doesn't want to be on discovers a mermaid society. 

45. A teddy bear longs to become human after he falls for his owner's best friend. 

46. A society of deer prepares for the hunting season. 

47. A school of fish is caught up in the Bermuda Triangle.

48. Sea creatures live in the Bermuda Triangle throughout the sunken ruins of ships and planes that disappeared within it. 

49. Classic fairy tale characters come to life within an old big-city library. 

50. Humans wake up to discover that their world has turned into a living cartoon.

51. An action star of R-Rated movies is transported into the world of television cartoons. 

52. An outcast nerd discovers that he's actually a revered prince from another planet, hidden by his royal family to escape an evil space lord. 

53. A society of animal wizards must defend their homes. 

54. Superhero animals protect a city of animals. 

55. A family of toys struggles to find the right human family for them. 

56. Puppy siblings separated by pet adoption escape bad homes to find each other. 

57. A society of Martian aliens reacts to a strange ship that has landed on their planet. 

58. The life of cats during Egyptian times.  

59. The life of dogs during the Wild West. 

60. A strange family moves into a suburban neighborhood. 

'Monster House'

61. Black and white cartoon characters are introduced to the world of color animation for the first time. 

62. A rich dog and its poor sibling switch places for a month. 

63. The story of the world's worst tsunami told through the eyes of the island animals. 

64. The cartoon version of a popular movie character meets its counterpart. 

65. The society of a dog park told through the eyes of the animals within it. 

66. Descendants of Tarzan venture to the jungle he grew up in.

67. A family of international spies moves to the suburbs. 

68. Peter Pan's mother tracks him down in Neverland. 

69. Ghosts decide to unite and haunt a town with the goal of creating their very own ghost city to live in. 

70. A character within a Sim City-like game becomes self-aware and wants to escape to the real world. 

71.  A family vacationing in Hawaii unlocks a portal that transports them back in time. 

72. A society of miniature people live amongst us. 

73. A magician escapes into the world of his magical hat.

74. A family is transported back to the time of the dinosaurs only to discover that they weren't like we thought they were. 

75. A mouse that's a riverboat captain takes his family down the Mississippi River during the 1800s. 

76. A dog whose human family moved away from his puppyhood house returns to see how things have both changed — and not changed. 

77. A doctor is shrunk to microscopic size and injected into a human bloodstream to find the cause of a disease threatening humankind. 

78. Alien explorers arrive on planet Earth thousands of years after humans became extinct. 

79. Animals in a World War II-era city do all they can to support the war effort. 

80. A family-owned dog boarding business told through the eyes of the dogs. 

'The Secret Life of Pets'

81. The life of a dog from puppy to old dog told through dog's perspective. 

82. A cartoon becomes self-aware, escapes its toon world, and tries to find its maker. 

83. A toy becomes self-aware and tries to find its maker. 

84. A family of wolves nurses a lost child back to health. 

85. A robot boy wants to become a real boy.  

86. A witch curses a group of children, causing them to shrink to the size of ants. 

87. The life of circus animals. 

88. Suburban neighborhood friends discover that their parents are robots.  

89. A creepy old doll collection is actually alive. 

90. A family of monsters moves to the suburbs. 

91. The life of military or police dogs.  

92. A village of wilderness animals tries to survive a raging forest fire. 

93. Glacier animals struggle as their home succumbs to the effects of global warming.  

94. A talented young artist's drawings come to life one night. 

95. A struggling newspaper cartoonist in the 1930s creates an iconic character that comes to life.  

96. A portal to another world opens during a sleepover. 

97. The roles of humans and pets are reversed. 

98. A librarian discovers that each book is a portal into the world featured within.  

99. A family of ghosts helps the children of the family that bought their house. 

100. City rats decide to leave big city life to live in the country. 

101. The life of a snowman.  

'Frozen 2'

Share this with your writing peers or anyone that loves a good animated story. Have some prompts of your own? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter!

Want More Ideas? Take a Look at Our Other Genre-Based Story Prompts!

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed, and many Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies

The post 101 Enchanting Animation Story Prompts appeared first on ScreenCraft.

From time-honored classics to newer staples, there’s a clear element of commitment to comedic form that evolves from animation. Whether it’s geared toward kids or a more adult audience, you’ll find that the examples below have proven to be important installations in the world of humor.

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

The Simpsons

There’s scarcely anything that stands out to people as much when talking about hilarious cartoons as The Simpsons.

In an age when sitcoms dominated the airwaves, this one began to reign supreme as the true “nuclear family,” one where the breadwinner actually worked in a nuclear power plant — and where the outlandishness of animation could reflect the equally odd and hilarious nature of people in ways that didn’t have to be grounded.

The Boondocks

Outlandishness isn’t always based on looks — in fact, many times, it comes from characters’ actions. That’s the philosophy behind The Boondocks, and this show does it quite beautifully.

After all, this show about two kids from South Side Chicago living with their grandpa in the suburbs uses an anime-style art direction. This type of art turns this sitcom into an expressive display where adult situations have an intense impact: violence, racism, manipulation, and more are explored in this expressive style, shedding light on real emotions and surprising actions using the drawing styles found in many anime.

Rick and Morty

This newer comic series does a great job of fitting no molds. It’s not modeled to the specifications of a family sitcom like The Simpsons, but it does celebrate a lot of the same freedoms that Futurama has.

The art style is decidedly unique, with the original character designs a clear parody of Doc Brown and Marty McFly from Back to the Future. However, Rick and Morty share a very different relationship, and this show’s willingness to improvise and riff makes them a uniquely hilarious show for those who brace themselves.

Futurama

The success of The Simpsons gave way to the creation of another show from the same geniuses — a show about the future.

This sitcom, called Futurama, is an ensemble comedy with a lot of time on its hands. Thanks to the outlandishness of its setting in the year 3000, Futurama is able to make informed timely references to real-life events while still maintaining a degree of separation, as they do with the use of Richard Nixon’s disembodied head.

Futurama also makes it easy to give its own spin on everything from Greek mythology (the Amazonians) to folk legends (Robot Santa) for a world and comic style that is still, to this day, completely its own.

South Park

Nothing has to be high-res, beautifully rendered in 3-D, to make someone laugh. It just needs to be its own thing. That’s a clear philosophy that came into practice with South Park, a show animated first with construction paper in stop-motion.

Eventually, traditional methods would not work, and the show's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, needed a new way to create hilarious hijinks and jokes at everyone’s expense using the fictional town of South Park, Colorado.

This show’s distinctive look is by far the most recognizable of any animated show today, and its irreverent and persistent topical comedy has formed some of the most gut-busting and controversial episodes of television to date.

Bob’s Burgers

While the not-for-children shows that dominate the comedy landscape have made their impact, there are still projects that have proven (somewhat) family-friendly while still using hilarious jokes about cannibalism, personal hygiene, and financial failure that connect with adult audiences.

If you’re looking to fall in love with a family while laughing the whole time, Bob’s Burgers is the show for you. This is another sitcom family, but this time they're running a burger joint — and proving a lot less egregious for younger audiences, despite a lot of the jokes still connecting with adult viewers.

Read More: 5 Screenwriting Tips from 'Family Guy' Showrunners

David Wayne Young is an independent film producer and screenwriter with years of experience in story analysis, even providing coverage for multiple international screenwriting competitions. David's obsessions include weird fiction and cosmic horror, and he's formally trained in the art of tasting and preparing gourmet coffee in various worldly traditions, from Turkish coffee to hand-tamped espresso — all enjoyed while writing, of course.

The post 6 Animated Shows That Changed the World of Comedy appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Stay tuned for the Winner announcement on December 8th here and on our Twitter and Facebook pages! The winners will be chosen by our incredible Industry Jury:

• HENRY SELICK, BAFTA, Annie-Winning, Oscar-Nominated Director and Writer
• LINDSAY DORAN, Producer, Executive and Story Consultant
• BRYAN DAVIDSON, Director of Animation Development, Skydance Animation
• SHARON BORDAS, President, Mindshow Animation
• EDWARD MEJIA, Executive Director of Current Series, Disney Television Animation

And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.

Here are the Finalists:

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post 2021 ScreenCraft Animation Competition Finalists appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Here we offer a simple guide to becoming informed and understanding those nuances.

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

How to Get Your Start in Animation

Consider Becoming an Animator

There's an inescapable truth that trying to sell animation screenplays on spec (writing them under speculation that you'll sell them to someone) can be much more difficult than trying to sell a spec script intended to be a live-action feature.

Animation houses usually develop animated projects from within. And those projects are usually developed by animators. Animation is an animator's medium. There's no escaping that.

So, before you begin to pursue a career in writing for animation, consider trying to become an animator yourself. That's the easiest and most direct way into animation writing.

• You can pursue a degree in animation or computer graphics.
• Disney offers college students internship programs and offers entry-level growth opportunities for recent grads and those new to the animation industry.
• And there are many other opportunities online as well.

But don't worry, non-animators have succeeded in animation writing as well.

Aphton Corbin, Story Artist at Pixar

Jumping From Live-Action to Animation

Yes, being an animator helps you ten-fold when it comes to writing animated screenplays that get produced. All of the Pixar titans (Unkrich, Lasseter, Docter, Stanton) began in animation before writing Pixar's biggest hits. But that doesn't mean that being an animator is the only route in.

After graduating from college, Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt first started out as a script reader for production companies. He then became the full-time assistant to Hollywood actor Matthew Broderick. In 1999, he decided that he wanted to pursue screenwriting full-time.

Arndt wrote and revised the script for Little Miss Sunshine over the course of a year. He got the script to a producer and ended up selling it for $250,000. The script was then in development for a few years until it was finally produced, leading to critical acclaim, box office success, and an Oscar for Arndt.

Pixar then hired Arndt to write the screenplay for Toy Story 3, based on Andrew Stanton's treatment. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

If writing for animation is your dream, but you don't want to become an animator to do so, there are options. You can impress an animation house with live-action success or with strong animation and live-action scripts as samples.

'Toy Story 3'

Why Should Your Script Be Animated? 

Too many screenwriters have sent screenplays out to animation studios without the initial intention of creating a story bred for animation. Animation isn't a fallback or secondary option for the marketing of your screenplay.

But maybe you should consider writing for animation.

You need to explore what animation can bring to your screenplays and stories. You need to ask yourself why your script should be animated — and why you should approach animation houses and producers. One of the first things they will ask you is: "Why should this be an animated movie?"

The best genre options for animation include:

• Fantasy
• Science Fiction
• Children Book Adaptations
• Comic Adaptations

Animation can bring these types of stories to life in a way that live-action can't, even in this day and age of CGI. The medium allows creative and stylistic visuals and imagery to come to life — visuals and imagery that wouldn't translate as well to live-action. And some that just wouldn't be possible in live-action.

There has to be a reason, though. There needs to be a communicable pitch for why your story is perfect for animation. Animation can't just be a marketing option for your screenplay.

Read More: Why Legends Never Die in 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish'

Screenplay Formatting: Live-Action vs. Animation

The initial animation screenplay format is no different from what you would see with a live-action feature script.

You use the same core elements of screenplay format:

• Scene Heading
• Scene Description
• Character Names for Dialogue
• Dialogue

Script excerpt from 'Toy Story 3'

And you can expect the same with writing animated TV series episodes as well.

However, there are basic nuances that you should consider adding to your animated screenplays.

Visually-Enhanced Character Description

This harkens back to showing us why your script should be an animated feature. When you introduce your characters within the screenplay, seek out opportunities to add a little visual flair.

Maybe your character has:

• Big eyes
• Exaggerated big ears
• An extremely small frame
• Vibrantly colorful clothes

It's good to have just a line or two of description that screams animation. You don't want to overstep your bounds, though. It's an animator's medium. The animators are going to take your script to the animation-level with their own character designs, but you can offer a couple of broad strokes to work from.

Scene Description Free of Bounds

The great thing about writing for animation is that anything is possible. You no longer have to worry about the constraints of live-action features, where you can (and should) worry about having too many exotic locations, unrealistic action sequences, etc.

Go nuts. Explore and create vibrant worlds. Put your characters through hoops and hurdles that live-action wouldn't allow. Create worlds that scream for animation and excite animators. Give them a reason not just to want to accept the challenge of bringing such a unique and original world to life — make them feel the need to do it by creating something so unique and special.

Fantastical Props and Vehicles

Don't be afraid to be weird and strange. Fill your world with things we haven't seen before — or different and exaggerated variations of what we have seen. The animators can create whatever you envision.

A normal live-action script would just say car. You can take that to the next level with an additional line or two of description to capture an enhanced visual.

The LEGO Movie 2

What to Keep in Mind as You Craft Your Story

Read A LOT of Animation Scripts

If you want to know how to write a great animated script, one of the best ways to learn is to read great animated scripts.

What are your favorite animated films? Find those scripts and read them! Do a lot of them come from the same production company? Find out what that particular company's philosophy is on storytelling, whether it's Pixar, Laika Studios, or Studio Ghibli. (Quick Note: Pixar is very outspoken about its approach to telling stories and Hayao Miyazaki is also incredibly generous with his insight into Studio Ghibli's storytelling method.)

Conversely, though, don't just read great scripts -- read the less-than-great ones, too. Diagnose what these scripts lack. Is the dialogue unnatural? Are the characters flat and one-dimensional? Is the exposition too heavy-handed? Are the plot points unorganized and hard to follow? Understanding how other screenplays miss the mark can really help you avoid missing it yourself.

If you want to read some great animated screenplays, check out The Script Lab where you can download and read them for FREE! Here are a few to get you started.

• Wall-E
• Soul
• Toy Story
• Inside Out
• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Shrek

Determine Who Your Audience Is

You're not going to pitch an animated series or feature in the line of Family Guy or Sausage Party to Pixar or Disney. And you also need to understand how difficult an adult-oriented animation project will be to get off the ground.

The major animation houses like Pixar, Disney, and Dreamworks have a brand. They're not going to suddenly roll with adult-oriented animation.

So, whether you want to create four-quadrant family movies, animated children series, anime-level action/horror, or adult-oriented animated series, go in knowing what your demographics are and do your best to study them and cater to those audiences.

Explore the Common Themes

A few years back, Vox created a grid to showcase the themes found in most Pixar movies.

via: VOX

Themes are important in any storytelling. They can be developed early on in the writing process and used as a compass to guide the story and characters. They can be inserted during the writing process to better touch and engage an audience.

These above principle themes found in Pixar films prove that because they are so widely used throughout their catalog of films, and because Pixar has been so successful as a result, screenwriters should take note and consider exploring such themes within their own animated screenplays.

Disney and Dreamworks have embraced similar themes as well. The best thing that screenwriters can do is know and understand the animation realm. There are common successful themes that exist. And those themes are successful for a reason. Don't be afraid to embrace them.

Read More: Hayao Miyazaki Says 'Ma' is an Essential Storytelling Tool