Pixar
What their first and last movie do differently and why it matters for writers
Pixar
I think I might have a theory about why Pixar movies feel different lately.
But, to backtrack.
I saw Hoppers. Of course I did. I’ve seen every Pixar movie opening weekend since…I mean, since I had my own movie-going budget and a car. Pixar movies are my thing, even when they’re not.1
And I really did enjoy Hoppers. It was honestly a very fun and well-done movie, and I am SO here for unhinged Pixar. Like, please, let’s unhinge even more!
There’s always a sort of style and vibe and heart to Pixar movies, even their not great ones. But I think we’re all aware that the last few years of Pixar movies just haven’t felt the same as the first fifteen years or so where every single Pixar movie was a perfectly tuned, heart-string tugging banger after banger after banger. (Monsters Inc? Finding Nemo? Ratatouille? Up!? I mean come on.)
And I think I have a thought about why.
Let’s do a bit of a compare and contrast, shall we? To explore Pixar’s latest, let’s go take a look back at their first.
Let’s look at the stakes in Toy Story.
Honestly, they really couldn’t be smaller. At least not when it comes to global, earth-shattering type stakes.
No, the stakes in Toy Story are entirely personal. It’s entirely about Woody’s self-image, and his relationship with his boy. So, while to the world, the stakes couldn’t be smaller, to Woody, they’re as big as it gets.
So they’re big—huge—to us.
We understand what Woody wants and what he’s feeling every step of the way.
In fact, I’ve use Toy Story in writing classes before as an example of stakes, because it does such a brilliant job of balancing internal and external stakes. We know the internal goal for Woody is to be Andy’s favorite toy, and the external evidence of that is that precious spot on the bed.
Anyway. My point here is this:
In Toy Story, the stakes are character-driven.
Ok, now Hoppers.
There are so many things Hoppers does really well. Pixar writers can really craft a comedy moment, and man does this one deliver.2 The animal characters are so fun, well-designed, and very sweet (and I didn’t realize until checking afterwards that one of them is, though briefly, voiced by Meryl Streep???)
But…
Let’s look at the stakes. They’re great stakes. Nice, juicy, environmental stakes. We’ve got a very fun, spunky, relatable activitst in our main character Mabel. The movie is saying important things! Things about progress vs nature, and what it means to stand up for what you believe in! Yay!
And yet…the stakes just don’t feel as personal.
But wait, you may say if you’ve seen the movie, what about all that very personal stuff with the grandma? And Mabel’s personal reasons for wanting to save the glen?
The Pixar writers are smart. They know that for the audience to care, there must be some personal character investment. And they give that to Mabel here. I even got a tiny bit emotional at parts. And they’ve done worse, certainly (I still couldn’t really tell you what Elemental was about?).
BUT, if I’m honest, those personal stakes to me felt like an afterthought. Like the Pixar writers room knew they needed personal investment, so once they had their theme and story, they tacked that on too. It doesn’t, though, feel like the story stakes themselves came from that personal character investment. It’s almost like they designed a character to fit their story theme, and a differently designed character with a different but still-fitting backstory could have also worked.
In other words, I could imagine a Hoppers where the main character is someone other than Mabel. A different fun, quirky, relatable activist.
But there is no Toy Story without Woody or Buzz.
In Hoppers, the stakes felt theme-driven.
And hey, this is more analysis then judgement. Firstly, there is certainly a place for both character and theme-driven stories. Both can be done well or poorly, and heck, I’ve veered toward one sometimes in my writing when I was really aiming for the other. My point here is just to explore why these things feel different to the audience. Not that one is better than the other, just that they each create a different effect.
And very occasionally, pure magic happens, and a seemingly impossible story is created that is somehow both perfectly character-driven AND perfectly theme-driven.
Your turn!
What is your favorite Pixar movie?
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7 Side Dishes Worth Sharing
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Share your own favorite sides in the comments!
Teacher’s Table
Some goodies especially for the teachers:
What’s Good for Performance Often Isn’t Good for Learning via Andrew Campbell
Everything needed to get your young writers started is here in Tools Not Rules: A Writing Guide for Young Creatives.
Various and free activity sheets up on my Teachers Pay Teachers store! More added all the time, so check back regularly.
I am so, so excited and honored to now be on the roster at the Macmillan Speakers Bureau! For school and other events, you can find my speaker page here!
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They are my thing to the point that I once sent my books to the head of Pixar and HE WROTE BACK.
The shark!!!!
so hard to pick a favorite. Probably, Inside Out. I can't with Bing Bong. I'd need to re-watch to do a thorough stakes analysis as you do here. It's so meta because we care about Riley *and* we care about Joy, but we care so much about Riley because Joy cares so much about Riley. I'm working on a middle grade novel and I can't get the personal stakes right, so I've been studying this topic a lot. Thanks for your thoughts!
This is so interesting to think about. I just listened to an episode of Mike Birbiglia’s podcast with a Pixar filmmaker and he was on the team that made Toy Story and said that they were just learning how to make a feature film with it. The screenwriter was reading how-to books to figure it out as they were making it. It was an interesting look into Pixar’s process too.