The art of storytelling is a topic that many research and many can not grasp. It is essential to any show or movie or book in order to build a world outside our world. Sure some stories tend to have a formula, like a lot of Disney movies, but sometimes they go outside the norm. The three discussed in this article show us lessons in storytelling that won't hurt any of us to know.
Lesson one is about how research gives your setting authenticity. Wreck-It Ralph obviously had a lot of research put into it to fully encapsulate the feeling of a video game world. It has nods to other video games and such thought put into its unreal games that you can almost imagine them being real. The arcade resembles a real arcade, and the game lobby has graffiti that can match up to a real game's character and old trending graffiti as well. Big Hero 5 did much the same, as one would to mash two completely different places into one. San Fransokyo, as we know is a mash of San Fransisco and Tokyo, was a fictional city that took research and time to flawlessly make. American architecture has Japanese touches and things signature to Japan like sakura trees and lucky cats are put into the background with ease. Sure research is a pain, but without the foundation of your house would not stay standing.
Lesson two is giving reasons for bad guys to be bad. No one wants a pointless villain without a rhyme or reason to their petty ways. Hans from Frozen is the example of a pointless and petty villain. He's kind of just there to make you go "wait what?" and cause some sort of big bad road block. He's just petty and lame. But in Wreck-It Ralph, King Candy has rhyme and reason, just wanting to reclaim his fame as a video game hero. It is hard to let go of the past and just accept that you are just a wash-up, and he shows that full force. Big Hero 6's villain is just a villain out of grief. While most people handle it well, he shows that there is always someone who is going to turn to vengeance as the answer, no matter who it is going to end up hurting. You might not really think it is the case, but villains need about the same amount of character development as heroes and protagonists.
Lesson three is showing the world that not every love story is some mushy gushy happily ever after romance. There are at least four types of love, as named by C.S. Lewis: divine charity, affection, romantic love, and friendship. The three aforementioned movies have different loves. Wreck-It Ralph has friendship, Frozen has sibling, and Big Hero 6 is the title holder of both. While most Disney movies are all romantic, teeth-rotting fluff that follow the same story through different formulas, it is refreshing to see them do something different. Sure Wreck-It Ralph does contain a romance, it does not revolve around it. It focuses more on Ralph's unlikely friendships with Felix and Vanellope. Ignoring the fact that Anna is a gullible princess who wants to love the first prince to hit her up, and Elsa is already a bitter grandma who would rather be alone and away from people, Frozen has a strong sisterly love deeply embedded in its story. Big Hero 6 shows the love between brothers Hiro and Tadashi, and then the love of friendship following the death of Tadashi. The brotherly love stays throughout the story and is one of the sole reasons Hiro gains his friends. Had Tadashi not introduced them, Hiro would have stayed bitter and depressed. Hell, there's even the huge friendship connection that Hiro and Baymax share. Big Hero 6 is just seeping in love, but not romantic love. Sure romance is good, but seeing literally any other kind of love is a breath of fresh air.
Lesson four, our final lesson in this journey, is that character's struggles are the true hearts of stories (plotlines are like....the lungs). The plot is normally the driver, yes, and nothing is wrong with it. Events aren't exactly as inspiring as the struggles our protags go through, though. Characters are more important than plot anyway and deserve a chance to drive more often. Wreck-It Ralph happens because Ralph doesn't want to be a villain anymore, and would rather pursue something else in life. Frozen is a roller coaster through Elsa and Anna's struggle to leave isolation and see where they belong in the world. Big Hero 6 follows the road of depression and grief. And each of them is special because they focus more on the character than they do the events. Sure events led each character to face their problems, but the characters solved their own problems. There was no reliance on the set up of scenes to help them out. Even villains are driving by in their own little struggle cars in these movies.
Disney is not perfect, sure. But its filmmakers know some stuff about how to fabricate a good story. They've learned their lessons and built their foundations properly. Yes, there are the formulated princess movies that follow the same path one way or another. But then there are also gems like Wreck-It Ralph and Big Hero 6 that go down a different road on a search for their own storytelling game.
This article taught me a lot about storytelling. Like how plot doesn't essentially matter, and how formulated villains do you good in the long run. It also made me think about Disney's standing in the world. They stand big and strong because of their cliched movies, but also because of movies that stand out like Lilo and Stitch and all the movies mentioned in this article. Storytelling is just really fascinating.
I want to know if there are other lessons we can find, perhaps from other movie companies. Maybe if you watch enough you can figure out on your own. I'm also curious as to what other Disney movies break the Princess formula. I know Lilo and Stich right off the bat, but what else is there? I also appreciate all this company does for their movies. You can really see the effort they put in by just simply reading an article someone wrote about their movies.
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