Sure, when you build upon that story with the best quality characters, a fascinating setting and the best computer animation in the business, that all helps. But it all starts with a great, a really great story. If you love a good story, or if you love telling stories through film, writing or any other medium, you will love hearing these quotes from Mark Andrews about the importance of story at Pixar:
On the origin of the Brave story...
Well, Brenda Chapman [original director] came up with the storyline, and the characters, and wanting to set it in Scotland. And it came out of her being a parent, and her trials and tribulations with her daughter. So, she approached John [Lasseter] and said, "Hey, I want to do this movie about this mother-daughter relationship. And I want to set it in Scotland.” And he said, “Great, go.”
On director generated stories...
It comes from the directors here. It comes from their passions and their experiences. And, Nemo came out of Andrew [Stanton] being a father for the first time and his worries about raising his son.
Pete [Sohn] has an affinity to old folks, and we call him "the ageless one" here. Because, he just kinda has that affinity of growing old, because at the end you can still have this vibrant life. I went to school with him at Cal Arts and all of his films at Cal Arts, his student films, were all about old people. So, when I saw Up I thought this is nothing new for Pete, you know, but it came out of him.
On developing a story that appeals to a wide audience...
For me as a storyteller, it’s always about the universal relatability of the story. I don't want to alienate anybody? I don't want anybody to go, "Oh, that’s not a movie for me," right?
I want people to come and see the movie and go, "Oh yeah, it’s a fish. I'm not a fish. But I know exactly what that fish was going through."
On the main character of Brave being a girl...
I’ve got a girl and three boys, just like King Fergus. And, my boys saw the trailer and they’re all, "What’s that, I want to go see it!" And it was just a girl and a bear, right? So, they see a girl with a ball in her hands, and they're all, "That could be me"...You know, they see a strong character, is what they see, and what that character goes through. And so I think that it’s for everybody, you know, it becomes genderless.
I mean, I'm glad I have a strong female character in this movie--a couple of them. And for my daughter, that she can go into a movie and see another strong female character. But that’s coming up so much more often these days. That they're just popping up, and I think it’s great.
On the story-forging process...
The story process, which is the hellfires of all processes, it’s the hardest part of the process to make this sort of work, obviously. 'Cause that’s where most of the problems come up, of whether the film’s working or not. It all boils down to the story.
So, I was forged in fire, so I am fine in fire. It doesn’t make any less hard, it’s still the hardest. It’s still the stuff that makes me sweat the most, you know. And go home going, "AGHHHHHHHH!" You know, and frustrated. But I love it. I love that aspect of this giant puzzle that you have to make work.
A metaphor on the story-forging process...
People ask me about the story process all the time -- "It’s alchemy." Nobody knows how to do it. Right? We only know when it’s working once we put up what we see and we go, "That sucks, take it down, figure out why it sucks, work on it some more." Add this, that and the other thing. Put it back up. "Eeehh, that’s a little better, but this is still weak.” Take it down and do it again. It’s all alchemy.
On the originality of Pixar movies...
The great thing about Pixar is, you can’t put us in a box of what’s going to come out next. Right? Well, we got sequels coming, that’s fine. But we still have original content that you can’t guess. We don’t poll or anything, it just comes out from the directors.
