A LITTLE SOMETHING BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS

This link has been finding its way across the internet well enough on its own, so my extra applause is unnecessary. On the site Making Of there is a tidy little post by screenwriter Rob Edwards titled, "Seven Writer's Rules for Survival in Animation."

These writing rules can be adjusted to all genres, and the one that I find lacking in most of the scripts I read is Rule #4, "Remember Why It's Animated." Whatever you are writing has a genre, a medium chosen by the writer because it is the best way to tell that particular story. If it's a slapstick comedy, use the elements of that genre to the nth degree. People need to fall and break things and the rules of reality can be stretched and ignored befitting the world of the script.

In animation, that medium is chosen as the best way to tell the story, so take advantage of having characters that can be talking animals that can be taken to magical worlds simply by drawing it. It's not live action where every set has to be built, for example. If you say your peice is a period drama but in reality it could easily be a modern comedy, you aren't using the tools of the genre to their potential.

Mr. Edwards does a better job of explaining his rules than I ever could. It's a good read written by a screenwriter with insight into how a script is actualized in his field. The post is a publicity peice for Mr. Edwards' work on the new Disney film THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG. As much as I love the films Disney creates, I do have my issues with the story elements in a lot of their films, but that's for another time.