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Well, we completely lucked out with our first story. John Lasseter picked a subject matter that we were already authorities on: toys in our childhood [garbled] animated role and arrested development, always talking about our toys, always talking about our comic books, Saturday morning cartoons we grew up on. Very easy.... |
Thus, Toy Story was born. Now, looking back on Toy Story, we had such impossible odds to overcome it should not have worked. But like engineers at NASA, put the man on the moon, do it, we were just too dumb and stupid to know you can't do it. |
So we'd never written a movie before, but we came in with strong opinions about what we didn't like in animation at the time, and we felt vehemently that you could build a better movie. You gotta remember this was 1992, you've got Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin. Everybody out there in the industry and ou... |
So when we first pitched this movie idea to Tom Hanks, the first thing he said was, "You don't want me to sing, do you?" |
[audience laughter] |
And that really summed up our attitude too. We had no clout back then, so we had to keep our rebellious impulses private. And we made this list for ourselves. And it was: no songs; no "I want" moment; no happy village; no love story; and no villain. The funny story is that later on in the development of the story it wa... |
[audience laughter] |
And he sent a fax that -- these were the things he actually suggested: 'there should be a song' |
In a weird way, even though we were really having a hard time, he really boosted our confidence [garbled]. But even with these guidelines, we stumbled into one of the biggest pits that we fall into in almost all the movies, which is liking your main character. This has gotta be the most illusive lesson of all. And we s... |
Liking your main character doesn't mean they have to be a nice person. This is a common mistake, and if you do it you end up with Clark Kent who's boring instead of Superman. But we made the opposite mistake with Woody, believe it or not. |
Woody was a character who -- we knew his arc. We knew he went from selfish to being selfless. But we took that literally. This was how sort of naive we were. And we made Woody selfish in the beginning. And this is what you get: |
[clip from Toy Story (test scene?)] |
Not nice. We learned very quickly, that's not the way to do this, even though we need him to be selfish. We learned that 'like' means 'empathize'. You must understand them. People are more complicated and layered than one particular trait. We had to figure out how to put that selfishness deeper. |
And the answer was: selfishness disguised as selflessness. So we made him a benevolent leader that really did want to do everything right, but it was conditional. And the minute that his job was threatened then a selfishness started to rise that maybe even he didn't know about. It was a big lesson. |
Our next obstacle was understanding opposing goals, or as some books and terminology call it 'unity of opposites': directly opposing desires between two people in a relationship. It's all about conflict, right? It's not about getting [garbled]. And we needed strong ones that would allow compromise. |
In the early years of Toy Story we didn't understand this, so we just made Woody and Buzz yell at each other, and we thought if they were funny enough you'd keep listening. And you didn't. And after a while it got really annoying, you got a headache. |
So, I remember that we knew Woody's goal -- we were never unclear about that. He wanted to get Andy back, and he wanted to restore the toy world order the way it was. But Buzz eluded us for a long time. And I remember going back home for Christmas back east with my parents, and I was so frustrated at not being able to ... |
And they pitched me this possible goal for Buzz that directly opposed Woody. And this is what we got ... |
[Toy Story clip] |
Sheriff, this is no time to panic. |
This is the perfect time to panic! I'm lost! Andy is gone! They're gonna move from their house in two days, and it's all your fault! |
My-- My fault? If you hadn't pushed me out of the window in the first place-- |
Oh, yeah? Well, if you hadn't shown up in your stupid little cardboard spaceship... and taken away everything that was important to me-- |
Don't talk to me about importance. Because of you, the security of this entire universe is in jeopardy! |
WHAT? What are you talking about? |
Right now, poised at the edge of the galaxy, Emperor Zurg has been secretly building a weapon with the destructive capacity to annihilate an entire planet! I alone have information that reveals this weapon's only weakness. And you, my friend, are responsible for delaying my rendezvous with Star Command! |
YOU... ARE... A... TOY! You aren't the real Buzz Lightyear! You're an action figure! You are a child's plaything! |
You are a sad, strange little man... |
[end clip] |
Suddenly, each character had a clear goal that directly opposed the other. Now, one thing I want to clarify up front about writing, at least as I understand it, is that writing is rewriting. And I can't speak for other writers, but for me, what I've learned after working on six pictures now, is that I never get it righ... |
My personal motto is: be wrong as fast as you can. So the lesser in talent you are, the greater in tenacity you must be to persevere. |
So we all started to understand how the big pieces were working in making a movie with Toy Story on some of this stuff. The next level, the scenes themselves, were the next story obstacle. |
The hardest scene we had, the hardest knot to untie, was a scene that we always called 'under the crate,' or 'the night before the execution.' This was the scene that was supposed to get to the core of Woody, to the point of the movie. |
But so far, we had gone on intuition, with the truth of the moment of an old toy being replaced by a new one. And we just really hadn't done our homework yet. We really hadn't thought of the punchline for our joke. So trying to figure out Woody in that scene brought us to yelling at each other for hours in my office. A... |
It was a long and arduous meeting. And finally when we cracked it, it was this massive epiphany for me. The end result was so satisfying for me and infectious, it really sealed my faith that, as hard as it was, this was definitely what I wanted to do with my life: write stories and create characters. |
So, when you watch this scene which you all know, pay attention to how this scene is structured. In the beginning, Woody for very selfish reasons is trying to build up Buzz so that he can get out of the crate. But in doing so, he ends up breaking himself down, and winds up exposing the core of his own problem, which is... |
[clip from Toy Story] |
Psst! Psst! Hey, Buzz! Hey. Get over here and see if you can get this tool box off me... Oh, come on, Buzz, I-- Buzz, I can't do this without you. I need your help. |
I can't help. I can't help anyone. |
Why, sure you can, Buzz. You can get me out of here. And then I'll get that rocket off you and we'll make a break for Andy's house. |
Andy's house, Sid's house. What's the difference? |
Oh, Buzz, you've had a big fall. You must not be thinking clearly. |
No, Woody, for the first time I am thinking clearly. You were right all along. I'm not a Space Ranger. I'm just a toy. A stupid little insignificant toy. |
Whoa. Hey. Wait a minute. Being a toy is a lot better than being a, a Space Ranger. |
Yeah, right. |
No, it is. Look, over in that house is a kid who thinks you are the greatest, and it's not because you're a Space Ranger, pal. It's because you're a toy. You are his toy. |
But why would Andy want me? |
Why would Andy want you? Look at you! You're a Buzz Lightyear! Any other toy would give up his moving parts just to be you. You've got wings! You glow in the dark! You talk! Your helmet does that-- that-- that "whoosh" thing. You are a cool toy. As a matter of fact, you're too cool. I mean-- I mean, what chance does a ... |
[end clip; 23.34] |
You often hear the term -- |
[audience applause] |
You often hear the term 'You should have something to say in a story' but that doesn't always mean a message. It means truth, some value that you yourself as a storyteller believe in, and then through the course of the story be able to debate that truth. Try to prove it wrong. Test it to its limits. This is the stuff I... |
In that scene we just played, Woody finally earns his coveted place as Andy's favourite in the eyes of the audience because he admitted the truth about how and why Buzz is more deserving of that role. I find that such a great ironic equation. It's like the adage, if you wanna buy that car you have to be willing to walk... |
Pixar received an Academy Award nomination for that Toy Story script. It was our first script, and it's the first animated movie ever to be nominated in that category, so you'd think we'd be a little confident after that. |
But you'd be wrong. Because our second course in humility was just being served. |
A Bug's Life was for me probably the most difficult story to tame and get working correctly. Why? Well, hindsight is 20-20. And looking back, I've come to understand a crucial factor that at least for me I need when I'm writing a story. And at some point in your tumultuous journey in screenwriting you need to uncover y... |
And what I mean by that is, your touchstone. This is not a rule; this is just me. But -- and it could come from anywhere. But something that epitomizes the emotional core of your story. It reminds you what it's about, of the value trying to be expressed. It keeps you on track. |
For Toy Story it was the simple imagery of an old favourite toy on the bed, being knocked off and replaced by a brand new favourite toy, all the jealousy and insecurities that would naturally be stirred up by that [garbled] evoked. |
And Toy Story 2 was Woody at the crossroads of his toy existence, looking down that ventilation shaft that elicited the fear and anxiety of facing death. |
For Monsters Incorporated it was the simple image of a giant furry paw holding the tiny hand of a little girl. It was an actual sketch. I couldn't find it so I used this clip. It conjured up the childhood issues of overcoming your fears and the trials of an adult adjusting to parenthood. |
For Finding Nemo it was the discovery of a sole surviving fish egg in the sand. It represented the moment your child is born and you hold it and you're barraged with a sea of overwhelming conflicting emotions: love, sadness, joy, but most of all, fear. |
And A Bug's Life had no key image. |
[audience laughter] |
[garbled] I tell you, without that emotional key image it was always a tremendous chore to figure out our course and to stay on it. You were always attacking things from your head and not your heart. You were always finding yourself confused and asking, "Why is this moment here? Why is my character doing this?" You had... |
Our next big pitfall on the film was, we had the wrong guy. The main character of the film, you know, was Flick. He was an industrious member of the ant colony. But we originally had a character called Red. He was a red Ant. He was the ringmaster of a pathetic unemployed circus bug troupe. And the big difference was th... |
And our problem was that no matter how charming and charismatic we made Red, you couldn't ignore that he was a liar, and therefore kinda unlikeable. And no scenario was strong enough to convince the audience that Red would stay in place the minute the stakes got raised and it was a life-and-death situation. [garbled] p... |
So then one day I had an eleventh-hour idea. I wrote a memo to the story crew. I said, "What if the main character was one of the lowly slave ants assigned to finding warrior bugs that made an honest mistake." Suddenly there was tension, real consequences. This was his family he put in jeopardy, something he was organi... |
The other thing that can -- I picked this movie to talk about -- that can affect your writing, particularly your rewriting when you're already starting to cast... is casting. It's not about the marquee value. It's about voice quality and acting, for us. I know we can get famous actors on our films but that's not why we... |
Everybody knows the term, "The camera loves them." Well, we like to use the term, "The microphone loves them." There are some voices out there that just makes you want to animate to them. And it's not necessarily an A-level actor. Sometimes it's not even an actor; it's somebody in our own building. And that's what you'... |
So we do what I guess you could kinda call private casting calls. We'll take an audio clip from an existing movie and then we'll take maybe a character model that we're developing and we'll animate to it. And we'll put it to that audio to see how it feels. Sort of do a little casting call. And I want to give you an exa... |
So, one of the people we were considering was Al Pacino... |
[clip animated to Pacino from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross] |
You, Williamson. I'm talking to you, shithead. You just cost me six... thousand... dollars. Where did you learn your trade, you idiot? What you're hired for is to help us, not to fuck us up! |
[end clip; audience laughter and applause] |
The other person we were considering was Alec Baldwin... |
[clip animated to Baldwin from the movie Heaven's Prisoners] |
My wife had to be buried in a closed casket. I want you to think about that for a minute. Now, I'm gonna find those two men, and when I do, I'm gonna squeeze them extra hard, and if your name comes outta either one of their mouths, I'll be back here to feed your sorry fuckin' ass to the shrimp. |
[end clip; audience laughter and applause] |
Then we tried Kevin Spacey, and that really clicked with us, because it wasn't just being mean and intimidating. It was a unique slant on it. It was -- he's a master of condescension. And that suddenly gave us an angle that made it special, that made it different from the other villains. And this is a clip from the act... |
[clip from A Bug's Life] |
So, where is it...? Where's my FOOD! |
Isn't it up there? |
The food was in a leaf sitting on the-- |
Excuse me? |
Are you sure it's not out there? |
Are you saying I'm stupid? Do I look... stupid... to you? Let's just think about the logic, shall we? Let's just think about it for a second. If it was up there, would I be coming down here, to your level, looking for it? |
[end clip] |
So it actually affects the rewriting. For as much as we all had Hopper lines, we rewrote them all to match that kind of condescending tone. |
One little bit of trivia. A lot of people don't know that the original person we tried to get for Buzz Lightyear was Billy Crystal... |
[clip animated to Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally] |
Right now everything is great, everyone is happy, everyone is in love. But you got to know, one day, believe it or not, you'll go fifteen rounds over who's going to get this coffee table. This stupid, wagon wheel, Roy Rogers garage sale coffee table! |
I thought you liked it. |
[end clip; audience laughter; 31:50] |
[garbled] So then our journey of pain continued on with Toy Story 2. |
We had major reservations on this movie. Some of us were even adamantly against it. Why? Well, because history had shown that most sequels were either inferior to the first film or just sucked. There were only two sequels at the time that we felt were as good or better than the original. And that was Godfather 2 and Th... |
Now, I know, I know: Aliens, Road Warrior, Terminator 2. But they're still -- even if you list the other ones that are probably better, it's a small club to join. And artistically, this was all we were willing to consider. We wanted to make sure that it felt as worthy as those two with sequels. |
Now, I need to give you a little backstory on the soap opera that preceded any writing involvement that I had on the picture. We had what I'll call the A-team that made Toy Story and went on to make A Bug's Life. But we didn't have the manpower to make Toy Story 2 simultaneously. So got another building. We hired a B-t... |
And when we finally finished A Bug's Life, and we had about ten months out before Toy Story 2 was supposed to be released. And we went over and we looked at what they had to do. And it was not working. |
All our films don't work, but at this point we had run out of time and it was still really not working. And we had to make a real crucial decision at this point: do we just scrap it, or do we start over? And we only had ten months left. Usually these things take two-and-a-half, three years to produce. |
And so we just all held hands, and we disassembled the B-team, we combined it with the A-team, and we went off to make Toy Story 2 in about eight to nine months. |
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