The Pixar Storytelling Playbook: A Feature Article

What if I told you the original story concepts for Pixar's highly successful movies had little in common with the finished films? In the movie Toy Story, for example, the main character Woody was originally the arch villain, abusing toys in his dominance. Buzz Lightyear, who ends up one of the most popular characters, didn't even exist in early storyboards.

In Pixar's latest blockbuster, Coco, the initial storyline centered on an American boy who couldn't deal with the death of his Mexico-born mother, but eventually learns how to let go and move on with his life.

After four years of internal wrestling with the storyline, the animators scripted a theme diametrically opposed to the original. On a trip to Mexico with his father to attend the Day of the Dead, the boy learns a powerfully touching lesson: forgetting your ancestors is tantamount to killing their eternal spirits. In Mexican culture, the living have a solemn responsibility to keep the memories of their ancestors alive.

Two months after opening, Coco earned more than $655 million worldwide and was one of the year's most critically acclaimed films, animated or not. Critics hailed it as the "studio's most colorful, vibrant adventure yet" and it won a Golden Globe for best animated picture.

The process of how the plotlines for films like Coco and Toy Story change dramatically from the initial premise to the final print illustrates a key ingredient in Pixar's magical recipe of creative storytelling. It also explains why the animation studio is one of the greatest storytellers in film history: Pixar's productions have grossed more than $11 billion worldwide. Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, and Toy Story 3 are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time.

In the book Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, written by Pixar cofounder Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace, Catmull gives credit for his studio's success to the Braintrust, a central technique that fosters creativity and ensures the highest quality storytelling.

The Braintrust consists of a group of colleagues who meet to discuss and critique the progress of each Pixar film while in development. With a critical eye, animators, directors, and even junior staff hold free-flowing discussions about the characters, plot, and themes. Scrutinizing down to the smallest details, they cull any discordant pieces of the story. The job of the Braintrust, Catmull explains, is to "push towards excellence and root out mediocrity... the Braintrust is valuable because it broadens your perspective, allowing you to peer, at least briefly, through others' eyes."

The Braintrust method molds and refines key ideas into the plot, often sparking a transformation when the initial pitch doesn't quite hold up.

Director Lee Unkrich admits his original concept for Coco was a little fuzzy. "I just had this notion of telling this story set against Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), but we weren't quite sure what that was going to be. The very first story we tried to put up was a story that we realized we were telling from an outside perspective. We were telling a story that was about grief, in some ways, and letting go, and we realized that that, thematically, was completely antithetical to what Día de los Muertos is all about. It's about the obligation that we must never let go, to always remember, to remember joyfully, and to pass along the stories of those we loved."

"That was a big change that we made, early on, where we scraped down to the studs and started over again. It was at that point that we really started embracing fully the idea of the family being a central part of the story we were telling. It was also the point at which we started embracing music as being a big part of the story we were telling."

This continuous shaping and re-shaping results from the thousands of viewpoints from dozens of people. The creative councils are a place where the producers hash out ideas until true creativity sparks a story with its own life, one that resonates with the audience in ways no other films can.

Creation is not a solo act. It requires a wide variety of diverse ideas and perspectives from others. The Pixar Braintrust creates an environment where trust and candor is not only possible but also essential.

"Candor isn't cruel. It does not destroy," Catmull writes. "On the contrary, any successful feedback system is built on empathy, on the idea that we are all in this together, that we understand your pain because we've experienced it ourselves... The Braintrust is fueled by the idea that every note we give is in service of a common goal: supporting and helping each other as we try to make better movies."

Staffers invited to participate in Braintrust sessions have no personal or hidden agendas. Critiques are only designed to make the film as good as possible.

On the receiving side, criticism can be tough, especially when your own personal ideas are at stake. Individuals taking part in the Braintrust have an explicit understanding a separation exists between the ideas and the person. This is important, so the feedback is not taken personally.

In creating Coco, Unkrich notes, "We spent six years making the movie, but we spent four years of that, if not more, reiterating and refining the story. We started off in a very different place, at the very beginning of our journey."

To gain a better understanding of the culture and traditions, Director Adrian Molina noted they "visited all of these beautiful towns, one of which was Guanajuato, which was colorful and vibrant with all of these layers of history built up the hillside, and that became really inspiring, thematically and visually, in terms of the celebration to remember past generations. We wanted to build this land where you could see the layers of history built, one on top of another. A lot of it was just based in letting the research and the experience of visiting Mexico influence what these two lands could be."

The time spent brainstorming and collaborating, combined with the constant changing, transforming, and evolving storyline, contributed to Coco's record-breaking results of becoming the highest grossing film of all time in Mexico. Not only did it reap rewards from the box office, but also it captured the hearts of its audiences.

The ability to create is innate in all of us. But like any talent, it does not emerge perfectly developed: creativity evolves. But, as Pixar has shown us, the rewards of a creative counseling process can have far-reaching impacts on our families, society, and the world at large.