Audio interview: Pete Docter (Up)

Great interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” yesterday with Up co-writer and director Pete Docter. Every time someone from Pixar talks about their craft, they always emphasize story and character. Character and story. A nice illustration of this is a anecdote Docter tells starting at 00:22:55 in the interview about legendary Disney animator and writer Joe Grant. Here’s the key part as it relates to screenwriting:

“One thing he [Grant] talked about a lot when I was pitching him things was, ‘What are you giving the audience to take home?’ And at first I was, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ What he was talking about was what are you putting up on the screen that is emotionally relatable and that they will think about, not only when they watch the movie, but the next day, the next week, the next year. And that’s always what we [Pixar] try to do with our films.”

“Emotionally relatable.” Another way I’ve heard that said is to create an audience identification with some of the story’s characters, most especially the Protagonist, typically the primary ‘vehicle’ into the plot. But I think I like emotionally relatable better — because when I go to a movie nowadays, I want to come away feeling something.

Pixar honored Joe Grant by giving him a special “In Memory Of” credit in Up. Grant, who died at the age of 96 in 2005, was still writing late in his life, receiving a story by credit on Pocahontas (1995) and Mulan (1998). Considering that he also received a story by credit on Dumbo (1941), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Lady and the Tramp (1955), that is an amazing range of time and narrative material. In the interview, Docter mentions how much he loves Dumbo. So to honor him, Grant, Pixar, and great storytelling, here a clip from Dumbo, featuring pink elephants on parade: