Every Compelling Disney Pixar Story Begins with THIS Formula | Ed Catmull EP 506

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:12Was there ever a time you cried in your own, watching your own premiere? Well, I did for Toy Story 3, and I did for Coco. Oh my gosh, that's my favorite movie. It's incredible. It actually created a problem because it was so good that afterwards, Lisa's work, where do I go from here? It was unbelievable. And incidentally, he directed both of those films. But what was part of the movie that emotionally captivated you the most in Coco? Actually is the respect for these people that came before, because it was real. You know, he'd learned something, he'd figured out something about the people that came before him.

0:48He also felt like he was able to fix some things that were wrong. It was also emotional for me for a couple of other reasons, too. One is in the storytelling was that initially, Lee was going to make this as Pixar's first musical. Because Pixar really doesn't have musicals in their DNA. Disney does. And one of the things I wanted to make sure is that we didn't try to make one studio like the other. We also weren't trying to say, you have to be different. At Pixar, if they want to make a musical, they can. And so, Lee was going to be the first person to do that. And so they wrote the first song for his movie, which is called Remember Me.

1:30Incredible. So now he builds the story using this song throughout it. So it's now a key element of where did it come from? Why was it written? And the notion was that if his great-grandma dies, she's the last person who will know where the song came from and she's got oh my god she remembers it it's you get all of hyper it's so emotional actually i know uh but by playing it in steering members it actually gives him life wow is seeing that and conveying that that It's beautiful. It's powerful. Yeah. The other interesting thing about the story, which is a separate thing, was like having started.

2:23One of the things we figured out, this is very early on in Pixar, no sequel had ever been successful. An animated sequel had ever been successful. But one of the things that came out of that was the realization that the way we were starting films is we were trying to do what other studios do, which was to have a development department looking for good scripts. And so our thought was, why are we trying to copy the model of other studios? First of all, the success rate of films of other studios isn't very high. Low, yeah. So we said, let's do it a different way. So what we did was we're going to pick somebody who we think can direct a feature film.

3:13And then we're going to say to them, pick three ideas to develop. The reason we say three is instead of saying, pick an idea that you want to make into a film. Well, what happens to all of us when you do something tough or in school or something like that? You start to bang your head against it. Well, you get stuck. So the reason we said three was like that. If you get stuck, you can switch to a different idea. What? So they'd have an artist, and at some point they may have a writer come in and work with them. So it's like a really small team. So they would then spend that year going back and forth between their three ideas.

3:55And at the end of the year, they would come in, the two or three people who were now the leaders over this, and they would pitch it to the creative leadership of the company. And the way this works is there's a story room, They'd put the material, the conceptual ideas for the film on the wall, and then take like 20, 25 minutes, present the idea, there'd be a brief discussion on it. And then we go through the three films. Now, the process started, they would say, I love all three ideas equally. Right. It doesn't matter to me which one you pick. Now, it's not true. They do like one better. And the debate when they leave the room is not which is the best idea to make in the film.

4:47It is which one do they really want to make. And I think we've always called it right because we'd come back and they'd go, yes. I was hoping you'd pick that one. Sure. sure. But in the case of Coco, Pete came in and he pitched an idea which is related to an idea that he pitched before he did Toy Story 3. And then when we got, when we had the ability to make Toy Story 3, he was asked to direct it. And so he switched over along with the writer he worked with. Then he pitched his second idea, which was to be a full-on musical, an interesting concept, challenging content. And then the two walls are up, so then we go into the other room.

5:31So we open the door, the table, the ceiling. Both walls and the end wall are filled with Mexican artwork. Really? So, there isn't a single word that's said, and everybody knows which movie we're making. Yeah, there's a poster poster of the first two, this one is a whole experience. That's right. You walked into Cocoa World. That's right. You walk into Cocoa World.

6:10Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. that will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

7:00Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.