Collaboration film reviews (Compilation)

Heroes Journey; Structure

Wall-e is a 2008 Pixar animated movie following the adventure of a sentient trash-clearing robot left alone for centuries on earth, thrust into the stars to find humanity living light-years away on a giant space-ship. With the help of EVE, a probe sent to earth to detect the presence of life, the two robots must fight against the established hierarchy of rebellious crew robots in order to use a plant sample from earth to activate the ships return protocol and return humanity to earth.

Wall-e certainly feels like a hero’s journey film, hence I picked it to analyse, however some of the more specific points did not have a clear example in the film. This was made more difficult due to robots making up the main cast, for many of whom the gender was ambiguous (if not all, however that’s a debate for a different time). So points that refer to a specific gender were difficult to place.

The simplified version of the hero’s journey was a somewhat easier comparison, and my analysis goes as follows;

Ordinary World: Earth, the trash-filled toxic wasteland on which Wall-e is stranded. He goes about a predictable and boring routine from day to day clearing up trash, and doesn’t interact with any other sentient beings.

Call to Adventure; Finding the plant. Wall-e discovers a lone plant, which he does not understand the significance of, yet it is the first domino in a series of events that start his journey.

Refusal of the call; There is no particular moment in which Wall-e refuses something that will further the adventure, however his general scepticism and nervousness throughout the first act of the film could be interpreted as a resistance to his curiosity and desire to explore.

Meeting with the Mentor: Again, Eve as a mentor archetype is debatable, however in a sense, Eve is likely the first sentient life-form that Wall-e has ever encountered, and introduces him to new ideas/feelings, and represents a realisation in wall-e that there is more to life than rooting through trash. In that sense, she informs him and prepares him for the journey.

Crossing the first Threshold: When Eve is abducted by a space-ship, Wall-e clings to the side in a desperate attempt not to be separated from his only friend. This is a clear point of no return, and the flight from earth to the Axiom(the mother-ship) marks the passage from the ordinary world to the ‘other’ world.

Tests, Allies, Enemies: When Wall-e and Eve first reach the Captain of the Axiom to present the plant, they find it has been removed from Eve's storage bay. The Captain assumes them both to be defective and sends them away to be repaired. Wall-e attempts to break out of the repair bay to be with Eve, and this activates the Axiom security robots. They ally with the other defective robots in the repair bay and escape from the security bots.

Approach: After finding the plant, and managing to actually present it to the Captain, the robots encounter a major setback, realising that the ships Auto-pilot (the main antagonist) is acting on secret orders to foil any attempts to return the Axiom to earth. Both Wall-e and Eve are captured and sent to the ships garbage dump along with the plant.

Ordeal: After surviving and returning from the ships depths, Wall-e and Eve face off in a final showdown with the Autopilot to deliver the plant to a receptacle which will automatically return the ship to earth.

Reward: With help from the ships captain, who rebels against the autopilot, they succeed, deactivating the autopilot and sending the Axiom to earth.

The Road Back: The hyperspace jump and landing of the Axiom.

Resurrection Hero: A close to literal resurrection as Eve must fight for Wall-e’s survival, as he was damaged during the fight on the Axiom, and desperately needs spare parts before his memory dies. Eve succeeds and resurrects Wall-e.

Return with Elixir: Wall-e and Eve bring humanity back to earth, and over presumably many centuries they work together to clean up earth and re-kindle life on earth.

There are a few other points from the extended version that do fit:

Supernatural Aid: It could be said that in this instance, the super-natural aid is life/the plant. Although life is ordinary to us, in the dystopian earth of Wall-e it has been extinct for centuries. In this respect, life as a ‘force’ is comparable to a super-natural power, and the ‘plant’ is the magic item wall-e receives from it which will be key to fighting off the films antagonists and bringing utopia back to earth.

Belly of the Whale: After wandering through the ship aimlessly near the beginning of the second act, Wall-e finds himself in the human part of the ship, and through a montage we get a picture of how human beings have come to live aboard the Axiom. This establishes the fundamental reality of the ‘other world’ and its inhabitants which Wall-e will have to navigate to achieve his goal.

Magic Flight: Flying through space in spaceships, and particularly in the scene where Wall-e and Eve perform a dance-like flight around the outside of the ship.

Master of two worlds: Uniquely, the two worlds of the film come together and merge at the end of Wall-e, as the Axiom lands back at the space-port, and it’s inhabitants; both robots and humans, leave the ship in order to live on earth.

Freedom to live: As the ships captain notes aboard the Axiom, the humans will survive aboard the axiom, but they can’t ‘live’. The humans believe they are in a utopia, where-as actually they are trapped in a never ending cycle of repeating days of leisure with no real direction or meaning to their lives. Landing on earth with the challenge of re-building civilization gives their life meaning, and far more prospects in life to explore. In this sense, they have true freedom to ‘live’.

Heroes Journey; Archetypes

In Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ (1994), much of the cast fits neatly into the Hero’s journey archetypes checklist.

Hero: Simba. He is the main character whose perspective the film follows, and he is the one who must change and grow throughout the film to vanquish the films main villain and save the pride-lands.

Shadow: Scar. The main driving force behind the darkness and misery that befalls the pride-lands. He also has a direct personal connection to the Hero as he kills Mufasa, Simba’s father.

Herald: Rafiki. The Mandrill/Monkey and sage of the royal family. It’s nearer the end of the film, however he still fulfils the role of appearing to Simba to inform him of the starvation and near collapse of the pride-lands under Scar’s rule, and convinces him to return.

Threshold Guardian: The Hyenas. The three hyenas that inhabit the elephant graveyard are the first conflict that Simba runs into, and also a trap set up by Scar. It’s arguably the event that is the first trigger for the following events of the film.

Mentor: Timon/Pumbaa. These are the two characters that take Simba in, and fill the void of Mufasa as Simba’s guardians. They teach him a new way of looking at the world, and under their guidance he transforms from the naive child Simba, to the powerful and confident adult capable of taking on Scar.

Allies: The other lions in the pride. Near the end of the film, they assist the Hero and company in taking back power from Scar and the Hyenas.

Mother: Sarabi, Simba’s mother. Represents the nurturing and safe world in which child Simba exists within his family, and which is torn away from him in the films main conflict.

Father: Mufasa, Simba’s Father. Represents a role-model and a seemingly impossible standard that Simba must achieve in order to stand a chance against his adversaries.

Child: Zazu. Zazu the red-billed hornbill is a royal messenger and Simba’s caretaker. Although he is an adult, his rigid and up-tight manner of thinking, short temper, and blunt attitude mark him out as one of the more naïve characters, and he is often used as the butt of the joke.

Maiden: Nala. She is Simba’s main love interest, and although he does not directly have to vanquish evil in order to save her, he finds himself in conflict with her when she tells him that he must return to the pride-lands and stand up to Scar. In this sense, he has to fulfil her expectations of him in order to win her favour.

Trickster: This role was left till last since it’s the only role that doesn’t fit a single clear character. It could be said to be Rafiki, since his eccentric and chaotic attitude makes him difficult to read, and it takes longer than with the other characters for him to clearly align with good/evil.

However, it could also be said to be the Hyenas, as they seem to have little social/political agenda of their own, and only align with Scar as he promises to feed them and bolster their status.

Although they are a force of evil for most of the film, when they become hungry under Scar’s bad leadership and see the return of Simba, they switch sides and kill him, implying their loyalty is only to whomever they believe will benefit them.

Structural Theories and Story Telling;

The Truman Show (1998)

The Truman show Is a linear narrative film which fits relatively comfortably into the 5-act structure.

Exposition;

The Truman show does not hold back the true nature of Truman’s reality to be uncovered by the plot, not long after we’re introduced to Truman himself, we learn of Christof the director and the gigantic set piece that is Seahaven; Truman’s island home.

Inciting incident;

The first event to happen in the film which breaks the fiction of Seahaven is when a spotlight falls from the sky near Truman. Although this event is significant, it’s arguably not the inciting incident, because we later learn that Truman has faced reality-breaking events before and little has changed, and similarly, this event alone does not seem to change things for Truman (perhaps it could be said to be part of the exposition).

The real inciting incident is more-so when Truman fist shows an interest in leaving Seahaven, when he tears off part of a travel brochure and hides it in his pocket. This is significant, as Truman’s growing desire to leave Seahaven and explore the world is what ultimately starts the series of events that result in the collapse of his reality.

Plotpoints;

There are multiple events that occur after the inciting incident which grow the tension, but aren’t part of the final build up to the climax. 

For example, we learn of Lauren; an extra who Truman fell in love with instead of the intended love interest, who was booted off the show. Lauren manages to get back on the set and attempts to tell Truman the reality of his world, before being removed from the set.

Truman attempts to explain the strange occurrence to his wife Meryl, but begins to have a break-down when she denies his account. He ends up going on a crazed rant about how there’s something wrong with his world, but Meryl panics and shouts for someone to help her, which further deepens Truman’s conspiracy.

Truman’s father, who supposedly died when he was young in a boating accident, is also re-introduced to him in order to try and distract from the rapid crumbling of Truman’s reality.

Rising Action/Obsticles;

Realising that for some reason, the people around him are all out to stop him from leaving Seahaven, Truman decides to make an escape attempt in secret. He sneaks out of bed leaving a dummy in his place. When Christof the director realizes that they’ve lost track of Truman, he puts the whole island into lockdown, and the reality of Seahaven really starts to come apart at the seams.

Climax

Truman commandeers a sailboat and attempts to sail away from Seahaven. Christof the director reacts by ordering the weather team to cause a huge storm, attempting to force Truman to turn back. Truman’s sailboat is eventually capsized, and he barely escapes drowning.

Twist

There isn’t really a twist at this point in the film. However, in a sense, there’s a twist for Truman as he sails into the wall of the giant dome encapsulating his entire life, and realizes that his whole life has been a fabrication.

Resolution

Christof addresses Truman directly and tells him the truth about his reality. He attempts to convince Truman to return to his life in Seahaven, since it is more perfect than anything Truman could expect to find outside. Truman seems to consider it, but then takes a bow, and leaves through a door in the wall, finally stepping out into the real world.

Ending type;

Partial. The story of ‘The Truman Show’, relating to Truman’s discovery of his artificial world, is over. However, there’s still a lot of questions left un-answered, and as Truman steps out into the real world, we are left wondering how he might react or cope with his new reality.

Plot type;

Arc plot. Although the Truman show plays with the principle of reality, once the audience is introduced to the world and the reality of Seahaven early on in the film, the film does not change or subvert our understanding of the world, and events occur sequentially in an easy to follow manner.

Time and Storytelling

The usual suspects is a 1995 non-linear crime thriller. 

The film is a Analepsis, in which the film begins with events that took place ‘yesterday’, showing the end of a gang-war on a docked cargo boat. The film then cuts to ‘today’/the present, where several police interrogators are interviewing a crippled man who was found alive near the now burned out ship-wreck, and thought to be involved in the incident. The man gives his account of the events leading up to the fight on the boat, starting back weeks ago. The film jumps between the interviewee giving accounts of what happened in chronological order, and the present in which the interviewers interject to grill him on parts of the story.

Devices;

Retrospective: The film is told in retrospective, meaning that it is told as past events from the perspective of the present.

Flashbacks: The retrospective format is achieved through flashbacks, in which a character gives an account of the past from memory.

Twists: (Spoiler) The film has arguably one of the best twists in film history, as it is revealed after the story of the boat-fight is wrapped up, and the man is released from the interrogators office, that he had been making the entire story up off the top of his head using objects around the room to come up with fake places and names, and he was actually one of the most wanted men in the world, having also likely orchestrated the entire raid on the boat.

Unreliable narrator: It’s possible to consider the Usual Suspects a film with an unreliable narrator, since the crippled man narrates over most of the retrospective events in the film. However, it when it is revealed to us that the man had been lying to the interrogators the entire time, it also effectively reveals that he had also been lying to the audience.

Character and Storytelling 

Buzz and Woody from Toy Story (1995)

Personal History:

Woody: Andy’s favorite toy; he has always been the favorite,  and held a special position as ring-leader amongst the other toys in Andy’s room, since Andy’s value of him singles him out as the most important.

Buzz; A new toy, fresh out of the box. Has no real-world history, only ‘remembers’ a fake backstory for the character his toy is based upon, believing he is a space-ranger sent on a mission to explore a strange planet and eliminate the evil space super-villain ‘Zerg’.

Personal World View;

Woody: Primarily values Andy’s happiness and has become comfortable with the fact that he will always be Andy’s favorite toy.

Buzz: Completely convinced that he is a space-ranger on a mission, and largely in denial of glaring evidence suggesting that he is actually just a toy.

Inherited World:

Woody: Settled in comfortably to managing the other toys in Andy’s room, and making sure that new toys are initiated into the setting, and that everything runs smoothly, and the toys secret life is not discovered.

Buzz: Thrust suddenly into a strange world completely alien to anything he believes he is used to.

Wants (Goals):

Woody: Primarily to keep Andy happy, and secondarily to keep the toys happy. But also arguably to maintain the current order and keep himself on top of the pile.

Buzz: To understand the world he has found himself in, in order to figure out how to get his mission back on track and ultimately find and defeat Zerg.

Needs:

Woody: Attention, to be played with, to be assured that everything is staying as it should be.

Buzz: Direction, purpose, and closure to his assignment.

Internal/external Traits:

Woody: (External); friendly, open, laid back, welcoming, mature, helpful, fathering, in control. (Internal): Insecurity, jealously, controlling, superiority, maliciousness

Buzz: (External); Confidence, bravado, under control, authority,  power, righteousness (Internal): Confusion, nativity, denial, existential crisis, crumbling reality.

Flaws:

Woody: Can’t deal with change, suspicious of new-commers, prone to acting out of jealously, afraid of the outside world

Buzz: Confidence doesn’t match ability, reckless,  naïve, lives in a cartoon world, unaware of real danger.

Overall story arc:

Woody; realizes that his jealousy of buzz risks hurting Andy’s happiness and the other toy’s trust in him. Is outcast by the other toys and finds out how important the trust of his friends is. Is forced out of the comfort zone of his world in Andy’s room and must navigate situations where he is not in control. 

Finds and retrieves buzz to much acclaim from Andy and the other toys, and is also saved by buzz in return, shattering his understanding of their relationship as rivals. Finally learns to share his love for Andy with Buzz, and allows him to be on equal footing with himself in Andy’s room.

Buzz: Confronted with overwhelming evidence that the reality he believes in is false, goes on a soul searching mission to prove his worthiness to himself and remains in denial of his true limitations. Is forced to confront reality when he see’s a toy commercial for himself, and attempts to prove that he can fly, crashing down some stairs and damaging himself in the process.

The truth now undeniable, he becomes disillusioned with his identity and falls into a depressive low, refusing to try and be anything more than he was designed for. However, as woody comes to rescue him from his fate at the hands of Sid, he realizes that it’s still possible for him to be a hero, even if he is just a toy, and works with the reality of his body in order to perform impressive feats to save himself and Woody. Comes to terms with his new reality and regains some of the confidence in his old bravado persona, but in the new context of a Toy who’s mission is to make Andy happy.

Conflicts:

Woody: His desire to make sure Andy is always happy, vs Andy’s desire to play with buzz, which makes him jealous. His put-on confidence in Andy’s room in-front of the toys, vs his fear of anything outside of this safe world.

Buzz: His belief in himself as a real space-ranger and saver of worlds, vs the reality of him being a plaything for a child. His un-relenting confidence, vs his lack of knowledge of pretty much anything.

Value change in a scene:

Woody: When he is saved by buzz in the ‘falling with style’ scene. Woody comes to realize that despite their perceived rivalry, they can actually work together to accomplish amazing things.

Buzz: Watching the commercial and attempting to fly. Comes to accept that he is not anywhere near as important or capable as he thought he was, totally loses faith in himself.