Pixar’s secret formula revealed
A timeless story from infinity to beyond
This month, Pixar celebrates its 33rd birthday.
Pixar has produced 20 full-length films to date, starting with Toy Story and continuing with hits like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E, Brave, Inside Out, Coco and more. The highly anticipated Toy Story 4 comes out in June.
And they’re all essentially the same movie.
You have a reluctant hero, a conflict, a quest, failed attempts to solve the problem, back-up plans, a breakthrough, a chase, a solution that works and finally a conclusion. By the end, we are back where we started, but we’re transformed with new powers and knowledge.
It’s not just Pixar — or Disney — that follows this formula. It’s a timeless formula that goes back much further.
Movies succeed with this narrative arc over and over again because we can all relate. If you look at Disney and Pixar movies, they are variations on this same timeless theme, sometimes called the hero’s journey.
In 1985, writer Christopher Vogler compiled the stages of the hero’s journey in a 7-page memo for Disney that became a guide for storytelling. That’s why it may seem so familiar.
