The first act of Pixar’s next film, WALL-E has been revealed online. At first glance, it looks both daring and brilliant. What is most fascinating from a Dramatica standpoint is how all four throughlines are setup and easy to pinpoint in this brief synopsis.

It’s no secret that I love Pixar films. Several of them appear in the banner at the top of this blog because their stories are just so amazingly good. Whereas most films struggle to even have three throughlines, Pixar films always have one full complete story, if not an extra one thrown in there for added entertainment!

And the tradition, it seems, will continue. You can see for yourself by reading the first act of Pixar’s summer film for 2008, WALL-E. If you don’t mind the story being spoiled for you, follow the link and come back here for some analysis. I’ll wait…

…….

Amazing wasn’t it?! Fresh, original, innovative, bold, maybe even a bit preachy - but that could just be Jim’s interpretation of what he was told (BTW, that’s Jim Hill, not Jim Hull (me!)).

All four throughlines are laid out for you.

Overall Story:

The year is 2700 and fat, blobulous humans oribt Earth in a massive spaceship. They live there because Earth has become uninhabitable - trash and debris litter the planet. The garbage has piled up, it seems, because the robots responsible for cleaning it up were built by an inept corporation - Buynlarge.

Main Character:

WALL-E himself - one of those lifters responsible for the cleanup. As the last operational robot on the planet, WALL-E has now become self-aware and curious what life is like “out there.”

Impact Character:

EVE, another robot (who’s role is not revealed - thanks!) comes down to scan the surface for something…

Relationship Story:

WALL-E is smitten with EVE. After a sandstorm forces them to seek shelter together, the two devices begin trying to communicate.

Now isn’t that nice? Even with this simple first-act synopsis you can get a sense that there is a complete story there - that all perspectives are taken care of. While the EVE throughline is only hinted at, you can be certain that she will have tremendous impact on WALL-E’s character and will utimately push him into either changing or sticking to his guns.

There’ll probably be some other complete sidestory thrown in there as well!

This is a good example of a great pitch too. By hinting at certain throughlines you provoke in the audience a need to see it through - to see what it all means - a reason to go to the theater. It is similar to the trailer for Cars that came out last year and that I wrote about here.

You can see that, while the two storylines of humans trashing the planet and the last robot on Earth are compelling, they really don’t come to life until you introduce that second principal character and a heart-felt relationship to go with it.

I, for one, can’t wait.

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Somewhat related to this article

• International Wall-E Trailer Does It Right→

• new Dramatica podcasts online→

• The Headline and Heartline of a Story→

• Meet the Robinsons: Analysis→

• The Importance of the Story Limit→