It is difficult to develop a cohesive storyline but there are some definite rules that directors follow that may help, since that a consideration should be applied to put together a narrative in order for it to communicate.

A narrative is defined by the following rules:

• A successful narrative must competently handle a medium to present a claim of events that engage an audience and satisfactorily conclude. A story is a chain of events that comes to a conclusion, able to make some rational understanding of what is happening overall.
• All character-based narrative require the actors to have appeal and to perform convincingly in the role. Actors and characters should be able to extract their potential communication (for characters, animators are in charge).
• It stipulates that the directors create the appeal and that they extract the potential performance of the actors to communicate the story.

Directors can make innovative films by taking the rules to the limit, since is quite difficult to completely break them; they can alter things and change the structure of the classic narrative.

The structure of narrative itself comes from Aristotle’s Poetics. In 350 BCE, Aristotle wrote that the plot structure of a drama is formed like a basic triangle:

Ethos is about establishing your authority to speak on the subject.

Logos is your logical argument for your point.

Pathos is your attempt to sway an audience emotionally.

Our traditional three acts come from this triangle.

Basic structure of a narrative

Beginning (Exposition, something to overcome or a goal)

Middle (Rising action, Climax)

End (Falling action, Denouement)

However, the need for a more detailed structure was necessary since plots become more intricate. Gustav Freytag, a German playwright and novelist, wrote a book called Die Technik des Dramas. In it, he put forth the five-act dramatic structure.

5 Acts structure structure of a narrative (more detailed)

Act 1: the exposition for the audience 

Act 2: rising action, conflicts appear

Act 3: the climax, the problem get worse

Act 4: falling action, everything’s downhill 

Act 5: denouement or resolution

Giving the previous structure, how can directors avoid the predictable element? by altering, shifting and manipulating the elements of the structure: for instance after a temporary resolution there could be a reappearing complication. Once all the the key elements are there, there are potential to start at different point in the film.

Talking about innovation in narrative Animation, even though it does share conventions (Disney Hyperrealism which is the use of normal cinema in animation or conventional cinema in animation), but it does have its own potentials such as metamorphosis which has symbolism, metaphors: somehow animation allows us to explore animation in avery different way compared to live action.