Take 2 films you enjoy and break down the character development and story development throughout the film:
•Analyse how the main characters evolve (flat round character)
•Analyse how the characters drive the story
•If there are similarities between your films point this out and why you think they are following a similar structure if so.
Film 1:
Hercules
Hercules is the classic hero story who has to overcome many obstacles to find his true self. At first he mistakes it by the goal of becoming a true hero by achieving outstanding quests which will lead him to reunite him with his family where he can finally find his place by not feeling an outcast anymore. However, he achieves something even better which is that true love is willing to sacrifice anything. Hercules is willing to sacrifice his life to save the life of his true love. Just as the Fates are about to cut his life thread, he reaches Meg, proves he is a true hero because of the self-sacrifice, and turns finally into a God. So, we can state that he is a round character a developed, life like character who has a deep relatability who witness a growth and a positive change by the end of the story (dynamic character).
I will now analyse the character and the way he evolves by the end of the story and how his journey is the key to drive the narrative.
Hercules is a young boy who has a family that loves him, however the more he grows the more he realises that there is something about him that makes him different from the other people surrounding him since appears to have an abnormal strength that he can’t control completely making him committing actions that transform his as a “freak” through the village people’s eyes.
His “call to adventure” is set when his parents, after several attempts by Hercules to adapt but failing, confess him that he was actually adopted by them and giving him clues of who he was since that when they found him he had a medallion with him with an incision indicating when he could get to get some answers: the temple of Zeus. He is now hopeful and starts his journey to find his true self. He then reaches the temple and Zeus finds a way to communicate with him by a statue present in the temple and reveals him that he is his father and that he was kidnapped from him and his mother after he was born. Hercules now as goal: reuniting with his parents on the Olympus where he thinks he belongs to, but in order to do so he has to become and prove himself as true hero and to do so he goes to Philoctetes a saytr renewed to train heroes.
Hercules meets his mentor Philoctetes who at first is reluctant to help him since he has so many defeats that he does not believe he can train a true hero anymore, however he sees something in Hercules, who tries to convince him, and takes on the task.
They then train and Hercules becomes aware of his strength and he has now gained (or think he did) the skills to overcome the challenges in the special world (Thebes).
But is not until Hercules battles the river guardian that he enters into the field of adventures and moves to Thebes a troubled city in need of a true hero. He is the middle of the quest and tests to achieve the qualities of a true heroes defeating enemies (the first one being the Hydra) and finding allies in the process. All these tests are actually set by his uncle Hades who was the one that wanted him to become immortal in the first place and who separated him from his parents: he sees Hercules as an obstacle to his quest for power and win the Olympus. Hercules by this time as proven partially to be a true hero since he has just collected a series of victories and gained fame: he feels that there is something missing.
Hades takes advantage of the fact that Megara, a girl who he first “saves” from the river guardian and Hercules has fallen in love with, has become his weakness and takes Hercules strength in exchange of meagre safety so that Hades could take over the Olympus without him interfering.
Hercules eventually finds out that Megara was working for Hades, even though she has changed now because of him, he powerless battles with the cyclops and during it Megara gets fatally injured and Hercules gains back his powers since the circumstances of Hades pact gets broken and tries to save the Olympus from Hades threat, which he manages to rescue, but there is one last quest: to save Megara’s soul from the underworld.
Hercules exchanges with Hades his soul for Megara’s: he reaches her in the river of dead souls, which almost kills him, proving he is a true hero because of the self-sacrifice, and turns finally into a God defeating Hades.
Hercules is immortal now and a true hero and can finally rejoin his parents but his love for Megara makes him realise that his place is with her on Earth: his image is in the stars and Philoctetes is proud of him.
In conclusion, Hercules, as we can see, is The story, is the key for the development of the narrative which goes along with his inner growth and journey to his positive change.
Film 2:
Ratatouille
Remy Is an even more anthropological character compared to his fellow rats (he walks on two paws and adores humans for their ability to manipulate food in an exquisite way, Auguste Gusteau is his idol) in the colony were he has always lived distinguishing himself fro his highly developed senses which are probably a consequence of his innate love for cuisine. His overall dream is to become a chef and throughout his journey as a hero he learns to put his passion for cooking at the service of the people he loves and not only to nourish his passion but also to give joy to others, he also becomes a chef at the La Ratatouille bistro in Paris with his friends. Just like Hercules he is a dynamic character witnessing an inner grows and positive change towards the end of his story and we can identify ourself in him experiencing what he is going through in the narrative making him a round character too.
Remy drives the narrative and we can witness that by following his journey to accomplish his dream:
At first he lives in the country, the ordinary world, in a colony of rats, he is actually the son of the chief, Django, who does not understand his and they are always in conflict with each other. He stands out from the rest of the rat because he is not satisfied with his life and he is always in search of culinary influences, he also usually visits secretly an old woman’s house to gain some knowledge on food and where he found out about August Gusteau a stellar chef in Paris who makes him realise that cooking is his true passion (the call for the Adventure).
Once Remy and his brother Émile are in the old woman kitchen, after Remy shares with him his secrets. They are actually discovered by the old woman who tries to kill them and by doing so the colony main home is revealed since they were living on the roof of the house.
During the escape of the colony, the first cross of the threshold, Remy stays behind loosing them. He ends up alone with no place to go and his Mentor (Auguste Gusteau spirit) reveals himself to him guiding Remy in his choices. That is when Remy finds out that has always lived near Paris and when he looks for his idol restaurant. the second cross of the threshold happens when he falls into the kitchen window of Gusteau’s restaurant: in order to survive he now has to pass several tests such manage to survive in the kitchen without being discovered, and when he is about to finally escaping he tries to “save” a soup prepared by Linguini (an inexpert newcomer in the kitchen) by adding some ingredients. This helps Linguini reputation in the kitchen since everyone thinks that he made the soup, he also saves Remy from being killed when he is found in the kitchen in exchange Remy will help him to cook while he works in the restaurant as a cook in secret.
Chef Skinner, he head chef substituting Gusteau after his death and the enemy, always tries to obstacle Linguini ascent to fame since he realises that there is something suspicious in Linguini and he also thinks that he did not kill the rat instead he kept him.
Linguini becomes an ally to Remy and they help each other: Linguini helps Remy archiving his dream to become a chef and Remy helps him to cook and maintaining the job in the restaurant.
However Linguini leaves Remy behind when he becomes famous thanks to Remy help and the fact that he finds out to be Gusteau’s son so Remy, who has finally reunited with his family, in anger gives access to his friend to the restaurant food reserve; Linguini finds out and they separate.
Remy is not there to help Linguini anymore and he struggles to cook for a food critic, who was the reason for Gusteau’s death since he gave a bad review to the restaurant, and he goes back to make the restaurant definitely close and if they can’t work together it probably will: the Abyss has been reached.
Remy and Linguini manage to cooperate together and Remy cooks a mesmerising recopy for the critic who seems like he is reborn and gives a positive review to the restaurant.
However the restaurant has to close since Skinner, who was fired from his position as head chef, proves that the restaurant has a rat infestation.
The return, the final moment of restoration of the story is where the heroes’ (both Remy and Linguini) lives are changed when Remy and Linguini learn from their adventure and open up a restaurant of their own both achieving their dreams.
Also here we witness how Remy journey is essential to the story development driving the narrative while completing his inner growth.
Comparisons between the two movies:
Both films are seen, mainly through the protagonist point of view, driving the development of the story since it matches with their journey.
Another similarity relies in the main character weaknesses types that are an essential clue to getting to the key point of the story: they have the “greed” which lead them to chance their starting situation and get to a point where they will be satisfied with their life. these moral weaknesses require other character to exist. These weaknesses harm the other characters and they reflect negatively to hurt the hero as well: for example Hercules is not recognised by his father as a true hero after he gains fame which makes him lost and Remy’s pride makes him betray Linguini who trusted him by making his fellow rats access to the canteen and he feels guilty afterwards. It creates a Moral and Psychological need for the main character: Psychological and Moral weaknesses help developing a good character.
Moreover the structure of both stories is quite similar since it can be deconstructed by using any story formula such as the Hero’s Journey, where we can also identify the characters archetypes belonging to this structure.
They are both animated films however they blogs to different Animation eras, meaning that Hercules is a 2D animation piece characterised by hand drawn frames (however
the hydra is rendered in CGI), and Ratatuille broke new ground with their elaborate CG renderings, however Pixar team decided to give Ratatouille an old-school finish: for the end titles they enlisted hand-drawn animation.