The latest in my neverending fawning admiration for all things Pixar: THR has this article which provides some background on the genesis and development of the story for the movie Up. Here is a key excerpt:

Over lunch one day, Docter sketched an old man on a napkin with a bunch of balloons. It became a central image. “As we got into the story, we realized it also had an emotional component that almost no other person or character could give you, just a wealth of history and stories that combined with this idea of getting away from everything, just escaping the world that was visualized in a floating house.”

For inspiration, Docter drew on his friendship with Disney animation legends Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson and Joe Grant, to whom the movie is dedicated. He pitched his story to Grant several times, taking to heart Grant’s admonition to give the story “an emotional bedrock.” He also borrowed bits of Spencer Tracy, Walter Matthau and characters from the New Yorker cartoons of George Booth.

Docter and Peterson chose Rivera to produce even though he had not produced before. Together they pitched their idea to the key creative group at Pixar. Docter made references to movies from “Casablanca” to “A Christmas Carol” to “It’s A Wonderful Life,” about men who are emotionally dead but find reasons to live again.

“We could take the story anywhere because John (Lasseter, head of Pixar/Disney animation) bought into the fact there was an emotional core,” Rivera said.

There’s a lot for a writer to gleam from this:

* Be conscious of creative opportunities at all times and places: At lunch. Docter is doodling. Probably something he does all the time. A figure emerges: An old man with a bunch of balloons. Could have just as easily crumpled up the napkin and tossed it aside. But because part of their [Pixar] brains is always attuned to the possibility of a sudden bolt of creativity, they picked up on the image of the old man and the balloons.

* Brainstorm possibilities: “As we got into our story…” Ah, music to my Go Into The Story ears! And here it means immersing themselves in the story possibilities through brainstorming. Somewhere someone said, “What if he attached a zillion balloons to his house and floated away?” And off they went with that central story conceit.

* Research: In this case a two-fold approach — seeking out wisdom from experts (“animation legends Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson and Joe Grant”) and wisdom from the history of cinema (“from “Casablanca” to ‘A Christmas Carol’ to ‘It’s A Wonderful Life,’ about men who are emotionally dead but find reasons to live again”).

* Take chances: Pixar did in their choice of a producer (“Docter and Peterson chose Rivera to produce even though he had not produced before”). But equally if not more important is that the creators of the story had the blessing from Lasseter to ” take the story anywhere.”

But if there’s one big takeaway from this narrative of the genesis and development of Up, it’s this: Find your story’s emotional center. Notice how the word “emotion” is used three times in this excerpt:

* “As we got into the story, we realized it also had an emotional component that almost no other person or character could give you.”

* “He pitched his story to Grant several times, taking to heart Grant’s admonition to give the story ‘an emotional bedrock.’”

* “We could take the story anywhere because John (Lasseter, head of Pixar/Disney animation) bought into the fact there was an emotional core.”

Do you think that writing stories that have an emotional core, that knowing what your story’s emotional bedrock is, exploiting [in a good way] the story’s emotional components just might be one of the big keys to understanding why Pixar is so successful at storytelling?

When people read a script or watch a movie, they have numerous expectations and hopes. But perhaps the single most important thing to do – as writers – is to make them feel something.

Consider Up. I doubt that anyone could watch the first 10 minutes of that movie, which details the origin of the relationship between Carl Frederickson (Ed Asner) and Ellie, their marriage, and her eventual death, and not be touched emotionally by that narrative, especially because of how lyrical, visual, and beautiful that sequence is. Having connected with the audience in such an honest and visceral way, the Pixar folks knew that they could “take the story” — and the viewers — anywhere because we will have been sucked into the story.

So as always, lots to learn from Pixar, but if nothing else, we will all be wiser and better writers if we take to heart these two words: emotional bedrock.