Writing Characters: A Lesson from Disney's Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

September 06, 2018

Writing Characters: A Lesson from Disney's Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

I watched Disney's Z-O-M-B-I-E-S a month or so ago. Like all Disney Channel movies, it had it's pros and cons. It had strong theme, but some clunky dialog. Nice plot, but a little predictable. Overall, I enjoyed it and thought it was a fun movie with some nice music.

But the thing that really struck me were the characters. Some were quirky, some were flat, some were under-realized, but they were all still likable. So what did I decide to do? Write a post on writing characters, using this movie. Ain't I smart?

Strong Characters vs. Weak Ones

There are two protagonists in this movie. Zed, a zombie, and Addison, a cheerleader. Guess which one is the more rounded character? If you guessed Zed, you're right.

Zed was a great character. He had flaws, he had something to lose, he had a fun personality. On the other hand, Addison is the epitome of the cheerleader trope. She's blonde, her only desire is to fit in, and she has no notable flaws (more on that in a minute). If the story was focused on her, it would be boring as heck. Her redeeming quality is her relationship with Zed.

Examining Zed

Let's start by taking a look at what makes Zed such a strong character. First, his personality. Zed is an upbeat, sweet guy with big dreams of change in his community. In a world where zombies are hated and segregated, he wants to be the first zombie on the football team. While a situation like this might make some characters hard and jaded, it makes him even more hopeful.

Secondly, he had flaws. He was willing to do whatever it takes to make the humans except zombies, even if it means messing with his Z band (which keeps them from eating people's brains). He also lies about what it's doing to him. It's the classic breaking the law to change the law and it works well.

Lastly, his desire and something to lose. He wants things to be equal for zombies and humans, and he thinks he can do that through winning his football games. And if he doesn't accomplish this, he could lose everything. His new school, Addison, his freedom, everything he loves. That's what makes his journey so interesting.

Examining Addison

Addison, on the other hand, is all pink and blonde and boring. Her best scenes are the ones with Zed in them (because they do have great chemistry). She could have been better, but instead they steered into safe territory and made her cheery, bubbly, and only mildly rebellious.

Her big secret is that she has weird white hair that she has to hide because everyone in her town hates different. (It's not even white for a cool reason. She was just born with it.) Her flaw, I guess, is the fact that she's not always willing to stand up for what she believes in? But it's super weak, because she does that anyway. And then she doesn't even lose anything when she does. She gets kicked off the cheerleading squad, but that was her choice. And she gets back on it like five minutes later.

Yeah, this is her big secret

Her other redeeming quality is that she likes to be friends with people like Zed or Bree, who's not the best cheerleader. But overall, there were many ways her character could have been improved.

The other thing that annoyed me about her is that she was always trying to sympathize with Zed about how she doesn't fit in either, when nobody at the school except Bucky knows about her hair. She couldn't empathize, because she's never had the hate Zed had. I think if she had been given something to make her obviously different and outcast it would have been better, rather than her say “I understand” and me wanting to yell “No, you don't”.

Main Character Tips

After comparing the two, let's break down what we've learned about writing a strong main character.

• Give them a flaw. Something that isn't even necessarily a flaw, but can be if they take it too far.

• Give them something to lose. And no little thing either. Make it if they fail, they lose everything. Or at least the thing they love the most. (And then take it from them, per story norm.)

• Give them a good personality. My favorite characters are the ones I love something about their personality. Give them something to make readers fall in love with them.

• Put them in a bad situation. And I don't mean they have to hide their hair so people don't hate them. Make things really hard for them, so they have something to lose should they fail their goal (see point one).

A Look At Secondary Characters

Z-O-M-B-I-E-S also has a bunch of great, if sometimes under-realized secondary characters. Let's go through them real quick and see what we can learn about writing good secondary characters.

Eliza- She's another zombie that wants to change things too, but her way of doing it is wanting to start a revolution. She's also a computer wiz, sarcastic, and insecure about her looks. I feel like she had so much potential as a character, but unfortunately, if they had done any more with her than they had, she would have taken over the movie.

What we can learn from her is how to make a sidekick people love. Give them something that makes them stand out. Salty dialog or a realistic worldview (as opposed to a idealistic one). But don't let them be too cool, or they'll overrun your protagonist.

Bucky- He's Addison's cousin and a fellow cheerleader. While he's rather stuck in his ways, can be manipulative, and is an airhead, he was one of my favorite characters. He was dorky, it was lovable. I also liked the fact they included a cousin relationship. Can we have more like that please?

From Bucky, we can learn that if you make a character lovable enough, people will overlook other problems. Yeah, Bucky could be a jerk. But he was doing what he thought he had to keep his place. He's understandable.

Bree- She's the classic black best friend trope. While Addison is blonde, white, and skinny, Bree is black, heaver set, and wears glasses. While Addison is played as a sweet, charming girl, Bree is there for laughs.

This movie deals a lot with doing unexpected things, so why don't we have the chubbier black girl in the lead role for once? Hmm? Just a suggestion that I bet would be super popular, Disney Channel. The lesson here is to take risks and stray from the norm, even if you think people might hate it.

Side note, the zombies have the best dance moves in this thing

If you're not a big Disney Channel fan, that's all right. But I enjoy their movies and I think there are plenty of things we can learn from them just like any other movie.