Creating Enduring Characters
Character's aren't what they used to be. Especially in the cinema. Instead of crafting deep characters that people adore for years to come, we get one dimensional walking fart jokes. What happened to the days of characters like Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, and Woody? And how can we make characters that will stand the test of time like they do?
I got the inspiration for this post after watching the trailer for Croods 2. (Please don't judge me. Trailers are few and far between these days.) I was Googling to see who was voicing the new characters (because I'm a nerd like that) and came across an article I think by Forbes. (Here's the post if you're interested in giving it a read.)
In the post, they talked about how Dreamworks has never been quite in the same tier as Disney, mostly because of their characters. Yes, there are stand-outs, like Hiccup, Po, and I guess even Shrek *gagging sound*. But only a few of their characters come close to the popularity of Disney characters such as Elsa, Simba, and Yzma (a lot of "a"s.)
With the rise of sequels in recent years, it's becoming clear that characters are one of the biggest draws to see them. The first movie, people are curious. They want to know if they like them. But when they come out with The Secret Life of Pets 2, I honestly have no emotional attachment to Max and wouldn't care if he was eaten by the weird wolves in the movie. When Frozen II, conversely, comes out, I'm first in line at the box office, because I love Elsa and Anna and Kristoff and Olaf.
Or compare Luke Skywalker to Rey "Skywalker". Luke is an icon. He's a classic farm boy who over the course of the trilogy becomes a powerful Jedi knight through hard work and perseverance. Rey is a classic Mary Sue who over the course of the trilogy is insanely OP and makes no sense. Luke has stood the test of time, over forty years. Rey will probably be forgotten in that time, unless she's used as an example of how not to write a character.
Many remakes fall prey to this same thing, taking the characters we loved in the original and stripping them of anything that made them memorable or cool, and think we'll still like it because we liked the original. (It's not always the case, sometimes the remake has better characters.) After seeing it, we have to go wash our eyes out by watching the "real" version.
That's why building strong and memorable characters is important. Character driven stories are way more successful and enjoyable than plot driven ones any day (something action movies need to understand). Do you want throw away characters like Poppy, Dalia, or Red (bonus points if you can name the movies those came from)? Or do you want to make Marty McFlys, Han Solos, and Belles?
I know this post as been very movie-centric, but as a visual learner, I movies easier to see these sorts of flaws in than books. When reading a book, it's a lot harder for me to be like "oh yeah, their third plot point was crap" than it is when I'm watching it play out in front of me on screen. Hopefully I'm not the only one.
I'll leave it here for now, but in the future I may do a follow up post on the qualities of enduring characters. Let me know if that's something you'd like to see.
What are your thoughts on this topic? What's a novel you've read that had throw away characters? Tell me in the comments.
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