There are two basic types of characters in animation. Real ones and cartoony ones. Real characters in animation, such as Batman or Bart Simpson, are treated pretty much the same as they are in live-action. Cartoony characters, on the other hand, such as Daffy Duck or SpongeBob SquarePants, are entirely different creatures.
With respect to cartoony characters, the basic rule is there are no rules. If it’s funny, it’s okay. Cartoony characters are as broad ranging as our imaginations. Anything is fair game for a wild and crazy cartoon character. Just give them a silly point of view and they’re off and running.
Realistic characters, on the other hand, have some basic elements that, if understood and developed properly, can make them much richer and more interesting. Perhaps the simplest way to look at any real character is as a contrast of need and want. To define these two terms so we can differentiate them, need is a lack of something that is required, such as air or food. Want means to desire greatly or wish for, as to want a thick chocolate malt. Need is intimately related to survival, whereas want has more to do with happiness or personal gratification.
With respect to characters, need is usually represented as something the character requires in order to become a better person. For example, an alcoholic needs to be sober; a greedy person needs to learn to be more giving. Want is usually expressed as something the character desires, which he thinks will make him happier. In fact, it is always the need which, if fulfilled, will truly make the character happier (just as it is in real life).
In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the beast wanted to become a good looking young man again, but he needed to learn to see the beauty within himself and others. In Toy Story, Woody wanted to remain the favourite toy (i.e. be loved as a best friend), but he needed to learn how to be a true friend and thus become worthy of such love. It is the balance and contrast between need and want that makes an interesting character.
Cartoony characters, unlike real characters, don’t necessarily have a conflict between their needs and wants. Take Wile E. Coyote. He wants only one thing—the roadrunner. The thing he needs is brains, but this is simply an excuse to create humour, not a real character flaw that is going to be explored. The exploration of a character’s needs and wants is generally better suited to long-form stories. In episodic animated series, need and want can be problematic.
A character arc is essentially the path of change a character takes in the course of a story. In terms of need and want, the character usually lets go of his want and fulfills his need, ultimately becoming a better and happier person. In almost all animated series there is no real expression of character arc. Sometimes you may see an arc over a period of an entire season, or it might even take three or four seasons. Some shows have no arc whatsoever. The reason for this general lack of character arc is that if the main character were to fulfill his need he or she would no longer be the same character. Although you can explore a number of ways in which your character stumbles and recovers due to his basic need-want conflict, in most cases you cannot fully resolve it. This point is also valuable in terms of secondary characters, because there is nothing stopping you from fully resolving their character conflicts.
As a general rule, the younger the audience the shallower the characters, and the more their needs and wants converge. Children, after all, are too busy learning about life to be interested in, or understand, any of life’s weightier character problems.
The above is a very simple and cursory view of the makeup of character and character arc. There is much more that can be learned about the subject. But what I have laid out should give you enough of an understanding to get you started developing and writing animated characters.
©Jeffrey Scott, All Rights Reserved
(Jeffrey Scott has written over 700 animated and live-action TV and film scripts for Sony, Warner Bros., Disney, Marvel, Universal, Paramount, Columbia, Big Animation, Hanna-Barbera and others. His writing has been honoured with three Emmys and the Humanitas Prize. He is author of the acclaimed book, How to Write for Animation. To work with Jeffrey visit his website at www.JeffreyScott.tv.)
Read other articles from this series:
#1 The difference between live-action and animation writing
#3 It all begins with a premise
#4 The secret to developing your story
#5 Finding the scenes that MUST be there
#7 How to easily transform your outline into script
#8 A brief introduction to script writing
#9 How long should your scenes be?
#10 How to (and NOT to) edit your writing
#13 The importance of communication
#17 Assuming the point of view of your audience
#23 The screenwriter’s bookshelf
