Every Podcast Conversation at Your Fingertips

John welcomes Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Homeward Bound) to talk about her experience writing animated features, from the parallel processes of writing and production to her paltry paycheck for Beauty and the Beast. They consider the blurring lines between live-action and hyperrealistic CGI, as well as the history of animation writers’ exclusion from the WGA.

We also answer listener questions about whether there is such a thing as a bad character want and how to manage story days within a screenplay, which prompts exploration of wardrobe changes, thinking in terms of color rather than time and Linda’s penchant for naked characters.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Drew look back on their goals for 2024 and discuss how to make New Year’s resolutions you’ll actually accomplish.

Links:

Linda Woolverton
Episode 92: The Little Mermaid
Shanghai Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean. This POV video of the ride is definitely a spoiler.
Climate Central
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Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
This episode was originally produced by Megan McDonnell. Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

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You can download the episode here.

0:00.0	Hey, this is John. Today's episode is an encore. Back in 2018, we had Linda Wolverton,
0:07.7	the screenwriter behind Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Maleficent. I want to talk about
0:12.2	her experience writing animated movies. We spoke about how most animation writing doesn't get
0:16.9	WJ protection, the financial reality of that, both as you're writing and over the years.
0:22.4	For example, she made $35,000 for four years of work on Beauty and the Beast with no residuals.
0:28.9	In the year since we recorded this episode, the issues faced by feature writers haven't changed that much in animation.
0:34.8	It's still hard to get a WJ deal for an animated feature, although I'm
0:38.4	happy to say I'm currently writing my very first, so more details on that to come soon. But while
0:43.5	the issues haven't changed that much, the technology has. That blurring line between live action and
0:48.8	hyper-realistic CGI raises a lot of questions over what constitutes animation, and it's not just a philosophical debate.
0:55.6	For writers, millions of dollars are on the line, and there's no better example of that than Linda
0:59.8	Wolverton. Now, for premium members, stick around after the episode because Drew and I are going to
1:04.3	be talking about our plans for 2025, including my recommendation on how to make resolutions
1:09.0	you'll actually accomplish. I went 24 for 24 this
1:12.1	past year and I plan on hitting 25 for 25 in this coming year. Now, one thing we do know is that we're
1:18.0	going to be raising the monthly price on premium from 499 to 699 in 2025, but we are keeping the
1:25.6	annual price exactly the same at $50.
1:28.3	So on the annual plan, you'll be saving $34 per year.
1:31.3	So please do consider switching to annual if you're still paying monthly.
1:35.3	Or if your parents are looking for a gift, tell them to get you script notes.
1:38.3	So you or your parents can visit script notes.net to sign up to become a premium member.
1:42.9	And that is enough preamble.
	...

356 - Writing Animated Movies (Encore)

Scriptnotes Podcast

John August

Summary

Transcript