Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

by Ed Catmull

the note I got was, ‘God, it seems like he’s bullying her. I really don’t like him. You’ve got to rewrite it.’ So I go in to rewrite it, and I look at it, and think, ‘No, that is what he would say. And that is how she would respond.’ I don’t want to change a damn thing—but I know I can’t say that, because something’s not working. And then I realize the problem: Physically, Bob is the size of a house, and Helen is this little tiny thing. Even though Helen is his equal, what you’re seeing on the screen is this big threatening guy yelling and it felt like he was abusing her. Once I figured that out, all I did was have Helen stretch when she holds her ground and says, ‘This is not about you.’ I didn’t change any of the dialogue. I just changed the drawings to make her body bigger, as if to say, ‘I’m a match for you.’ And when I played the revised scene, the Braintrust said, ‘That’s much better. What lines did you change?’ I said, ‘I didn’t change a comma.’ That’s an example of the group knowing something was wrong, but not having the solution. I had to go deep and ask, ‘If the dialogue is not wrong, what is?’ And then I saw it: Oh, that.”