What are the most effective ways to create emotional depth in an animated story?

1 Show, don't tell

One of the golden rules of storytelling is to show, not tell. This means that you should use actions, expressions, gestures, and details to reveal the emotions of your characters, rather than relying on dialogue, narration, or exposition. Showing, not telling, allows the audience to infer the emotions of your characters, rather than being told what they are. This creates a more immersive and engaging experience, as the audience feels like they are discovering the emotions along with the characters. For example, in Pixar's Up, we see the emotional journey of Carl and Ellie through a series of silent scenes that show their love, joy, sorrow, and loss, rather than hearing them say how they feel.

2 Use the power of contrast

Contrast is a powerful tool to create emotional depth in an animated story. Contrast can be used to highlight the differences between characters, situations, moods, or themes. Contrast can create tension, conflict, irony, humor, or surprise, depending on how you use it. Contrast can also create emotional impact by juxtaposing opposite or contrasting emotions, such as happiness and sadness, fear and courage, or love and hate. For example, in Disney's The Lion King, we see the contrast between Simba's joyous birth and Mufasa's tragic death, or between Scar's tyranny and Simba's return.

3 Make the audience empathize

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. Empathy is essential for creating emotional depth in an animated story, as it makes the audience care about the characters and their goals. To make the audience empathize with your characters, you need to make them believable, relatable, and sympathetic. You can do this by giving them flaws, strengths, motivations, and challenges that the audience can identify with. You can also use techniques such as point of view, voice-over, or inner monologue to reveal the thoughts and feelings of your characters. For example, in DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon, we empathize with Hiccup's desire to fit in, his curiosity about dragons, and his friendship with Toothless.

4 Use emotional cues

Emotional cues are signals that indicate the emotions of your characters or the tone of your story. Emotional cues can be visual, auditory, or verbal. Visual cues include colors, lighting, shapes, symbols, or expressions. Auditory cues include music, sound effects, or silence. Verbal cues include dialogue, tone, or word choice. Emotional cues can help you create emotional depth in an animated story by reinforcing, enhancing, or contrasting the emotions of your characters or the mood of your story. For example, in Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, we see the emotional cues of the dark and gloomy bathhouse, the whimsical and magical creatures, or the warm and gentle music.

5 Create an emotional arc

An emotional arc is the change or development of the emotions of your characters or the audience throughout your story. An emotional arc can be positive, negative, or mixed, depending on the outcome of your story. An emotional arc can help you create emotional depth in an animated story by showing the growth, transformation, or decline of your characters or the audience's feelings. An emotional arc can also create suspense, anticipation, or satisfaction, depending on how you build up and resolve the emotional conflicts. For example, in Disney's Frozen, we see the emotional arc of Elsa's fear, isolation, freedom, guilt, and love, or Anna's optimism, disappointment, sacrifice, and happiness.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?