Hey Writer Person

Hey Writer Person ✍️ - Dora, a study in Character

Hey writer person

I know I said we'd talk about more Disney, and we will, but - the Dora the Explorer movie. Its a DELIGHT. Go give it a watch. I'll wait...

Did you love it? You did. It's charming, sweet, funny, and thrilling. 

And I wanna talk about the the tiny details that make the characters so real and charming.

My fave? The Disco Dorka Dance. Dora loves to dance. This has NOTHING to do with the overall main plot - a dangerous quest through the jungle to rescue Dora's parents from evil treasure hunters. But the movie uses it anyway. 

Dora loves to dance. So what? So in the beginning she is excited to dance at her new school's dance. And it's "weird". So she humiliates herself and by extension her cousin, Diego, who cares a lot about what people think. This causes a rift between them. Next day, School smarty pants/bully, Sammy, asks why Dora and Diego are so cold to each other. And then she asks, real snotty, "was it the Disco Dorka Dance?"

I laugh every time. 

But more importantly, the rift between the cousins doesn't get dropped after the dance. It doesn't get ignored. It's front and centre. Its a part of Dora and Diego's story. And it all stems from Dora being herself. It all stems from Diego caring too much about what other people think and fearing being outside the norm. It stems from the collision of who they are as characters.

When the adventure is over, there is a dance number. Again, this has NOTHING to do with the main plot. But it wraps things up nicely. Dora is dancing, because she loves it. Diego joins her, because he accepts her for who she is and is over what people think of him. Sammy joins, she's no longer a bully but a friend. All this -- because Dora loves to dance.

My point is, it's not enough to say your character loves to dance, eat pizza, do yoga. USE that thing that your character loves, and carry it through the whole story. Because it can speak to the development of your main character, and the characters around them. It rounds them out and makes them more than words on a page. It makes them real.