Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) really knows his stuff. His Creative Screenwriting interviews always get repeat plays on my iPod, so I was pretty happy to discover there’s a bonus feature on the latest Toy Story 3 Blu Ray disc in which Arndt discusses the first-act structure for Toy Story 3, and the ways in which it is similar to many other movies (though not all movies).
Here’s a transcription:
1. INTRODUCE YOUR CHARACTER BY SHOWING THEIR WORLD & GRAND PASSION
The thing you do when introducing your character is to show their world and show them doing the thing they love most. Show their grand passion / defining trait. The one thing that’s the centre of their whole universe.
Examples
Toy Story: In Woody’s case, he is introduced playing with Andy. That’s his favourite thing. The thing that defines who he is as a person.
Finding Nemo: Marlin is a family man. He just moved into a new house with his wife, they have a whole lot of eggs and he couldn’t be happier.
Incredibles: Mr. Incredible is introduced as a kick-ass super hero who enjoys using (and showing off) his powers.
2. SHOW YOUR CHARACTER’S FLAW
The key here is that the flaw actually comes out of his grand passion. It’s a good thing that’s just been taken too far.
Examples
Toy Story - Woody takes pride in being Andy’s favourite toy. He loves being Andy’s favourite toy so much, he doesn’t want to share it with anyone.
Finding Nemo - Marlin wants so badly to be a good parent that he’s a little bit insecure. (As he looks at the eggs with his wife, he asks “What if they don’t like me…”)
Incredibles - Mr. Incredible is a little bit like Woody in that he takes pride in being #1 - and he doesn’t want to share that with anyone (which is why he tosses a young Buddy - later Syndrome - out of his car when he wants to be his sidekick. Same on the roof when Elastigirl offers “we could share” after they both catch a burglar, and he says “I work alone”.)
3. ESTABLISH STORM CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON
Your character is walking down the road of life on a nice, bright sunny day, but off on the horizon there are some dark storm clouds gathering. This is foreshadowing the inciting incident.
Examples
Toy Story - Andy’s birthday party is coming up. All the toys are fretting about who’s getting replaced, and Woody’s saying “No one’s getting replaced”.
Finding Nemo - It’s established that there’s an “indoors” that’s safe (Marlin’s anemone) and an “outdoors”, which is implicitly dangerous.
Incredibles - Elastigirl tells Bob “things are going to change after we get married” (the actual words at the altar are “I love you, but if you want to make this work, you have to be more than Mr. Incredible”. And Buddy is showing up jealous of Mr. Incredible, saying “This is because I don’t have any powers, isn’t it? Well, not every super hero has powers, you know? You can be super without them.) So you establish that there’s a resentment from normal people toward super heroes, and you establish Helen saying “Things are going to change”.
4. KABOOM - SOMETHING OUT OF THE BLUE BLOWS APART THEIR WORLD
Something comes in and totally blows apart your hero’s life and turns it upside down by taking away the one thing they care about most.
Examples
Toy Story - Buzz arrives and Woody gets displaced.
Finding Nemo - The barracuda shows up and Marlin’s family gets killed - except for one last little egg.
The Incredibles - Mr. Incredible saves a citizen but then, KABOOM, gets sued and super heroes get banned.
In each of these cases, if you look at what their grand passion was (Woody being Andy’s favourite toy, Marlin and his family / trying to be a good father, Mr. Incredible being a super hero) THAT’S the thing that gets taken away from them.
It totally changes your character’s sense of what his future is going to be. But that bolt from the blue isn’t enough on its own. You need to…
5. ADD INSULT TO INJURY
It’s not enough to ruin your main character’s life, take away their grand passion, and change their whole sense of what the future is going to be. You have to add insult to injury. You have to have something that makes the whole world just seem a little bit unfair.
Examples
Toy Story - Not only does Woody get replaced, he gets replaced by a total doofus. An imbecile that doesn’t even know that he’s a toy. And they get into this whole argument whether Buzz can fly or not - and Buzz jumps and bounces and “flies” across the room, and all the other toys go “oh my god, he really can fly”. And they key thing here is that everyone is impressed for the wrong reasons - which exasperates Woody even more.
Finding Nemo - In this case, you don’t need to add insult to injury. We already understand that the world Marlin lives in is unfair after his family is eaten by the Barracuda.
The Incredibles - The reason super heroes get banned is because Mr. Incredible was trying to do the right thing by saving a suicide jumper - who then sues him.
6. CHARACTER MEETS FORK IN THE ROAD AND MAKES THE UNHEALTHY CHOICE, WHICH CREATES A CRISIS
So now your main character’s life has changed, his grand passion has been taken away from him, and the world has revealed itself to be unfair. This is when he comes to a fork in the road (i.e. the first act turn) and has to make a choice on how to deal with the new reality. There’s a high road he can take, a healthy, responsible choice - or a low road, which is the unhealthy, irresponsible choice. Now remember - if your character chooses to do the right thing, you don’t really have a story. So he has to make the unhealthy, irresponsible choice, which grows out of his fears and insecurities.
Examples
Toy Story - For Woody, the responsible thing is to say “I was Andy’s favorite toy, I had my day in the sun, but I have to cede my place at a certain point.” But what happens is that Woody makes the unhealthy choice. Woody pushes Buzz behind the desk. And the key here is everyone rooting for Woody to do the unhealthy, irresponsible thing, because we feel his pain of getting replaced. And the character’s unhealthy choice - Woody’s unhealthy choice (Buzz getting pushed out the window) creates a CRISIS that leads to the other toys confronting Woody and telling him you can’t come back into Andy’s room until he finds Buzz and brings him back safe and sound. And that’s your first act break.
Finding Nemo - When Marlin finds Nemo at the edge of the open ocean, Marlin’s unhealthy choice to drag his son back home from the school excursion (i.e. his over-protectiveness) comes out of his grand passion (his love for his son). And his unhealthy choice provokes a crisis, which is his son swimming out into the ocean toward the boat to prove his independence - and then getting caught by the diver (i.e. CRISIS). And now Marlin has a goal that’s gonna take him all the way through the rest of the story.
The Incredibles - The responsible choice is for Bob to do what his wife tells him to do. But that would be boring and you’d have no story. So for Bob, the irresponsible, unhealthy choice is to lie to his wife and go moonlighting with his buddy Frozone. And we’re totally rooting for Bob to make the irresponsible choice, because we saw how much he loved being a super hero, we saw how good he was at it, and we saw how unfairly it was taken away from him. And that unhealthy choice - sneaking around - leads to a crisis - Mirage tracking him down - which leads to Syndrome bringing Bob out of retirement - and you’re off into your second act.
Conclusion
So your story is coming out of your character’s deepest desires and his darkest fears. The thing they love gets taken away from them, and the world is revealed to be unfair. And to make things right, they have to take the journey that is the rest of the film. And by the end of the journey, hopefully they don’t only get back what they lost, but are forced to fix that little flaw they had when we first met them.

