I just went looking through the Subtext storyforms for ‘Start’ and ‘Stop’ comedies, and it’s surprising how well that lines up. Start comedies feel a lot more ‘pleasant’ than Stop comedies.
In fact, a lot (maybe not all) of the Stop comedies involve high-stakes, dramatic or dangerous scenarios (the gangsters could kill the guys in Some Like It Hot), whereas the Start comedies are pretty gentle (There’s Something About Mary is just about guys competing for the love of a woman, and Paddington 2 is downright delightful).
But some of that mother/son stuff and the neighbor and his son - that’s a little more “heavy” right?
Great - so OS in Psychology, MC in Universe.
Which puts the IC in Mind
and the RS in Physics
With that in mind - who takes care of the IC and who takes care of the RS?
I LOVE doing this backwards - where you find domains/perspectives first - THEN look for the players representing those perspectives. The last couple of years I’ve watched Elf and tried to figure out the storyform and I could never get it to feel quite right, and then last night it all fell into place - just by doing it this way.
IC is definitely Dad. He’s on the naughty list and everything, super negative.
RS is probably Romantic between Buddy and Jovie. There’s also the rekindled father/son dynamic between he and his Dad, and the friendship between Buddy and the son (I can’t remember his name) but I don’t remember as much about that one.
Those are the big three. But Romantic is the most significant, I think.
Right, as I was watching it last night I was thinking - well, that was a nice hand-off!
Previously, when I would watch I would think, well, there doesn’t seem to enough of a relationship between Buddy and his Dad, not throughout the whole thing - whereas the Romantic relationship really takes center stage, then probably father/son, and then “step-brothers” (But not as good as the actual Step-Brothers!)
Steadfast/Success/Good for sure. Drivers are actions, I think.
I think, from memory, the first driver would be when Buddy overhears he’s a human? But that’s probably the MC throughline.
Actually, if the OS is to do with Christmas spirit, the first driver is probably when Buddy finds out his Dad is on the naughty list. And then that forces his decision to go to New York and help.
I’d have to rewatch to place the middle two.
I think the fourth driver is when the sleigh crash-lands, and the fifth would probably be when the sleigh gets powered up again – or, more specifically, when Walter joins in with the singing.
I know there’s a moment that they ripped off of It’s a Wonderful Life, but I don’t know if that’s what you mean.
I keep coming back to the line ‘the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear,’ which feels like a very unsubtle OS Solution line.
So I’ll take a swing and say that the problem is that everyone is pretty miserable and cynical and unpleasant, and the solution is for them to simply open their hearts and be joyful.
EDIT: Actually I just remembered that the son shows Santa’s book at the end to get everyone onboard, so it’s probably going to be that the solution is getting everyone to believe in Christmas/Santa?
