The Lego Movie's Substory

[RailwayAdventurer]

Ever since I read the topic between @mlucas and @jhull about the Lego Movie’s “lower level” storypoints a few months ago, I’ve been curious about the film’s substory/“wrapper story.”

Jim had this to say in the Narrative First analysis: “Most films struggle with completing one storyform. Writer/directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were clever enough to fuse two skeletons together, reinforcing their argument by doubling up. Without giving too much away, the central story and the substory that surrounds it both address concerns of creativity (Overall Story Concern of CONCEIVING). They both end in success, with one’s resolution leading to the other (Story Outcome of SUCCESS). And they both leave the Audience feeling fulfilled emotionally (Story Judgment of GOOD). Their difference lies in the resolve of the Main Character.” Emmet has a Resolve of Changed, while the MC of the substory, apparently Finn (The Man Upstairs’s son), remains Steadfast.

So does this mean that Finn has a Problem/Drive of Potentiality, or that The Man Upstairs as the IC changes from Certainty to Potentiality like Emmet, or something else? (This is assuming that the substory is “large” enough.) Also, since both storyforms have an OS Concern of Conceiving, which character perspective is in the Conscious and which is in the Present, for the substory?

Sources:

The LEGO Movie - would like to check my work!

My sister was visiting and the other night we watched The LEGO Movie with the kids. I had assumed there was a published storyform for it... I remembered an old Narrative First article talking about there being a substory* with the boy and the father. After watching my sister and I tried to get the storyform on our own (partly as an exercise of showing my sister what Dramatica analysis is all about)... ... but it turns out Jim's article only contains the top level stuff (Concerns, Resolve). The…

The LEGO Movie

[mlucas]

First guess, and I think this fits well with what Jim originally wrote – the IC father / Man Upstairs (Will Ferrell) would have a drive of Certainty with his wanting to glue everything in place. He Changes to Potentiality when he sees the potential for playing lego with his kid.

Playing and building Lego is definitely doing, so I’d peg Finn as a Do-er. Wanting to spend all his time playing out imaginative stories with Lego, and being unable to resist the Attraction of his dad’s awesome collection, works well as a Concern of The Present. Finn’s steadfast drive would be Proaction which fits the way he goes ahead and plays with the Lego against the rules, and tries to convince his dad to change his mind. (Note the MC Response of Acceptance there too.)

Checking MC & IC Domains for a minute … IC Domain of Mind / Fixed Attitude definitely works, with dad’s stuck opinion about his Lego models being only for looking at. MC Domain took a bit of thought, but I think “being a boy in a house full of unplayable Lego” or “being the son of a Lego geek” work pretty well. (Part of his situation is being a kid without any say.)

The OS is pretty much the same as with the main story (just with Symptom & Response flipped). In the substory, the Goal would be something like, conceiving a better way to use all this Lego. The Issue of Permission fits really well in the substory too – not being allowed to play with all this great Lego.

[mlucas]

It’s really interesting how similar this is to The Princess Bride’s substory (although that shared the identical storyform rather than flipping MC/IC Resolve & possibly Domain).

In both substories, which were actually “outer” stories, the main story takes place in the imagination of the outer-story players. And in both, all four throughlines overlap a lot in subject matter. With The Princess Bride it’s all about the book; with The Lego Movie it’s all about the Lego.

Add to that the Overall Stories both in Conceiving, and at least the main stories sharing the same throughline arrangements, and you’ve got a lot of similarities.

[jhull]

@mlucas

It’s really interesting how similar this is to The Princess Bride’s substory (although that shared the identical storyform rather than flipping MC/IC Resolve & possibly Domain).

Incredible. I was wondering if that was the case. Thanks Mike!

Would be interesting to see these two films out together and compared for their similar shared structures in both inner and outer narratives.

[RailwayAdventurer]

Fantastic answer, @mlucas! The storypoints make perfect sense. Also, I completely agree that both of those substories would be more appropriately named “outer” stories. Thanks for sharing.

@jhull

Would be interesting to see these two films out together and compared for their similar shared structures in both inner and outer narratives.

Absolutely. And I’m not just saying that because I love both of them! It’s interesting since both Finn and Lucy/Vitruvius are Steadfast and have a Drive of Proaction under Universe, while Emmet and The Man Upstairs are Changed and have a Problem of Certainty under Mind. The two storyforms’ structures really are tightly connected. Thanks again for such great responses.