Despicable Me: Exceptional Storytelling at its Finest

Using Jennifer Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel theoretical framework for story structure to critically analyze the cinematic masterpiece, Dreamworks’ Despicable Me

I recently read Jennifer Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, which is a fantastic educational masterpiece that educates the reader on how to structure a story from start to finish in a way that is universally understood and resonates with the mass population. Brody posits that there is something utterly human about the way we process stories, and that by following a basic framework for storytelling, you can take a story from being meh to fantastic.

One of the biggest takeaways I had was the realization that she is absolutely right. Once you see the storytelling framework in action in popular novels and movies, you can’t unsee it. I found myself mentally shuffling through some of my favorite books, series, and movies with my jaw dropped because… they ALL follow this structure. She cracked the code! It is so inherently human and natural that we don’t even notice that all these successful works share the same foundation.

While I could apply it to so many famous works, and I might in future posts, I want to look at a popular animated children’s movie, Despicable Me, and analyze just how profoundly well this framework fits the film’s narrative. To do so, I am going to break it down into a few simple “key ingredients” that go into “good storytelling,” as proposed in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. Jennifer Brody calls it, “The Holy Trinity of Storytelling.” To have a successful story, you need a flawed hero who needs to change and does by the end, a story structure and order of events, and a plot.

One of the most important tenants that goes into a “flawed hero” is that they have a problem, a want, and a need. Take Gru for example, his problem is that he is jaded, has a complicated relationship with his mother, and has never felt truly accepted. His want (or what he thinks will fix the problem) is to be the evilest villain of all. He is regularly trying to outdo himself in evilness. His need, underlying and unbeknownst to him, is unconditional love and acceptance for who he is underneath the evil.

Another important concept from the book that applies to apt storytelling is the idea that there are two storylines going on in any great story, the “A story” and “B story”. The “A story” refers to the surface level, external story that is occurring. In the case of novels, this would be the premise or the hook in the synopsis. The “B story” refers to the internal story related to the lesson the hero, or main character, needs to learn to change their life. In Despicable Me, the “A story” is that Gru is trying to pull off the evilest act in history, stealing the moon, because he thinks this will make him happy. He is also thrust into the role of foster parent to three young girls as part of his evil plan to steal the shrink-gun from his evil nemesis Vector. The “B story” is going on simultaneously in the interactions Gru has with the girls. Over time, he lets his guard down and begins to care more about the girls and less about his evil plan. In return, the girls adore him and his crazy life without any judgement or concern for his “evilness.” This underlying storyline is the need or lesson that Gru needs to learn: he is worthy of unconditional love without needing to be evil.

Finally, a broad overview of the 3-act structure that is the key to storytelling in novels and films and how we can detect it in Despicable Me. To put it simply, there should be three distinct “sections” or acts to your story. Act 1, a snapshot into the main characters current world and life. Act 2, the journey the main character takes to leave their comfort zone and try something new. Act 3, an epiphany of what the character has truly needed to learn and their efforts to fix their problems in the right way. According to Brody, it is crucial that your character at the end of the story is a mirror image and transformed from who they were at the very beginning. In Gru’s case, we saw him start as a cranky, evil villain hellbent on being eviler than he already was. He was a man who had no love in his life and seemingly didn’t care. By the end, we see a happy, loving adoptive father who is adored by his three daughters and doesn’t want to be evil anymore. This total transformation and fulfillment of his deeper need is subconsciously satisfying to us as the viewers (or readers).

I could go into so much more depth, but this is a blog, not a dissertation, so I will leave you with this: if you are currently writing or thinking about writing a book, please check out Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jennifer Brody. Using the concepts and tools provided there, you will walk away with a much clearer picture of the story you want to tell and more confident with how to execute it.

‘Til next time!