I never thought I'd actually get excited over a short film created by Coca-Cola. That's right. Coca-Cola, the movie. It's based on the polar bears used in their advertising, but thankfully there's not a Coke bottle in sight. In fact, it's not half bad, and I found myself strangely moved by the end. I've always found animation to have really well-crafted stories, and this one's no different.
I wanted to find out how this little sucker got me so involved, and broke it down into my interpretation. You might recognize some of the headings from Blake Snyders, Save the Cat. I'm not Cat obsessed or anything, but do like using the headings to describe plot points. I'd love any comments, things I've missed, gotten wrong, or you could just call me a sap for being a little obsessed with this film. It's just advertising after all, or is it something new?
· Hero and
Central Character: Jack
o
Weakness: Aloof, unreliable
o
Want: To climb the ice tower
o
Need: For Daddy Bear and family to accept and
understand him
·
Protagonist:
Daddy Bear
o
Weakness; Rule-follower, strict, rigid
o
Want: To give an acceptance speech to
become pack leader
o
Need: To be closer to his son, Jack
·
Sub-plot
Character: Kia
o
Need: Independence, live a little,
have some fun
·
Antagonist:
Zuk
·
Ally: Mummy
Bear
Ordinary World/Weakness
The Polar
Bears opens by establishing Daddy Bear’s goal to give an acceptance speech to
become pack leader. He emphasises how responsible and organised polar bears
are, so that when Jack stumbles out of no-where and admits to having followed
the wrong pack for hours, we understand he doesn’t fit in. This establishes Jack's
need, to be understood by his dad, and shows us his weakness; he is an aloof
and irresponsible bear who knows how to enjoy himself. Mummy bear states the
theme when she advises Jack to be himself to gain his father’s respect.
Inciting Incident/Point of Attack
I’d say it
already happened, that it’s the Dad’s speech (or at least when he was asked to
give it), as this seems to be the central event the story hangs from. This
is quite a big step for the family and I imagine has shaken things up, and now
Jack is going to have to deal with being an aloof bear in a family of leader
bears. This is why I think Daddy is the protagonist. Being made leader of the
pack seems to be his goal, and he can achieve this by delivering a great speech
to the other bears.
Break-into-two
The speech
sets up the stakes for the story. Mummy suggests Jack look after Kia, and Daddy
says he doesn’t want any surprises on this day, simple code for, let’s mess it
up any which way we can. We also have a double-cross, as mummy tells Zuk to watch
Jack and make sure he doesn’t mess up. This sets up a central task for Jack,
but it is not a goal; this is attributed to Daddy bear. I think Jack is the
hero, as he later helps Daddy bear change, and is perhaps why he doesn’t have a
concrete goal. Two female bears also set-up the dislike of puffins, are
apprehensive to Jack, but seem to love Zuk.
Fun and Games
So it sort
of feels that now we’re in the second act, as Daddy is off giving his speech
whilst Jack is expected to look after his little sister. We do, however, get a
second sort of break-into-two beat when Jack listens to his father’s speech and
is inspired by the phrase, “scale new heights,” to literally want to scale an
ice-tower that just happens to loom over the speech, sending our expectations
wild.
I think this
could be called plot point one, if you will, as this is the point when Jack
begins his quest that winds up getting him in trouble. We set-up the story, and
now it’s about to kick-start. This could be seen as a way to give a goal to our
hero and central character. He wants to climb the tower in order to gain his
father’s respect, taking action to achieve his need, not a material want. Again, Daddy Bear fits the traditional protagonist shape of wanting a material goal,
the speech to become leader, and must later sacrifice this for a spiritual
need, to be closer to his son.
B-Story
This is also
the point when a second story, the B-story, is created. Jack leaves Kia on her
own to scale the tower, which is understandable, as he’s an aloof,
irresponsible bear. Zuk follows his mother’s instructions and sets off to stop
Jack, leaving Kia to the temptation of the puffins. It’s quite nice that Kia
has her own problems. We understand that she’s looking for a bit of
independence and fun, and is fed up of being baby-sat all the time. Off she
goes with the puffins, leaving us to wonder what dangers this little adventure
might get her into, especially as they are not socially acceptable. It’s a nice
mirror to Jack’s story, as he also isn’t accepted by society, and this later
helps resolve the story.
Mid-point
Jack reaches the top of the ice-tower and literally is
on-top of the world. This is certainly a quest to achieve his need, as he asks
Zuk, who comes to stop him, if he thinks Dad would name the tower after him if
he were the first one to slide down it. Jack pushes Zuk and follows after,
immediately raising the stakes as we cut between the incoming bears and the
father’s acceptance speech.
All is lost
Jack and Zuk gate-crash the acceptance speech and do just
what Daddy Bear feared Jack would do. It gets worse when they discover that as
a result of their little quest, that Kia has been lured into a silly dance with
the puffins. The crowd start to gossip and it looks like Jack is in a whirlwind
of trouble.
Break-into-three
But, perhaps listening to his mother’s advice from earlier
(you could almost imagine a tacky flashback scene or voice-over) Jack dives
into the pool and joins in with the dance. Daddy Bear is now faced with the dilemma
of how to fix this little struggle. Does he disband his son and side with the
pack, or does he damn the rules and join his son?
Climax
Daddy stands on his hind legs and brings a stop to the
chaos. We’re not sure for a moment what he’s going to do, but then he dives on
in, and after another beat of indecision, joins in with the dance. This is the
point where Daddy chooses to abandon his want. We’re still not sure by the end
of the film if Daddy will still be leader after his little stunt, but we do
know he’ll be closer to his son. It sort of feels like a world change film, as
the central character doesn’t change, but the world does to accommodate him. It
is, however, quite standard, as Daddy Bear, our protagonist, has definitely changed.
New Equilibrium
The whole family join in the dance in the pool, with Mummy literally
turning against the pack after a snide comment about her family. We then see
the two females from earlier, who now seem to be in love with Jack for being
himself. This is a little over the top, a bit like spoon feeding us the theme. “We
get it already!” I want to scream, as we’ve already seen this in action, and
don’t need it again.
So what can we get from this short film? The key thing for
me is seeing a story work with several characters in conflict. In his book, On
Film-Making, Alexander Mackendrick talks about characters in a web of conflict
as opposed to a single main character with lots of side characters. Jack is the
central character and hero, I’d say, as it’s him who saves the day and helps his
father change, but without the conflicts from the characters around him, I’m
not sure the story would work as smoothly. It’s nice to have a hierarchy. Zuk
is above Jack when he attempts to stop him, working on higher orders from Mummy, but is still below Daddy, and it’s fun when he gets in equal trouble
later.
I also like seeing the function of the B-story so clearly. At
the end of the second act, the B-story and the A-story converge, and both are
connected. Kia is dancing with puffins as a result of Jack climbing the ice
tower. It’s also a mirror to Jack, as now Kia is being viewed as a
misunderstood outcast breaking the taboos of society. The B-story is also what
helps resolve the A-story. Jack is able to side with Kia, saving her from
humiliation, and giving Daddy a choice to either side with society or his
family. Instead of viewing this as a main story and a subplot, we can view it
as two very important strands of the same story, which come together at the end
to resolve each other. Without the B-story, Jack would simply be in a lot of
trouble. It would probably make a good opening to a feature film. It seems that
the B-story makes the difference between a fun scene and a complete story.
You could view the two stories like this;
A.
An aloof bear climbs an ice tower to gain his dad’s respect during the middle of his important acceptance speech.
B.
A bored younger-sibling is left alone when her
brother goes to bring his aloof sibling in line, and is lured into a silly
dance with outcast puffins.
·
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