Tom Hanks sauntered into the office, and he didn’t look pleased.
A few months earlier, Hanks had won the Best Actor Oscar for Philadelphia. With movies like Forrest Gump and Apollo 13 coming out soon, he was perhaps the biggest star in Hollywood.
Hanks sat down and picked up the script. He frowned. He shook his head a little.
“You don’t want me to sing, do you?”
I just watched a TED talk about storytelling.
The talk was not great. That’s because it was too valuable, with too many good-but-different ideas packed into just 19 minutes.
The emotional highlight of the talk, to me at least, was the Tom Hanks story above.
As it turns out, the filmmakers didn’t want Hanks to sing. Even though the movie in question was an animated film, and even though the only imaginable animated films at the time looked like The Lion King, filled with Hakuna Matata.
But no. There would be no Hakuna Matata and no Under the Sea in this new animated movie. And not only that.
There would be no love story.
There would be no “I want” moment.
There wouldn’t even be a villain.
It sounded like a recipe for disaster. It broke all the rules of how a Hollywood cartoon was supposed to go.
And yet, the movie in question ended up earning $735 million (in today’s money), making it the second biggest film of the year… it got rave reviews (a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes)… and it was nominated for the Oscar for best original screenplay (the first animated movie ever to be nominated for a great story).
That’s why, if you’re into storytelling, or more broadly, if you want to create salt peanuts content that people can’t help but consume, my advice to you is:
Watch this TED talk. In fact, watch it two or three times.
If you’re curious why I would say this talk warrants rewatching, then watch it once first. And maybe you will get a hint. In case you’re curious: