For a writing exercise, I was doing a story that fits the "Pixar formula."
Basically, the Pixar formula is as follows:
And here is what I came up with when I tried to follow the formula. Some words from the formula are in my story and some are just implied. The story is about a cockatiel based on my pet, Cooper, and his odd behavior.
Cooper’s Pixar story
Once there was a cockatiel called Cooper. He was small and
white, and he could talk, although as he didn’t know human speech he had no
idea what he was saying. Every morning he ate breakfast with his special person,
a girl. He lived with the girl and her mother. He hated the mother because she
pulled out the bottom of his cage with loud rattlings that scared him. Other
times the mother would push a roaring contraction around near his cage. The thing
could never get inside the cage, but Cooper knew it wanted him. He hated the
mother for being the commander of such dangerous things.
The girl
was different. She talked to him in a beautiful soft voice and let him run
freely on the table or her desk. Every morning she ate a large, flat round
thing called a waffle. Cooper loved waffles. They tasted like heaven. His dream
was to someday eat a whole waffle, even though a single one was bigger than he
was.
One day
the girl was gone. No warning, just gone. The day before, there had been much
moving of heavy things. This scared Cooper and made him cry all morning and
flap his wings against the bars of his cage. But when it was over, the girl had
played with him and talked to him a long time. She even cooked a waffle just
for him and left it in his cage. Then both the mother and the girl left the
house. Later in the evening, the mother returned. The girl didn’t.
The next
day, the mother sat alone at the table eating breakfast and reading the
newspaper. (Cooper knew newspapers because they were always below the floor of
his cage.) She ate no waffle, but instead spooned mushy, wet, oatmeal from a
bowl.
During
the morning, she changed the food and water in Cooper’s cage. She also removed
the waffle. Even though this had been his chance, Cooper hadn’t been able to
eat it. It had gotten cold and hard with
only a few nibbles around the edges.
Still, he tried to bite the mother when she took it. Her strange oatmeal
substance had cheated him out of that day’s waffle.
The next
day, the girl also did not return. Nor the day after. Cooper was not good at
telling time. He existed either in a world-with-girl or world-without-girl. He
resigned himself to his new existence.
One day
the mother stood in front of the cage a long time. She talked to Cooper in a
soft voice. One word she repeated over and over: “Kaw-lidge.” Cooper didn’t
know what it meant. She reached her finger into the cage. But Cooper didn’t
want her finger. He bit her. She said “Ow!” and drew her hand back and latched
the door. Then she yelled at him.
Several
more times the mother put her finger in Cooper’s cage. Cooper kept biting her.
Then one day, the mother unlatched the cage door and left it open while she ate
breakfast. Cooper ignored it at first. Then he came to sit on the edge. Then he
flew over to the table.
The
mother ignored him. She continued to eat her oatmeal and read the paper. Cooper
ignored the oatmeal. It didn’t appeal to him. However, the newspaper kept
waving around in his face and attracted his attention. It smelled funny. He
didn’t think he could eat it. But when he bit it, it made a funny crackling
noise, which he liked.
The
mother didn’t yell when he chewed the newspaper. Apparently she didn’t care. On
his tiptoes, Cooper chewed the snapping and crackling paper. He made snapping
and crackling noises back at it. When he got tired of that page, he ran to the
other sections of newspaper lying on the table and attacked them.
Every day
there was a new paper. Cooper’s new dream was to shred an entire newspaper
before the mother finished breakfast. Now he let her pick him up on her finger,
even though she still pushed the roaring monster around and took out the bottom
of his cage.
Finally,
when the winter rains lashed against the house, the girl returned home. Cooper
heard her voice from the porch, and even though he had nearly forgotten her, he
recognized it immediately. He called out many times. The girl put her suitcases
down, and opened the door of his cage. Cooper was so excited he flew from the cage
door like a bat out of hell. He missed the girl entirely and landed on the
mother’s shoulder. Cooper was angry. He had made a mistake! He bit the mother.
She yelled and shook him off. Cooper flew away as crazily as before, but this
time his aim was true. He came to rest on the girl’s shoulder, and after much
complaining he finally settled down.
The girl
and the mother laughed a long time. When Cooper was calm enough, the girl took
him over to the kitchen. She reached in the freezer and pulled out a familiar
packet. She was making a waffle!
Cooper
was happy.
