Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Simple Subplots
Part of the reason for the enduring popularity of Disney's Cinderella is its exquisite simplicity. One of the simply purrr-fect wonders of this story is the Lucifer-mice subplot.
Subplots can be very complex, or very simple. But no one should mistake simple for weak. The subplot in Cinderella is easily one of the stronger elements in the story.
First, it's introduced fairly early in the story. One of the first chores Cinderella attends to is dragging Lucifer out of bed to feed him in the kitchen. The major conflict for Cinderella hasn't started yet, so it's the job of the subplot to engage audience interest via conflict. The mice trick Lucifer in order to reach their breakfast, resulting in a dynamic cat-and-mouse chase. Overlapping goals and delayed payoffs segues this sequence brilliantly into another scene that establishes Cinderella's main problem: her Wicked Stepmother.
Serving as Cinderella's allies, the mice tangle with Lucifer on several more occasions. These scenes serve multiple functions. They keep the subplot active and alive in the audience's mind, so it doesn't feel tacked on or episodic. Thematically, the mice and Lucifer reflect the ongoing struggle between Cinderella and her stepfamily. But even more significantly, the mice-Lucifer subplot ties into and advances the main plot.
In no scene is this truer than the climax, when the mice carrying a key struggle valiantly up an impossible staircase. At what appears to be their moment of triumph, the subplot smashes into the main plot in the form of Lucifer. This is a classic structure template that makes the mice-Lucifer subplot and Cinderella's main plot resolutions interdependent. This makes the subplot feel like it mattered and that the resolution--paying off humorous elements planted in the first subplot scene--was satisfyingly inevitable.
Subplots can be very complex, or very simple. But no one should mistake simple for weak. The subplot in Cinderella is easily one of the stronger elements in the story.
First, it's introduced fairly early in the story. One of the first chores Cinderella attends to is dragging Lucifer out of bed to feed him in the kitchen. The major conflict for Cinderella hasn't started yet, so it's the job of the subplot to engage audience interest via conflict. The mice trick Lucifer in order to reach their breakfast, resulting in a dynamic cat-and-mouse chase. Overlapping goals and delayed payoffs segues this sequence brilliantly into another scene that establishes Cinderella's main problem: her Wicked Stepmother.
Serving as Cinderella's allies, the mice tangle with Lucifer on several more occasions. These scenes serve multiple functions. They keep the subplot active and alive in the audience's mind, so it doesn't feel tacked on or episodic. Thematically, the mice and Lucifer reflect the ongoing struggle between Cinderella and her stepfamily. But even more significantly, the mice-Lucifer subplot ties into and advances the main plot.
In no scene is this truer than the climax, when the mice carrying a key struggle valiantly up an impossible staircase. At what appears to be their moment of triumph, the subplot smashes into the main plot in the form of Lucifer. This is a classic structure template that makes the mice-Lucifer subplot and Cinderella's main plot resolutions interdependent. This makes the subplot feel like it mattered and that the resolution--paying off humorous elements planted in the first subplot scene--was satisfyingly inevitable.
