As I've mentioned before, Austin Film Festival has a screenwriters conference to accompany its weeklong program of films. In fact, the event used to be better known for its writing panels and sessions than for the films that screened. I'm not a screenwriter so I don't attend many panels anymore, but this year I decided to sit in on on the "Writing Family Films" panel.

Why did I choose a panel on children's and family films? I could have gone with some friends to a session down the hall about comedy writing, featuring Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black, which I'm told was quite entertaining. I don't have any kids, and I've never written anything that was aimed toward a younger audience. But I've always enjoyed watching quality children's films (although I often feel like the only unaccompanied adult in the theater), and I wanted to hear more about the ways in which writers approach material intended for kids.

The panelists (in the order pictured above) were Bob Dolman, who wrote the screenplay for Willow and adapted and directed How to Eat Fried Worms; Susannah Grant, who worked on the scripts for Pocohontas, Ever After (a favorite of mine) and the upcoming Charlotte's Web; and Mike Rich, who wrote Finding Forrester, The Rookie, and The Nativity Story. University of Texas screenwriting instructor Stuart Kelban moderated the session. The small conference room at the Stephen F. Austin hotel was well-filled with writers and other film-industry people.
The writers began by discussing ways in which they prepare to write family films. Grant said one of her biggest influences was the late lyricist Howard Ashman, who "would bestow all his characters with 'I want some,' whether it was The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, even Little Shop of Horrors. That stuck in my brain as something helpful to have in a character." Rich agreed, pointing out that "The older Disney films always centered on a wish that the characters had -- very simple and very effective."

Dolman, on the other hand, took a different approach to writing fare for younger audiences. "I was really enjoying being the age of the kid I thought would see the movie -- that was the leading idea in the movies I did. I got into the space of being 10 or 12 years old."

Disney and Pixar received a lot of praise during the session. In talking about writing for wider audiences, Rich noted that "The Toy Story movies had the best of both worlds: something for kids and for adults. That's such a skill, when you write for kids and adults at the same time."

Dolman, who has also written TV comedies for adults, such as SCTV and WKRP in Cincinnati, pointed out that "As a writer, you have to have faith that if you're telling a good story, it'll appeal to a wide audience."

None of the writers felt like they wanted to "dumb down" a script or a story for a younger audience. Rich stressed that "I treat the eight-year-old kid who's going to watch the film the same as anyone else when I write a script. It bothers me when we don't approach a younger audience with the intelligence they obviously have."

The studio notes on How to Eat Fried Worms were often "fearful of the worms, that they'd drive away the girls from the audience," Dolman said. He resisted all attempts to cut down this aspect of the story. "And then we tested it, and girls tested higher ... they liked being grossed out." These negotiations with producers and studios are "a battle you fight as a writer or director, every time."

Grant cited Pixar films as an example of children's films that are never dumbed-down. "They don't compromise or pander and they're really successful. That fear element -- compromise -- can hurt a movie. When you're going with 'what always works,' you're compromising your voice."

When Grant was adapting Charlotte's Web, she kept getting suggestions about adding more bodily-function humor. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable putting fart jokes in E.B. White," she said. In one meeting, someone told her that cow flatulence was a huge environmental problem, so perhaps that could be worked into the movie. Because it was an environmental issue, of course, not because of the potential fart humor. Right.

Grant also encountered pressure from merchandising in children's films -- she said that Barbie would have loved it if Pocahontas' dress had been pink. And when the Pocahontas writers had to create another animal character for the movie, they were advised to "think plush."

All three panelists have children, but have never involved them directly in the writing process for family film scripts. Dolman did observe their viewing habits, however, as research: "I paid very close attention to what my kids liked, and watched movies with them, so I could see what about those movies were appealing to their young concerns."

One thing Dolman and the other writers noted was that when children love a movie, they want to watch it repeatedly. "One reason why movies like Shrek are so successful is that kids see them three or four times," Grant observed. "With the Charlotte's Web script, Karey Kirkpatrick added the slapstick and the type of humor that brings kids back again."

Kids are also attracted to certain visual attributes, such as CGI animation. The writers were concerned that CGI and other effects often took precedence over good scripting. As Dolman noted, "The dark side of children's movies is that things are brought out with very little quality, but have attributes that will suck kids into a theater, like CGI animation."

Dolman ended the session with some positive advice. "If the themes are universal, the movies will stick around," he told the conference attendees.