10/10 should be simplified to 1. Thanks.
@OP
If I ever wanted to do my hero’s journey story in anyway I want, then that’s fine with me!
Now, Doctor Starkey once asked me why do I feel such a strong desire to make Dexter’s Laboratory (which is a mid to late 1990s kids cartoon show that is pretty standard as far as storytelling) into a huge dramatic spectacle of a movie called Dexter’s Odyssey, and Dr, Starkey also thought that what I describe sounds so far removed from the tone and scope of that kids cartoon show from the 90s that is Dexter’s Lab that it might as well be made with original characters.
Well, if I could ever do a hero’s journey story with original characters which I could fashion to my very own liking, then that sounds fine with me.
And sure, I wanted that hero’s journey story of mine to have all the epic scale and scope and grandeur of Tolkien’s three-volume The Lord of the Rings epic and HBO’s Game of Thrones TV show (or even George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of books from which the HBO Games of Thrones TV show has spawned), combined with the heartwarming emotional power of The Lion King and The Iron Giant, as well as a ‘Disney-meets-Genndy Tartakovsky’ kind of 2D animation art styling.
And it may not only draw upon modern or historical stuff, but it may also draw upon elements from all kinds of mythologies, legends, folk tales, epics, and other folk materials from all around the world (especially of the indigenous varieties from many different parts of Europe, Africa, and/or even Asia), while treating all these folk materials with the respect they deserve and not as just fantastical ripping yarns, hence its overall subtitle, “An Epic Folk Tale for the Globe”.
So it may not be just a fantasy, with all the high flown trappings associated with that genre, but rather as a pseudo-modern and pseudo-historical epic with mythic and supernatural trimmings.
Now, I don’t know about doing it as a trilogy just like the Original 1970s and 1980s Star Wars Films or Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, but the hero’s journey story that I may craft over many years of toil–and which I may develop as a mainly 2D animated feature film project with some amazing CGI effects–may be too massive, too expensive, and too large an epic tale for one standalone movie or even a trilogy to contain in my hands (probably at a total of 36 hours of screen-time or less than that), so I wanted to divide my hero’s journey story, which is to be written as a continuous thirty-six-hour epic, into a series of films that, when completed, may total no more or less than twelve feature film-length chapters or ‘episodes’, as the Star Wars franchise would call the individual installments.
And I wanted none of the twelve animated movies that would make up my continuous hero’s journey narrative (which may probably be written as a colossal thirty-six-hour epic or less) to really stand alone AT ALL. And sure, all twelve movies should be approached that all twelve would be successful, so all twelve movies that would comprise my continuous hero’s journey narrative should be made within the same time period.
In other words, all twelve movies should have the characteristics of the second part of what TV Tropes may call a “Two-Part Trilogy”.
It’ll be a big gamble of course, especially for such expensive movies such as Peter Jackson’s three-part Lord of the Rings movie, which is why the so-called Two-Part Trilogy trope happens more often than not.
In order for my continuous hero’s journey narrative to be tailored around a twelve-part structure, I think there’ll be layers and layers upon layers of complexity in getting the story to work as an epic, continuous thirty-six-hour saga across twelve movies that you and I don’t get when you and I were making a stand alone movie, or let alone a trilogy of movies.
So I may write twelve screenplays simultaneously so that everything could track across the twelve movies which my hero’s journey narrative may comprise of. And I’m not just going to do one and then make up another one and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one, and another one after all that.
And I need appropriate cliffhanger spots for which to end the first eleven parts of my saga, except for the twelfth and last.
Traditionally, there has been an original first movie and then sequels, usually featuring some of the same characters but a completely different story. What I may do, in telling one story over the space of twelve movies or less should be unique in that they must have a naturally organic continuity, but they must not feel like different movies as if you are watching a completely new adventure (as was the case of the Land Before Time series)–because you may not; you may or may not watch one huge epic story that spans about thirty-six hours of film or animation.
My twelve-part, thirty-six-hour animated epic hero’s journey story will be an epic, emotional journey that, from the time my main character begins his or her journey or quest or whatever to his or her final struggle against the forces of darkness and evil may take about maybe sixteen years and six days. It would be a journey that will not take my main character through a huge, vast variety of terrain and environments and cultures, but also take my my main character from childhood (if my main character’s a boy, he’ll probably be eight or nine years of age, while his three girl companions may probably be eleven or twelve years of age when he met them) through adolescence to adulthood (by the time the boy will finish his final struggle against evil and his hero’s journey as well, he’ll probably be 24 or 25, while the three diverse ethnic girl companions may be 27 or 28 years of age).
The length of that journey and the conditions through which the characters travel and age may necessitate the making of several versions of each character (and his or her clothes) in order to show the wear and tear and age that they all would have undergone.
And because my 12-part, 36-hour and mainly 2D hand drawn or so animated coming of age hero’s journey saga will overall feature characters that age overtime, the people voicing those characters will have to be replaced often more than once.
And since my hero’s journey may span over a period of sixteen years (or almost two decades), if my twelve-part thirty-six hour coming of age hero’s journey epic saga thingy were going to say something about the succession of generations, the audience should be there for the actual beginning: the birth of the main character of my story.
And so, just like Disney’s Bambi (1942) and The Lion King (1994) before it, Episode I of my 12-part 36-hour coming of age hero’s journey saga thingy should begin with the birth of my main character, and the conclusive Episode XII should end as my protagonist have children, or babies, if you will.
So there!