'Storks' Directors on Whether Warner Bros. Has Its Own 'Pixar Rules'

Back in 2012, Emma Coats, then a storyboard artist for the celebrated animation studio Pixar, tweeted more than 20 lessons about storytelling she had learned there. Included were, “What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?” and “Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.”

Quickly, they became known to many as the “Pixar Rules,” even though they’re not fast-and-firm rules those filmmakers have to adhere to. When Yahoo Movies sat down with Storks co-directors Doug Sweetland and Nicholas Stoller, we asked them if Warner Bros. Animation had any “rules” as such for its movie. Turns out, not really.

“They are awesome,” Stoller said. “There’s zero bureaucracy there. And I’ve worked at other places as a writer and it can be … they’re all very nice people, but it can grind out a lot of the weirdo jokes that you want to try.”

Instead of a studio head noting them to death, Sweetland and Stoller were able to try things out. Of course, some jokes didn’t always work. Stoller continued: “Their notes were only about, ‘Does the story make sense?’ They don’t care, you can try all sorts of stuff. There’s even some stuff that we tried that they were like, ‘We don’t really get that, but try it, sure,’ that then fell flat. And we’re like, ‘You’re right, you’re right that time.’ It’s not a surprise that something like The Lego Movie came out of there, which couldn’t have really come out of anywhere else because they’re just like, ‘Do your tone.’ They’re a very talent-friendly studio for that reason.”

Why Andy Samberg loved Kelsey Grammer’s vocal warmups for Storks:

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