Adam Bates

1970 to 1988 is often referred to as Disney's "Dark Age." During the "Dark Age," Disney's animated films were mostly critical and commercial failures. Then, in the late 1980s, a story consultant named Chris Vogler wrote a 7-page memo that helped spur "The Disney Renaissance." In 1978, Chris Vogler was a film student at USC. For one of his classes, Vogler was reading "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" by the mythologist Joseph Campbell. That year, the first Star Wars movie was released. Vogler saw it in the theaters, and he was almost certain Star Wars was putting Campell’s ideas to work. Vogler distilled Campbell’s complex ideas into a term paper that identified how George Lucas was using mythic elements throughout Star Wars. A few years later, Vogler was hired as a story consultant at Disney where "memos were a big part of the corporate identity...following the example of [CEO, Jeffrey] Katzenberg, an absolute master [of "the memo art form"]. So Vogler adapted that term paper into a 7-page memo, in which he outlined “the twelve stages of the hero’s journey.” The hero's journey, Vogler summarizes, goes like this: The hero is introduced in his ORDINARY WORLD where... The hero receives the CALL TO ADVENTURE. The hero, reluctant at first, REFUSES THE CALL. The hero MEETS A MENTOR and is encouraged to CROSS THE THRESHOLD where... The hero encounters TESTS, ALLIES, and ENEMIES. The hero reaches the INNERMOST CAVE where he endures the SUPREME ORDEAL. The hero SEIZES THE SWORD or the treasure and... The hero starts to take THE ROAD BACK. Along the way... The hero is RESURRECTED and transformed by their experience, and then... The hero RETURNS to his ordinary world with a TREASURE, BOON or ELIXIR to benefit their world. Vogler's memo was read by CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg made it required reading for everyone in the company, and then, he sent Vogler to work with the Animation team working on "King of the Jungle"—what would become "The Lion King." On a corkboard, the team pinned the storyboard for "The Lion King," "with the twelve stages of the Hero's Journey clearly marked as signposts." Using this 12-step program as a roadmap, "The Lion King" was released in 1994 and became the most successful animated film ever, and for a while, the most profitable film in history. Takeaway 1: The comedian Hasan Minhaj likes to say that his job is to distill coffee into espresso: "My job is to distill coffee into espresso...to take complicated things and make it simple so people can walk away after twenty minutes with a clear take and perspective.” Vogler wasn't the first to come across Joseph Campbell's complex ideas. He was the first to distill them into a practical guide for storytellers. Takeaway 2: Vogler was right. George Lucas did indeed read Joseph Campbell before bending the story of Luke Skywalker to follow the twelve steps of the hero’s journey. In fact, Lucas calls Campbell his Yoda. Not just him. Not just Star Wars. Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Aladdin, Harry Potter, Mulan, Moana,... Once you know the 12 steps, you see the hero with a thousand faces everywhere. --- “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” — Willa Cather