Pretty much everyone has heard of Pixar and has seen at least one of their movies. If you’re a parent, like me, then it’s a safe bet you’ve seen all their movies more then you’d care to admit.
Pixar isn’t just for kids, their movies speak to people of all ages and situations. How do they do that? Because they follow a few key “rules” that us as writers/authors have scene circulate through the internet for a few years now.
Not only are their “rules” a great spring board to write a story for any genre but the music that plays in the background of all their movies can help inspire and guide you through certain scenes.
Many writers use music as inspiration and/or a way to focus while writing. Some use white noise or nature sounds, some use their favorite songs, others use classical. I find that all of those techniques work in their own way but my absolute favorite is to use film scores. Not only is there a lack of singing that tends to distract me but the music is geared specifically to make you feel a certain way for a certain scene.
There are different ways to use film scores to help inspire your writing.
- You can pick one movie soundtrack that mimics what your story is about and play the whole thing or pick out a few songs that you like then listen to them on a constant loop.
- You can pick a favorite composer and create a Pandora station so that you get a mixture of songs from different albums.
- You can do some research and find the composers you like the best and then listen to samples of their songs and purchase the ones you like. Then you can either pick one or two to play for a certain scene or just let them all play.
- You can pick a theme like “Pixar Playlist” and create sections to place the different songs under that pertain to that type of scenes you will write in your story. Then, when you are writing a certain scene you listen to the selections that fit that scene description.
Side note: Mixing up the music is a good exercise to try at least once. What do I mean? Say you have a romantic scene you need to write. You can just play romantic film scores or you could throw in a few songs that you would normally use for Intense scenes or scenes of conflict. Why? Because while you are in the process of writing your scene the intense song will pop on and all of a sudden your love scene gets more depth, it finds an intensity it wouldn’t have found before on just romantic music.
Below are songs that “spoke” to me off of each Pixar movie soundtrack. I listened to a sample of every song before deciding what category to put it in. This is something that is highly personal. If you listen to a song and think I’m crazy for putting it in the scene section that I did, that’s completely ok. Music effects everyone differently. I just hope that you use this play list as inspiration to create one of your own. The sections I have created are (1) Breather/Light-Hearted Scenes (2) Fast-paced Scenes (3) Romantic Scenes (4) Intense/Conflict Scenes (5) Ominous/Dread Scenes (6) Action/Climax Scenes (7) Closing Scenes. Enjoy!
My Pixar Playlist
The “Breather” Scenes/ Light Hearted
The Flik Machine
Seed to Tree
Flik Leaves
Flik’s Return
Brave by Patrick Doyle
Fate and Destiny
Legends Are Lessons
Cars by Randy Newman
Dirt is Different
New Road
The Piston Cup
Cars 2 by Michael Giacchino
Radiator Reunion
Finding Nemo by Thomas Newman
Mr. Ray, Scientist
Gill
Stay Awake
The Little Clownfish
Sydney Harbour
Monster’s Inc. by Randy Newman
School
Walk To Work
Oh Celia!
Boo’s Tired
Boo’s Going Home
Monster’s Univeristy by Randy Newman
Mike and Sulley
Sulley
The Incredibles by Michael Giacchino
Life’s Incredible Again
Off To Work
Toy Story by Randy Newman
Andy’s Birthday
Mutants
Toy Story 2 by Randy Newman
Chicken Man
Woody’s A Star
The Cleaner
Al’s Toy Barn
Use Your Head
Toy Story 3 by Randy Newman
Sunnyside
Up By Michael Giacchino
Up With Titles
We’re In the Club Now
Walkin The House
Wall-E by Thomas Newman
Bubble Wrap
Repair Ward
72 Degrees and Sunny
Fast Paced Scenes
A Bug’s Life by Randy Newman
Circus Bugs
Opening Race
Tractor Tipping
Mater the Waiter
The Lemon Pledge
Blunder and Lightning
Firs Day
Short Term Dory
Jellyfish Forest
Filter Attempt
P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way
Boo’s Adventure in Monstropolis
The Incredibles by Michael Giacchino
The Glory Days
100 Mile Dash
Wood’s Gone
Wheezy and the Yard Sale
He’s Got the Bird
Desperate Eve
Romantic Scenes
Atta
In Her Heart
Bessie
McQueen and Sally
Haiku
Monster’s Univeristy by Randy Newman
Goodbyes
Oozma Kappa
Hang Together
Married Life
Carl Goes Up
Paradise FOund
The Nickle Tour
Stuff We Did
The Ellie Badge
Eve
Define Dancing
All That Love’s About
Static
Conflict/Intense Scenes
Hopper and His Gang
Loser
Ants Fight Back
I am Merida
The Witch’s Cottage
Through The Castle
Mum Goes Wild
McQueen’s Lost
Goodbye
Turbo Transmission
Cranking Up The Heat
Whose Engine Is This?
Going To The Backup Plan
Axelrod Exposed
Barracuda
Friends Not Food
Squishy
Fish in My Hair
Boo Escaped
Celia’s Mad
Exile
Waternoose is Waiting
Monster’s Univeristy by Randy Newman
Stinging Glow Urchin
Field Trip
The Incredibles by Michael Giacchino
Adventure Calling
New and Improved
Kronos Unvelied
A While Family of Supers
Soldier’s Mission
Presents
Buzz
Woody and Buzz
The Big One
Woody’s Been Stolen
Jessie and The Roundup Gang
Let’s Save Woody
Off to the Museum
Garbage
Woody Bails
You Got Lucky
Canine Conundrum
The Small Mailman Returns
2812A.D.
Eye Surgery
Worry Wait
Gopher
March of Gels
Ominous/Dread Scenes
Red Alert
Show Us the Way
It’s Finn Mcmissle
History’s Biggest Loser Cars
Mater Warns McQueen
Lost
Why Trust A Shark
Time To Let Go
Fishing Around
Swim Down
Putting Boo Back
Mike’s In Trouble
Monster’s University by Randy Newman
The Library
Dean Hardscrabble
Human World
Did you do this?
The Incredibles by Michael Giacchino
My Huph Will See You Now
Bob Vs. the Omnidroid
The New Babysitter
Sid
On The Move
Come To Papa
Three Dog Dash
The Explorer
Carl’s Maiden Voyage
Muntz’s Dark Reverie
The Spaceship
Thrust
Directive A-113
Action/Climax Scenes
Robin Hood
Dot’s Rescue
Grasshoper’s Return
Vistory
The Games
Merida Rides Away
Not Now!
Get The Key
We’ve Both Changed
The Big Race
Tarmac the Magnificent
Porto Corsa
Mater’s the Bomb
The Other Shoot
Monster’s, Inc. by Randy Newman
Enter The Heroes
Boo is a Cube
Randall’s Attack
The Ride of the Doors
Monster’s University by Randy Newman
The Scare Games
The Big Score
The Incredibles by Michael Giacchino
Missile Lock
Infinity and Beyond
Zurg’s Planet
Ride Like The Wind
To The Dump
The Claw
52 Chacki Pickup
Esape from Muntz the Bird
Giving Muntz the Bird
Seizing the Spirit of Adventure
Eve Retrieve
Septuacentennial
Wall-e’s Pod Adventure
Mutiny!
Rogue Robots
Tilt
The Holo-Detector
Hyperjump
Closing Scenes
Don’t Come Back
Merida’s Home
Pre Race Pageantry
Main Title: Nemo Egg
News Travels
Finding Nemo
Frond’s Like These
Sully Scared Boo
Kitty
Monster’s Univeristy by Randy Newman
Young Michael
Talk To Jesse
So Long
Memories Can Weigh You Down
It’s Just A House
The Axiom
Horizon 12.2
Darla G. Denton 
Wow, what an extensive list! 😀
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