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In The Middle in the Middle In the Middle
Or: I watched a Movie and I am Mad
Well it’s been two months! Sometimes that happens! I hope you all have had productive and pleasant summers that weren’t constantly filled with existential and political rage, although if you have, I question your sanity slightly. I have personally been at a crossroads - nay, a Beverly Drive eight-way intersection - of personal and political and social disasters, and while I’ve kept working the whole time, I’ve had to be on autopilot more than I would like. So I should be deeply grateful for a movie-watching experience that has driven me out of my gentle simmer of rage and despair and back to the blog!
The premise of this newsletter, of course, is gleaning notes from the scripts I read for work every day. But sometimes something intrudes, something that cannot be ignored, something that makes you question your entire job and education and the whole premise of the industry to which you’ve dedicated your life. Because it is unprofessional and rude to loudly criticize a specific movie, due to the hundreds of people who have put in hard work and honest sweat, so I feel I should disguise the name. So let it be said that folks, I have just watched KITTEN WORLD: BORN AGAIN, and I have some notes.

The Never-Ending Story
There are a lot of things to quibble with in KITTEN WORLD: BORN AGAIN. A split story structure that never quite connects, lighting that manages to feel both too bright and too dark, English actors forced to fight their accent for no particular reason, but we’re not going to talk about any of those. We’re going to focus solely on the story of KITTEN WORLD, and ways in which it violates some basic rules of storytelling. Primarily, the important structural and emotional goals of fully-developed set-ups and pay offs.
Enormous Red Flag Warning:
The writer of KITTEN WORLD: BORN AGAIN is a tremendously respected and brilliant writer with many deserved accolades. When you’re watching a finished film, you have to remember that the final product is an amalgamation of what the writer wrote, who was brought on to quietly rewrite them but didn’t get credited, what chaos occurred on set, what got shot, how it was edited, and, I suspect most importantly in this case, how heavily the studio decided to get involved in post-production notes. Generally, if you privately corner a writer and feed them a few martinis, they will reveal they are ALSO enraged about what was changed from their initial vision. So please do not take any of this as a “Fuck the Screenwriter” screed, as there’s absolutely no way to know who deserves the Fuckage (and it’s better odds than not that it’s not their fault.)
You Put The Lime In the Storyline and Shake it All Up
Stories, as we know, are structurally comprised of a beginning, middle, and end. It’s this triad that gives us the rule of three in comedy, and it’s the standard formula for building the smaller aspects of a script as well as the larger plot. When you’re developing a character arc, a theme, or a subplot, it’s often easiest to start in these terms. Where does the concept START, where does it END, and what happens in the MIDDLE to get you from start to end. Unfortunately, this excellent formula also gives you three places to trip over your own shoelaces. And as you will see in my analysis of KITTEN WORLD: REBORN, it is actually possible to trip over all three at once. Using this saga as our example, let’s look at the places a story can tumble if the legs of the tripod aren’t firmly in place.
Beginning:
The beginning of an arc (whether plot, character, or thematic) is all about establishing the circumstances. Here is the place that you define a character’s flaws, lay out the film’s central question, or establish the basic principles of the world. What’s critical about the beginning is CLARITY. If you can’t tell if a character’s flaw is that they’re jealous or that they’re highly egotistical, for instance, you won’t be sure what journey you’re on with them. If you don’t understand how the world operates, the risks and stakes are unclear. Establishing the circumstances at the beginning of an arc is like setting up a one of those big signposts that tells you how many miles it is to something: it tells the audience where the hell they’re going.
KITTEN WORLD, for example, introduces a character we’ll call DOCTOR BRIDGERTON, who is very sad that the world isn’t interested in Giant Kittens anymore. He’s never seen a Giant Ravenous Kitten, despite their being a scene just prior to meeting him where a Giant Ravenous Kitten was dying in the street. Dr. Bridgerton has spent his whole life working in museums, it seems, with only the bones of Giant Kittens, and he is lured on the film’s central quest to go to Giant Kitten Island because this may be his only chance to have an adventure and see Giant Kittens in the wild up close.
We also meet pragmatic and heartless mercenary, BLOND WIDOW, who doesn’t care that she’s joining a project that will cure heart disease, she only cares about the large payout she will get for guiding HEART DISEASE EXEC to Giant Kitten Island. Blond Widow is somewhat shaken, however, by having lost a friend on her last job.
For later reference, let’s briefly mention a few other things that KITTEN WORLD immediately establishes: Giant Kittens can only survive in a small tropical band of the planet, anywhere else, they get sick and die off. It’s absolutely forbidden and illegal to go into this tropical band, hence why Heart Disease Exec has to hire Blond Widow to take him there. Blond Widow is also working alongside TOUGH MERCENARY, who just wants to keep his boat safe, and had a son who died fairly recently. Also, in the very beginning of the film, a Mutant Kitten escapes containment on Giant Kitten Island and eats a scientist.
Now, these setups in themselves are quite workable. Doctor Bridgerton is sheltered and theoretical, and cares very much. Blond Widow is tough and experienced and cares very little. They’re two great opposites to throw together on an adventure to Giant Kitten Island. Heart Disease Exec is a nice guy who wants to save millions of lives. Tough Mercenary loves his boat and is grieving a young child. These are completely reasonable beginnings. You can see the signposts.
However…
Middle:
The middle of an arc is typically the biggest and murkiest chunk. Most beginning circumstances are established somewhere in the first act, and most arcs end in the final act, giving you about 20 pages of a feature screenplay to deal with either end. It’s that vast sea in the center where things get complicated, and where you have to write anywhere between 40-80 more pages. Nevertheless, within that central chunk that makes up most of the story, your arcs have one simple goal: take the initial premise, and throw stuff at it via plot and character development that makes it shift, grow, change, or double down.
For example, in the first KITTEN WORLD movie, KITTEN PARK, the character beginning of the lead, DR. NEW ZEALAND, was that he didn’t want to have children, and didn’t see the point of them. So in the middle of the script, he is saddled with two children to care for. Not only does he slowly start to bond with the children, challenging his initial premise, but his plot experiences with the Giant Kittens beginning to breed on their own despite scientific intervention makes him question the idea that there’s no point to reproduction, that it is, perhaps, a critical component of being alive. Here, plot and character circumstances are working together to throw rocks at his initial position.
You would think in KITTEN WORLD: BORN AGAIN, a similar middle would be in store for Doctor Bridgerton. After all, he’s tweedy and theoretical, so throwing him into a wild Kitten Jungle is going to be a challenge! Except no, it isn’t! Because he reveals that he studied under Dr. New Zealand and went on many excursions with him!! So he’s great at the outside and navigating Giant Kitten Jungle! Oh! Okay!
This immediately flattens Doctor Bridgerton’s arc, making him already good at the thing he was bad at, and giving Blond Widow very little to teach him or any way to broaden his horizons. It also further raises the question of why he never saw a Giant Ravenous Kitten, as one thing we know about Dr. New Zealand is that he could not stop going near them, no matter how many times he nearly got licked. So in this choice, KITTEN WORLD both removes the chance for growth and change for Doctor Bridgerton, and contradicts its own beginning of the character, making for murky development.
Similarly, the Blond Widow, who we have established as heartless and mercenary, immediately goes out of her way to rescue a stranded family being surrounded by Water Kittens (Sea Lions?) Now this would make sense later in her arc, when she’s started to open up and learn the value of protecting people. But it’s immediately counteracted by having two of her friends killed by Water Kittens, to which she responds “Yep! They’re dead!! Nothing we can do but move on,” which is backward motion to the beginning of her arc and seems in stark contrast to having just risked her whole covert ops to rescue civilians.
Once again, we see that contradicting the given circumstances of a character repeatedly creates a very blurry journey. It is generally going to give you a clearer and more traceable arc if you avoid this. While it’s not unusual for characters to double down, this is usually part of a process of gradually opening up. Jerking back and forth, however, makes it hard to read the character.
Heart Disease Exec’s middle is a villainous twist! He has the chance to save a child from falling off their boat, but because she didn’t listen to him earlier, he sneers evilly at her and lets her fall. Turning this guy into a villain is perfectly reasonable (because capitalism) but there does seem to be something of a sudden disconnect between “I’ll risk my own life to go to Kitten Island to find a cure for heart disease” and “Fuck you bratty kid, die die die.”
Again, here we see it might be better advised to provide enough steps in between arc beats so that a twist feels foreshadowed but exciting, rather than abrupt and contradictory. It’s also important to note that that’s the end point of Heart Disease Exec’s arc. Once revealed to be selfish and evil about 45 minutes in, he’s equally selfish and evil til the end of the movie, when a Giant Mutant Kitten eats his body off his arm.
Tough Mercenary crashes his boat (never mentions it again) and most of his friends die. These plot developments create a perfect opportunity to develop his character and push him toward an act of sacrifice rather than losing someone else- but there’s a lot else going on and they forget to do this part until the very end. It’s just his friends dying a lot. Poor Tough Mercenary!
As for the Mutant Kitten? It’s…around somewhere. Plenty of other kittens to deal with though, it’s fine to save Mutant Kitten as a final boss.
The middle of KITTEN WORLD also introduces several concepts that don’t really have a beginning, or an ending, and are sort of just…there in the middle. One is that there may be a romantic connection beginning between Doctor Bridgerton and Blond Widow, with a few intimate moments and significant glances. This is a concept that could be reasonably developed over the course of the script, but never really is.
Another is that there’s an ancient temple. On an island of Giant Kittens. There’s an ancient temple. On an island of Giant Kittens. THERE’S AN ANCIENT TEMPLE. ON AN ISLAND OF GIANT KITTENS. It’s never mentioned again.
There is an entire secondary storyline that starts 45 minutes in with a family on a boat that I just can’t devote a lot of my time to or my eyes will bleed. Suffice it to say, it is unclear why a man with three kids is able to take a tiny boat into waters that you otherwise have to hire a mercenary to get into because it’s illegal in every country in the world.
Once again, the key thing we can learn to avoid in here are:first, try to ensure that your arcs enough plot or character beats to ensure that each step makes logical sense. And secondly, avoid immediately contradicting the circumstances you carefully established in the beginning of the script, as it tends to make the audience go “huh?” and, in the worst cases, throw their hands in the air and say “IS THIS MOVIE EVEN TRYING TO MAKE ANY SENSE?”
Endings:
The ending of an arc is where you cash in all your chips and see if you’ve won. If you’ve established a clear beginning and then thrown rocks at your story/character/theme to make it dance around, gain new strength, and develop its perspective, when the audience finally sees the hard-earned results of that change, they will experience that dreamy sensation of catharsis and satisfaction, THE EMOTIONAL PAYOFF.
In KITTEN PARK, for example, Dr. New Zealand ends the movie with two kids sleeping on him, entirely safe and content. He stares out the window and sees a flock of um, flying Evolved Kittens, and looks in wonder at the beauty of life finding a way. His core problem of not relating to children is solved, and his thematic perspective on the value of life is forever altered. It is satisfying because we’ve seen all the steps he went through to get there, and we feel he’s in a better place.
Let me list the major character endings from KITTEN WORLD: BORN AGAIN, and see if you can spot the issues.
-Heart Disease Exec is Eaten by Mutant Kitten
-Blond Widow and Doctor Bridgerton decide to give the samples they’ve gathered to the world and not Evil Heart Disease Exec’s company
-Tough Mercenary heroically sacrifices himself to save everyone, except he survives and is actually fine by being off screen for a minute.
-The family is fine. The dad now respects the boyfriend (this is the only character subplot that has a standard development pattern with a payoff.)
-The Mutant Kitten is fine, wanders off, having a nice snack of Executive.
If you’ve guessed that the issue is the story hasn’t done enough work in the middle to make any of these endings satisfying, you are correct.
Blond Widow, arguably, has grown in perspective as she’s willing to sacrifice the money she’d earn to give the samples to the world - but with Heart Disease Exec dead, it’s not clear that she’d get that money anyway, and her initial position had nothing to do with favoring corporations over people. Doctor Bridgerton wanted to give the samples to the public from the beginning, so nothing has changed, nor has he become more rugged, fallen in love, or made the world care about seeing Giant Kittens again (he did get to pet a big Purrsian in a very nice moment.) Tough Mercenary was sad his kid and friends died, but there’s no suggestion the kid died because of his selfishness. Because of his grief, you automatically assume he’d be willing to do so for the kids on the island, so his fake-out-Chewbacca-on-the-other-transport sacrifice isn’t a surprise, nor is it satisfying.
In short, none of the character endings have enough middle development to cash in on the ending, and if the characters have changed it’s sort of at random, rather than an outcome created by what’s happened in the movie. The Giant Kittens, by the way, are in exactly the same position that they were in the beginning of the movie - except the littlest girl is bringing a little Cute Kitten home, to a place it’s established Kittens die.
Also nothing is reborn or rebirthed. I know that isn’t on topic, but I feel like I have to say it. NOTHING IS REBORN OR REBIRTHED.
What Can We Learn?
KITTEN WORLD: BORN AGAIN has grossed nearly $900,000,000 worldwide, so arguably nothing.
If you have significant IP and a recognizable cast, this is the sort of movie you can put out and make a billion dollars. It’s enough to make you scream, or me scream, or all of us scream together. I wish I had answers to why the industry works this way, but as a minor peon who scrapes out a living around the edges, the most sophisticated way I can explain it “Sometimes, people in charge are just rich, not good.”
But YOU, I’m betting do not have significant IP on your hands, or the talents of Doctor Bridgerton and Blond Widow at your disposal. In a way, that puts you in a more positive position (though, admittedly, the checks would be nice) because you get to decide what your stories look like. Right now, on your laptop, you have the advantage of a Kitten Island untouched by the actors, the weather, the director, the editors, the studio executives and the focus groups. Yes, the work is all sweat and no, you aren’t getting paid, but appreciate just for a moment the purity of being allowed - of being free - to tell a good story with no interference. You can make it as good as you want. No one can stop you, no one can take it from you. Right now.
And aside from petty rage over a movie I think was borderline incoherent, I think there is value in understanding why emotional payoffs fail. If you’ve written what is nominally a whole feature length story, and you have a sense that no one cares about the ending or will remember it a week from now, I think it’s critical to go back and really look at the ingredients you’ve put in and whether what you’re cooking up is coherent. If your beginnings are immediately contradicted, your middles are not developing toward a goal, and your endings are disconnected from your initial setups, these are all fixable issues that can get you the response you want. None of these issues are unfixable, none should make you give up on the story. And being able to properly analyze a script for this kind of flaw can help you find them, fix them, and write better stories.
On the other hand, $900,000,000 sounds pretty good.
What I’m Watching:
-A Nice Indian Boy (cannot recommend this one enough!!)
-Only Murders In The Building (Steve Martin is doing his best, most sympathetic acting in season 4, unmissable)
-The White Queen (Is Rebecca Ferguson truly of this Earth?? What a Galadriel.)
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